Tennessee basketball: Vols head to the Championship with win over Kentucky

The Tennessee basketball team is moving on to the SEC Championship Game to take on the Auburn Tigers. Here are three takeaways from the Kentucky win.

Give me Tennessee vs. Kentucky ten more times the rest of the season, please? Honestly, the SEC should step in and make the two teams play tomorrow in the SEC Championship Game. Not to take anything away from the Auburn Tigers, but round four between the Vols and Cats would be much better.

If I told you the back-to-back SEC Player of the Year didn’t score for the first 11 minutes of the game, I bet you would think Tennessee was getting drilled as they did in Rupp Arena. But, that wasn’t the case, the Vols were actually up by two points thanks to Grant Williams’ first bucket.

Honestly, the second half was a National Championship atmosphere with both teams throwing gut punches. That was until the officials took over. Tennessee was down by five points 74-69 and Schofield came up with a big three-point bucket. Less than 30 seconds later, Grant Williams hit a corner three to put the Vols up one.

Finally, with just seconds left in the game and Tennessee down two, Lamonte Turner hit one of the biggest shots of the season.

Peter Burns said it best on Twitter, “Dear NCAA committee, I don’t care what seeds they are, but please put Duke, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky in their own regional.”

Here are three takeaways from one of the best games in college basketball this season.

1. Lamonte Turner played within himself

Despite how people want to twist my words around, I am genuinely happy that Turner hit the three-point shot to put the Vols up two points with 30 seconds to go. Not, just because I’m a fan but because players put it a lot of hard work and it’s nice to see it pay off.

But, what I have been saying about Turner isn’t wrong. He was forcing his shot too much on the offense. It even started to affect the flow of games. However, I’ll take that shot from Turner any game. He didn’t force it, and that’s when he is at his best.

He’s still just 4-for-31 from the three-point line in the past seven games, but if he continues to let the offense come to him without forcing his shot, good things will come.

2. Grant Williams won SEC Player of the Year for a reason

Excuse me; Grant Williams won back-to-back SEC Player of the Year honors for a reason; the guy can ball. He didn’t score for the first 11 minutes of the game, but the Vols were hanging tough without his scoring production.

Williams finished 20 points on 5-for-10 from the floor, including 1-for-2 from the three-point line. Speaking of the three-point line, yes Lamonte hit a big shot, but we can’t forget about what Grant did just seconds before. The Vols were down two points when Williams made a three-point jumper from the corner. Without that shot, Lamonte doesn’t get his to win the game.

3. Back-to-back SEC Championship Games

For the second straight season, Tennessee is heading to the SEC Championship Game. This might be the most impressive stat of them all. The Vols have only lost four games this season, and three of them were on the road against NCAA Tournament teams, and Kansas at a neutral site.

Tennessee vs. Auburn sets up perfect for the Vols. It’s a rematch game, and Tennessee doesn’t lose rematch games.

The Vols will be back in action tomorrow in the Championship Game against the Auburn Tigers around 1:00 pm EST. If Tennessee can win, they could receive a one seed in the NCAA Tournmanet.