NASHVILLE, Tn. — For most of the season, Tennessee basketball’s offense went as its three-point shooting went. But the Vols’ 70-65 win over Auburn continued a recent trend where Tennessee shot poorly from the three-point line and found ways to score anyway.
“It’s very encouraging,” sophomore forward Cade Phillips said postgame. “But it’s very good to see that even while we’re not shooting the three ball well we’re getting to the offensive glass well, we’re scoring inside well. I think that’s all credit to what we train for. We train for winning games even when we’re not shooting the ball well. That’s how we plan on playing, so when shots are falling we feel unstoppable.”
Entering last week’s regular season finale against South Carolina, Tennessee was 3-4 in SEC games where they shot less than 30% from three-point range. But the Vols have won three-straight games shooting less than 30% from beyond the arc.
And while Tennessee had won games with poor shooting simply because of suffocating defense, the Vols have played good offense in all three games. They’ve scored over 1.2 points per possession in all three games and scored 1.339 points per possession against Texas on Friday.
“Just staying in attack mode, driving and not settling for shots,” Tennessee assistant coach Lucas Campbell said. “If you make them, great, but you can’t bank on making shots sometimes so you have to get to that free throw line, get shots at the rim.”
Tennessee has shot 83 free throws in its last three games and after shooting terribly from the line in the South Carolina and Texas games, the Vols made 25-of-27 against Auburn.
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Zakai Zeigler and Jordan Gainey have put the ball on the floor and got to the basket at a higher clip in recent games. For associate head coach Justin Gainey, it’s the initiative the duo are taking that’s most impressive.
“At this point, you don’t even have to tell them,” Gainey said. “Not at one point in the huddle did we tell them, ‘hey, let’s start getting down hill. Our shot isn’t falling.’ They talked about it. They mentally made that adjustment and when your players start making adjustments within the game, that’s when you know you got a special group.”
Offensive rebounding is a big part of the puzzle too and something that Tennessee has had in its repertoire for most of the season. But the driving and scoring the basketball is happening at a different clip. Chaz Lanier has put the ball on the floor and scored at the rim the last two games.
But Jordan Gainey is the x-factor in that regard. He’s shown an ability to get to the rim and the foul line all season. When he’s playing with that aggression, it makes Tennessee much more difficult to defense. He scored 13 second half points against Auburn with a contested left handed layup that was one of the game’s biggest baskets.
“That’s immediately what I said to (assistant coach) Rod Clark,” Campbell said. “Hey, we got Jordan (going) this half? I feel a lot better. He’s rolling and has got control of the game. When he’s another threat for us attacking, it takes a lot of pressure off of Chaz and Z and Igor, everybody because he can get rolling and control the game.”
Despite shooting less than 30% from three-point range in its last three games, Tennessee enters Sunday’s SEC Tournament Championship ranked 18th in adjusted offensive efficiency.
