Rick Barnes considers how well Tennessee plays with Jonas Aidoo

No. 6 Tennessee defeated Florida 85-66 in Knoxville on Wednesday, extending its undefeated streak at home to nine games this season while improving to 3-1 in SEC play and 13-4 overall.

Junior forward Jonas Aidoo played 21 minutes for Vols coach Rick Barnes during the contest. He scored a team-high 19 points to go with nine rebounds and two blocks during the contest. After the game, Barnes couldn’t say enough about his veteran big man.

“When he’s aggressive and locked in he’s a major factor,” Barnes said after Tennessee’s win over Florida. “… I think, obviously, guys are starting to understand each other. Where they need to ball, when they need to get it. Jonas, we came out and started the second half and ran a little play to get him a little mid range jumper, again, was really great execution.”

Aidoo has put up career numbers during the 2023-24 college basketball season, and continued that trend on Tuesday. The Durham, North Carolina native, who has spent three seasons with the Tennessee program, is averaging 11.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game this season.

Barnes has a theory for what might have caused that flip to switch for the 6-foot-11, 241-pounder.

“I sat down with him maybe now two weeks ago and showed him all the post players that we played against and showed his numbers against them and some other players in the country. I said, ‘Jonas, I’m telling you man, you’re as good as these guys for certain — maybe better.

“It’s consistency and you got to want to put these numbers up, man. But to do that, you’re going to have to really work hard yourself to want the ball where you want it and get aggressive.’ And he’s done that other than he didn’t have a great night defensively at Mississippi State, but his length around the basket is effective in a lot of ways, not only defensively, but offensively as well.”

As Aidoo continues his strong season, Tennessee looks toward this weekend’s matchup against an Alabama team that is undefeated in conference play through four games.

The opening tip-off for Saturday afternoon’s matchup is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET and will be aired live on ESPN2. Tennessee is expected to defend home court and defeat the Crimson Tide by an expected score of 82-79, according to KenPom.com. They give Tennessee a 63 percent change to win the game.