The Southeastern Conference may have staged its men's basketball tournament in Florida for a final time.
Might as well drape it in orange.
Tennessee took its late-season surge up another notch Sunday afternoon during a 65-50 dismantling of Texas A&M in the SEC championship game inside Tampa's Amalie Arena. Santiago Vescovi scored 17 points, while Josiah-Jordan James added 16 and Kennedy Chandler 14 as the ninth-ranked, second-seeded Volunteers shot 42.9% from 3-point range and held the eighth-seeded Aggies to their lowest point total of the season.
The Vols improved to 26-7, having won 15 of their past 16 league games.
"I'm very proud of our team," Vols coach Rick Barnes said afterward in a news conference. "These guys have worked hard and deserve what they've been able to achieve here."
In earning their first SEC tourney crown since 1979, the Vols clinched the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Tennessee was installed as the third seed in the South Regional and will face 14th-seeded Longwood University at 2:45 p.m. Thursday in Indianapolis. CBS will televise the game.
The Lancers (26-6) won the Big South Conference tournament to punch their ticket. The most famous Lancers hoops alum is the late Jerome Kersey, a small forward who helped the Portland Trail Blazers reach two NBA Finals during the early 1990s.
Barnes had not won a conference tournament since his 1994 Providence Friars claimed the Big East, and he stood to the side as his players received a very rare trophy for the program. Tennessee now has five SEC tournament titles, with the first three won in 1936, 1941 and 1943.
"I think it was their time," Barnes said. "I've been doing this a long time, and I kept telling them these last couple of days that this time of year is about players. It's not about plays or this or that. It's about players making plays, and I think this is something that they will forever enjoy.
"I know the work they've put in and how hard they've trained, and it was their moment and their time to get their trophy."
Chandler, James and Vescovi made the all-tournament team along with Texas A&M's Henry Coleman and Quenton Jackson. Chandler was named the event's most outstanding player, which certainly seemed unlikely when the freshman point guard left Friday night's quarterfinal win over Mississippi State in the early stages before ultimately returning.
"I twisted my ankle, but I wanted to play through," Chandler said. "I wanted to come back and play with my guys and win the SEC championship, and that's what happened today."
Tennessee was playing in its first SEC tourney final since 2019, when the Vols were emotionally and physically drained in an 84-64 loss to Auburn after their 82-78 comeback triumph over Kentucky in the semifinal. The Vols weren't nearly as spent after Saturday's 69-62 topping of the Wildcats, and it showed, as a James 3-pointer less than three minutes in gave Tennessee a 9-0 lead and forced Aggies coach Buzz Williams to burn a quick timeout.
Chandler, James and Vescovi each had early 3-pointers for the Vols, and a Brandon Huntley-Hatfield jumper at the 15:22 mark made it 14-0. The Aggies (23-12) didn't have any points or offensive rebounds in the first five minutes but eventually got going, with a Jackson layup with 9:12 left in the half pulling them within 16-10.
A John Fulkerson three-point play and dunk put the Vols back in control at 24-11 with 5:48 remaining before halftime, and Tennessee led 29-20 at the break. Chandler was 3-of-5 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes, while the Aggies were 0-for-9.
"Tennessee numerically has the seventh-best defense in the country, and I always want to make sure I give credit to the opponent," Williams said when asked about Texas A&M's 4-for-19 showing from long range. "As good as they are offensively, defensively numerically they're even better."
Tyrece Radford accounted for the Aggies' first 3-pointer, pulling them within 34-29 with 17:12 to play, but a Vescovi 3 at the 15:32 mark capped a 9-0 Tennessee run that forced Williams to use another timeout. A James 3-pointer with 10:10 left all but sealed things at 56-38.
Barnes said Sunday's tourney title started a year ago after the abrupt NCAA tournament first-round exit against Oregon State. He read an article about Michael Jordan that discussed leadership and told his team, "I don't think we can go any further unless it comes from you guys."
James and Vescovi in particular, Barnes added, began challenging each other and the rest of their teammates.
"It's still very vivid," James said. "I remember sitting in the locker room, and it was just a long passage. It was the day we got back from Indianapolis, and it was also the first thing over the summer that he put up, so it was the last thing from last season and the first thing from this season.
"You're not going to be liked all the time when you're the leader, and we took it on our shoulders, because we didn't like how last season ended."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.