Tennessee basketball beats Vanderbilt 70-58: Three takeaways

The Vanderbilt Commodores were without their two leading scorers, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Dylan Disu, and they were missing a rotational player in Clevon Brown. Nonetheless, Tennessee basketball, coming off an embarrassing loss to the Kentucky Wildcats, embarrassed itself again by needing to pull away late for a 70-58 win. UT was only up by four with four minutes to go.

In a wild first half at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., the Vols went on a 10-0 and then allowed a 17-0 run before going on another 10-0 run that put them up 27-20. They never relinquished the lead after that, going up by 17 early in the second half, but they could never put Jerry Stackhouse’s team away.

With the win, though, Rocky Top improve to 16-6 and 9-6 in the SEC and will close out the regular season at the Auburn Tigers Saturday. Vandy, meanwhile, falls to 6-13 and 2-11 in the SEC. They will host the Ole Miss Rebels Saturday before closing out the regular season Tuesday, March 2 at the LSU Tigers. Here are three things we learned from this Tennessee basketball victory.

1. Keon Johnson and transition offense struggled severely.

Josiah-Jordan James was back in the rotation, but he came off the bench, so Keon Johnson, in a homecoming, had his worst game of the year. Johnson scored six points and had six turnovers, a huge reason for the team’s 17 overall, going 1-for-6 from the field. His only field goal was a late dunk as UT was finally putting the game away. Now, part of Johnson’s problem was transition.

When the Vols got out and ran, they almost never finished the job. Johnson himself was called for a travel when he had a clear path to dunk the ball. Jaden Springer, who had 20 points to be fair thanks to many transition plays, passed up a clear shot on a three-on-two on another one, and UT tried to force John Fulkerson to run another break. It was bad all around and needs to be fixed.

2. Defense, Victor Bailey Jr. offset Vanderbilt’s three-point shooting.

Vanderbilt shot over 40 percent from the three-point line for most of the game until the very end when a few desperation shots skewed it. Tennessee basketball had to respond, and Victor Bailey Jr. answered the call. Bailey was the complete offensive star, going 5-of-8 from the three-point line and 7-of-14 from the field overall for 21 points.

Defensively, the Vols forced 19 turnovers. Springer had three steals, which along with hitting all 10 of his free throws helped him score his 20. James still had three steals off the bench. Johnson and Springer both had a block. In fact, despite struggling, Johnson had two. They also held the Commodores to 8-of-21 shooting on two-pointers. This was the key.

3. Yves Pons was himself. John Fulkerson was not.

Speaking of defense, Yves Pons did his part. He came away with 10 points and 10 rebounds and another block while shooting 4-of-8 from the field. His interior presence was the biggest reason Vanderbilt couldn’t get anything going inside. However, John Fulkerson, despite hitting both of his attempts, continued to not be aggressive, and that nearly proved costly.

Fulkerson only had four points and two rebounds on the night. He also had three fouls. His stat line was no better than Olivier Nkamhoua’s, who came off the bench to also have four points and two rebounds. Although Fulkerson had a block, Nkamhoua had a steal. Tennessee basketball continues to need more from Fulkerson, and this was another passive showing.