Tennessee got into the win column with a 103-94 victory over Appalachian State. The Vols showed improvement in several key areas from the opening loss to Chattanooga. Here are four exceedingly quick takes on what we just saw.
1 — Hit some 3’s — Tennessee was absolutely brutal from three-point range in the opener, making just 1-of-16 attempts in a loss to Chattanooga. The Vols bar to be better was set pretty low and the Vols cleared it easily. Tennessee started the game 3-of-4 from long range, staking themselves to a quick 18-11 lead in the first seven minutes of play. That put Appalachian State in a hole they had a hard time digging out of.
Jordan Bowden’s second three of the first half, staked Tennessee to a 30-11 with 8:22 still left in the first half and the rout was on. Bowden would add another shortly thereafter as the Vols started 5-of-8 from long range and made 6-of-12 in the first half.
Tennessee would eventually cool off from long range, finishing 8-of-19, but they were light years better than in the opener. Make no mistake, Appalachian State is a bad basketball team, but with such a guard oriented team, the Vols are absolutely going to have to make from behind the arc so tonight’s uptick in that department was a clear positive.
2 — Force some TO’s while you take care of the ball yourself — Tennessee still had more turnover issues than Rick Barnes would care for, committing eight in the first half alone but cleared that up after the break to finish with 12 for the game, so let’s not consider that problem solved. However, they were clearly better, though the competition may have had something to do with that. Any way you slice it though, going from 18 turnovers in the opener to 12 tonight was an improvement.
On the other end the Vols flustered Appalachian State all night long defensively. Tennessee forced 15 turnovers in the first half alone and turned those into 22 points. That’s a huge number for one half of play and a key reason Tennessee was able to build a first half lead that crested at 26 points before taking a 50-38 lead into the half. Like the Vols, Appalachian State tightened things up in the second half, committing only three turnovers in the second half.
The Vols were better overall defensively on the night, at least until late in the game when things got interesting. They were certainly better in regards to dribble penetration. This wasn’t the same kind of challenge that Chattanooga presented as far as guards go, but Tennessee was clearly better at this task tonight.
3 — Make some plays — Going hand in hand with limiting turnovers, the Vols had to show some improvement in creating chances for each other after they finished the Chattanooga game with a mere four assists. Tennessee equaled that number in the first 10 minutes of play tonight.
Tennessee was just much more fluid on offense, didn’t go as deep in the shot clock and simply did a much better job of creating chances and then knocking down open shots. As Rick Barnes likes to say, they played with some ‘flow’ tonight.
The Vols finished with 26 assists on the night and Jordan Bone’s play was a huge reason why. He didn’t ring up the scoreboard like he did with 21 points in the opener, but he also finished with just one assist in that game. Tonight he had eight and it’s probably a safe bet that Barnes would trade the reduced scoring for the vastly improved manner in which Bone ran the team and the offense.
Of all the freshman playing a role on this team—and there are five so far and will be six when Kwe Parker gets healthy—Bone is carrying by far the heaviest burden given the nature of his position. Seeing the improvement he made from game one to game two should be interpreted as a very positive sign going forward.
4 — Grow up youngsters — With seven freshman on the roster, and six likely to have regular roles, it goes without saying that Tennessee is going to need the young guys to grow up quickly and contribute regularly.
You don’t want to read too much into this one, because Appalachian State is not a very talented basketball team, but each of the Vols’ freshmen looked markedly more comfortable tonight than the first time out.
We mentioned Bone’s assists totals, but in addition to him three of his classmates were far more productive tonight. Jordan Bowden got his first start tonight and made the most of it, at least offensively, connecting on 4-of-8 from three point range to finish with 14 points.
Grant Williams appears to be in the process of usurping Admiral Schofield and scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. He’ll need to improve on the one rebound he grabbed in 21 minutes of work. Lamonte Turner was vastly improved over his opening night performance, scoring 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting. He was 6-of-6 at the free throw line and handed out five assists while doing some quality work at the point in relief of Bone.
He’s not a freshman, but let’s give Kyle Alexander a shout out. The sophomore big man showed some signs of development tonight, finishing with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, led the Vols with seven boards and blocked a pair of shots. He’s still a work in progress, but signs are there that he could turn into something down the road.
