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Tennessee basketball: 3 takeaways from Vols upset win vs. No. 18 Purdue

By Caleb Calhoun

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team during the 67-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team during the 67-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee basketball shocked the Purdue Boilermakers in the Battle 4 Atlantis opener 78-75 in overtime. Here are our takeaways from the Volunteers’ victory.

Tennessee basketball scored its first big win of the season in The Bahamas. The Vols defeated the No. 18 ranked Purdue Boilermakers 78-75 in overtime.

With the win, Rick Barnes’s team moves to 3-0 on the year while Purdue falls to 4-1. Tennessee will advance to the next round to face the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers or the No. 5 ranked Villanova Wildcats.

Now, three games into the season, Tennessee already has a major resume-building win. And they have a chance for two more, but even if they lose the next two, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Here are three takeaways from Tennessee basketball’s shocking win.

1. The Vols outworked Purdue all day.

This looks like a Rick Barnes-coached team. No Tennessee basketball fan watching this game could complain about the hustle of this team, regardless of whether or not they won or lost. These guys won every 50/50 ball it seemed like. They also had 20 offensive rebounds to Purdue’s nine, out-rebounding them overall by 11. And that actually leads to our next point.

2. Tennessee basketball has a dominant inside game.

Heading into this showdown, we kept hearing about how big Purdue is. Well, the Vols showed they can compete with anybody regardless of their size. And it’s because of the skills of their inside players. Grant Williams was Grant Williams with 22 points and eight rebounds. But Kyle Alexander played his heart out as well with a double-double in 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Admiral Schofield came up huge too with 10 points and seven rebound despite going to the locker room due to injury at one point.

And don’t forget that Yves Pons is trying to get healthy while John Fulkerson is trying to get back in rhythm after last year’s injury. So this team could become even more dominant inside before it’s all over.

3. Lamonte Turner is finally reaching expectations as a combo guard.

He came off the bench in this game, but Tennessee basketball guard Lamonte Turner is filling the void he was supposed to fill that Kevin Punter left last year. After a year of developing, he’s finally becoming a star.

Turner is a scoring machine, and he’s a clutch scorer at that. While Grant Williams was the guy they went to in overtime to take over, Turner was the one who hit the game-tying three to send it into overtime. He shot 50 percent from the field and from the three-point line, scoring 17 points on the day. And he added five rebounds. Guys like Turner make Barnes’s system go, and he’s really stepping into his role. This was his first true test of the year, and he aced it.

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