Points to ponder: Same team, different site, different circumstances, different foe, different look.
Tennessee’s defense was good, very good.
Tennessee’s offense was slow to find its way. There were few open shots. The Vols missed what they could get. There were no goals, no not one, for the first five minutes and 18 seconds. Fans yawned.
Tennessee was on top 30-24 at intermission because Josiah-Jordan James beat the buzzer with a 34-footer. The crowd cheered. There were more signs of life in the second half.
Alas, there were also shortcomings throughout. Tennessee missed 14 of 25 free throws. Kennedy Chandler, of all people, missed five. There were multiple misfires on the front end of one-and-ones. Several potential points vanished into thin air. This is some form of unbelievable.
Uros Plavsic returned to Earth. He went scoreless. Justin Powell played half the game and endured another shutout. He didn’t attempt a shot.
We keep thinking the offense isn’t nearly as good as the apparent sum of its parts. Magic words are execution and consistency and effort and energy.
Zakai Zeigler brought exciting effort and energy. John Fulkerson had some, too – 10 points, 5-for-8 from the field, plus seven rebounds. Best I could tell, Rick Barnes said not one unkind word.
JJJ had a rare double-double, 11 points and 12 rebounds. It was his best performance in …
Santiago Vescovi led the Vols with 14 points. Santiago Vescovi missed 10 shots of assorted varieties. He had five assists. He competes.
Tennessee worked hard for a 66-46 victory it really needed over visiting South Carolina. It put two bad games in the rear-view mirror. It is now 2-2 in SEC standings. The trip to Kentucky is next. There is a chance the Wildcats will eat the Vols alive. There is also a chance John Calipari will get out-coached.
Had this been a beauty contest, the Gamecocks would have received the throw-away ribbon for last place. They were ugly. They had 23 turnovers. They hit 34.7 from the floor. They were actually worse than the Vols at free-throwing – six of 17. As big and muscular as they are, they lost on the backboards. Tennessee had more points in the paint.
“It’s disappointing,” said coach Frank Martin. “That’s three straight games with more than 20 turnovers. It’s life on the road in the SEC.
“Very disappointing that none of the big guys stepped up. They gave us nothing. We got nothing offensively or defensively from our bigs, which was really disappointing.”
I thought Martin, a fierce competitor, said some other stuff during the game that is considered inappropriate for a family website. Maybe I misunderstood.
Tennessee had an advantage in hustle. Hustle and the Z man are synonymous. Barnes noticed Zakai Zeigler doing his thing.
“When he comes in, he brings that energy. He’s fearless. He’s not going to back down from anybody. He’s like Santi. Both are in elite shape.
“There is no doubt our team has a lot of confidence when Zakai comes in the game. They know he’s going to fight, scratch, anything he has to do to help win.”
Regarding Fulkerson, last week’s whipping boy, Barnes said: “Fulky, I thought came back and gave us, again, we just need consistency from our older players.”
I’m still working on interpretation.
Fulkerson twice sent himself to the sideline. Coaches had asked that if he was out of gas, to say so. Fulkerson did work harder when he was in the combat zone.
Closing thought: Zeigler was my player of the game. He is spotlight material. He has said he can be the best defender in the country. He’s too little for that but he doesn’t know it.
Marvin West welcomes reader comments or questions. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com