The Starting Five: Postseason Basketball Is Here

Duke’s Coaches Are Classless

After each week of the season that Tennessee plays at least two games, “The Starting Five” will analyze the previous week of play from the Big Orange while highlighting questions Tennessee is facing in the coming weeks in five subheadings.

Tennessee capped off its regular season with a 2-0 week, winning at Georgia for the first time in over a decade before returning home to beat Arkansas and earn its fourth top 15 win at Thompson-Boling Arena this season.

Now, on to the starting five. 

Chandler’s Free Throws Struggles Continue

Kennedy Chandler has progressed the way you would hope a five-star freshman would. The Memphis native has gotten better as the season’s gone on and has become consistent as a scorer and facilitator since the Vols loss at Texas to close the month of January.

There’s just one area that Chandler has been puzzlingly bad in. His free throw shooting.

Chandler is a 60.7% free throw shooter on the season and an even worse 55.4% in conference play. The struggles are extremely puzzling.

After a bad stretch of shooting in January and end to February, Chandler has been a strong shooter both in the midrange and three-point range. In fact, Chandler is shooting 35.6% from three-point range in SEC play. Shooting over 35% from three-point range and under 60% from the free throw line is an incredible statistical anomaly. 

Chandler’s free throw shooting has been shaky all season. The point guard went through a rough stretch before stabilizing for much of SEC play. However, Chandler has regressed at the free throw line as of late.

In the past four games, Chandler is shooting eight-of-19 (42%) from the free throw line and nine-of-17 (53%) from three-point range. Those are just mind numbing numbers. Even Chandler admits that his issues are mental ones.

“Free throws, like coach said, just mentally,” Chandler said. “This is the worst I’ve ever shot free throws. I’m really 90% free throw shooter honestly. It’s mental, it’s not like I can’t shoot free throws. Not like I can’t shoot. It’s all in my head. It’s mental. Just got to work through it and I know during March Madness and the SEC Tournament, those free throws are going to be important.”

Chandler hits the nail on the head on the importance of shooting free throws going forward. Any one-and-one or late game miss is going to be magnified. Chandler is the player Tennessee wants with the ball in his hand when they need a basket. The struggles at the line adds an extra element there.

Chandler can inbound the ball in big moments late, but it’s hard to think he won’t be shooting critical free throws at some point going forward. How he performs in that moment is very up in the air.

Vols Cap Off A Perfect Season At TBA

For the second time in four seasons, Tennessee posted a perfect record at Thompson-Boling Arena this season. The Vols went 16-0 at home with wins over No. 3 Auburn, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 6 Arizona and No. 14 Arkansas.

People nationally — or even regionally — don’t talk about Thompson-Boling Arena as one of the best environments and hardest places to play in the country, but that’s what it’s become.

Vol fans frequently packed the nation’s second largest on campus arena and made Thompson-Boling Arena an extremely difficult place to win.

In fact, over the past four seasons Tennessee’s 71-11 home record is the nation’s second best behind just Kansas and right ahead of Kentucky.

That crowd led Rick Barnes to take the mic following Tennessee’s senior day win over Arkansas and express his gratitude for the home environment.

Tennessee was elite at home this season and the home court advantage remains one of the strengths of Tennessee’s program.

The Josiah-Jordan James Tennessee Needs The Rest Of The Way

Josiah-Jordan James is Tennessee’s best scorer. He’s not Tennessee’s best player. But the junior is Tennessee’s most important player and when he plays well Tennessee likely does too.

In fact, Tennessee is 8-0 when Josiah-Jordan James scores 12 or more points this season. 

That’s exactly what Tennessee got from James this week when he scored a career-high 23 points at Georgia and 12 points in the win over Arkansas.

Elite versatility, great defense, great rebounding and good leadership and decision making is what Tennessee gets from James every single game out. It’s what makes James the most important player on this year’s team and one of the conference’s most underrated players.

When James is scoring, when he can space the floor with his three-point shooting and get into the midrange and have success — that’s when the junior becomes an elite college basketball player.

Tennessee’s most complete performances this season: North Carolina, Arizona, at South Carolina, at Mississippi State and home versus Kentucky and Auburn. James didn’t play in the UNC game. Every other game he’s scored at least eight points and has scored in double-digits in all games but the Kentucky game.

Tennessee is at its best when Josiah-Jordan James is active and scoring on the offensive end. That’s what they got the last week of the regular season, and that’s what they need going forward.

What To Make Of Tennessee’s Resume Away From Home?

We’ve talked about Tennessee being fantastic at Thompson-Boling Arena this season, but the Vols haven’t been too inspiring away from their friendly confines this season.

It should be noted that Tennessee doesn’t have any bad losses on the road, but they don’t have many strong wins either. In fact, Tennessee’s best wins away from home is a neutral site victory over North Carolina — a team that just got off the bubble — and its win at Mississippi State.

Part of those struggles on the road have to do with when Tennessee played good SEC teams on the road. The Vols lost at Alabama, LSU and Kentucky in late December to early January when the Vols were playing their worst baseball.

Once Tennessee started playing up to its capabilities, the Vols only losses were at Texas and at Arkansas. Arkansas was one of the hottest teams in the country and Bud Walton Arena is one of the hardest places to play in the SEC.

Let’s compare Tennessee’s resume away from home to teams around them in bracketology.

Texas Tech: neutral site win over Tennessee, road wins at Baylor and Texas.

Villanova: neutral site win over Tennessee, road wins at Xavier and Providence.

Purdue: neutral site wins over North Carolina and Villanova, road wins at Illinois and Iowa.

UCLA: road wins at Marquette and Colorado (where Tennessee also won).

And, finally, SEC champion and media darling Auburn: neutral site win over Loyola-Chicago, road win at Alabama.

All that information to drive this point home: Tennessee’s play away from Thompson-Boling Arena is a question mark heading into the postseason. It’s not the massive blip that people may think it is. Outside of Purdue’s strong resume, no one rated similarly to Tennessee has been significantly better away from home than the Vols.

What To Make Of SEC Tournament Draw?

Before they turn their attention to the big dance, Tennessee heads to Tampa Bay for the SEC Tournament. In the past, the SEC Tournament has been a house of horrors for the Tennessee program, but under Rick Barnes that has not been the case.

Tennessee has made it to the semifinals in three straight years and has made it to the quarterfinals all but one year in Barnes’ tenure. The Vols have made it to the SEC Championship twice but just haven’t been able to get over that hump.

Tennessee is the two-seed in Tampa and will face the winner of the South Carolina/ Mississippi State game in the quarterfinals. That’s about as favorable a Friday draw as you can get. The Vols went 3-0 against those teams this season, winning a pair of games on the road with relative ease.

The numbers back that up. According to KenPom, Tennessee and Auburn (77.4%) are tied for the most likely teams to reach the semifinals.

If the Vols get there it will likely be old friend Kentucky waiting for them in the semifinals. Tennessee is capable of beating Kentucky — as we saw a few weeks ago — but I believe the Wildcats are the best team in the SEC and a worse matchup for Tennessee than Auburn and Arkansas.

KenPom gives Tennessee a 37.1% chance to reach the SEC Tournament championship and a 20.3% chance to win the tournament for the first time since 1979. They have the third best odds of any SEC team to reach the final and to win it.

From a seeding standpoint, Tennessee seems pretty locked into a three-seed for the NCAA Tournament. An SEC Tournament title could propel the Vols to the two-line, but don’t expect the week in Tampa to have a massive effect on Tennessee’s seeding.