Tennessee basketball: 5 keys for Vols to navigate brutal part of their schedule

3. Admiral Schofield knocking down the long-range jumper

We know Tennessee is going to have at least one guard get hot from the three-point line.

Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner rank inside the top-ten in conference play shooting over 40 percent from the three-point line. Jordan Bone isn’t far behind ranking 20th averaging 39.5 percent from deep in conference play.

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Bone, Bowden, and Turner are shooting a combined 55-for-129, 42.6 percent from deep. That’s insanely good. In fact, the team as a whole is shooting 38.9 percent in SEC play which ranks third.

However, Schofield hasn’t been as hot. On the season, he is shooting a team-high 40.5 percent from deep, of players averaging over ten minutes per game. Jalen Johnson leads the team shooting 53.3 percent from the three-point line but has only attempted 15 shots.

So, we’ve figured out Schofield has a lot of help. But, the Vols need him to figure it out from deep to have success the rest of the way.

Tennessee had back-to-back scares against Alabama and Vanderbilt earlier in the season where Schofield shot 1-for-10 from the three-point line. Tennessee won those games by a combined eight points.

Jump back to December to the close wins over Gonzaga and Memphis, Schofield shot 10-for-18 from deep and was a big reason the Vols won both games.

I want to be fair and note the past three performances have been spectacular. What opens up the three-point jumper?

Driving to the rim and making the defense pack in the lane. Schofield started making an effort to get to the rack which gave him open looks at the three.

He’s’ shot 53.3 percent the past three games from beyond the arc, and that’s what the Vols need. Again, they can win in many different ways, however, when Schofield knocks down the long-range jumper, Tennessee is almost impossible to beat.