Alabama's Nate Oats explains why this Tennessee team has a Final Four ceiling

Nate Oats saw the same thing everybody else saw. Or at least a replay of it. With Tennessee trailing Auburn by eight points in the second half Wednesday night, Dalton Knecht had to go to work like only he can.

The Vols’ star transfer on the wing scored 25 points over a 10-minute span and had 27 of his 39 points in the second half, leading the comeback in an emotional 92-84 win at Thompson-Boling Arena.

“(Knecht) kind of singlehandedly took the game over in the second part of the second half against Auburn,” Oats said during his press conference on Friday, “and willed them to the win after Auburn had them down. So we got to be aware of him.”

 No. 14 Alabama (20-8, 12-3 SEC) will look to lock down Knecht when No. 4 Tennessee (22-6, 12-3) goes back on the road for Saturday night’s game at Coleman Coliseum. It’s an 8 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN between the two teams tied for first in the SEC standings with three games left in the regular season.

Knecht scored 25 points in 91-71 win over Alabama in January

The Vols beat the Crimson Tide 91-71 in Knoxville on January 20 in the first leg of the home-and-home. 

In the first meeting with Alabama, Knecht scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the first half. Oats said after the game he could’ve had 35 in a closer game, had Tennessee not led by as many as 27 in the second half. 

“They would’ve been going to him a lot more,” Oats said at the time. “In fact, he had 25, most of the second half don’t count, let his foot off the gas.”

Tennessee center Jonas Aidoo had 19 points and five rebounds in 25 minutes against Alabama in January. Santiago Vescovi added 19, Jordan Gainey had 15 points off the bench and Zakai Zeigler finished with eight points, six assists and four rebounds.

“Zeigler leads the league in assists,” Oats said, “so (if) you put too much attention on Knecht, you open the floor up for Zeigler. Aidoo has been very good inside (and) again, you pay too much attention to Knecht and all of a sudden Aidoo starts hurting you. 

“So it’s not like this is a one-man band. Vescovi has been one of the best guards in this league for a long time.”

It may not be a one-man band, but Knecht as the lead singer is the most obvious difference between this Tennessee teams and ones in the past under head coach Rick Barnes. 

“Their last 11 wins they’ve scored 80-plus points in nine of them,” Oats said. “You go back to last year, the last 11 wins last year, they scored 80 or more in one of them. So (it’s) a team whose offense has gotten extremely good to go with an elite level defense.

“And now that’s why teams are probably rightfully so talking about a Final Four run for this team. Because they’re that good on both sides of the ball.”

No. 4 Tennessee at No. 14 Alabama, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tennessee the last eight season under Barnes have ranked an average of 58.3 in KenPom.com‘s adjusted offensive efficiency. The Vols finished first in adjusted defensive efficiency last season, third in 2022 and fifth in 2021.

The current team enters Saturday night ranked No. 4 on defense and No. 16 on offense. 

“They just took a very good team, one of the best teams in the league,” Oats said, “(and) added the leading scorer in the league to it in Knecht. And now they’ve got a team that’s primed to get a No. 1 or No. 2 seed (in the NCAA Tournament). 

“And I’m sure anything short of a Final Four run, they’d be disappointed with the end of the year. So it’s a really good team we got coming in here with the SEC league title on the line.”