Vols need more from Alexander
KNOXVILLE — On a basketball team with two national player of the year candidates, a top-level point guard, the player who shared the Southeastern Conference’s sixth man of the year honor in 2018 and a strong contender for the award this season, the key figure for the Tennessee Volunteers might be someone not named Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, Jordan Bone, Lamonte Turner or Jordan Bowden.
The fifth-ranked Vols (24-2, 12-1), who lead both No. 4 Kentucky and No. 13 LSU by one game in the SEC standings, haven’t looked quite like the well-oiled machine they were during the first two months of the season. The reason for that could lie on the broad shoulders of Kyle Alexander, the team’s 6-foot-11 senior center.
Opponents have been clued in on a way to affect the Vols for a couple of seasons: Get Alexander in foul trouble, because Tennessee’s interior options are limited without him.
Neither John Fulkerson nor Derrick Walker appears to have the coaching staff’s confidence to play heavy minutes if called upon. Fulkerson, who’s 6-9, has played in every game this calendar year but has averaged only 10.1 minutes per game in that stretch. Walker, who’s 6-8, has played a total of 54 minutes in 11 games since the start of the year. Neither poses the sort of interior threat Alexander does.
The Vols’ lack of inside depth has made Alexander priceless, but he has played more than 20 minutes in just two of Tennessee’s past eight games. Alexander played only 19 minutes in Tuesday’s 58-46 home win against Vanderbilt despite being called for just one foul.
“I thought his demeanor and everything was good,” coach Rick Barnes said after the win. “He was terrific in practice yesterday, and he’s got to do that. I thought Fulky was good. I thought everybody that was going in was good.
“When you’re not making shots like that, and the minutes probably would’ve been different, but you try to get your best offensive team out there. We can get it going on the offensive end and get some rhythm. Otherwise, those guys
probably would’ve played more minutes.”
Offense has not appeared to be a problem for Tennessee until its past two games, with the win against Vanderbilt following Saturday’s 86-69 loss at Kentucky, and the Vols still lead the SEC in scoring offense (83.7 points per game) and field-goal shooting (50.7 percent).
The Vols have Schofield and Williams, with both recently named to the Naismith Trophy men’s player of the year midseason team and among the final 20 on the watch list for the John R. Wooden Award. They have Bone, who has averaged 13.2 points and 6.5 assists per game this season. Then there are junior guards Bowden and Turner, who have averaged a combined 22 points per game.
But on defense, the Vols need an interior player who can limit opponents by blocking or at least altering shots.
That’s where Alexander’s minutes are extremely important. The Vols are 14-1 this season when Alexander has played at least 25 minutes and 20-2 in those situations dating to the start of last season, but he has struggled to get to that number lately due to foul trouble.
He was called for at least three fouls in six of the past eight games, and he fouled out in three of those, totaling a combined 40 minutes, eight points and 10 rebounds against the physical front lines of West Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky. Concerns about fouling appear to have caused him to be tentative, and his offensive production has dropped: He averaged 5.3 points and 4.9 rebounds in his past 12 games, knocking down his season averages from 10.2 and 8.1 to 8.2 and 6.6.
The minutes Alexander did play against Vanderbilt were extremely important. His minutes down the stretch in the Vols’ five remaining regular-season games — all against teams projected to reach the NCAA tournament and most with physical front lines — will be even more important.
And then there are the SEC and NCAA tournaments. Last season, when Tennessee was a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament but had a short run, a hip injury caused Alexander to miss the team’s round-of-32 game against No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago. The Ramblers won 63-62 on a last-second shot and went on to the Final Four.
Alexander’s next chance to show his importance comes Saturday at LSU (21-5, 11-2), where tipoff is set for noon EST.
“I think his demeanor was there tonight,” Williams said Tuesday. “I think he had that mentality of ‘I’m defending and going to be a presence on the glass.’ Sometimes, it just doesn’t show up in the stat books. … He was around the entire game. He was diving on the floor, he’s been that presence and he’s getting back to himself now.”
Keep watching
The Atlanta Tipoff Club has named Williams one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Williams leads the Vols this season in rebounds (7.6 per game), steals (30) and charges drawn (seven), and his 39 blocks are second on the team to Alexander (47). Williams is the only Vol with at least 20 blocks and 20 steals this season.
The 2018 SEC player of the year, Williams has multiple blocks in 13 games this season and multiple steals in 10, with four games of both multiple blocks and steals, including three blocks and two steals to go with 22 points and 10 rebounds against Wake Forest on Dec. 22.
For the season, Williams has averaged 19.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 58 percent from the field and making 83 percent of his free throws.
The only other SEC player who is a semifinalist for the Naismith honor is Kentucky freshman guard Ashton Hagans.