When Tennessee basketball fell to South Carolina in Knoxville back in late January, the Vols’ SEC Championship hopes were teetering. Tennessee was 5-2 in conference play and were staring down a potential 5-3 start with a challenging to road trip to Kentucky looming.
Then the Vols won in Rupp Arena, beginning a run of nine wins in 10 games including three ranked wins on the road as Tennessee clinched the regular season SEC Championship outright. Every player in Tennessee’s consistent eight-man rotation had its moment in the 10-game stretch.
“It’s been a complete team, program championship because there’s so many people that are involved with it that no one knows about,” Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes said on Wednesday night. “That has a lot to do with our guys being able to get on the court and do what they do.”
While it was the 2023-24 Tennessee basketball team that won this championship, it felt like a career achievement championship for super seniors Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James. They were freshman playing major minutes in a transition year that was a year with “the most adversity that we had since we started at Tennessee” for the Vols’ program.
The two were critical in the Vols’ 2022 SEC Tournament Championship and made it to the Sweet 16 a season ago. They added the third outright regular season championship in program history to their resume.
“There was times they probably hated me,” Barnes said about the duo postgame. “We’ve been together five years. They mean a lot to me and I’m gonna miss them because they make me look good at times when they know I’m frustrated with some things and they have a way of saying coach we got it. Because they know me better than anybody.”
Vescovi and James combined to shoot zero-of-five from the field against South Carolina but played great defense, grabbed 11 rebounds and combined to shoot eight-of-eight at the foul line. The duo hit big free throws late to ice the game. James hit the final two to clinch the SEC Championship in his home state with 50-plus friends and family in attendance.
Tennessee can win big games with the super senior duo taking five shots from the field for a handful of reasons but chief amongst them is super senior transfer Dalton Knecht. The future SEC Player of the Year wasn’t at his most efficient, shooting just 39% from the field but he scored a game-high 26 points.
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His 9-0 run late in the first half gave Tennessee the separation they’d been looking for and his four-point play and tough midrange jumper kept South Carolina at bay down the stretch.
“He one thing about Dalton, he’s not afraid. He’s not,” Barnes said. “He’s got a real short memory and he’s very confident.”
People asked Barnes before the season about if adding a senior Knecht would disrupt the chemistry of this team. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“They embraced him from the time that he came on campus and it’s been documented about he and (Jahmai Mashack) going at it,” Barnes said. “And they told me long before we started gearing it up for the year, what (Knecht) could do and you could tell their excitement.”
“They told me since day one to just play like me and just, they’re gonna embrace me,” Knecht said of James and Vescovi. “If I had a … contested jump shot, I shot it no matter what. They’ve just always been super helpful and stuff on and off the court. They’ve been super helpful and I can’t thank them guys enough for taking me in and embracing me, not just those two. The whole entire team.”
Neither Zakai Zeigler or Jonas Aidoo were at their best but they proved again that they’re Tennessee’s second best offensive options. Aidoo totaled 14 points and nine rebounds while Zeigler added 13 points and seven assists with just one turnover.
With its second straight dominant defensive performance, Tennessee got past South Carolina without its best offensive performance. It was fitting for Tennessee to win a “program championship” with dominant defense. Strong defense and strong culture have been the staples of Barnes’ program in Knoxville.
Both remained constants this season.
“The fact is there is a special bond with this group of guys. (Director of Basketball Operation) Mary-Carter (Eggert) said to me before the game, she said, you know, coach this team of guys, they really love each other,” Barnes said. “And I was thinking about some of those things (as I left the court).”
