Tennessee's defense a work in progress

The Vols set a program record for made three’s in a single game as they shot 17-for-40 (43%) from behind the 3-point line. Freshman point guard Kennedy Chandler and junior guard Santiago Vescovi each had a game-high 20 points.

It wasn’t as smooth defensively for Rick Barnes’ bunch, however. The Vols did hold UT-Martin to 35.5% shooting in the second half, but only after it shot 55.5% in the opening frame.

“You’ve got to give them credit for making their shots,” Barnes said after the win. “But they clearly had a plan to spread us out and drive the basketball. We had a plan that we wanted to defend the 3-point line. And whenever we say that, we still want to help each other in those gaps. We weren’t doing that. We were overzealous trying to guard the 3-point line.”

“We’re going to run, try to get out and push the tempo. We want to get in a high-possession game. But we’re going to play against teams that are going to try to slow us down that way, by maybe taking a longer time on the offensive end. When we’re playing defense the way we should, we should be really forcing them into long possessions on our defensive end. Got to give them credit. We knew they would be energized coming in, like anybody this time of year, your first game of the year.”

There were positive signs defensively to takeaway despite Tennessee’s first night jitters. The Vols had 12 steals and forced 21 turnovers on the night.

But UT struggled to defend the rim specifically. Tennessee-Martin out-scored Tennessee in the paint 34-24. Part of that was due to the absence of John Fulkerson, part of it had to do with UT struggling with its on-ball defense.

“Until we develop a rim protector, we have to rely on our gaps, the discipline,” Barnes said. “You have to have discipline on the white line and being there to help. If we can stay in front of the ball, it solves a lot of problems. We did do a better job in the second half. When we did break down it was because of just letting them get a step away from us on the other side, we call it separation. Then trying to play catch up all the time.

“There is nothing that they did that we can’t fix if we have the mind set to fix it.”

Tennessee’s defense is in a phase of transition after Yves Pons graduated and moved on to the NBA. Pons was one of the greatest defenders to ever come through the program and leaves a huge void to be filled.

“We have to think about the defensive tools that we have and what we have right now is we have good size, we have good speed, we have strong guards, we have fast guards, we have bigs that are capable of doing what Yves (Pons) does in different ways and making up for that,” junior forward Olivier Nkamhoua said. “We just have to focus on what we have and not what we lost. I’m happy for Yves, Yves is doing big things right now, so I think we need to not worry about Yves and we need to figure ourselves out.”

Tennessee welcomes East Tennessee State and former Vol assistant Desmond Oliver to Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday for a noon tip.

The date with ETSU will serve as an important one, as with the likes of No. 4 Villanova, No. 7 Purdue, No. 12 Memphis and No. 19 North Carolina awaiting on the schedule, Tennessee needs to grow on the defensive side of the ball rather quickly.

“In order for us to reach our best level of defense we all have to buy in,” Nkamhoua said. “It’s really about just buying in and wanting to do it and understanding that’s what it’s going to take for us to win. Offense is going to roll, shots are going to fall, good days and bad days but defense is something you can do every night.”

“It was a good opener for us because it exposed that we have to get better,” Barnes added. “But this time of year, we know we have to get better.”