Tennessee basketball a walking defensive highlight reel

Rick Barnes’ Tennessee basketball Volunteers make defensive plays for the camera.

Normally, a team that wins games with elite defense and rebounding is considered boring. Tennessee basketball is 3-0 despite being tied for No. 252 in the nation in scoring offense at 66.5 points per game. That’s because they only allowed 47 points per game, tied for first in the nation.

However, when the Vols play defense it’s not just forcing bad shots and getting rebounds. It also involves amazing blocks and a ton of transition buckets off steals that make their own highlights. In fact, that’s where all their offense is coming from right now.

By leading the SEC with over nine and half steals a game, Tennessee basketball is a defensive team that plays up-tempo. That makes for a lot of fun plays, and the Vols’ ability to generate highlights based on great defense was never more on display than their 79-38 win against the Appalachian State Mountaineers.

Like Dennis Rodman in the early 1990s, Rick Barnes’ team has found a way to be a highlight reel while being a defensive-minded. They have the opposite personality of Rodman, to be fair, but the point is they have found a way to generate headlines.

We should have seen this coming. Tennessee basketball made a lot of headlines in the summer when reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year Yves Pons decided to return to the Vols for his senior season, and he’s once again averaging a block a game. Pons wasn’t the only player, though.

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Josiah-Jordan James, a five-star in 2019, was the league’s best freshman perimeter defender when fully healthy. However, after playing though injuries, he’s back and much healthier this year with lots more experience. The result is him leading the team in steals per game with two.

Victor Bailey Jr., who sat out last year after transferring from the Oregon Ducks, was primed to help the offense stay in control during transition. He has been the team’s most consistent offensive player in the backcourt, but he is also doing his part defensively as well, averaging just under nine and a half points and one and a half steals a game.

Then, just ahead of the season, Rick Barnes expressed clear concern about the ability of the two five-star freshman to pick up the offense. However, he insisted that they could be elite right off the bat defensively.

Well, he wasn’t wrong. Keon Johnson is shooting only 37.5 percent from the field. However, he is averaging between one and a half and two steals per game already, and as shown in one of the videos above, he’s already finding ways to generate highlights.

Jaden Springer is also averaging one steal a game. While he hasn’t been as good as Johnson defensively, he’s cashed in on the transition offense to score double figures each of his last two games despite not starting. Those easy buckets are why he is shooting 57.9 percent from the field for the season.

When you see all of these guys back and how they work in Barnes’ system, it’s easy to understand how Tennessee basketball is so much fun to watch despite issues offensively. The offensive struggles are out of the half-court sets, and those can be boring anyway. Rocky Top has truly accomplished the paradox of being an entertaining defensive team.