Vols look to shore up rebounding issues ahead of Texas A&M clash

It's not often Tennessee is outdone on the boards.

LSU found success there Wednesday, out-rebounding the Vols by a significant margin, which nearly allowed the Tigers to erase a 23-point second half deficit before Tennessee pulled away down the stretch to win by 20.

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Vols' forward Jonas Aidoo, who was coming off of his sixth double-double of the season at Kentucky four days before, totaled five rebounds while guard Dalton Knecht had seven.

LSU did much of its damage on the offensive end with 18 rebounds, which resulted in 20 second chance points with guard Trae Hannibal recording a game-high 11.

"I thought it was a couple of things (that went wrong on the glass vs. LSU)," Tennessee associated head coach Justin Gainey said. "One, it was some weird misses. A couple of air balls, a couple of front rims that came off really fast. But for the most part it was long shots, which equaled long rebounds and I thought (LSU) did a good job of not necessarily going to get the ball, but smacking it out when we were trying to catch it. I thought it was unique in the sense of (Trae) Hannibal, as a point guard, crashed the glass really hard.

Most of the time, the point guard gets back, so you don't really have to account for him. In this instance, he was crashing hard...A combination of those things I think played into it."

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If the Vols' pride is a little wounded, they've got the perfect opportunity to get it back against Texas A&M.

The Aggies, who Tennessee will meet in the first of back-to-back road games on Saturday in College Station (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), feature the top rebounder in the SEC in 6-foot-7 forward Andersson Garcia.

Garcia is averaging 8.9 boards per game and pacing a Texas A&M team that averages the second most rebounds in the league at 43.3, which is four more rebounds than Tennessee is averaging (39.0).

"I didn't think we were great driving guys back (against LSU)," Gainey said. "I thought the initial hit, the initial block-out was good, but as far as finishing the job by driving them out, I didn't think we did a great job on that and that's something that we've got to clean up moving forward, especially against Texas A&M, who is one of the best, if not the best rebounding team in the country."

Texas A&M could challenge Tennessee on the perimeter, too.

Aggies' guard Wade Taylor IV, who has been in the SEC Player of the Year discussion, is third in the conference in scoring with 19.7 points and has scored 18 or more points in seven of eight SEC games, including a 41-point outing vs. Arkansas last month.

Taylor can cause fits elsewhere, particularly on defense where he is averaging 2.3 steals, which trails only Kentucky's Reed Sheppard among league defenders.

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"The (Texas A&M) rebounding is real," Gainey said. "And then, they have two guards who are as good as any backcourt in the country with Wade (Taylor) and (Tyrece) Radford. They're playing really well right now. So, being able to slow them down, I mean guys like that, who are volume to the level that they are, is really hard to stop. They're high-level guys. Just doing a good job there is going to be big."

Limiting second chance opportunities and creating extra possessions will be paramount for Tennessee, especially on the road where it lost 68-63 in its last visit to Reed Arena a year ago.

Texas A&M has played in a plethora of close games this season, dropping games to Arkansas and Ole Miss by a combined four points while beating Kentucky in overtime and Florida by one in the final seconds in its last game.

“The challenge is that if it’s close down the stretch, you know you’re in for a dog fight. And it is going to be a tough game anyway," Gainey said. "I mean, the environment is great. Coach (Buzz) Williams is a great coach. They have great players, they’ve been together. So it is going to be a tough one, but you I think being in that many tough game shows you the mental toughness of their group and the togetherness of their group. And so it is going to be a great matchup and something that we’re going to have to be able to match or surpass their mental toughness and physical toughness for the duration of the game.

And knowing coming down that stretch that they have been in those battles, but we have too and we’re confident in ourselves and what we do that, you know, we can match that.”

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