Tennessee basketball: Vols PG play looks to be in serious trouble

With Jordan Bone gone, men’s Tennessee basketball needed a replacement at point guard. The Volunteers may be in serious trouble there.

After two years of moving over to point guard to back up Jordan Bone when he went to the bench, this was the year for combo guard Lamonte Turner to really break out for Tennessee basketball. He needs to spend more time running things early while five-star freshman Josiah-Jordan James develops. However, he did not have a good first test.

In the Vols’ 78-63 opening win against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs, Turner led the team in scoring. But concerns about what he would do at times last year when moving over to the point resurfaced in a bad way.

Turner had 17 points. And, to be fair, he had six assists. But he also had six turnovers. Meanwhile, he forced far too many shots, going 7-of-17 from the field, 2-of-8 from the three-point line and even letting it get to his head on the free throw line, where he was 1-of-5.

One of his shots was a forced long two with a foot behind the three-point line. Rick Barnes specifically called that out in his postgame press conference in addition to calling out Turner and Jordan Bowden, who had four turnovers, in general.

Now, to be fair, Bowden had 10 points, and he’s more of a pure two-guard. So Turner is the guy who really needs to step up while James, who had three turnovers Tuesday and was 1-of-5 from the field, develops.

Barnes noted he needs Turner and Bowden to be able to spell James. These are the two veterans and two leading scorers from last year. Both failed miserably in the opener at that task, even if they shouldered lots of the scoring.

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One of the issues with Turner was he looked like he hadn’t progressed from last year. There were too many spurts when he would take over at the point and force shots rather than go down low to Grant Williams first and let things come to him. In this game, John Fulkerson had a near double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. Yves Pons added 15 points and seven rebounds.

But Turner just did not go down low to them enough, even as they shot a combined 11-of-14 from the field. That’s another thing Barnes noted in his postgame press conference. He stressed the need to get the post guys the ball more.

And here is where the problem comes into play. The fact that Turner had the same issue with that as he did last year suggests he has not taken the necessary steps forward at his position. With Bone gone and James developing, that means Tennessee basketball has no true point guard at the moment who can consistently run the show.

Normally, that would be fine in November and December. But the Vols have a brutal road to open the season, including the Washington Huskies at a neutral site, the Florida State Seminoles and then either the Purdue Boilermakers or VCU Rams at the Emerald Coast Classic, and the Memphis Tigers, Cincinnati Bearcats on the road and Wisconsin Badgers at home in December.

This is not the type of road you want to have with no true point guard and lack of size down low. It will be important to push the tempo this year without the necessary size, and that’s where Turner is great, but he’s got to be able to show patience when doing it. On opening night, he gave Tennessee basketball plenty of reasons for concern.

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