Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from 56-47 win vs. Colorado

The Tennessee basketball Volunteers scored a season-opening victory over the Buffaloes.

Nearly two weeks after it was initially scheduled to take the court, Tennessee basketball finally played its first game of the season Tuesday night. The Vols, ranked No. 12 in the AP Poll and No. 16  in the Coaches Poll came away with a 56-47 win at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville over the Colorado Buffaloes, who fell to 2-1 on the year.

UT jumped out to a red-hot 17-2 lead early, but Colorado fought back and made it a seven-point game at halftime. Tad Boyle’s team threatened multiple times in the second half. With less than 90 seconds left, Colorado had the ball down 52-47. Josiah Jordan-James then came away with a steal, and John Fulkerson sank two free throws from a foul after a UT timeout to clinch it.

Up next for Tennessee basketball will be a is a home game Saturday against the Cincinnati Bearcats. Colorado, which has now already played two Power Five schools, won’t play again until next Monday night, when they face the Northern Colorado Bears. Here are three takeaways from Rick Barnes’ team’s first win.

Aggressive defense paid off in a huge way.

Barnes played small, like last year, with Fulkerson starting at the five and Yves Pons starting at the four. He then had his three players who could run the point in Santiago Vescovi, Jordan-James and Victor Bailey Jr., starting at guard. The result was a defensive masterpiece.

Relying on tempo all night, the Vols forced 23 turnovers and held Colorado to 33.3 shooting from the field and a mere 5-of-22 from the three-point line. James and Bailey each had three steals, including that one by James in the final 90 seconds, Vescovi came away with two, freshmen Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer each had one, and E.J. Anosike had a block off the bench.

Transition offense was great, half-court offense was atrocious.

Thanks to Tennessee basketball’s aggressive defense, the Vols were able to make lots of big plays in transition. This is why Vescovi led the way with 11 points. They shot well from three too, hitting 7-of-19, and Vescovi again was the start going 3-for-4. Springer thrived too from the outside, hitting both his attempts. This is also why Vescovi had five assists.

However, early on, Colorado went to a 2-3 zone and shut down UT’s half-court offense. The Vols shot worse from the field overall than they did from three. They had 15 turnovers, five of which came from Johnson. Fulkerson was the only forward to score in double-figures. Anosike and Yves Pons combined to go 2-for-15, another result of being unable to handle the zone.

Rebounding could have been better.

It doesn’t really stand out when you lose the rebounding battle 38-32. However, Tennessee basketball was facing a Colorado Buffaloes team playing zone all night, so 11 of those 32 rebounds were on the offensive side of the ball. Colorado, meanwhile, had even more offensive rebounds, coming away with 12, including four on one possession.

Sure, Barnes went small, but this is an issue for Tennessee basketball. Pons had 10 rebounds, James had six and Anosike had four off the bench. Outside of those guys, this was a huge issue. If not corrected going forward, UT could be in trouble.