Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols exhibition win vs. ENMU

Rick Barnes’s fifth Tennessee basketball team provided a preview vs. the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds. Here are our takeaways from the Volunteers’ victory.

They had a brand new look and a new identity with just a few holdovers from last year. But Rick Barnes’s fifth Tennessee basketball team looked like it could be deadly in its own way in a 107-59 exhibition win over the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds Wednesday night.

UT got off to a slow start and actually trailed 15-12 six minutes into the game. But then they got on a roll and dominated, taking a 52-28 halftime lead. The Vols got off to another slow start in the second half but then rebounded and pulled away for a dominating

With Uros Plavsic’s eligibility waiver still in limbo, John Fulkerson got the start at center and had 11 points and 10 rebonds. But New Mexico doesn’t have anybody over 6’7″, so we won’t use anything he did as a legitimate takeaway. There were some things to gather from Tennessee basketball’s win, though. Here are three things we learned.

Rick Barnes is prepared to go small.

After building his team through Grant Williams, we suspected this would be the case with his two leading scorers both being guards and another five-star guard added to the class. But Rick Barnes confirmed he would go small with his starting lineup Wednesday. Lamonte Turner, Jordan Bowden and Josiah-Jordan James all started.

Meanwhile, Yves Pons, who was the backup wing to Admiral Schofield last year and sometimes played the two, got the start at the four. We mentioned how Fulkerson started at the five at 6’9″. Now, Plavsic being good to play could move Fulkerson to the four, but it’s likely now that Fulkerson and Plavsic will be the two five guys.

All three starting guards can be go-to players.

Turner had 23 points,  Bowden had 22 and James had 10. They were the leading scorers on the night outside of Fulkerson and all managed to live up to their hype on that front. Bowden, specifically as Tennessee basketball’s scoring guard, was superb.

Meanwhile, Turner and James showed they could both run the point, truly looking like combo guards with seven assists each, and Bowden actually added five. That slow start resulted in them combining for 12 turnovers, so they have work to do, but they can clearly be effective.

Other three freshmen all showed promise.

Beyond Josiah-Jordan James, there was always a question as to which other freshman would see early action. All of them played and looked pretty decent. Drew Pember was looking solid but then had to leave the game after an ankle injury. Olivier Nkamhoua, the other forward in the class, looked even better.

Both had seven points, but Nkamhoua’s efficiency was seven points higher. Meanwhile, Davonte Gaines is the other freshman guard, and he showed promise off the bench with five points, but he also missed three of six free throws and had four fouls. So he has work to do as they all do. Nkamhoua had the best night of the three.