Josiah-Jordan James suffers late-game leg injury vs. Vanderbilt

Leading by two with 17 seconds remaining over Vanderbilt, Tennessee guard Josiah-Jordan James went down clutching his left leg. The injury occurred after James landed awkwardly after trying to secure a rebound and would not return.

James scored only two points on 1-of-7 shooting but pulled down five rebounds and three steals. It was an uncharacteristic night for the point guard that scores 10 points per game for the Vols, and it ended in the worst way possible.

The severity of the injury is unknown as of this report, but Tennessee will hope the senior can get back on the court as soon as possible.

The Commodores would go on to defeat the Vols at the buzzer 66-65 to drop to 8-3 in SEC play.

Rick Barnes calls on Tennessee to take the right shot on offense

Tennessee‘s 46-43 win over Auburn was highlighted by a poor night of offense by both squads, as the Volunteers and Tigers scored season-lows in points. After the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes explained that their team’s issue was not in creating open shots, it was just taking them.

“We had some wide-open shots, and I actually told Santi (Santiago Vescovi) one time, we came out and executed a play as well as we can execute it. And he had as wide open a look as he’s had in a month, and he didn’t shoot it and threw it inside and O (Olivier Nkamhoua) turned it over. I mean Santi’s man was down there,” Barnes said. “That’s what we’ve got to get out of, we’ve got to continue to take our shots whether they’re going in or not.”

The Volunteers shot just 27% from the field and 9.5% from the three-point line, and even struggled from the free throw line against the Tigers shooting 58.8% on their free throws. 

“Trust our court balance, trust the fact that we’ve got guys that we’re going to make the effort to go try to rebound it, but we’ve got to take open shots,” Barnes said. “You go back and when you break down, and we’re in that area where I think we’re going to learn from it and keep getting better.”

Barnes pulled back the curtain on Tennessee’s offensive scheme, detailing the consequences that come when his team doesn’t at least attempt to take their open shots. 

“Oftentimes we throw the ball in the post, the teams, the people guarding us on the perimeter, don’t even think about coming down to choke it out, just letting those guys play down there. And we do need our post guys to deliver some of those baskets to make teams adjust to it. And then what happens if players sense it, coaches sense it when guys are open not shooting the ball, then the defense says okay now we’re going to really back up and force you into doing that,” Barnes explained. “So there’s a lot of things going on within a game that players have to work through, coaches have to work through, but again it’s February.”