Tennessee basketball struggling in wrong places amidst LSU loss

Expectations for Tennessee basketball this year were based on the raw talent of the elite freshmen and the consistency of the returning guys. Leading those returning guys were the two post players, SEC Defensive Player of the Year in Yves Pons and returning leading scorer in John Fulkerson, both of whom are seniors.

If there were serious growing pains with the freshmen, accentuated by the COVID issues, Pons and Fulkerson would help the Vols overcome those issues. Their presence would make sure that what’s happening to the Kentucky Wildcats right now doesn’t happen to UT.

However, the opposite has happened. Tennessee basketball is winless when freshman Jaden Springer plays five minutes or less than a game. Meanwhile, this week, they dominated the Georgia Bulldogs before holding on to win 89-81 Wednesday without Pons. Then, in Pons’ return, they lost at the LSU Tigers 78-65 Saturday.

Lack of dominance from Pons and Fulkerson is becoming apparent. At LSU, they combined for seven points. Fulkerson only had four against Georgia. Springer, meanwhile, had 30 against Georgia and 21 against LSU, and Johnson had 11 and 10 points in those games respectively.

So what’s happening? Well, the LSU game could somewhat be explained by Pons not being fully healthy and Rick Barnes making the ill-advised decision to repeat his four-guard set from Wednesday but with Pons instead of Fulkerson.

Still, at 14-5 and 7-5 in the SEC, the Vols are hardly getting any consistency from their two most experienced players and the most decorated players on their team heading into the year. Pons and Fulky have not shown the aggression they need to show, and that’s proving problematic.

If Tennessee basketball is going to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, it needs to get from those two what everybody knows they can bring. That means Pons being aggressive defensively, particularly out of half-court sets underneath the basket, and Fulkerson commanding attention in the half-court offense because of his aggression.

Without those things, the Vols can only rely on transition with their five-star guards, and Johnson is not efficient enough of a scorer yet to do that. We should note that this issue is a veterans vs. young guys issue in general.

Josiah-Jordan James is a do-it-all combo guard who has held the team together in recent weeks, and Santiago Vescovi is finding his stroke from outside. Both guys had double-figures against UGA, and Vescovi had 10 points while James had nine against LSU.

Victor Bailey Jr., however, the one guard in the main rotation who is older then a sophomore, was 2-for-10 against Georgia with eight points and then 0-for-3 against LSU with no points. Simply put, the experienced players are struggling across the board.

You could look at that and be even more impressed with what the Vols’ freshmen are doing. Given the limited practice time young players had this year due to COVID, though, any run Tennessee basketball makes in the postseason will depend on what the veterans can bring. Right now, they aren’t bringing a lot, and this is not where the Vols were supposed to have issues.