With eight minutes remaining in Wednesday night's LSU-Alabama men's basketball game in Tuscaloosa, the Tigers trailed by 13 points while coach Will Wade fumed in front of his bench after receiving a technical foul.
LSU was already without point guard Xavier Pinson and had lost leading rebounder Darius Days earlier in the game, but the Tigers fought back and lost just 70-67, as Eric Gaines' long 3-point attempt sailed wide left as time expired. In what became a fiery Zoom call afterward, Wade expressed pride in his team and guaranteed the same competitive fight is on its way to Tennessee.
"When we're full strength and we get everybody back healthy, it's going to be tough on opponents," Wade said. "We've got the right stuff to us. We've got great toughness, and we've got great connectedness. I'm as proud as I've been of our team all year, and that includes all the damn wins that we have.
"We're going to get guys as healthy as we can, and however many guys we've got, we're going to go to Knoxville and fight our asses off again on Saturday night."
Wade, who guided the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to a 40-25 record from 2013-15, is an impressive 101-45 in five seasons at LSU. His tenure in Baton Rouge includes the 2019 Southeastern Conference championship team and a 15-3 squad this season that is 3-3 in league play and ranked 13th in The Associated Press poll.
Yet controversy has accompanied Wade's success - as it has with nationally ranked SEC coaching counterparts John Calipari of Kentucky and Bruce Pearl of Auburn - with Wade getting suspended for several weeks by LSU in 2019 when he was linked to the FBI's probe into the sport. Several wiretapped conversations involving Wade were the subject of HBO's "The Scheme" in March 2020, but the NCAA has yet to render any verdict.
Pearl's program also was linked to the FBI probe, with Auburn self-imposing a postseason ban at the start of last season and Pearl serving an NCAA two-game suspension last month.
Throughout these investigations, Wade has developed an us-against-the-world mentality, with his teams routinely displaying equal parts talent and passion. That includes Jan. 8, when the Volunteers visited LSU and fell behind by 20 points early in the second half on their way to a 79-67 defeat.
"It's really hard for me to say that one team plays with more (emotion) than another," Vols seventh-year coach Rick Barnes said Friday. "I just think that in this league everybody has its own personality and emotion and whatever kind of word you want to put on it. Will's teams play the way that he wants them to play. They do a really nice job of mixing their defenses, and they really rely on your turnovers.
"They lead the nation in steals. They're the No. 1 defensive team in the country, and on the offensive end, they're really good in isolation with good one-on-one players. There is a pace they like to play with, and he's done a good job with it. You go back the last couple of years, and you can't argue with the success that he's had."
The No. 24 Vols (12-5, 3-3 SEC) have won 10 consecutive home games dating to last season, but they have dropped four straight against LSU, including the past three by double-digit margins. Tennessee's only win over Wade's Tigers occurred in January 2018, when the Vols were on their way to sharing the SEC title with Auburn and Wade was going 18-15 in his inaugural year.
LSU cruised earlier this month by swiping 11 steals and outrebounding the Vols 41-33.
"It adds to the motivation, but we go into every game thinking we can win and knowing that we can win," Vols freshman point guard Zakai Zeigler said Friday. "We know what we have to do better from the last game. We weren't ourselves like we usually are, and that played a huge, huge part in it."
Said fellow freshman point guard Kennedy Chandler: "It's payback. We lost to them on the road, and we want to beat them. It's a revenge game, but we know they're going to be ready to play against us."
Pinson, Days and Vols junior guard Josiah-Jordan James could all be game-time decisions for the 6 p.m. tip on ESPN. Pinson hasn't played since the first Tennessee game, when he sustained an MCL sprain, while Days sprained an ankle at Alabama.
James suffered a cut above his eye in the first half of Tuesday's 68-60 win at Vanderbilt and did not return.
AP photo by Wade Payne / Tennessee's Santiago Vescovi, rear, and Vanderbilt's Tyrin Lawrence dive for the ball during the first half of Tuesday night's game in Nashville.Santi's attention
Vanderbilt became the latest team focused on trying to limit opportunities for junior guard Santiago Vescovi, who leads the Vols in scoring (14.0 points per game), made 3-pointers (49) and made free throws (31), while ranking second in assists (52) and steals (34).
"He ought to be honored," Barnes said Friday. "I told him, 'It shows you what kind of player you've become and how people think you're that important.' Santi is having a great year when you look at his numbers across the board and everything that he's doing, and I think he will continue to adjust to it."
Odds and ends
Barnes said former Hamilton Heights standout Uros Plavsic, who had 13 points and seven rebounds against the Commodores, has earned a second consecutive start. ... The five teams to defeat Tennessee this season have an average NET ranking of 12.0. ... Barnes referred to Zeigler as "arguably the biggest surprise on our team this year."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.