Tale of two halves, four quick takes

Tennessee opened tonight’s game against Lipscomb in horrible fashion on the defensive end of the floor and trailed by nine at halftime. The Vols turned the tables in the second half though on the way to a 92-77 win. Here are four quick takeaways.

1 — Defense anyone? Ok, there it is — Tennessee ended the game against Tennessee Tech on Tuesday by allowing the Golden Eagles to shoot 50% in a second half that the visitors largely dominated. Unfortunately for the Vols, they were even worse in the first half tonight. Much worse.

Lipscomb absolutely shot the eyes out in the first half, starting the game by making 9-of-12 from three point range on the way to building a 41-27 lead.

Tennessee—and anyone paying attention to the opponent—knew they’d have to defend the three-point line. Lipscomb was averaging 28 three point attempts per game coming into the contest, so it’s safe to say that was a large part of the Vols’ scouting report.

All told in the first half Lipscomb shot 62% from the field and 61% from three-point range.

It was a completely different story after the break. Whatever Barnes said at halftime must have hit home with his troops. Lipscomb shot just 25% in the second half and was just 1-of-10 from three-point range after making 11 bombs in the first half.

It was a remarkable turnaround on the defensive end of the floor to say the least.

2 — Ugh…that start…but they bounced back — This topic is a bit of a dead horse that I’ve given a thorough beating to, but my goodness, you can’t ignore it tonight. Tennessee was fine on offense to start the game, better than fine actually, but as noted above, the defense was probably as bad as you’ll see all season long from a college basketball team in a major conference.

This team has shown a propensity to play better in one half than the other all season and they pulled the trick again tonight.

Tennessee opened the second half on a 7-0 run, quickly took the lead back from Lipscomb and then midway through the half hit them with a 17-0 run that effectively ended the competitive portion of the evening.

The Vols stayed hot on offense, making 53.8% from the floor, which combined with their night and day improvement on defense, finally put Lipscomb in a hole they couldn’t dig out of.

Tennessee outscored Lipscomb 43-19 in the second half.

It was an impressive turnaround to be sure but it’s one that Rick Barnes probably didn’t enjoy very much.

3 — Look at you Grant Williams! (and Hubbs) — At the rate Tennessee was giving up points in the first half they desperately needed an offensive spark of their own. Williams gave it to them in a big way. The freshman scored 16 points in the first half on 5-of-6 shooting and finished the game with a career high 30 points. In doing so he became the fourth freshman to go for 20+ this year, unofficially a school record based on our research.

That’s the first time a freshman has gone for 30 since Chris Lofton pulled the trick, so it’s been a bit. He was brutally efficient, finishing 10-of-12 from the field. He also worked himself to the free throw line 13 times where he converted 10 attempts.

Williams’ performance was even bigger in light of the fact that fellow freshman John Fulkerson suffered what looked like a serious elbow injury early in the first half, Admiral Schofield didn’t play because of an ankle injury and Kyle Alexander played just seven minutes, presumably because Barnes wasn’t happy with what he got from the sophomore.

Suffice it to say Williams’ contributions were much needed.

Robert Hubbs also kept the good times rolling with his first career double-double, going for 23 points and 10 rebounds. It’s the third straight game that Hubbs has topped 20 points, and another indication that he’s putting things together in terms of what’s been some elusive consistency in his career.

4 — Just consistently inconsistent — This is another subject that we’ve touched on more than once this season, but it’s hard to avoid it when you see what’s transpired not just tonight, but this week.

Four days ago this Tennessee team spent the first half just taking North Carolina out behind the woodshed, building a lead that hit 15 points at one time while shooting 65%, on the road, against the No. 7 team in the nation. We all know how that one turned out, but it was a strong showing by any measurement.

Then on Tuesday the Vols built a 22 point lead against Tennessee Tech before turning the ball over 13 times in the second half while letting the Golden Eagles shoot 50% in the second half and cut the deficit all the way down to four.

Tonight’s first half effort on defense may have been the most head scratching element of the season to date. Lipscomb is a veteran team that knows how it wants to play, but it’s beyond pale to let a (low) mid-major come into your gym and slice you up on defense like the Bison did tonight.

You can’t really say that the Vols weren’t ready to play, because they were pretty fantastic themselves on the offense end to start the game, shooting 55% while scoring 49 first half points of their own.

It just seemed like a lack of focus and intensity on the defensive end, or a total disregard for the scouting report. You can expect some of that with a young team for sure, but what you can’t expect is to play like that for 20 minutes on many nights and still come away with a win.

Credit the Vols and the coaching staff for turning things around at the half but it’s a trend they need to break out of before conference play commences in two weeks.

The Vols have had the kind of lapses that can drive a head coach crazy, but that’s part of relying so much on freshmen to not just play, but to play huge roles for you. Those freshmen are making some obvious strides, but they’re still freshmen and will likely have some more growing pains along the way.