The severe drought conditions involving the Tennessee men's basketball team appear to be easing.
A fast start to Wednesday night's 72-63 triumph at Mississippi State coupled with strong finishes in each half enabled the No. 19 Volunteers to overcome a first-half lull in which a 23-11 advantage gave way to a 31-28 deficit. Scoring droughts have been a part of almost every contest since the sport's inception, but Tennessee's ability to either limit the damage or thrive in other segments of the 40-minute competition has enabled the Vols to average 81 points in their past three games.
"We've had better ball movement, better player movement and better passes," coach Rick Barnes said on a Zoom call after his Vols improved to 17-6 overall and to 8-3 in Southeastern Conference play. "When we're moving the ball and playing with speed - we want to get the ball down there and get into action quick. When we get the ball moving and guys are able to catch the ball facing the basket, we become more consistent and are not staying in those lulls very long.
"We just want to get a good shot at it every time."
Tennessee has won six straight SEC games and will seek a seventh Saturday night when Vanderbilt (13-10, 5-6) visits Thompson-Boling Arena.
Scoring droughts were lengthier and more profound during Tennessee's nine prior games before this three-game stretch, when the Vols averaged 67.4 points per contest. No single player typifies this reduction in droughts more than junior guard/forward Josiah-Jordan James, who scored a career-high 20 points in last Saturday's 81-57 win at South Carolina and followed that up with 18 in Starkville.
James has surpassed his season scoring average in six straight games.
"Winning is really, really fun, and thankfully we've been able to do that," he said. "As far as my game offensively, shots are just falling. My coaches and teammates don't let me put my head down when I'm in a shooting slump or I'm missing shots, and it's not just me. It's with everybody, because we all put in so much work.
"You miss a couple of shots and will be down on yourself, but you've got to bounce back and stay true to what you believe in. I would be happy if I scored zero points and we were winning. Winning cures all."
Tennessee has been able to overcome some of its most wretched stretches, defeating Ole Miss 66-60 in overtime Jan. 5 despite trailing 13-2 after 10 minutes and drubbing South Carolina 66-46 on Jan. 11 after falling behind 8-3 in the first five minutes. The Vols weren't as fortunate in other instances, as a six-minute, 42-second drought at Texas in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Jan. 29 resulted in a 25-22 lead becoming a 37-25 deficit in an eventual 52-51 loss.
"Our lull tonight started with three not-so-good shots," Barnes said. "Zakai (Zeigler) took a tough 3, Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) threw up a left-handed shot and Kennedy (Chandler) shot an airball, and that's what we were doing earlier in the year. Because we got off to a good start shooting the ball, we kind of lulled ourselves into thinking it was going to be that easy, and it wasn't."
Chandler, who matched James with a game-high 18 points against the Bulldogs, would love for the scuffling stretches to end altogether.
"We always, for some reason, have those droughts," Chandler said, "but, for another reason, we always come back and get on top and push the lead back again. We just have to figure out how to keep the momentum going and don't let it slow down. That's what we did those last four minutes of the first half.
"We got the momentum going and did the same thing in the second half, and we finished the game strong."
Monster minutes
The loss of junior forward Olivier Nkamhou to ankle surgery wound up resulting in more minutes for Huntley-Hatfield, who averages 10.8 minutes per game and logged 15, and for Jonas Aidoo, who averages just 3.8 and played 12.
Yet it was more than those freshmen whose increase in playing time was significant.
James racked up 38 minutes to up his season average to 27.5, while Santiago Vescovi's 37 minutes (29.9) and Chandler's 34 minutes (30.4) noticeably surpassed their averages as well.
"We're in February," Barnes said. "We really do monitor the minutes of those guys and their workload in practice. We don't want to do that every night. I think Kennedy is more suited for 28 minutes, and I thought he came out after halftime and didn't have quite the same speed that we need him to play with. He did bounce back."
Said Chandler: "We've got to do whatever it takes to play that amount of minutes. We've got to do whatever it takes to win the game, honestly, and that's what we did."
Odds and ends
Sixth-year senior forward John Fulkerson played in his 153rd career game, setting the SEC's all-time mark previously held by Kentucky's Darius Miller (2008-12). ... The Vols moved up a spot to 10th in the NET rankings after their win in Starkville. ... James on playing without Nkamhoua: "If we had it our way, he would still be here, but circumstances happen and life happens. We're playing for something bigger now. We're playing for him."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.