Tennessee basketball backcourt youth exposed by Ole Miss, but don’t panic

In many ways, there is no excuse for what happened to Tennessee basketball Tuesday night. The Vols fell 52-50 to a mediocre Ole Miss Rebels team, a team they are better than in every way. Key missed free throws and a blown call at the end were both parts of the loss. However, inexperience among the guards was the biggest story.

Kermit Davis employs a very complex zone defense that teams won’t see that often. It’s a 1-3-1 matchup zone that will mix in a half-court trap when you least expect it. One of Davis’ proteges was Donnie Tyndall, who would have worked out on Rocky Top were it not for his recruiting issues.

Although Tyndall would press on every made basket, Davis doesn’t have to do that. His aggressive trap defense with the zone goes straight for turnovers from the half court while locking off the inside. It’s hard to break if your guards don’t have experience.

Well, Tennessee basketball’s guards don’t have experience. Its main scoring guard is a true freshman in Jaden Springer, and he has battled injuries throughout the year despite being healthy Tuesday. Santiago Vescovi is still in his first full season at point guard after coming in midway through last year. Keon Johnson, another go-to backcourt guard, is also a true freshman.

Josiah-Jordan James and Victor Bailey Jr. are the only guards in the rotation who have played a full season of college basketball before, but this is Bailey’s first year playing with Tennessee basketball. Meanwhile, James was banged up at times last year.

So they went up against this defense with hardly any experience. How did it turn out? Well, when Ole Miss went to the half-court trap, it was 50-50 whether or not the Vols would turn the ball over. In terms of shooting, Springer, the Vols’ best offensive guard, was 1-of-7 from the field. Johnson was 2-of-6 from the field. James was 3-of-9.

Things were worse inside the three-point line. Springer took every shot inside. Johnson was 1-of-5 inside the arc. James was 0-for-2 inside the arc. Bailey and Vescovi were both 1-of-4, all from beyond the arc, but as a team, UT shot a solid 8-of-19 from the three-point line and 8-of-26 on two-pointers. They also had 16 turnovers.

What does this all mean? It shows that the only way the Vols could score Tuesday is if they beat the half-court trap and then took a three-pointer, which are often available in Davis’ scheme. Inside the paint, though, they had no answer.

You could say that Rick Barnes, as a head coach, should be responsible for teaching his young players how to break such a zone. However, this is obviously a rare year given how COVID shut so many things down in the preseason, and that stalled the development of those guards.

As a result, the disadvantage of youth was magnified and somewhat could wipe out the five-star ratings of Johnson and Springer against a good defensive scheme. If you don’t think the limited offseason magnified youth, look at John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats. Calipari had his typical elite recruiting class in 2020, but his team is likely to finish under .500 this year.

Barnes could have been in the same situation were it not for the experience Tennessee basketball has in the post with Yves Pons and John Fulkerson. However, that won’t always be enough to break a defensive scheme on a random night like what Davis runs.

Yes, the Kansas Jayhawks played a standard zone against the Vols four days earlier. That was a desperation move, and UT was red-hot from the three-point line that day anyway. Still, it showed that this team has already improved dramatically against such schemes.

Remember, the Colorado Buffaloes ran a standard 2-3 zone in Rocky Top’s opener, and they could barely buy a bucket. They relied on defense to win that one 56-47. Naturally, this young team was going to struggle again with a more complex system midseason.

Amidst all that and the game being on the road, Tennessee basketball still nearly pulled of the victory, as we mentioned. They will be fine, and they have to learn to deal with success. It’s also not likely they see that scheme much more often this year.