Murray State may not have Ja Morant on its roster this season, but his fingerprints are still all over the program. The Racers know how to win and they expect to do so, no matter the opponent.
“First of all, we beat a really good basketball team tonight,” said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes after the game. “Murray State is really well coached. The team has had success, and these guys are a big part of that success.” This was evident Tuesday night as Murray State threw blow after blow against a Tennessee team that struggled to find its shot in the first half.
Then the gritty Vols showed up. As it turns out, Tennessee knows how to win, too.
It’s easy to see in the pre-game warm-ups that the 2019-20 Tennessee Volunteers is a different group from the teams Vol fans have grown accustomed to over the past two seasons.
While last year’s squad was incredibly well-rounded, this year’s team is full of long, rangy athletes and during the warmups, dunks are coming off ally-oops, off the backboard, from hard bounces and sky high passes. There is no doubt this team’s highlight reel is going to be fun, even if it isn’t reflected in wins.
In some ways, this team is built like a mid-major, with a lot of young prospects who need to develop together. This is a formula that has worked for head coach Rick Barnes in the past. This team owns a lot of athleticism but it is still learning and there could be some growing pains along the way. The team that we see in March is going to be different and vastly improved from the team on the hardcourt now.
Every year, we look to who can make what we call the “Richardson Jump,” which references the leap that guard Josh Richardson took before and during his senior year on The Hill. He was role player who became a star in one off-season of hard work and he is a starter in the league (NBA) now because of it.
After two games, we have two strong candidates for this role, with others eyeing it as well.
Yves Pons might end up being that player. In a recent interview, Barnes said that Pons was the best three-point shooter on the team and he hit four of them on Tuesday to go with four blocks (two of them absolutely demoralizing blasts) in route to a career high 19-point game. After the game, Pons elaborated on why he has seen improvement behind the arc. “I work on it a lot. Every day I’m working on it, so I feel comfortable shooting, and I’ll take every open shot I can get.”
The other candidate is Jordan Bowden. The Carter High graduate roped a career-high 26 points against Murray State, and they weren’t garbage points in garbage time. Nineteen of them came in the second half and Tennessee doesn’t win without them. It’s a new role for Bowden after watching Admiral Schofield, Jordan Bone and Grant Williams get the lion’s share of looks in previous seasons, but it’s one he’s working to accept. “If there’s one thing you have to do, it’s to stay aggressive to help our team win,” he said after the game. “That’s one thing I did tonight, and I have to continue to do that moving forward. It feels weird sometimes, because at this time last year, it was kind of an iffy shot, but now I have to take those types of shots and not feel bad about it.”
Bowden’s backcourt teammate Lamonte Turner only had five points, but he had fourteen assists and was the key to the Volunteer comeback. Barnes praised the senior guards after the game. “They were the leaders that we needed them to be. They were terrific—both of them…Lamonté (Turner) had to go the distance because of foul trouble. He was terrific. He was a warrior.”
The Vols were shot out of the building in the first half as the Racers hit eight threes, mostly from the left corner, while the Vols couldn’t hit water from a boat. However, in the second half, Barnes switched to a baseline attack initiated by Turner’s penetration and the shots began to fall as the Vols defense toughened up. The Racers didn’t get an offensive rebound in the second half. It was a true team effort by Tennessee where every ounce of hustle mattered in the 82-63 dub.
John Fulkerson, while reckless and out of control at times, is nonetheless effective. He scored nine points, grabbed nine boards, had three assists, swiped two steals and embarked on several flailing crusades into the first few rows of the crowd diving for loose balls. The Vols could struggle if either Pons or Fulkerson don’t average double figures in scoring and/or rebounding. Both players have already hit career highs in the young season, so things look promising on that front, but can they keep it up when Tennessee enters league play or faces the bigs at Kansas, Wisconsin, Memphis and the like.
Murray State’s big man, Darnell Cowart, had his way in the paint at times. Playing on only one leg and as a result, with limited mobility, he was able to bull his way to the basket at will, presaging future problems in the paint with larger, more skilled post players.
Tennessee starts the season 2-0 and will head to Ontario, Canada to play twentieth ranked Washington on Saturday. Tip is scheduled for 5:00EST.
