Tennessee basketball tops Vanderbilt 81-61: Three takeaways

After a week off, Tennessee basketball needed multiple huge runs to put away the pesky Vanderbilt Commodores for a convincing victory Saturday night. In the process, the Vols moved to 10-1 on the year and 4-1 in the SEC while Jerry Stackhouse’s team fell to 4-6 and 0-4 in the SEC.

Despite jumping out to a 7-0 run, Vandy came back to take a 19-15 lead. Down 21-18, the Vols then went on an 11-0 run and went into halftime up 34-24. Vanderbilt then cut it to 41-37 in the second half, but up 44-39, UT then took control with a 12-0 run to go up 56-39. A series of late fouls and mistakes by Scottie Pippen Jr., Vandy’s best player, helped Rocky Top pull away.

With the win, Barnes tied Don Haskins for 20th all time among Division I basketball coaches with 719 wins. Up next for Tennessee basketball will be a trip to the Florida Gators Tuesday night. Vanderbilt will host the Texas A&M Aggies Wednesday.

1. John Fulkerson was the difference-maker.

Despite missing significant time this past week due to having his wisdom teeth pulled, John Fulkerson showed exactly how elite he can be when he exerts his will. Yves Pons wasn’t his usual dominant self, so Fulky carried the weight for the Vols down low.

For the game, Fulkerson was an amazing 5-of-6 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line, scoring a highly efficient 15 points. He also came away with eight rebounds. The real story, though, as Wes Rucker of GoVols247 noted on Twitter, is that UT had a plus-33 when he was in the game, and nobody else on the team had higher than a plus-22. That tells the whole story.

2. Victor Bailey Jr., freshman guards carried the backcourt.

Jaden Springer got the start, and he played the most complete game. He came away with 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists and an amazing three steals while shooting a 4-of-9 from the field. Then there was Victor Bailey Jr. off the bench, who had 11 points thanks to going 3-of-6 from the three-point line while also coming away with three rebounds, one assist and a steal.

Leading Tennessee basketball in scoring, though, was another freshman in Keon Johnson, who came off the bench. Johnson had a very efficient scoring night, going 4-of-8 from the field, hitting his only three-point attempt and then making 7-of-8 free throws en route to 16 points. In just 21 minutes, he also had three assists, three rebounds and a steal. All three of these guys were elite.

3. There were no little mistakes.

Fulkerson was the star, and Bailey, Johnson and Springer provided the necessary support. However, nobody else made any critical mistakes, and that proved just as crucial. Defense was its usual self, forcing Vandy to go 20-of-51, or 39.2 percent, from the field and 5-of-23, or 21.7 percent, from the three-point line, and they forced 16 turnovers.

Those were all just solid performances. More importantly, Tennessee basketball went 24-of-33, or 72.7 percent, from the free throw line, and they had 18 assists to just nine turnovers. Little things like that kept them in control of the game.