Three takeaways from Tennessee basketball’s ugly comeback victory against Florida
It shouldn’t have been this difficult. Tennessee basketball overcame a 12-point deficit and a 10-point second-half deficit to beat a Florida Gators team 78-71 that was playing its third game in five days and second in three days. The Vols also benefitted from the worst non-call ever on a Florida three-point shot, which allowed them to win the game on free throws late.
On the positive, UT, ranked No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 20 in the Coaches Poll, had a strong second half and went on a 9-0 run at one point to take control of the game, going up by six with eight and a half minutes to go. Florida never cut it to within three again. Four straight free throws late by Santiago Vescovi and Kennedy Chandler clinched it.
Rick Barnes’ team is now 14-5 and 5-3 in the SEC with a trip to the Texas Longhorns in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge set for Saturday. Florida, now 12-8 and 3-5 in the SEC, is on a two-game skid after losing 70-54 at the Ole Miss Rebels Monday and have a matchup against the Oklahoma State Cowboys Saturday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s victory.
1. Bad offense was the worst defense in the first half.
A defensive-minded team like the Vols should never give up 42 points in a half to a Florida team that had to be tired. However, that’s exactly what happened in the first half of this game. What was the reason? Well, Florida cashed in on far too many turnovers by the Vols.
UT committed 11 turnovers in the first half alone, and Mike White’s team is solid at cashing in on those. They scored 17 points off those mistakes and had runs of 15-0 and 1-0. Play was much better in the second half, when the Vols only had five turnovers, but what happened in that first half is why this game was close.
2. Going small worked.
Uros Plavsic and Olivier Nkamhoua started the game, but after Tennessee basketball got in foul trouble in the first half, Rick Barnes went with a four-guard rotation. He stuck with that in the second half, and it worked out. Either Nkamhoua or Plavsic was on the floor at one time. Fulkerson still had nine points and three blocks, and they still won 35-24 on the glass.
Meanwhile, the Vols had four players among Zakai Zeigler, Kennedy Chandler, Josiah-Jordan James, Justin Powell and Santiago Vescovi on the court together the whole second half. Chandler and Zeigler, the two point guards, were often out there together, and it worked, as they had 17 and 11 points respectively. Zeigler and Powell each had two steals off the bench as well.
3. Elite shooting saved the day.
You don’t want to rely on a red-hot shooting night to win, but it saved the Vols in this one. The Vols shot 11-of-24 from the three-point line. Vescovi led the way, going 5-of-8 from outside with 23 points, but Zeigler went 3-of-5 off the bench. Powell, Chandler and James all hit one as well.
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More importantly, though, Tennessee basketball was reliable from the free throw line. We mentioned Vescovi and Chandler at the end. Well, they each went 6-of-6 from the line, and the Vols as a team were 17-of-18. This allowed them to pull off an ugly win that they should have had an easier time with, but hey, a win’s a win.