Tennesse Basketball Gets Another Quality Win vs Kansas State: 5 Takeaways from Vols’ Victory
Tennessee basketball beat Kansas State 70-58 in the SEC vs Big 12 challenge for another quality victory. Here are five takeaways from the Volunteers’ play.
They never trailed in the game, and Tennessee basketball followed up its biggest win of the season over Kentucky with a huge win over another team named the Wildcats.
The Vols beat Kansas State 70-58 at Thompson-Boling Arena and controlled the game from tipoff.
With the win, Rick Barnes’s team moved to 12-9 overall. However, with a No. 47 ranking in the RPI and the No. 3 strength of schedule, the Vols’ NCAA Tournament standing is likely to improve even more.
After all, Kansas State was 15-5 going into the game and had the No. 45 ranked spot in the RPI. So this is a huge quality victory for Tennessee basketball, and following their win over the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday, Barnes clearly has this team playing together.
Here are five takeaways from Tennessee basketball’s huge win.
1. Tennessee basketball beat Kansas State at its own game.
Going into the game, the Wildcats wanted to use their size as an advantage. They have three forwards in their starting lineup, and they were facing one of the smallest teams in all of college basketball.
Well, the game was played inside, but it worked in Tennessee’s favor. The Vols outscored the Wildcats by double-digits in the paint, and they out-rebounded Kansas State 43-29. They also had an amazing 16 offensive rebounds, and this all takes us to our next point.
2. The Vols’ forwards play way bigger than they are.
Grant Williams, Lew Evans, Admiral Schofield, and Kyle Alexander have struggled at times this year. But over the past two games, they have come together significantly, and they’ve been the X-factor in both Tennessee basketball wins.
In this game, despite being outsized for the most part, they all came through. Williams, who continues to get better and look more and more like a star, was the leader with 17 points and six rebounds. But Lew Evans added 9 points off the bench, Schofield had three rebounds and quite a few hustle plays, and then came Alexander. We are going to him alone next.
3. Kyle Alexander proved he can accept a challenge against other big men.
For the most part of his time, Kyle Alexander has been nothing more than a body for Tennessee basketball. The only actually tall guy on the roster, Alexander has struggled with consistency. But against the biggest team the Vols have faced in a while, Barnes put him in the starting lineup and clearly challenged him to step up.
He accepted that challenge. Alexander only had 8 points. But he added nine rebounds, and in the first half alone he helped put the Vols in control with four offensive rebounds. His play led to a standing ovation from the fans in the first half. He finished with five offensive rebounds overall. And he also had two blocks. But the play of Alexander and the other forwards is looking better because of something else.
4. Jordan Bone is turning into a true point guard.
Coming off of his injury, he struggled for a while with consistency, and the same thing happened with Tennessee basketball. But Jordan Bone is clearly turning into a true point guard, and he showed it again today.
With Kansas State slowing the game down and forcing the Vols to score out of their half-court sets, Bone did just that, which is why they had 70 points. He only had 4 points, but he added five assists and only one turnover. This happened with Kansas State focusing heavily on Robert Hubbs III. Bone found the forwards, particularly Williams, underneath the basket for scores. And he still managed to find Hubbs and help him to 10 points, while Hubbs obviously helped himself with 7 rebounds. Altogether, his mentality is helping the team, which leads to our final takeaway.
5. Tennessee basketball is learning to deal with success.
This is the key point from this game. Coming off of such a huge win against the Kentucky Wildcats earlier in the week, all evidence suggested that the Vols would struggle against Kansas State because they were young and would be feeling themselves a bit too much. That has already happened a few times this season.
It didn’t happen here. The Vols took a huge mental step as a young team by being able to remain focused after the Kentucky win, and they came out firing. They took an early lead and never relaxed or took their foot off the pedal. And because of that, they scored two, not one, quality wins this week.