Tennessee had a wild week: The Weekly 3-2-1

Tennessee had an up-and-down week to say the least. Losing at home to rival Kentucky, and then rallying to beat No. 5 Florida despite missing two starters. We look back, and ahead, in our weekly feature with three observations, two questions and a prediction about this basketball team.

THREE OBSERVATIONS

1 — That was a wild week — Tennessee provided fans with a snapshot of the wild swings that happen in college basketball.

On Tuesday night the Vols simply got outplayed on their home court by Kentucky. Taking care of home court is always pivotal in conference play. That’s more true than ever in the SEC this year.

The most surprising thing about the Kentucky loss was how it happened, with the Wildcats doing their thing and shooting a smooth 50% from the floor, including 50% from three-point range (14-of-28).

It was just an atypical performance from Tennessee, and the fact that it came on the heels of an historic defensive performance at Auburn made it even more eye-opening.

That Kentucky loss left Tennessee at 4-4 in the league and it very much felt like the season was a crossroads. Fifth-ranked Florida—which had trounced the Vols by 30 not so long ago—was coming to town at exactly the halfway point of league play.

Saturday’s match-up felt like a ‘circle the wagons’ game after the Kentucky loss, and that was BEFORE we knew that Zakai Zeigler and Igor Milicic weren’t going to play (more on that below).

If Tennessee left Saturday at 4-5—as tough as this league is—it just felt like it might be the begging of a rough stretch.

Even at 5-4 the road ahead doesn’t look like a picnic, but goodness, it feels light years different than the alternative, which would have included a three-game losing streak and four losses in their last five games.

But what a difference that win makes.

Tennessee looked like a team headed in the wrong direction after the Kentucky loss, and in hindsight I wonder just how much of a physical toll the Auburn game took on a team that essentially played seven guys that night.

(Not making an excuse for them at all, but wondering aloud if that wasn’t a factor)

Today, 48 hours after an emotional win over Florida, the outlook feels brighter to say the least.

League play could still present some obstacles, putting it mildly.

Missouri (6-2, after going 0-18 last year) comes in on Wednesday as the surprise team in the league.

Oklahoma has been a disappointment, but any road trip is dicey and there are still visits to Lexington, College Station and Oxford on the schedule to face ranked teams.

The SEC has lived up to the hype this season and Tennessee getting to the halfway mark at 5-4 isn’t what most expected. But goodness, it’s a lot better than the alternative if they hasn’t pulled one out on Saturday.

2 — That was classic Rick Barnes — This has been talked about and written about a ton, but we’ve got to dive back into Saturday’s effort for just a minute.

I said on Saturday that it was the most ‘Rick Barnes’ game ever, meaning that for me, that team’s effort was a reflection of their head coach and how he’s built his program.

As much as anything else Barnes’ has built Tennessee on toughness and accountability.

The toughness part, at least the physical aspect of it, is easy to see on the court. And Florida’s Todd Golden raved about Tennessee’s physicality—and his team’s inability to match it—in his post game comments on Saturday.

The mental toughness shows up in a number of ways, but one fans don’t see is on the practice floor where so much of that accountability come into play, generally in the form of the head coach forcefully and in a very personal (but PG-rated) manner letting guys know when they’re not meeting the standard.

When it was learned that Tennessee was down two starters on Saturday morning the Vols’ chances might have looked bleak, but you knew the players themselves—and definitely not their head coach—wouldn’t be making any excuses.

Barnes recounted the tale of Jahmai Mashack circling the team up after Friday’s practice—which Zeigler and Milicic didn’t take part in—and telling his peers ‘we have enough right here,’ to beat Florida.

Mashack then went out and played 36 minutes like his hair was on fire. He was a huge reason that Florida scored a season low 44 points and shot a season low 24%. He also made life miserable on Gators’ leading scorer Walter Clayton (10 points, 3-of-13 shooting).

Mashack embodies what this program is about as much as anyone. His game is about effort, intensity and being one of the smartest guys on the floor.

He’s not an offensive specialist, but he makes a ton of winning plays.

He proved to a prognosticator as well. Tennessee did have enough, but it took everything they had.

Jordan Gainey took the reins at point guard, played 37 minutes with one turnover and had 16 points with five assists.

Chaz Lanier did exactly what Tennessee needed him to do, scoring 19 points while making 5-of-9 from three-point range.

Felix Okpara overcame two quick fouls—which could have been disastrous—to play 26 minutes, finishing with 10 points and eight boards.

His work on the glass picking up the slack for Milicic was big.

Darlintsone Dubar got his first start, played 26 minutes, and while he had a tough shooting day (2-of-10), he was impactful with five rebounds, three assists and physical defense.

Cade Phillips was part of the signature play of the day, a dunk in the second half off a great steal and save from Mashack. He played a career high 28 minutes, had seven points and three blocks.

Tennessee had to get contributions from everyone with just seven guys available, and they did.

Even in the first half when the game was still close, it just didn’t feel like Florida was meeting Tennessee’s intensity and physicality.

That wasn’t exactly a must-win game on Saturday, but it may have altered the path the Vols’ season takes over the next couple of weeks.

