Tennessee basketball started and ended sloppily but played well in the middle as the opened the season with an 80-64 victory over Gardner-Webb on Monday night.
The Vols’ backcourt had a strong night as Tennessee pushed its lead to as many as 27 points in the second half before playing poorly down the stretch.
Here’s three quick takeaways from the Vols’ season-opening win.
More From RTI: Pair Of Tennessee Basketball Players Out For Season Opener Against Gardner-Webb
Backcourt Leads The Way
Tennessee’s backcourt was its driving force against Gardner-Webb. Zakai Zeigler didn’t shoot well from the perimeter but did all the other things he usually does well. The senior point guard started the season just short of a double-double, scoring 13 points and dishing out nine assists.
He dissected Gardner-Webb’s matchup zone defense and created an abundance of good looks for his teammates by penetrating and dishing to the perimeter.
On the wings were a pair of shooting guards that were knocking down shots. After a horrid shooting performance in Tennessee’s exhibition loss against Indiana, North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier was much better. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard made four-of-six attempts from three-point range on his way to 18 points on the evening.
Senior Jordan Gainey had a strong night as well, hitting seven -of-nine shots from the field and two-of-four shots from deep to score 16 points on the night.
The trio of Zeigler, Lanier and Gainey combined to score 47 of Tennessee’s 80 points in the win.
Then Jahmai Mashack did what he always does on the defensive end of the court, hounding the Runnin’ Bulldogs guards and finishing the night with four steals.
Underwhelming Debut For Felix Okpara
Of Tennessee’s three incoming transfers, I believed that Ohio State center Felix Okpara had the highest floor of any of them and could very easily have a All-SEC type season. And that is still certainly a possibility, but it was a rough debut for Okpara.
The 6-foot-11 center scored just two points on a horrid zero-of-three shooting from the field. More than the poor shooting percentage, Okpara just looked uncomfortable on the court on the offensive end and turned it over three times.
Okpara did grab nine rebounds but I wasn’t blown away with what he did on the glass against a mostly smaller Gardner-Webb team either. He failed to grab a pair of defensive rebounds in the first half that led to Runnin’ Bulldogs baskets. He also added a blocked shot.
Again, it’s just one game and Okpara played well against a potential All-American in Oumar Ballo in the exhibition. But it was a poor debut for Okpara. JP Estrella and Cade Phillips both did some solid things in his place but certainly weren’t phenomenal either.
*Rick Barnes said postgame that Okpara is dealing with a “serious hip pointer”
Defense Not Up To High Standards
With Tennessee losing as many key pieces as they did off of last season’s team, most notably Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James, it was probably an inevitability that Tennessee’s defense would take a step back early in the season as they looked to tie everything together on that end of the court.
That proved to be the case in the opener as Tennessee’s defense was not up to its usual high standards. Gardner-Webb had a lot of success penetrating and getting shots at the basket while also drawing in help to create open shots on the perimeter.
That was especially an issue during the Runnin’ Bulldogs 10-0 run late in the game that got Tennessee’s lead all the way down to 13.
On the night, Gardner-Webb scored 1.000 points per possession on 44% shooting from the field. It wasn’t a horrible night defensively but not what Tennessee usually is on the defensive end and something I’m confident that Rick Barnes will be critical of postgame.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee basketball heads to Louisville on Saturday for its first of two true road games in its non conference slate. Tipoff is at noon ET with the ACC Network broadcasting the game.
