Paul Finebaum weighs in on what Tennessee road win at Alabama means

Like most of America, Paul Finebaum was tuned in for No. 4 Tennessee’s 81-74 win over No. 14 Alabama on Saturday. During an appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning,” the SEC Network analyst revealed his takeaways from the colossal matchup.

“It’s pretty obvious Tennessee is the best team in the SEC,” Finebaum said. “Right now, they’re trending very likely toward a No. 1 seed. Alabama’s not far behind. But, I think when you do what Tennessee did on Alabama’s home court in the biggest game of the year, the most hyped game in many years, it does allow everyone to comfortably say there’s some separation.”

It was a late surge for the Volunteers, who trailed Alabama 58-51 with less than 12 minutes left in the game. Junior guard Zakai Zeigler led the way for Tennessee, tallying a team-high 18 points. In total, the Volunteers had four players score double figures.

Tennessee’s provded deadly in the highly-anticipated meeting. The Volunteers squeezed 12 turnovers out of the Crimson Tide, translating their mistakes into 17 points. After the game, UT head coach Rick Barnes praised his veterans’ resiliency in the win.

“Both teams were playing hard. Both teams were battling,” Barnes said. “There were a lot of individual battles going on. As I said, Nate [Oats’] teams are terrific and really hard guard. But, our older guys have been through a lot and they talk about it, being in these type games.

“From my standpoint, being on the bench, at no point in time do you see them flinch. They just kept saying, ‘Hey, we have to stay in it, keep grinding, keep grinding.’ And they did that. Again, I got to give credit, all the credit, to the players. Really the older guys, because I thought they were really terrific.”

The win gave Tennessee sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the SEC standings. Tennessee’s destiny is in its own hands now. It certainly won’t be an easy cruise to the finish line. On Wednesday, the team will face against No. 17 South Carolina only to take on No. 15 Kentucky just three days later.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats can only hope Tennessee stumbles along the final stretch.

“We’re competing for an SEC championship with a week left in the regular season,” Oats said. “It’s out of our hands now. We’ve still got a shot at it, but we’re gonna need to get some help to earn a share of it at this point. Real disappointing.

“We’ve gotta get our guys back together. Florida was an overtime game here, so it’s not gonna be easy to win down there. We’ve gotta try to win two and hope for a little help here this week.”