Tennessee Vols 10 biggest stories from January 2019
3. The SEC suffers at the hands of men’s basketball.
Tennessee basketball roared out to an 18-1 start on the season, and SEC play began in the month of January. The Tennessee Vols haven’t taken any step back since it began, as they have started 7-0 in the conference.
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But it’s not just the 7-0 start that has been impressive. It is all the drama that came with it. For starters, Tennessee is largely blowing people out. Four of their SEC games have been won by 22 points, 19, points, 24 points and 46 points. Their average margin of victory overall in SEC play right now is over 18 and a half points.
Only three teams have given the Vols any trouble, and they happen to be three UT rivals: the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Florida Gators. Alabama is a dangerous team that can play with anybody on any given night under Avery Johnson. The talent is there, so a three-point win, even at home, is worth celebrating.
Vanderbilt was at Memorial Gym, always a freaky place to play, and it was right after the Vols got their No. 1 ranking. Alabama was right before it, so those distractions surrounded it. Grant Williams offset the struggles by his history-making night, which we already covered.
Then there was Florida, and that was a game that makes college basketball so great. The Gators fought hard with the Vols for a while, but Rick Barnes’s team pulled away in the end to win by 11 points down in Gainesville. Then, after hearing the fans taunt them all night, Williams led the rest of the team as they all did the Gator Chomp in Florida, which set off many national analysts.
This type of dominance and these storylines are what keep college basketball relevant in the regular season. The Gator Chomp in Gainesville has been the best part of the SEC dominance so far for Rocky Top, but all of it was thrilling, and that doesn’t even include the 17-point win over the West Virginia Mountaineers.