Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes is in his 37th season as a college basketball head coach. He’s coached 27 NCAA Tournament teams, four regular season conference championship team and one Final Four team.
Missouri coach Dennis Gates thinks the 2023-24 Tennessee basketball team may be better than any of them.
“What a great, great team we played tonight,” Gates said after Tennessee knocked off the Tigers 72-67 on Wednesday night. “Unbelievable team. I think Rick Barnes’ best team he’s ever had. They’re well balanced. They have everything you need that’s characteristic of a National Championship team.”
The Vols are well balanced this season with the offseason growth of junior point guard Zakai Zeigler and junior power forward Jonas Aidoo as well as the addition of star wing Dalton Knecht in the transfer portal.
That diversity of ways Tennessee can play and beat you is why Gates believes the Vols can play on the first Monday night in April.
“They have inside play, they have depth, they have shooting, they have a potential National Player of the Year,” Gates said. “Great point guard. Assist to turnover ratio and they have veterans. So when you look at their program, look at where they are compared to last year— they’re healthy. I think Zakai Zeigler, his injury last year impacted their progress in the tournament but they’re healthy now and they’re doing a great job.”
Knecht’s scoring prowess was on display in the Vols’ come from behind win at Missouri. The Northern Colorado transfer struggled as badly as he has all season through the game’s first 25 minutes. He missed his first eight shots and turned the ball over four times in that stretch.
More From RTI: Tennessee Big Men Come Through In Win Over Missouri
But when Knecht got a contested baseline jumper to go, it sparked everything. The super senior made six of his final eight shot attempts and scored 15 second half points as the Vols took control of the game.
“He’s (the) SEC Player of the Year, at least he has my vote. That’s what he is,” Gates said of Knecht. “I thought we did a great job of taking them out of sets but when you have a guy that can score at all three levels, which is what he did, and an explosion that he is able to do that with the strength and the balance he was able to do that with.”
But it wasn’t just Tennessee’s star that showed up in Columbia but also the Vols’ depth. Veterans Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James struggled badly while Zakai Zeigler played poorly in the first half before finding his rhythm in the second half.
That’s where Tennessee basketball’s depth showed up. Sophomore power forward Tobe Awaka entered the game averaging just 5.1 points and 4.2 rebounds in 12.4 minutes per game in SEC play. But Awaka was the Vols’ best player at Missouri, he totaled a career-high 18 points on six-of-eight shooting from the field to go along with 10 rebounds.
“He was the spark,” Gates said of Awaka. “I think he had eight points at that point but he also had five rebounds. He was just picking up different loose balls around the area, dump offs, dunks. He didn’t do anything outside the lane but he did do things inside of it. And Jonas did the same thing. They got some easy baskets.”
Tennessee largely played poorly against the struggling Tigers on Tuesday night, but they found a way to avoid disaster on the road. It showed the Vols’ improvement and greater ability to respond this season.
