KNOXVILLE - Every good college basketball team needs a John Fulkerson. A guy who's all arms and legs and heart. Especially the heart part.
Watch the Tennessee Volunteers basketball team play this winter and it could be argued that Fulkerson has the least polished basketball skills of the five starters. Some of those shortcomings were evident throughout Tuesday night's opening half against Vanderbilt.
Thanks in part to Fulkerson missing all three of his field-goal tries, misfiring on one of his two free throws, committing two fouls and hauling in only three rebounds, the Vols found themselves tied with the lowly Commodores at halftime, that 28-28 score eliciting this sarcastic critique on Twitter: "Electric."
But come the second half, Fulkerson began to, in teammate Santiago Vescovi's words, "play with confidence. John does what he does."
What he did was score 16 of his 17 points after intermission. He pulled down four of his team-high seven rebounds. He blocked two of the three shots he swatted away on the night. He picked up a steal. He hit nine of 11 free throws, which the Vols ended up desperately needing to clinch this 65-61 win over the worst team in the Southeastern Conference.
"Fulkerson is a focal point for them," first-year Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse said after watching the Commodores fall to 1-12 in the SEC and 9-17 overall as Tennessee improved to 15-11 overall and 7-6 in league play.
"We allowed him to get too good post position."
And once Fulkerson began to capitalize on that in this ragged contest somewhat resembling a major college basketball game, and Vanderbilt, in its coach's words, began "paying so much attention to him," well, everything opened up for the home team, much to the delight of the 18,562 Big Orange fans filling up most of Thompson-Boling Arena on a rainy night.
Turning to what Stackhouse called UT's "slice action," Fulkerson's teammates began cutting and driving to the basket for high-percentage shots rather than uncertain 3-pointers of which the Vols made just 4 of 16.
Instead, thanks to eight second-half points from Vescovi and 17 total from Jordan Bowden, UT shot 52% from the floor in the second half after hitting 33% in the first stanza. And this was certainly a better Vanderbilt team than the one the Vols crushed earlier in the winter in Nashville, when the Commodores missed all 25 of their 3-pointers in a 66-45 loss. This time the 'Dores hit 8 of 27 treys and actually pulled within two (63-61) with six seconds to play before Bowden hit two free throws to ice it.
That's not to say that Barnes was as pleased with Fulkerson as he usually is with the lanky 6-foot-9 junior forward from Kingsport, Tennessee.
"I was upset at the start of the game, a missed layup (by Fulkerson)," he said. "I was not real happy with John and Yves (Pons). When (Fulkerson's) locked in, he's a tough guy to defend. He has a nice first step. But from the start, he wasn't there."
None of them are there all the time. They're college kids. Their minds wander on occasion. But Fulkerson's intensity hasn't wandered much throughout the SEC race. He's hitting 60% of his field-goal attempts in SEC games. He's hitting 71% of his free throws. He stands 13th in rebounding in league play (6.8 ppg).
Yet because Barnes said he felt as if Fulkerson wasn't there at game's beginning, the Vols' rubber band man wasn't there after the end of the victory for postgame interviews for one of the few times this season.
So we didn't get to hear what Fulkerson thought of his slow start and fast finish.
Or if he agreed that Barnes had a right to be mad at him.
Or if he thinks the only way the Vols can win an SEC game is when he's at his best, if only for a half.
But we do know what at least one of his teammates thinks of Fulkerson and his worth to the Vols going down the homestretch of the SEC regular season.
Said Vescovi: "Without John, we'd be worse."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.
Mark Wiedmer