SEC Tournament: Three Key Tennessee Vols Who Have to Step Up
As the Tennessee Volunteers are a No. 12 seed getting set to face the Auburn Tigers in the first game of the SEC Tournament, here are three key players.
They are entering the SEC Tournament at 13-18, on a four-game losing streak, with their best player gone for the year, and with their second-best player slowly returning to health.
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How the heck are the Vols supposed to win this thing and make a run for the NCAA Tournament in Rick Barnes’s first year as head coach? The simple fact is they can’t…unless they get a heck of a lot of luck.
Tennessee is undersized and not very deep, which is a terrible combination for this tournament. Add in the fact that senior Kevin Punter Jr., their All-SEC guard, is gone for the year and can’t help them, and it is almost impossible to see how the rest of the players, even with the talent that they have, can lead the Vols to victory in Rick Barnes’s tempo-based system.
But they are going to have to try. Here are the three Vols who have got to step up if Tennessee is to have a shot at pulling off a massive upset and winning the SEC Tournament.
1. Robert Hubbs III
We mentioned Hubbs as the one key individual in another story about how the Vols can win the tournament, and his value can’t be understated now. With Punter gone due to injury, Hubbs is the best scoring option the Vols have at the guard position.
He was nursing himself back to health at the end of the year but should be ready to go in this tournament. As a junior who has constantly battled injuries, the time for him to step up is now. Hubbs was a five-star guard coming out of high school and has grossly under-achieved.
However, when healthy, he is still highly efficient. He now needs to be highly aggressive and the top scoring option for the Vols.
2. Armani Mooore
Even before Kevin Punter Jr. got hurt, Armani Moore handled more point guard duties than he did out of half-court sets due to Punter’s inexperience coming from an off-guard position. Moore has been like a point-forward similar to what Dane Bradshaw was at Tennessee nine years ago, setting up many of the open looks the Vols had.
Now, however, Moore has to be the entire glue of the offense. Barnes is still going to stress tempo and turnovers, but there will be times when Tennessee has to score out of its half-court sets. There is no chance of that happening if Moore does not do his part.
On top of that, he has to help the Vols rebound, and he is the most important player for the team when it comes to finishing at the rim, something they struggled to do all year. Doing that will free up some of the guards for more outside shooting.
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3. Shembari Phillips
A freshman combo guard, Shembari Phillips saw limited action for much of the season…until Kevin Punter Jr. got hurt. And despite losing four of the past five games, Phillips has developed more and more and begun to emerge as a player with an extremely bright future in Rick Barnes’s up-tempo system.
For Tennessee to have any shot at pulling off this miracle, he needs to meet ridiculously unfair expectations by growing up fast. Phillips is shooting near 40 percent from three. He has to keep that up and shoot a lot more. He is averaging around three assists but four turnovers. He needs to get that up to five assists and two turnovers.
Phillips has to be the new point guard for the Vols along with a viable scoring option, exactly what Kevin Punter Jr. was. He has shown flashes of being able to do that, but flashes are not enough. If Tennessee is going to win the SEC Tournament, he needs to have a coming out party.