Tennessee basketball regroups, tops South Carolina: Three takeaways
Jaden Springer hit a shot as time expired at the end of the first half and Tennessee basketball went on a 15-4 run in the final five minutes to dominate the South Carolina Gamecocks 93-73 without Josiah-Jordan James. The Vols, ranked No. 19 in the AP Poll and No. 20 in the Coaches Poll, regrouped from a bad 78-65 loss at the LSU Tigers this past Saturday.
In a game that was postponed from Tuesday due to a COVID outbreak, UT fell behind 3-2 early, the only time they trailed, but they took the lead permanently before the 14-minute mark in the first half, as a three-pointer by Victor Bailey Jr. put them ahead 11-8. In the process, they improved to 15-5 and 8-5 in the SEC, while USC fell to 5-10 and 3-8 in the SEC.
Up next for Rocky Top will be a rematch Saturday with the Kentucky Wildcats at home. South Carolina, which is now on a four-game losing streak, still has to continue this brutal stretch by hosting the No. 20 ranked Missouri Tigers. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s Wednesday night victory.
1. Experienced players finally returned.
Do you think John Fulkerson, Yves Pons and Victor Bailey Jr. got the message? All of them were in a funk, and they all exploded in this game. Bailey, who was in a major slump, moved into the starting lineup with James out. He finished the game with 29 points four assists, a steal and a block and shot an amazing 7-of-10 from the three-point line. Yes, you read that right.
Fulkerson, meanwhile, got aggressive again, getting back to back slams at one point, and finished with 19 points, two steals, three assists and six rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting. Pons returned as a defensive specialist with two steals and a block to go with nine rebounds. He also had 10 points, going 5-of-6 from the field.
2. Young guards picked up the slack in Josiah-Jordan James’ absence.
Obviously, Bailey’s scoring helped with this. However, James does so many little things as the starting combo guard that his value can’t always be measured. The other guards stepped up to help with that in this game, allowing Bailey to thrive. Springer stands out scoring, as he had 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
However, Springer and Keon Johnson both had five assists. Johnson, who struggled with foul trouble, had only seven points but took smart shots, going 3-of-5. Off the bench, Santiago Vescovi had eight points, five assists and five rebounds, hitting two three-pointers, and Davonte Gaines even came in and got two steals. This helped Tennessee basketball significantly without James.
3. Too many mistakes during dry spells is still a problem.
It’s hard to nitpick such a dominant win, but the Vols did have 16 turnovers. Many of them came during the first part of the second half, as South Carolina got back to within single digits close to the 10-minute mark despite UT dominating. After the first TV timeout of that half, Rocky Top had four turnovers within three minutes.
Johnson had five turnovers, but Springer, Pons and Vescovi all had three. Now, Tennessee basketball did lots of other little things right, including shooting 20-of-26 from the free throw line while forcing 18 turnovers. However, these issues during portions of games can prove costly if they aren’t careful.