Four quick takes on a gritty effort
Tennessee got off to an awful start today in its opening game of the Maui Invitational against Wisconsin, but instead of laying down and taking a blowout, the young Vols fought back and showed some resiliency in the second half. Here are four quick takes on an afternoon that could have been much uglier than it was.
1 — Terrible start, but they regrouped— The writing looked like it was on the wall early in this one and it appeared to spell an ugly blowout. Wisconsin jumped out to a 12-0 lead before the Vols really even had a chance to settle in. The Badgers started off on a scorching pace, making 10-of-12 from the floor to start the game while the Vols were just 2-of-12 themselves. The first half lead would crest at 17 points, but give the Vols credit, they didn’t lay down and die.
Tennessee would play much better as the game wore on and Wisconsin would cool off some. Rick Barnes’ move to a zone defense midway through the first half seemed to slow Wisconsin down some and the Vols made 5-of-12 three-pointers in the first half to get within striking distance at 40-32 at the half.
The Vols then scored the first 10 points of the second half to improbably take a 42-40 lead over a shellshocked Wisconsin squad. The Badgers would take control in the final 10 minutes, but Tennessee showed some real fight.
2 — Speaking of experience — This looked like a tough match-up for Tennessee on a number of levels, but the most obvious was how the Vols’ young roster would fare against a Wisconsin team that brought back a ton of experience. Not only do the Badgers have an abundance of veterans, all those guys are playing in a system that they’ve spent their entire college careers in and are abundantly familiar with.
That’s simply not the case for Tennessee. In the first half alone Barnes played six total newcomers to the program and this system—on either end of the floor—just isn’t second nature yet. That matters, especially early in the season against quality competition.
That showed up today on the defensive end, especially early, where the Badgers got tons of good looks, many right at the basket, on their way to shooting 59% (16-of-27) in the first 20 minutes of play.
Give Tennessee big props for fighting their way back into the game with a run that extended into the second half and eventually led to them taking a 42-40 lead. Just a great show of tenacity from a young squad that looked beat down early on.
That lack of experience was probably also a factor in the second half though, when Wisconsin changed things up and went to a zone themselves. Tennessee had big-time problems getting quality looks against that zone, too often being forced to settle for long three-pointers near the end of the shot clock.
Point guard play was an issue. Jordan Bone appeared limited in the game, nursing a slight foot injury that held him to just seven minutes off the bench and this was a big challenge for Kwe Parker, who made his college debut and played six minutes.
All-in-all, the Vols had just 10 assists on 25 made shots highlighting how much the offense had to rely on 1-on-1 play to get buckets. Tennessee just didn’t get anything easy on offense that wasn’t a direct result of a Wisconsin turnover.
3 — Defense/Rebounding — The Vols pieced together an impressive comeback today but fell short in the end, primarily because of two concerns that probably aren’t going to go away anytime soon. Prior to the season Barnes had identified defense and rebounding as his two biggest concerns. Not surprisingly, three games into the year that remains the case.
Today, even as they struggled for a long stretch of the second half, Wisconsin still managed to shoot 56% from the field for the game. Rebounding was also a huge factor in the win. The Badgers owned the glass 36-25.
The fact that Tennessee just can’t dump it into the post and hope to get a positive outcome from either an easy bucket or a foul was highlighted today. The Vols did get 32 points in the paint, but that was mostly all a result of aggressive drives into the paint, or easy transition buckets as a result of Wisconsin turnovers.
Shembari Phillips was a primary example of that He had a very solid afternoon on offense, repeatedly finding ways to get into the paint on his way to a team high 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
Tennessee’s shortcomings in the post also showed up in the free throw number. The Vols took advantage of their limited chances, going 6-for-6 at the stripe, but Wisconsin was 13-of-19, a big factor in the outcome.
4 — Big time resiliency — Given how awful the start was, it wouldn’t have been a complete surprise to see Tennessee just roll over and die and think about hitting the beach later that afternoon. That wasn't the case.
The biggest positive coming out of this one, by far, was the heart the young Vols showed in battling back from a huge first hole.
Facing a 17-point deficit that looked like it could have easily ballooned to 20+ before the half, Tennessee dug in and crawled back to within striking distance at 40-32 at the half.
Starting at the end of the first half, Tennessee rattled off a run that not only erased that huge deficit, but they took their first lead of the game at 42-40 with a 10-0 spurt to begin the second half.
Tennessee fueled that comeback with defense, forcing turnovers and quickly turning those into points on the other end.
The turnover battle may have been the most impressive aspect of the day for the young Vols. Tennessee forced Wisconsin into 18 turnovers while committing a respectable 10 themselves. Given the point guard issues, that’s something that Barnes has to be happy about.
This should be a powerful lesson for Barnes’ young team going forward. They should have proven to themselves that they can play with quality opponents. It should also teach them that they can’t afford to stumble out of the gates against anyone like they did today and then spend the rest of the game trying to battle back and overcome an ugly start.