Tennessee basketball beats No. 3 Kansas for Battle 4 Atlantis Championship: Three takeaways

This may have been the most impressive win of Rick Barnes’ tenure as head coach of Tennessee basketball. Less than two weeks removed from a shocking loss to the Colorado Buffaloes and without one of their key players, the Vols managed to beat the Kansas Jayhawks 64-50 to win the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship at Paradise Island in The Bahamas.

Kansas came into this game ranked No. 3 in both polls and undefeated. UT, ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the Coaches Poll, won the event at Imperial Arena in Nassau without having Josiah-Jordan James in any of their three games. They jumped out to a 7-0 start against KU and never trailed.

It’s the first early-season tournament championship for Rocky Top since winning the NIT Season Tip-Off in 2020. The Vols improve to 5-1 and will return home to face the McNeese State Cowboys on Tuesday. Kansas falls to 6-1 and returns home to face the Texas Southern Jaguars Sunday. Here are three takeaways from Tennessee basketball’s win.

1. Three-point shooting disparity made the difference.

Sometimes, one team is hot, and the other isn’t. That was the case in this game. The Vols were 12-of-27 from three on the night, and Kansas was 5-of-21 despite Kansas entering the game more efficient from three. Add in UT going 8-of-10 from the free throw line while Kansas went 11-of-17, and you have your difference.

Santiago Vescovi was the star for the Vols in their elite three-point shooting night, as he went 5-of-14 from outside to lead the team with 20 points. Tyreke Key went 2-of-3 on the night for 10 points, and Zakai Zeigler was 3-of-5 off the bench from outside with 14 points. Jonas Aidoo and Olivier Nkamhoua each hit one too.

2. Post players dominated on the glass.

Although Aidoo and Nkamhoua each hit a three, what they did on the boards made much more of a difference. Tennessee basketball didn’t score much down low Friday, but they cleaned up missed shots on both sides of the ball. The Vols outrebounded the Jayhawks 45-27 on the night.

Sure, Kansas missed more shots, but they didn’t miss 18 more shots. Julian Phillips, Uros Plavsic and even Vescovi all had six rebounds. Nkamhoua had seven. However, Aidoo was the off-ball star of the night, as he had nine rebounds, and he helped with the final takeaway too.

3. Aggressive defense offset sloppy play.

You can’t ignore the fact that the Vols had 24 turnovers. Nkamhoua had five, Vescovi had four, Jahmai Mashack had four, and Zeigler and Plavsic each had three. However, they were able to make up for that with how aggressive they were on defense. Aidoo, who was aggressive on the boards, was part of that with two blocks.

As a team, Tennessee basketball only forced 16 turnovers, but they had 10 steals. Zeigler had four steals, Aidoo, who had two blocks, also had three steals. Again, Aidoo was the star in everything but scoring on the night, but he led an aggressive unit that really just outhustled Kansas on a lot of key plays during the game.