Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols’ convincing top five win vs. Kentucky

Revenge is sweet. Tennessee basketball bounced back from their 28-point loss at the Kentucky Wildcats in January to pick up a huge 76-63 win in a rematch at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn., Tuesday night. In the process, UT won its eighth straight SEC game, fifth straight game overall and picked up its first top five win since beating Kentucky twice in 2019.

Kentucky, ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll and No. 3 in the Coaches Poll, went up 8-2. Rick Barnes’ team, ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll, then fought back. Trailing 17-15 with just under 14 minutes to go, the Vols went on a 17-1 run and took a 46-32 lead into halftime. They extended the lead to 20 in the second half, and UK never again got closer than eight.

The Vols improve to 19-6 and have tied UK for second in the SEC at 10-3 with a trip Saturday to the Arkansas Razorbacks, who are No. 23 in the AP Poll, No. 24 in the Coaches Poll and just behind both teams at 9-4 in league play. John Calipari’s team falls to 21-5 with a visit from the Alabama Crimson Tide set for Saturday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s win.

1. Transition basketball sparked the Vols’ offense.

It was clear early on that Calipari would want to force the game to be up-tempo, and he was pressing in the first half. The Vols accepted the challenge and handled it perfectly. They had 17 assists with just eight turnovers on the night and took advantage of the defense to find tons of open looks, going 8-of-17 from the three-point line.

Kennedy Chandler was the first-half star and finished 3-of-5 from three with 17 points. Santiago Vescovi went 2-of-4 from three with 18 points. John Fulkerson got open looks down low, scoring 14 points. Zakai Zeigler dominated the break, going 2-of-4 from three with 14 points. UT won 16-14 on fast-break points and 20-7 on points off turnovers, which leads to our next takeaway.

2. Defense was the main catalyst.

Winning the three-point battle and even transition battle are what helped Tennessee basketball win this game. However, the dominant defense made it a blowout. We mentioned the points off turnovers. UT forced 20 of those, including 15 in the second half. They forced Kentucky to shoot 23-of-67, or 34.3 percent, from the field.

There was a 10-minute period when UK went 0-of-11 from the field in the first half, and when Kentucky made its run in the second half, the defense kept them from coming back. The team had nine steals, with Zeigler having four and Chandler having two. They had eight blocks, and three came from Jonas Aidoo off the bench, a hugely positive sign for them in the future.

3. Lack of depth an issue when it comes to rebounding.

With Olivier Nkamhoua hurt, Josiah-Jordan James has had to step up his rebounding role. In this game, however, he got in foul trouble, eventually fouling out. That forced Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Uros Plavsic or Aidoo to step up alongside Fulkerson. Aidoo was the one to do so.

However, the team as a whole could not match James’ rebounding. As a result, despite Tennessee basketball’s elite defense and UK missing 14 more shots from the field, the Vols were outrebounded 40-33. It all came down to offensive rebounds, as Kentucky got 18 while the Vols got six. That kept this from being a 20-plus point blowout.

Free throw shooting was a wash, as they were 20-of-23 and UK was 12-of-14. Both tied for points in the paint. All the other things favored the Vols. However, this rebounding deficit could be an issue in the future. That combined with Vescovi missing two first-half layups were the only criticisms to give UT in this game.