Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols’ 68-60 win at Vanderbilt

Uros Plavsic broke a tie with under a minute to go by scoring on an offensive rebound putback. Zakai Zeigler then intercepted the in-bounds pass, drew a foul and hit two free throws. Those two plays secured a tough victory for Tennessee basketball at the Vanderbilt Commodores Tuesday night after losing Josiah-Jordan James four minutes into the first half.

In a game that was back and forth almost the whole time, the Vols, ranked No. 24 in the AP Poll and No. 25 in the Coaches Poll, seemed to be taking control late and built their largest lead, 60-52, with just over three minutes to go. However, they allowed an 8-0 run before closing on an 8-0 run to win at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn. 68-60.

Rick Barnes’ team bounced back from Saturday’s 107-79 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats, improving to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in the SEC with a rematch at home against the LSU Tigers set for Saturday. Jerry Stackhouse’s team falls to 10-7 and 2-3 in the SEC with a trip to the Florida Gators set for Saturday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s loss.

1. Defense, rebounding and free throw shooting overcame offensive woes.

Here’s the only stat you need to know. Zeigler went 0-of 8 on field goals but had double figures because he went 11-of-12 from the free throw line, and he had four steals. That was the story of the night for the Vols. They were 19-of-56 from the field and 5-of-23 from three. However, they forced 21 turnovers and went 25-of-29 from the stripe.

Kennedy Chandler forced five steals on the night, and he and Santiago Vescovi had 13 and 14 points respectively thanks to Vescovi being the only efficient shooter, going 3-of-5 from three and 5-of-6 from the line. he also had two blocks. The team as a whole had 14 steals and six blocks. UT won the rebounding battle 40-32.

2. Dealing with tempo was an issue.

A huge reason for some of the offensive woes was Tennessee basketball couldn’t handle playing up tempo. At one point, they forced 17 turnovers and had just four points in transition. Vanderbilt pressed late, and that was part of what helped them come back from that eight-point deficit.

With athletes like Chandler and Zeigler and even Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, the Vols should be better in these situations. Now, to be fair, they had 14 turnovers, which doesn’t speak to getting wrecked by a press, and James going out early cost them their best tempo player. This was still an issue overall, though.

3. A lineup change worked.

Heading into the game, Barnes decided to fully put Uros Plavsic’s development on display. He decided to start the junior over John Fulkerson. The moved worked, as Plavsic didn’t just have that putback late. He scored13 points and picked up seven rebounds on the night.

It’s clear that Plavsic’s development is really starting to show, and with Fulkerson having an off-night, scoring 2 points on 0-for-4 shooting from the field, the move made sense. Fulkerson still grabbed six rebounds off the bench, proving he can be effective in other ways, but Tennessee basketball truly has depth in the post now, a big deal.