Tennessee basketball wins SEC Tournament Championship: Three takeaways

The drought is over. Tennessee basketball, the most cursed team in the SEC Tournament, finally won the event for the first time since 1979, the first year it was resumed. UT, who was a No. 2 seed in the tournament, did so beating the Texas A&M Aggies 65-50.

Rick Barnes’ team, ranked No. 9 in the AP Poll and No. 11 in the Coaches Poll, got to the game beating the Mississippi State Bulldogs and, most significantly, the Kentucky Wildcats, which secured them a fourth top five win. It did a lot for the NCAA Tournament seeding too.

Buzz Williams’ Aggies, the No. 8 seed in the event, got there by beating the Florida Gators before shocking the No. 1 seed Auburn Tigers and blowing out the No. 4 seed Arkansas Razorbacks. They weren’t able to continue that success into the title game in Tampa, Fla., at Amalie Arena, though.

Rocky Top never trailed in the championship game. They got off to a red-hot 14-0 start and never let A&M get within five after that. Their dominance this past weekend was evident by them only trailing for 86 seconds throughout all three games they played.

UT will now enter the NCAA Tournament at 26-7 and on a seven-game winning streak. A&M is likely to get in as well with this run. Before Sunday’s loss, which dropped them to 23-12, they were on a seven-game winning streak too. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s victory.

1. Three-point shooting favored the Vols.

Kentucky lost to the Vols because they couldn’t buy a bucket from three. Texas A&M, however, was red-hot from outside, shooting over 50 percent in every game from beyond the arc in the tournament before Sunday despite shooting 33.5 percent on the season. Finally, the luck ran out.

Largely thanks to the Vols’ defense, Texas A&M shot 4-of-19 from outside. UT, though, shot 12-of-28. Santiago Vescovi was 4-of-9 from outside with 17 points, Kennedy Chandler was 4-of-7 from three with 14 points, and Josiah-Jordan James was 3-of-7 from beyond the arc with 16 points. That was the main difference.

2. Defense and rebounding was incredible.

In addition to Texas A&M not being able to buy a bucket from three, Tennessee basketball dominated the hustle plays. Sure, the Aggies won the game in the paint 22-18, but they were outrebounded 41-34, the Vols came away with four blocks, and they had eight steals.

James led the way defensively. He had a double-double by adding 10 rebounds. Even more impressive, he had a steal and three blocks, so he dominated. John Fulkerson did his part off the bench with 12 rebounds. Uros Plavsic had a block. Vescovi and Zeigler each had two steals.

3. Vols didn’t let A&M get out in transition.

What was shocking about Texas A&M’s run as a team coached by Williams was how they did in in transition. The Aggies had 14, 20 and 13 fast-break points in their three wins. In this game, though, the Vols only let them have seven such points.

Perhaps A&M was tired, as Tennessee basketball did have 13 turnovers. The reality, though, is the Vols always got back before they could get anything going, and they honestly just didn’t miss enough shots. That wasn’t going to make a difference in this game, but it helped them stay in control to win it.