Tennessee basketball had a successful week in the Bahamas, picking up wins over a pair of power five opponents including a high quality win over No. 13 Baylor.
The Vols improved to 6-0 on the season with the two wins and will likely be in the top 10 of the AP Poll on Monday afternoon. Taking a look at three things we learned about Tennessee in the Bahamas and one take I’m monitoring moving forward.
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Tennessee Can Be Good Offensively When Zakai Zeigler Struggles
Entering the season, I felt like Tennessee’s offense would go as Zakai Zeigler goes. When Zeigler played well, the Vols could be really good on offense. But when the senior point guard struggled, I thought Tennessee would also struggle badly offensively.
But Tennessee’s two games in the Bahamas proved that the Vols could have offensive success without Zeigler playing his best.
And Zeigler wasn’t awful offensively in the two games, particularly against Baylor, combining for 15 assists and five turnovers in the two games. If you take away a shot clock violation he took while running out the clock, that assist to touchdown rate would be 15-4.
However, Zeigler shot horribly. He combined for nine points in the two games while shooting two-for-14 from three-point range.
Despite that, Tennessee’s offense was good in both games. The Vols totaled 1.049 points per possession against Virginia and 1.283 points per possession against Baylor.
Chaz Lanier Is A Solid Top Scoring Option
A big reason why Tennessee’s offense had success while Zeigler struggled is the play of shooting guard Chaz Lanier.
The North Florida transfer scored 26 points against Virginia before going for 25 points, all in the first half, against Baylor. Lanier did it by heating up from deep, combining to shoot 13-of-22 from the perimeter in the two games.
In three games against power five opponents, Lanier is averaging 23.3 points and is shooting 57% from three-point range. The shooting guard is still limited as a creator and two-point scorer but he’s been even better than advertised as a shooter and it’s showing up in the big games so far.
Tennessee’s Offensive Rebounding Looks Like A Weapon
I had little expectation for offensive rebounding to be a major strength for Tennessee this season. I didn’t expect it to be a weakness but also didn’t see a super high ceiling.
But through six games, it has been a big part of Tennessee’s offensive success. The Vols 40.4 offensive rebounding percentage ranks 10th nationally. And the encouraging part is that Tennessee isn’t just doing it against small schools.
The Vols rebounded 52% of their misses against Louisville, 40% of their misses against Virginia and 41% of their misses against Baylor.
Tennessee doesn’t have one rebounder that has been fantastic this season but a number of good ones. Cade Phillips 17.4 offensive rebound rate is the 25th best nationally.
Darlinstone Dubar May Be A Better Role Fit Than Cam Carr
The first three are thing I learned about Tennessee in the three games. This one is more of a take I’m curious about. Even before Darlinstone Dubar missed the first two weeks of the season with a personal matter, I was skeptical of what his role was going to be on this team.
But Cam Carr and JP Estrella’s injuries gave him opportunities as he made his debut in the Bahamas. Dubar didn’t do anything special but he played good defense, rebounded well, finished some trash around the basket and made an open triple.
The way I see it, Dubar is largely competing with Cam Carr to the the first wing off the bench for Tennessee. Carr’s ceiling is undoubtedly higher but I’m not sure Dubar isn’t a better fit off the bench for this team. Carr can do exciting and splashy plays but Dubar seems more consistent in solid.
Now that’s just an observation off two games and Carr will be out for four to six weeks with a hand injury anyway. But it’s something I’m going to continue monitoring the rest of the way.
