Big rally vs. ’Bama gives Vols renewed confidence

For a kid born in 1998, Grant Williams is up to date on his Tennessee basketball history, especially when it comes to the SEC Tournament.

“We haven’t won a tournament since 1979,” Williams said after Tennessee closed its regular season with a rally to beat Alabama 59-54 on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena. “It’d be sweet if we got it this year.”

Williams knows the date because he sees it high above his head every time he’s inside Tennessee’s 21,678seat arena.

“The banners up in the top,” Williams said, “I look at them every day. I want to put some more up there. We can’t do that if we let 1979 stay around.”

And there’s more to the history lesson than just 1979.

“I think it’s 2008 since we’ve won the SEC regular season (title),” Williams said. “You look at those, you look at everything up there.

“You want to add on to it for this university, do whatever you can to do it.”

After Saturday, the Vols (16-15, 810 SEC) suddenly feel like they can do a lot more.

Tennessee trailed Alabama 40-24 with 18:37 left, looking like it was on its way to extending its losing skid, which had reached six defeats over its last eight games entering senior day.

Instead, the Vols outscored the Crimson Tide 35-14 over those final 18 minutes, erasing the 16-point lead while giving up only 18 points in the second half.

Tennessee trailed 36-22 at halftime, after Alabama hit 7 of 9 shots from the 3-point line.

“It raises our confidence,” sophomore forward Admiral Schofield said of the comeback. “But our mindset needs to be defense, defense, defense, rebound, rebound, rebound.

“And taking the shots that we know we can make on offense. That’s what makes us good, when we just play together, believe in each other and be aggressive.”

Coach Rick Barnes credited Tennessee’s defense in the second half as one of the biggest reasons his team made the improbable comeback happen.

Alabama shot 25 percent (6 of 24) from the field in the second half, after making 56.5 percent (13 of 23) before halftime. The Tide went 1for-12 from the 3-point line in the second half, after the 7-for-9 first half.

There was better effort on the boards, too.

Tennessee ended the game with a 40-32 rebounding advantage. That advantage was just one at halftime, 19-18.

“All we have to do is win,” Williams said. “That’s the only thing we’re concerned with. Take each game as if it’s our last, which you never know, it may be. We’re going to play hard.

“We’re doing it for (Robert) Hubbs and Lew (Evans) and we’re going to try and go as far as we can.”

Tennessee faces an uncertain future beyond 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, when the ninth-seeded Vols face No. 8 seed Georgia to start the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

The winner gets top-seeded Kentucky at 1 p.m. on Friday.

“We have a couple more games left that we can keep doing it for,” Williams said. “You never know how long we can keep this season going.”

These Vols feel like they can keep it going longer after Saturday’s rally to stun Alabama.

Had Tennessee rolled over and quit, getting thumped at home to make it seven losses over the regular season’s final nine games, the vibe would have been much different to start the postseason.

“If we had lost, I don’t know,” Hubbs said. “There would probably have been a lack of confidence going to Nashville, not sure what we’re going to get out of everybody.”

The Vols don’t have to worry about that hypothetical, though. Not after Saturday.

“I think now, we’re back on that right stage,” Hubbs said. “We have to go to Nashville with extreme confidence and know we’re going to win.”