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Tennessee basketball: 5 former Vols this year’s team could use

By Billy Williford

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 24: Robert Hubbs III #3 and Kyle Alexander #11 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrate in the first half of the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 24, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 24: Robert Hubbs III #3 and Kyle Alexander #11 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrate in the first half of the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 24, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Men’s Tennessee basketball is looking for a strong finish to the 2017-2018 season. These are a few former Volunteers they’d love to have back right now.

After two shoulder-shrugging losses from Alabama and Georgia, Tennessee basketball is looking to regroup and finish the regular season on a strong note. They travel back to Knoxville, yet again, with a loss in hand after visiting Athens this past Saturday.

The defeat gives the Vols two road losses in a row. Also, they have now dropped two of their last three games.

On January 20th, South Carolina fell victim to a clutch performance from Lamonte Turner as he poured in 25 points on 6-9 shooting that helped the Vols get the 70-63 win. That win began a six-game winning streak with victories that included Vanderbilt, Iowa State, LSU, Ole Miss, and Kentucky.

Chatter started to develop that this team could make some noise in the NCAA Tournament and even the national media began giving Tennessee basketball the respect Vols fans knew they deserved. After all, this team was outperforming projections set by that same media in the preseason. I’m sure you know by now, but just to clarify, Tennessee was projected to finished 13th in the SEC standings.

But, after the 28-point loss to Alabama followed by a second road loss in a row to Georgia, Tennessee fans are worried that losing basketball games could start to become a trend for the young team. I don’t think it’s time to panic just yet and here’s why.

We’ve seen at times that Rick Barnes plays a lot of players. However, after taking a closer look, the Vols aren’t that deep. Take the Georgia game, for example. Only seven players played over ten minutes, and just six players played over twenty minutes.

In the past two games, Jordan Bowden has played a team-high 70 minutes. Admiral Schofield closely follows with 65 minutes, and Grant Williams has played 60 minutes. I’m not making excuses, just merely trying to make sense of the slump.

To add to the cause, the Vols just finished playing three road games in eleven days. So, does the team need rest? Did they get too high during the winning streak and start listening to the national media praising them? Or do they need former players to help out?

We know that is impossible, but it does make for a fun discussion. This got us thinking about which former Vols could help this team out the most. Naturally, Tennessee basketball greats came to mind such as Bernard King, Wayne Chism, Allen Houston, and Chris Lofton. Where it would be great to have those players on the team, it just seemed too easy. So, we narrowed it down to players from the past five years. Let’s dive right in and break it down.

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