Something is going on with this Tennessee basketball team. It might be development. Composure is showing for sure.

The Vols thumped Ole Miss, 84-66, in a rough-and-tumble Tuesday night in Food City Center. It was somewhat surprising that a heavyweight fight didn’t break out. Jaylen Carey gave it some thought.

Rebel coach Chris Beard did his impersonation of Bobby Knight. Only one flagrant foul was assessed. I thought there were others. I know there were too many knockdowns.

My limited barometer reads Tennessee team maturity and fan optimism. Both are rising. The SEC winning streak is now four. There is brash talk about beating Kentucky in Lexington Saturday night.

The Vol victory over the Rebels was nowhere near as easy as the score implies. It took a brilliant second half (58 points) after an ugly first (26).

Nate Ament was the best second-half player on the floor and maybe in the world. He mostly watched the first half but scored a couple of points. He put in 26 after the rest stop – eight field goals on 10 attempts, eight of 10 free throws. He finished with six rebounds and four assists.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie hit five of 10 threes and scored 20. JP Estrella had 12 points and eight rebounds. Bishop Boswell got up each time he was knocked down, scored 10 and contributed five assists and three steals. He spoke calmly.

“We had to play our game and not be affected by the other things.”

Tennessee got a lot more rebounds, 40 to 23. Tennessee got more bruises.

Coach Beard was ejected for running onto the court in pursuit of the officials while the game was going on. He later had his say about frustrations, fouls and free-throw differential.

He didn’t mention the cause. The Rebels were charged with 27 fouls. They might have committed 50. Tennessee played tough enough and was whistled for 18.

“At some point as a coach you have to fight for your players,” said Beard. “That’s exactly what happened tonight.”

Beard did give credit where credit was due, starting with Rick Barnes.

“The story is Tennessee played really well tonight. Well-coached. The best two players showed up in a big-time way. Ament is obviously a future NBA player. I think he’s gotten better from November to December, January to February. That’s not always easy to do when you’re playing with the physicality in this league and the competition.

“The young guy plays with a lot of demeanor and poise … He’s one of the best players in our league.”

Barnes said almost nothing about Ole Miss physicality or Beard’s outburst.

“It is what it is. I mean, tonight you got a great crew of officials on the game, and, again, unbelievable respect for Chris Beard and the way – I mean, we’re very similar in a lot of things that we do. And I would imagine that, again, we told him straight up, the physicality and it’s going to be a grind.”

I’m not sure what that meant.

When asked about emotions between whistles in a physical game, the coach said:

“Well, it’s hard, but you embrace it because I think you embrace pressure, I think you embrace competition. I think you got to embrace the ups and downs, but it’s competition.

“It’s a competitive spirit that you’ve got to have, because it’s not always going to go your way. And I think the key is how do you handle it. You got to let go of the last play and get on to the next play.”

There was a hostile incident in the first half when forward Augusto Cassia ran over Ament, then added an insult by stepping over him. Barnes was asked what he thought of Carey going nose to nose with a couple of Rebels in defense of teammates.

“I don’t mind it … I know his teammates respect him for it … but I don’t want him to get technical fouls.”

Summation: Bumpy game, better team won, Vols missed 11 free throws, Felix Okpara still sidelined, potential friction left over from end of Kentucky game in Knoxville, oh my.

Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.