Tennessee basketball holds off Florida: 3 takeaways from Vols’ win
Tennessee basketball held off the Florida Gators Wednesday night 62-57. Here are three takeaways from the Volunteers’ victory.
“He gave me a challenge, and I had to respond.” That was what Grant Williams said in the post game interview about Rick Barnes calling him out. And did he ever respond for Wednesday night for Tennessee basketball!
Behind Williams, the Vols got their 20th win of the season to get to 20-7 and moved to 10-5 in the SEC Wednesday night with a huge conference win over the Florida Gators. The win allows them to hold onto that No. 2 spot in the conference standings with an outside shot at the regular season championship.
It was a great night for the Vols with Ron Slay, Chris Lofton, Jordan McRae, Josh Richardson and Bobby Maze in the house. All of them were parts of very successful Tennessee basketball runs this century, and now they’re seeing another one.
Given everything going on, it was clear Tennessee basketball couldn’t lose this game. and the team responded. Here are three takeaways from the Vols’ win over Florida.
1. Forwards were aggressive all night.
Welcome back Grant Williams. The guy had a rough day Saturday and responded well to Rick Barnes calling him out publicly. In this game, he had 23 points and six rebounds on 8-of 13 shooting. And he showed his aggression by hitting 7-of-8 free throws. But Williams isn’t the only player who was aggressive. And that’s why we can’t name Williams specifically.
After all, Admiral Schofield was the second leading scorer with 16 points. He was also tough and aggressive with eight rebounds. The combination of Williams and Schofield were the clear difference in this game. But Schofield’s shot, to be fair, was not really falling. So he found other ways to succeed, and that leads to our next point.
2. The Vols made up for lack of three-point shooting.
Tennessee basketball guards deserve credit. None of them were great in this game, and they had abysmal runs. But they managed to find other ways to be successful with their outside shots not falling. Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden combined for eight assists. They made sure to feed Schofield and Williams down low.
And Schofield, who was 7-of-17 overall, still remained aggressive with rebounds and finding ways to stay effective. Overall, with their three-point shot not falling, the Vols got to the line and went 13-of-15 on free throws, a huge difference from Florida, who went 9-of-16. Little things like that made the huge difference in this game, and that’s why Tennessee basketball got the win.
3. Rick Barnes’s post-game substitutions are still questionable.
Derrick Walker was injured in this game, to be fair, but Rick Barnes has questionably been subbing in John Fulkerson over him at different times this season. Why? And why not give Yves Pons more time on the court just to give the starters a rest? Look, Fulkerson is solid, but he’s got some serious developing to do, especially since he’s coming back from injury. And I refuse to believe that Pons doesn’t deserve more minutes. He could stretch the floor for a team not hitting its shots in a game like this one.
These are things people have been questioning about Barnes for a while. Again, this isn’t casting aspersions on him overall as a coach. He’s clearly doing a great job. But he’s getting no rhythm when it comes to depth in the post game. As a result, he should consider switching things up before the postseason. The guard rotation was fine. But the inside game could get questionable. That’s the only criticism we have from this night. It’s another reason the game was closer than it should have been.