Vols poised to win first league tournament title since ’79
ST. LOUIS — As Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes was wrapping up his media responsibilities late Saturday afternoon after the Volunteers’ 84-66 thumping of Arkansas in their Southeastern Conference tournament semifinal, he was asked about the 12 3-pointers Kentucky had bagged in its semifinal rout of Alabama earlier in the day.
“How does that strike you?” the reporter asked.
Replied Barnes: “Well, we made 11.”
It wasn’t said in anger or as if the writer had disrespected Barnes’ program. And yet it also sent a message, whether intended or not, that these Vols will take a back seat to no one, especially a team they’ve already beaten twice this season.
In fact, if anyone is looking to handicap the first SEC tourney championship game between the Big Orange and Big Blue since 1979, the Wildcats will enter this one with an 0-5 mark this season against the three teams that finished above them in the regular-season standings: Auburn (0-1), Tennessee (0-2) and Florida (0-2).
That doesn’t mean the Cats can’t win round three against the Vols, but it is to say Tennessee looks to be the better team, or at least the more complete team. It’s one that can beat you — and repeatedly has this winter — either inside or outside, and sometimes both inside and outside in the same game.
Merely consider Saturday, which Barnes admitted after a 48-29 halftime margin “(might be) the best basketball we’ve played all year.”
But while point guard Jordan Bone scoring 17 points and hitting all three of his 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes was a big part of that (UT was 7-of-8 from treysville as a team over that span), he wasn’t the only star.
By game’s end, post player Grant Williams had totaled 12 points and five rebounds. Fellow Bruise Brother Admiral Schofield finished with 16 points and 12 boards. Forward Kyle Alexander added 12 points and seven boards. James Daniels scored 12 points off the bench. Bone ended up with 19 points and four assists. Lamonte Turner added nine points.
And while Kentucky’s 86-63 win over Bama was equally impressive, it should be noted that UK reserve Wenyen Gabriel scored 23 against the Tide thanks almost entirely to hitting all seven of his 3-point attempts.
Prior to Saturday, Gabriel had hit only 30 triples all season, shooting them at a .345 clip.
Even UK coach John Calipari admitted afterward that such sizzling shooting is “probably not sustainable.”
And yet UT’s shooting often seems that way. Especially from behind the 3-point line. Seven times over their last 13 games the Vols have hit at least eight triples. Three times they’ve hit 11 or more. Over those same 13 games they’ve outshot their opponent from the field on nine occasions, including hitting 50 percent or more from the floor four times. They’ve outrebounded their opponents by 10 or more boards four times over those 13 games, of which 11 were victories.
The Wildcats are 8-5 in their last 13 games, having hit double figures in 3-pointers twice and as many as eight on five total occasions. They’ve outrebounded foes by 10 or more three times, hit 50 percent from the field or better three times and outshot their opponents from the field seven times.
So on stats alone, UT is slightly better, just as the Vols were in Lexington, when they won 61-59, coming from behind inside the final two minutes.
But you listen to the Vols — and admittedly they knew they were playing Kentucky, while UK didn’t yet know if it would face Arkansas or UT after its win — and you sense a team ready to win its first SEC tourney title in 39 years.
Asked about Kentucky’s depth, despite the absence of freshman forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who has an ankle injury, Barnes replied, “They’ve got depth, we know that. And we’ve got depth.”
Said Schofield: “We have a motto: Run it back. When you lose, if you’re a competitor, you want to run it back. That’s probably the mindset they have. We’ll be ready. Right now, it’s just about who wants it bad enough.”
Both teams will want this one, and Kentucky may actually need it more to have any hope of landing a No. 4 seed when the NCAA tourney pairings are announced at 6 tonight on TBS.
But the junior Schofield said something that should have Vols fans feeling pretty good about their third game against UK this season.
“We just have a standard we’re trying to play towards,” said these Vols’ emotional leader. “We’ve just got to worry about our jobs and doing our jobs consistently.”
Just like they’ve done twice before this season against Big Blue. Just like they should do again this afternoon. Make this current Big Orange run over Big Blue sustainable for at least one more game. Make it UT 69, UK 65.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.