3 — Halfway home in the SEC, as good as advertised — The hype was real. The SEC is nasty.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has 13 SEC teams in the Field of 68 as of now with Oklahoma and Texas the most ‘on the bubble’ squads.

Kenpom has four SEC teams in his top six; No. 1 Auburn, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Florida and No. 6 Alabama.

Texas A&M (No. 15), Ole Miss (No. 21), Kentucky (No. 22) and Missouri (No. 25) are all in the kenpom top-25.

Tennessee has nine games left. Six are against teams in the kenpom top-25.

In those last nine games for the Vols, only two—South Carolina and at LSU—appear to be against non-NCAA Tournament teams.

There is just carnage everywhere on a nightly basis in the SEC.

Kentucky started last week on a huge high note with that win in Knoxville, only to come home and lose to a 1-6 Arkansas team in John Calipari’s return to Lexington. As sweet as the win over Tennessee was, I bet I know which one ‘Cats’ fans would have preferred to get.

Mississippi State, a solid basketball team in anyone’s estimation, is reeling at 4-5 in the league after 2-0 start. They just got drilled at home by Missouri 88-61 days after missing a golden chance at upsetting Alabama in an 88-84 loss.

Florida just lost by 20 to a team with seven players that they beat by 30 a month ago.

Georgia, Vandy and Missouri are all much better than expected. The latter two in particular.

It’s a cliche´ but there are no easy wins in this league, and that’s proven on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and all day on Saturday.

Alabama looks as good as anyone in the country, but even they took a 10 point home loss to Ole Miss.

Auburn has been impervious to a slip up to this point, but they’ve nearly gotten dropped a couple of times.

One of Tigers’ narrow escapes came at South Carolina, the only winless team in the league, where Auburn survived 66-63.

The Gamecocks look like they’re going to get someone eventually. In addition to the Auburn loss they lost at home to Florida 70-69, to Texas A&M 76-72 and in overtime to Mississippi State 65-60.

Even the worst team in this league has some teeth.

TWO QUESTIONS

WHERE DOES THAT ONE RANK?

Barnes said after the game that the win over Florida was one of the greatest they’ve had since he’s been in Knoxville.

That’s a mouthful.

I don’t disagree with him, but ‘best’ or ‘greatest’ are hard to quantify.

I’m not going to try for an exhaustive list here, that’s worth it’s own long piece, but it has to be on the shortlist for best regular season wins.

Postseason wins have to carry more weight, so beating Creighton to get to the Elite Eight is at the top.

Beating Kentucky in Tampa in the semis and then Texas A&M for the SEC title in 2022 were huge wins. Beating Kentucky in the semis in Nashville in 2019 was enormous.

Regular season wise this one feels big because of what we talked about above, halfway point of the SEC season, sitting at .500, revenge game, two starters out. There was a lot going on.

It feels significant right now, but how significant to me really depends on what they do with it.

Is it a springboard to a better February after an inconsistent start to league play? We’ll see.

Regardless, it was a singular effort. People should (and will I guess) remember that one similarly to the ‘Skylar McBee game’ against Kansas. It was special.

Regular season wise, Barnes has had some big ones. The win over then No. 1 Gonzaga in Phoenix.

Barnes has eleven wins over Kentucky, including four in Rupp Arena. Tennessee had four TOTAL wins at Rupp before Barnes’ arrival.

Tennessee knocked off No. 1 Alabama in Knoxville in 2023.

We’re leaving some big ones out, but the point is, the Vols have won a lot of significant games with Barnes at the helm.

For him to single Saturday’s win out—and this is NOT a guy prone to hyperbole—as one of the most special since he’s been at Tennessee, well, that spoke volumes to me.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE?

Aside from the fact that Tennessee won without Zeigler or Milicic I was most surprised by the rebounding.

I’m not saying that I expected Jordan Gainey to run the show with that kind of aplomb in place of Zeigler. Or to see Tennessee to just take Florida’s offensive game plan and light it on fire.

But I really thought that Tennessee would struggle on the glass against a Florida team that owned the backboards in that blowout in Gainesville. Especially without Milicic, the team’s leading rebounder (8.1 rpg).

But the Vols did it, finishing with a 40-37 edge on the glass—without Milicic—after Florida punked them to the tune of a 56-37 rebounding advantage in first meeting.

The difference was especially notable on the offensive boards.

Florida had 19 rebounds and 19 second chances points the first time out. On Saturday they had 10 offensive boards, but just three second chance points.

Tennessee had 12 offensive rebounds and 10 second chance points.

It was a total team effort. Okpara led the way with his eight, but Mashack had eight as well, Lanier chipped in with five, Dubar had five, Gainey had four.

Florida has been the best rebounding team in the SEC (+10.5 per game). Tennessee beat them at their own game with seven guys, minus their best rebounder.

Just another example of this team’s toughness and ability to bear down when needed most.

ONE PREDICTION

I think that game is going to give this team a shot in the arm.

Give me Tennessee to go 2-0 this week and go into Lexington with some momentum.