Chaz Lanier came around an off ball screen on the right wing on the opening possession of the second half of Tennessee’s 74-70 win at Texas on Saturday night. One of the best shooters in the country, Lanier had a glimmer of daylight but instead pump faked and fired a pass over the head of Igor Milicic and out of bounds at the Tennessee bench.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes promptly pulled Lanier, but not because of the turnover. Barnes bench Lanier because he didn’t shoot the ball.
“I took him out, the first play of the second half because he didn’t shoot the ball,” Barnes said. “That play was designed for that shot.”
The 10th-year Tennessee head coach’s message to his star transfer guard when he got to the bench?
“I said, ‘if you’re not going to do what you’re getting paid to do, you sit over here.’ Because he is getting paid to do that.”
Life on the road in the SEC provided Lanier his first real dose of adversity of the season this week. The North Florida shooting guard entered the week as the SEC’s leading scorer at 20.3 points per game. But Lanier struggled in both games, scoring 10 points a piece in a blowout loss at Florida and in Saturday’s win at Texas.
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Lanier was certainly better in Austin, where he hit two-of-six three-point attempts, grabbed four rebounds and turned it over just once compared to his three-of-16 shooting performance with three turnovers in Gainesville. But Lanier still struggled to break free and get open shots as Texas prioritized taking him out of the game.
“Going to have to learn to cut harder, going to have to learn to do his work early coming off screens because he kind of gallops a little bit,” Barnes said. “He is going to have to keep his feet closer to the ground so when he comes off — because again, Texas did a great job guarding him. I thought his teammates did enough to get him enough separation (where) he could have been effective, but he still has got to learn to get his hips twisted quicker so he can get downhill quicker.”
Slowing Lanier down will be at the top of every Tennessee opponent’s scouting report the rest of the way and the Vols need Lanier to get going again as the SEC gauntlet churns on this week with a home matchup at Georgia and a road trip to Vanderbilt.
But in the meantime, there’s reasons for optimism in Tennessee winning a road game without its star player scoring near his usual clip.
“I’ve told Chaz all along, he doesn’t have to score the ball for us to win, but he’s going to have to help those guys,” Barnes said.
