Four quick takes on a big win

Tennessee rolled into Memorial Gym Saturday desperate to end a three-game losing skid and did just that, taking care of business against Vanderbilt 87-75. Here are four quick takes on a big win.

1 — Offensive execution was sharp — This was especially true in the first half when Tennessee did an excellent job of getting the ball inside against Vandy’s zone defense. The Vols didn’t fall into the trap of settling for jumpers and they very clearly had a plan for attacking the zone with crisp interior passing.

That execution gave the Vols some point blank looks at the basket that they capitalized on in the early going. It also shrunk the zone, and when Tennessee wanted to play inside-out, they were often able to find wide open shooters behind the three-point line.

Three different Vols—Shembari Phillips, Jordan Bone and Lamonte Turner—banged in triples in the first 10 minutes of the game to give Vandy a few different shooters to worry about.

After the Vols got up 29-20 with 6:33 left in the half it looked like Bryce Drew decided he’d seen enough of the zone and the ‘Dores went man-to-man for the remainder of the first half and gave the Vols a few problems with the switch.

That didn’t last long though, Tennessee was just really good offensively all night long and Vandy didn’t have any answers.

Another huge factor in the solid offensive night was the dramatic manner in which the Vols cut down on the turnovers. That’s been a massive problem lately with 41 combined in just the last two games, but it wasn’t an issue tonight.

Tennessee shot 59% for the game and a red hot 64% in the second half. That’s just excellent from an execution standpoint, especially on the road in league play.

2 — Hangin' tough — In two of the three straight losses the Vols had endured coming into tonight Tennessee held the lead at halftime. And though the Vols trailed 27-21 at the half of the South Carolina loss, they did close that half with a 9-0 run to generate some momentum.

Simply put, they couldn’t sustain things for 40 minutes. They did that tonight in impressive fashion, and they did it by what I would call the hard way, by playing out of their minds on offense for most of the evening.

Tennessee built a 29-20 lead late in the first half but saw that whittled down to five at halftime and it absolutely felt like Vandy could get hot and make a run.

That notion got reinforced when the ‘Dores made their first three shots of the second half and eventually trimmed the lead down to four points on multiple occasions.

The Vols weren’t going to be rattled tonight and kept Vandy at arms length throughout the second half. The ‘baby Vols’ didn’t blink when Vandy pushed to climb back into contention.

Two of the biggest shots of the night came from freshman guards Lamonte Turner and Bone. The connected on back-to-back three-pointers with around six minutes left to play that threw a proverbial dagger into Vandy’s comeback chances.

It was a strong second half effort from a squad that desperately needed a win to avoid a three-game losing streak and getting buried at the bottom of the SEC standings.

3 — Jordan Bone — Tennessee got some stepped up play from several spots tonight, namely from Admiral Schofield (15 points, 7-of-11 shooting) and Grant Williams (12 points, nine boards), but Jordan Bone was THE MAN.

The Vols’ freshman point guard has been trying to find his way since returning to the line-up at the start of SEC play and tonight he looked exactly like the kind of player fans had hoped that they would see this season.

Bone drained a three-pointer on the first possession of the night and really never slowed down. He finished with a career high 23 points, was a sizzling 8-of-12 from the floor, 4-of-5 from three-point range and handed out five assists with only one turnover while playing 31 minutes.

Rick Barnes has not been shy about saying the Vols simply had to get better point guard play. Tonight Bone answered the bell in a very big way.

4 — DEEE—FENSE — Where was it? It certainly wasn’t there early and it didn’t get a lot better late. At the risk of nitpicking, Tennessee was a little fortunate to pick up a win given how spotty they were for much of the night on defense.

During their three game losing streak Tennessee has allowed each opponent to shoot at least 50% from the floor in one half of basketball. Make that four straight now after Vandy did it for the entire game, shooting 52% on the night. That’s a tough way to win basketball games, especially on the road, but the Vols got away with it tonight.

The old adage maintains that defense travels, meaning that offense is often spotty in a tough road environment, but defense on the other hand is something you can control as it’s so much about effort.

Tennessee was just plain bad for much of the night on the defensive end of the floor, though I’ll give the Vols props for doing a good job of chasing Vandy off the three-point line.

The Commodores are the most prolific (409 attempts coming in) and efficient three-point shooting team in the SEC (39.4%) but Tennessee largely kept them bottled up from outside tonight.

Vandy was a solid 6-of-14 from downtown, but the Vols didn’t let them get on a roll from long range. At the half Vandy was just 1-of-3 from deep.

Fortunately, the Vols faced a Vandy team that’s borderline pitiful on defense and they took it to them all night long.