Rick Barnes has learned a lot of tournament lessons the hard way.
The coach is believable when he warns his Volunteers that letdowns at the wrong time can turn into “You sure had a good regular season.”
Barnes speaks with absolute authority when the subject is one and done.
“You always have to understand what goes into winning and what goes into losing.”
Tennessee was two points up on Mississippi State at halftime of their quarterfinal game in the Southeastern Conference tournament in beautiful Tampa. Some of the stuff that happened on the floor wasn’t as cheerful as the weather.
Kennedy Chandler suffered a sprained ankle and had to be helped to the dressing room. Tennessee gained and gave back a 12-point lead. As Barnes saw it, that was throwing the Bulldogs a lifeline. Josiah-Jordan James and Jonas Aidoo were the only Vols in foul trouble.
The defense was good or great but the offense lost its crispness. There were bright spots. Chandler recovered somewhat and had nine points and five assists.
Not incidentally, Chandler went down in pain two more times and looked a lot like “doubtful” for the semifinals against Kentucky.
Something wonderful transpired at intermission. James opened the second half with four three-pointers.
“The rim really looked big,” said James.
Zakai Zeigler said “When he gets like that, all I’m thinking is ‘Get Josiah the ball.’”
That was the ball game. Mississippi State made just three of its first 16 shots to start the second half. Tennessee won, 72-59.
JJJ led with 16 points on six-of-11 shooting. He contributed five rebounds and four assists. Five other Vols provided balanced scoring – Zeigler and Chandler 11 each, Santiago Vescovi and Brandon-Huntley Hatfield 10 each and John Fulkerson eight plus six rebounds.
The Vols hit 50 percent. They scored 32 points in the paint.
Here’s the best part: They had 21 assists, a career-high eight by Zeigler, and lost only six turnovers. Most of those were by inside people and not guards.
“We do a good job on assists when we don’t dribble the air out of the ball,” said Barnes.
Fulkerson provided more insightful analysis.
“We continued to move. We did what we practice. We wore them down.”
That was a salute to team depth, four guards and four big Vols.
Fulky was careful to repeat some of what he has been told.
“We’ve got to be ready for three games in three days but still focus on one game at a time.”
Second-half defense was impressive. The Bulldogs hit six of 25 and never threatened after the outburst from James. Fulkerson had a good view of that, too. He was more of an influence than in some games.
“We pride ourselves on our helpside defense.”
Hatfield was a factor. Barnes noticed.
“When he gets locked in on the defensive end and rebounds the ball and brings his physicality, he really helps us.”
Saturday show: Tennessee versus Kentucky will be round 3 between the heavyweights. The Wildcats won in a romp in Lexington, 107-79 (most points they’ve ever scored against the Vols). Tennessee got some measure of revenge in Knoxville, 76-63.
Arkansas plays surprising Texas A&M in the opener.
Marvin West welcomes reader comments or questions. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com