Tennessee picked up the win over South Carolina without Nate Ament, which meant everyone had to adjust their roles. Veteran point guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie embraced the floor general responsibilities, shifting away from his typical score-first, pass-second approach. Gillespie playing this role accounted for 12 assists, a career high, and he was making plays all night for the big men down low.
When Rick Barnes was asked about what he liked from J.P. Estrella and Felix Okpara, he gave credit to Gillespie for being able to feed them the ball. Barnes said:
"What did I like about those two guys? We said that we talked about it all year, playing inside out. And again, I, obviously I love the way those guys did it. But got to give a lot of credit to Ja'Kobi (Gillespie). (South Carolina was) determined they were going to make it a hard night for him, and the fact that he had, what, 12 assists, maybe, what, one turnover, I just thought his command of the game from our standpoint was really impressive."
Barnes also said that Gillespie was responsible for many of the easy buckets the big's got.
"And he's responsible for those guys. He got them a lot of easy ones. And when I say easy, it's not easy for him to get there, but he got it up, and they were able to play over top of South Carolina a little bit."
Tennessee needs more of this version of Ja'Kobi Gillespie
What a night it was for Gillespie; he was taking action and making the perfect reads all night long. It's unfair to expect 12 assists every night from Gillespie, and I'm not saying he shouldn't try to score, but when he takes a step back and focuses on running the offense, Tennessee is a much better basketball team.
All along, Barnes has harped on Gillespie saying he needs to be more point guard-like, and he was right. The floor-general version of Gillespie is a dangerous weapon, especially if the Vols can pair it with a healthy Ament and big men who are ready to finish lobs and clean up the glass down low.
In March, every team that makes it far has a veteran ball handler they lean on and Tennessee has just that.