Key to survival
Vols’ NCAA fate may depend on James scoring more than 10 points
STAFF WRITER
Tennessee’s keys to advancing past Louisiana in Thursday night’s NCAA tournament
first-round matchup in Orlando are fairly straightforward.
Good floor spacing on offense. Limited turnovers. Relentless rebounding. Defensive intensity. Oh, and senior guard Josiah-Jordan James needs to score more than 10 points.
In Tennessee’s last 13 games in which James has competed, the Volunteers are 7- 0 when the 6-foot-6, 224-pounder from Charleston, South Carolina, tallies 11 or more points. They are 1-5 when he doesn’t.
“I know that to put my team in a position to win that I have to be aggressive on both ends, but especially the offensive end and getting my shots,” James said Monday afternoon in a news conference. “I need to take good rhythm shots and not be too aggressive and let the game come to me. That’s when I’m the most comfortable.”
The one instance in which Tennessee won without a healthy scoring output from James was the 70- 41 rout of
Georgia on Jan. 25, when he scored six points in just 20 minutes of playing time.
“He’s important, and what we need him to do is impact winning,” coach Rick Barnes said. “He certainly can do that defensively as well.”
Tennessee, the fourth seed in the East Region, and the 13thseeded Ragin’ Cajuns have a scheduled 9:40 tip on CBS. Jones has played in 21 of 33 games for the 23-10 Vols, with his absences the result of knee soreness following an offseason procedure and an ankle injury suffered early last month at Vanderbilt. He heads into NCAA play averaging 10.2 points and 4.7 rebounds but is coming off two very different performances.
In last Thursday’s 70-55 downing of Ole Miss in the Southeastern Conference tournament, James scored 20 points on 6- of-13 shooting and connected on four 3- pointers. In last Friday’s 79-71 loss to Missouri in the quarterfinals, however, he was held to three points on 1- of-7 shooting, including 0-of-3 from 3-point range.
“I was a little fatigued that second day,” James said. “I had worked my way back, but I had not gone back-to-back like that. I’m not making any excuses, but it was definitely tough.
“We’ve had more time off in these last three days than we’ve
had all year, and my body feels great.”
James knows his inconsistent scoring totals can’t continue given Zakai Zeigler’s season-ending ACL injury and that any struggles can put more pressure on fellow senior guard Santiago Vescovi. In his last 13 games, Vescovi has scored 11 or more points 11 times.
“He’s been the one consistent guy really throughout the whole year,” James said. “He gets game- planned for harder than anybody, so his job is really tough. We’ve just got to follow suit, because Santi has been a great leader for us all year.”
JUSTIFIED SEEDING
Given that Tennessee finished fourth in the NET rankings and fifth in the KenPom rankings, the Vols would seemingly be a 1 or 2 seed in this NCAA tournament.
Yet given their No. 20 ranking in Monday’s Associated Press poll and their 5-7 record since February, a 5 or 6 seed appears more appropriate.
“We got seeded because of our body of work,” Barnes said. “You hear those talking heads on TV talk about if ( North) Carolina would have won a game in December that they would have made the tournament, yet they question our seed. What we did in December and January put us where we are.
“We deserve where we are.”
NOT ALL TURNOVERS
The Vols have averaged 12.1 turnovers per game this season and turned it over 14 times in both SEC tournament contests.
“Honestly, a couple of those weren’t turnovers,” Barnes said about the miscues against Mizzou. “They were fouls that shouldn’t have been turnovers, but that’s part of it. We started the game with five turnovers, but two of those were not turnovers. We should have had the ball back, but we know we’ve got to take care of the ball.”
ODDS AND ENDS
Tennessee is 9-1 lifetime against its opening foe, going 3-1 against Southwe s tern Louisiana, 5- 0 against LouisianaLafayette and 1- 0 against Louisiana. … James on the loss of Zeigler: “We’ve missed him on both ends but definitely more on the offensive end.”