KNOXVILLE - Scanning a stat sheet that showed he and his University of Tennessee basketball teammates had just surrendered 14 3-pointers to South Carolina on Wednesday night, a reporter asked Big Orange senior forward Admiral Schofield if that was a concern.
Replied Schofield, a big grin forming on his face: "It would be a concern if we weren't ranked No. 1."
His point was that everybody is ready to play their best game against the Volunteers.
Tennessee's Grant Williams passes against South Carolina on Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. Williams led the Vols with seven assists despite being targeted by the Gamecocks' defense.
Mark WiedmerTennessee's opponents are loose. They're free. Of course, they're also - at least within the Southeastern Conference - winless against the nation's No. 1 team, including the Gamecocks, who lost 85-73 despite hitting all those triples.
Now 11-0 in the league and 23-1 overall heading into Saturday's showdown against No. 5 Kentucky inside the Wildcats' Rupp Arena, the Vols' SEC victories this year have come by an average of 16.6 points per game. Only two of the 11 -a 71-68 home triumph against Alabama and an overtime road win at Vanderbilt - have been by single digits.
"We've got no answer for the point guard (Jordan Bone) and small forward (Schofield)," South Carolina coach Frank Martin said after his second double-digit loss to UT in 15 days.
"You've got to pick your poison with them. They're balanced."
This is balance: Five Vols scored in double figures against the Gamecocks and not one of them was Grant Williams, who leads both UT and the SEC in scoring this year with 19.9 points per game. Then again, Williams had seven assists, which meant his total production was 22 points, which tied Bone (10 points, six assists) and was one in back of Schofield's game-high 21 points (plus one assist).
There's more than one reason why Tennessee continues to lead the SEC in scoring at 85.4 points per game, but it starts with balance, because no fewer than five Vols - Bone, Jordan Bowden, Schofield, Lamonte Turner and Williams - have been the team's leading scorer on at least two occasions.
And that doesn't even account for senior center Kyle Alexander, who finished with 10 points and two blocks against South Carolina after scoring just two points against the Gamecocks in Columbia on Jan. 29.
"There's no question that we're a better team when Kyle's playing his best basketball," Vols coach Rick Barnes said after Wednesday's home win. "He's the anchor of what we do."
There are those who believe only UT's best basketball will be enough to deliver it an outright conference title, given it has two games left with Kentucky and must yet travel to LSU - which beat Kentucky 73-71 on Tuesday - and Auburn.
Typical of a demanding coach, Barnes saw a brief glimpse of complacency, arrogance or both from his players in Wednesday's opening half.
"First half, we were jogging," he said. "I thought we were celebrating. That's not who we are."
At the same time, no doubt mindful that ESPN's GameDay crew will be in Lexington on Saturday for the 8 p.m. tip, the fourth-year Vols coach said of potential distractions: "I'll be surprised if we don't handle anything (thrown our way).
They certainly handle everything well on offense, where they rank second nationally in assists at 20 a game, just behind Michigan State.
On Wednesday, against one of the more physical teams in the league, the Vols totaled 22 assists on 34 made baskets. They hit 49 percent of their field goals, 45 percent of their 3-pointers and 100 percent of their eight free throws. They also outrebounded the Gamecocks, 40-33, and blocked seven shots, despite being the smaller team.
All of which comes back to Williams and those eight points he scored.
"When the player of the year is your best screen setter," Martin said, "you've got something."
What they've got is a No. 1 team that's rather easily defeating all comers. Maybe that changes in Lexington. Or at LSU. Or at Auburn.
Or maybe not.
Two years ago, Martin coached a South Carolina team somewhat similar to this one in its unselfishness. Everyone defended. Everyone rebounded. Everyone passed and screened. It never elevated the Gamecocks to the same lofty ranking UT has now enjoyed for the past four weeks, but it did make them the best story of the 2017 NCAA tournament.
And on their unforgettable march to that year's Final Four, Martin was often asked who his go-to guy was.
"We don't have a go-to guy," he would say. "We have a go-to team."
So do the Vols, who continue to play as if they'll go to their first-ever Final Four, if not all the way to the national championship.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.