Nate Oats Addresses “Leadership Void” Heading into LSU
Tennessee used a blistering red-hot shooting start to open up a 20-point lead over Arkansas Saturday afternoon. The Vols’ nearly blew it all with a second half collapse before surviving to earn a, 78-74, victory.
Here’s three quick takeaways.
Tennessee Comes Out Blazing From Perimeter
Tennessee’s offense has frequently looked completely different at Thompson-Boling Arena than it has away from its friendly confines this season. That run continued Saturday when Tennessee tallied 78 points with phenomenal perimeter shooting.
The Vols came out the gates firing, making seven of their first eight three-pointers while scoring 30 points in less than 11 minutes.
Tennessee stayed blazing hot from the perimeter the whole first half, making nine-of-12 triples in the first half. Ironically, Tennessee shot a higher percentage from the three-point line (75%) than they did the free throw line (72%) and on layups (29%) in the first half.
The Vols averaged just 6.6 made three-pointers a game a season ago. That shows just how crazy Tennessee’s first half three-point shooting success was.
After scoring 48 points in its loss at Arkansas two weeks ago, the Vols tallied 50 first half points.
Kennedy Chandler made four first half attempts from deep, Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi made two and Josiah-Jordan James made one.
Arkansas Makes Pair Of Runs, Vols Limp To Finish
They say all good teams make runs in games they are trailing in and it didn’t take Arkansas long to do so in the second half.
The Razorbacks opened the second half on a 14-2 run, cutting Tennessee’s lead to 11 points with over 14 minutes left in the game. Arkansas’ run was created by strong defense and elite offensive rebounding.
Coming out of the locker room, Arkansas decided to make Tennessee’s big men beat them. The Razorbacks doubled Tennessee’s guards off of ball screens and while the Vols’ backcourt made the right plays and got the ball to the open big, UT didn’t capitalize.
The Vols’ defense didn’t seriously slouch on the other end of the court, but the Razorbacks began to take over the offensive glass. In the first three minutes of the second half, Arkansas grabbed three offensive rebounds and killed Tennessee with second chance points.
The Razorbacks’ physicality also led to Tennessee picking up quick fouls. Arkansas was in the bonus by the end of the run while Arkansas was called for just one foul during the stretch.
As was the case for much of the game, Tennessee shot itself out of the cold stretch. Josiah-Jordan James nailed a midrange jumper, grabbed a defensive board on the other end before Kennedy Chandler made his fifth triple of the game.
A possession later, James nailed a triple to push the Vols’ lead back to 16 points.
The Razorbacks kept coming, however, using an 8-0 run to get back into the game and eventually cut Tennessee’s lead to three points with 15 seconds to go. The cause of the run was the exact same as the first. The Vols got stagnant offensive against Arkansas’ gimmick defense and the Razorbacks dominated the offensive glass, drilling back-to-back threes off of offensive rebounds.
Tennessee was able to pull it out, but for the second straight Saturday the Vols failed to put away a quality opponent they had a lofty lead on.
Tennessee Stays Perfect At Thompson-Boling Arena
In comparison to their perspective sports, Thompson-Boling Arena is a bigger than Neyland Stadium.
Not many people think of TBA as a basketball palace the way they think go Neyland Stadium as a football cathedral, but the results can’t be denied.
For the second time in four seasons, Tennessee posted a perfect record at its friendly confines this season. The Vols’ 16-0 home record is a major reason for their successful season and they’ll take a 16-game home win streak into the start of the 2022-23.
Following last week’s Auburn game it was Santiago Vescovi imploring Tennessee fans to bring the same energy again the next week against Arkansas. John Fulkerson closed his senior day message asking the fans to feed the floor from start -to-finish,
They did just that, even when Tennessee began to crumble in the second half.
Postgame, it was Rick Barnes who took the mic — something he has not done in my four years in Knoxville.
“Thank you for being the best fans in all of college basketball,” Barnes said.
The seventh-year head coach proceeded to lead a packed Thompson-Boling Arena in a “great to be a Tennessee Vol chant”
It’s certainly been great to be a Tennessee Vol at Thompson-Boling Arena this season.
