Vols survive a scare, four quick takes

Tennessee nearly had a significant non-conference hiccup tonight against Furman before the Vols prevailed 66-61 over the Paladins. Here are four quick takes on an escape.

1 — Bring your own energy — Due to the combination of unusual factors tonight; coming off a tough loss to UNC, no students on campus and a 9 p.m. tip-off, Rick Barnes was genuinely worried about his team being lethargic when he talked about this match-up earlier in the week.

As it turns out Barnes’ concerns were well-founded. For whatever reason Tennessee appeared to come out flat tonight and struggled to get the upper hand for much of the first half.

The Vols trailed by as much as seven at 19-12 before they finally started to perk up a little bit.

Tennessee shot just 35% in the first half and didn’t help itself any at the foul line either where they went 4-of-9 in the first half including a head-scratching 2-of-5 from Jordan Bowden, who carried the Vols with 12 points in the first half.

The Vols were able to lean on their defense though to keep Furman from getting too much confidence. The visitors shot just 31% in the first half themselves, a number that included a 5-of-17 effort from three-point range.

Had a couple more of those gone down Tennessee may not ave enjoyed the slim 29-26 edge they took into the locker room.

There are going to be nights when shots simply don’t fall, especially against better competition, so being able to survive at times with your defense is a significant skill to develop as a team.

Tennessee started to hit its stride offensively in the second half a bit more to pull away, but had they not been able to put the clamps on Furman in that first half it might have been a more difficult trick to pull off.

2 — Best thing I saw tonight — On a night like this, this isn’t hard. It was Jordan Bowden hands down. The Vols would have almost certainly trailed at halftime tonight had Bowden not shown up ready to drop in shots. He 12 points in the first half and no other Vol had more than five. Leading scorer Grant Williams, who got it going in the second half, had just two points on at the break and didn’t look as engaged as usual.

I’m consistently been pretty vocal about my thought that Bowden needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end and tonight’s events aren’t going to do anything but reinforce that thought.

Even in that first half when he was clearly the only guy in Orange with a feel for the basket he squeezed off just six shots in 14 minutes. That’s not exactly a low number, but I’d like to see a few more ‘heat checks’ from Bowden.

He came into the game shooting a ridiculous 60% from three on the year and made 3-of-7 from deep tonight.

Now, the argument for Bowden to continue to be patient on the offense end is that if he weren’t consistently taking good shots and turning down bad ones is that he wouldn’t be converting at that kind of clip if he were a little more selfish.

You know what? If I’m Rick Barnes I’m fine with that. Maybe instead of taking just four or five completely clean looks per game Bowden decides to force two or three he might normally turn down and his percentage drops to 45-47%. That’s still excellent.

I’ll also add that I’d like to see Bowden put the ball on the floor more and try to get to the basket where he’s an accomplished finisher. When you’re connecting on 60% from long-range you’re going to be seeing some hyper-aggressive close outs from the defense. One head fake and a couple of dribbles could see Bowden in the lane with regularity where he can score or get to the line.

And getting to the line with Bowden is a good proposition for the Vols. He came into the game making 89% from the stripe.

Very rarely in the game of basketball do you run across an accomplished offensive player who needs to be told to shoot more, but Bowden may be one of the exceptions.

Let’s give Grant Williams a tip of the cap here as well. The sophomore had just two points in the first half but showed up in the second half to help the Vols avoid a disastrous loss. Williams scored 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting after the break and scored the Vols’ go-ahead bucket on a called play coming out of a timeout with :54 left on the clock.

3 — Rick’s to-do list — Earlier this week Barnes listed cleaning up unforced errors and better communication on the defensive end of the floor as two areas he’d like to see his team make some major strides in before conference play begins on Dec. 30 with a road trip to Arkansas.

As noted above, the Vols’ defense was on point in the first half tonight, otherwise they likely would have been facing a halftime deficit.

That was decidedly not the case in the second half. It looked for the briefest of moments like the Vols might take control of the game when they quickly jumped out to a 40-30 lead early in the second half but the defense couldn’t hold that lead.

Furman shot 47% in the second half and with four minutes left to play that number was at 52%. As a result, the visitors led for large portions of the final 10 minutes of play. Tennessee gave up too many easy buckets in transition and got beat too often by dribble penetration out front. That’s been a problem off and on for the Vols this season, but they weren’t facing Jaylen Brunson or Joel Berry tonight.

The one saving grace for the Vols tonight was their three-point defense. Furman never stopped chucking it from long range but never found any consistency from deep and often fired up contested shots, finishing the night just 7-of-27 (26%) from behind the arc. If they were just a little more efficient this could have been a much uglier evening for the guys in Orange.

The turnover situation, or at least the least the at least the unforced errors, was a bit of a mixed bag. Tennessee committed a respectable 10 turnovers in the game but still had some straight up giveaways that led to scoring opportunities going the other way. That group included one that was nearly a killer when Admiral Schofield lost the ball in the final minute with the Vols clinging to a two point lead.

James Daniel continues to be steady at the point, dishing out four assists tonight with no turnovers.

4 — Lessons learned — If you didn’t already know it college basketball is a crazy game. Tonight was evidence of that, as were events in Chapel Hill, N.C. where North Carolina is currently losing to Wofford by three points with :17 left as I post this.

As many have noted, including Rick Barnes, this Tennessee team isn’t talented enough to take anyone for granted. When the Vols play hard and are a cohesive unit on both ends of the floor, they’re going to be hard for anyone to handle.

When they get stagnant on offense or lose the thread on the defensive end of the floor, they’re very beatable.

I’m not suggesting that Tennessee took Furman for granted, not consciously anyway. But it’s just human nature that if you’re a college basketball player, you’re probably not getting up for the Paladins in this same fashion as when North Carolina comes to town.

That’s a problem for virtually every college basketball team at some point in time over the course of a long season. The good news for Tennessee is that tonight they survived their lapse against Furman with no serious damage.

No one will remember what the score of this game was when March rolls around and tournament credentials are being analyzed to death. If the Vols end up being a bubble team every pundit in America would have remembered a loss to a Southern Conference opponent.