The Tennessee Volunteers would have beaten any college team in the country on Saturday evening.
It just so happens that it was slated to host the tenth-ranked Texas Longhorns (17-4, 6-2 in the Big 12), the team Tennessee coach Rick Barnes coached for 17 years.
The Vols (18-3, 7-1 in the SEC) lost in Barnes’ return to Austin last season as part of the annual SEC-BIG 12 challenge and the team played with extra motivation to avenge that loss.
Zakai “Zip” Zeigler all but guaranteed the win earlier in the week during the Georgia post-game press conference. Zip’s teammates had his back in this one, and he did his part as well as the Vols were completely dominant in the 82-71 win.
Tennessee hit the court with its stylish cursive-lettered throwbacks with a starting five that consisted of guards Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi and forwards Josiah Jordan James (JJJ), Julian Phillips and Olivier Nkamhoua.
It was a nervy start for both teams. Tennessee was forced to get an attempt up as the shot clock expired on its opening possession, only to get an offensive board and then force another one as the clock dwindled to zero again. Texas matched with a 24 second violation on its opening possession.
The game hit its rhythm quickly thereafter.
James started the scoring for Tennessee two and a half minutes in after Texas opened with a 3-0 lead. Early on, it seemed as if part of the game plan was for Nkamhoua to establish position in the box and he did so with success, even when he didn’t receive the ball.
After a Nkamhoua bucket, Jordan James gave the Vols their first lead with a stepback jumper that had the crowd both “oooing” and “ahhhing.” After a Texas turnover, the original UT led the Longhorns 6-5.
Uros Plavsic and Tyreke Key were the first subs for Tennessee. Plavsic immediately got fouled and exchanged some pleasantries with the accused. He missed both free throws badly but somehow got his own rebound and dished it to James, who hit from three. Plavsic talks a lot, sometimes leaving his team to deal with the messes his chatter creates, but he put his money where his mouth was on this sequence.
True sophomore Jonas Aidoo was the next Vol to enter and he got a touch immediately. This game had an tournament feel from the jump and his first offensive moment seemed a bit large for him as he struggled to get an extraordinarily contested shot off over several defenders. He calmed on the defensive in and got two big stops in a row.
Jordan James has settled in after taking his time to heal from an early season injury and it appears that it was worth the wait. After a JJJ three, Texas called timeout with 7:08 to go in the first half. He led all scorers with nine at the time.
Tennessee’s committee of bigs led the way for Tennessee for the remainder of the half until a member of the backcourt reminded everyone in the building that the little guys can play, too.
Zeigler has been known to go on personal runs in the past. He gave the Vols a ten-point lead with 2:45 to go in the half with an impressive “And 1” and a right-arm flex. After a Texas answer, he swished a three and immediately got a steal and hit two free throws. Zip’s 7-0 run gave the Vols a 14-point lead.
At the break, it led by 12.
All four of the Vols familiar big men saw minutes in the game’s first eleven minutes and each contributed in one way or another.
Tennessee’s frontcourt is perhaps the most important sector of Tennessee’s potential success moving forward.
While Tennessee has proven that it can beat anyone in the country, it has also shown vulnerability when the team goes cold from behind the three-point line.
Having four big men to rotate in is crucial if Tennessee wants to make a deep tournament run. Not only does the quartet of Nkamhoua, Plavsic, Aidoo and Tobe Awaka provide depth when a breather is necessary, it also helps if one of them incurs foul trouble or injury. Most importantly, though, it provides an increased probability for one of them to be “on” for any given game. If one or two, or even three of these monsters gets hot, Tennessee does not have to rely on its shooting from the outside. No team stays hot from three for an entire NCAA Tournament. This is the way.
This time, it was Nkamhoua who was hot. Like, En fuego hot.
As the teams hit the locker room for the break, Nkamhoua led all scorers with 14 points and led the Vols with four rebounds. Only Texas’ Christian Bishop had more boards (with five).
Nkamhoua started the second half with more of the same. He got the first rebound and bucket of the half. He scored again on the Vols next two possessions. After garnering extra attention on the next trip down the court, he assisted on a wide-open three from Zeigler.
En Feugo.
Zeigler his yet another three to stretch the lead to 17 with the Vols next opportunity.
Still, Texas hung around. The Longhorns are a pesky herd and they will be a tough out come March. They’ve got a handful of stone-cold-ballers and they have zero quit.
The Vols seemed destined for the dub in this one, though. Zeigler zipped across the court and found a wide-open Vescovi who hit from three to stretch the tally to 61-39 with just under 14 minutes to go. It was only Vescovi’s eighth point and just his sixth shot of the game. Tennesee just didn’t need its leading scorer to do very much in this one.
This was perhaps Tennessee’s most complete win of the 2022-23 season thus far and the
at the final buzzer, Nkamhoua had 27 points, 8 boards and his best game as a Vol.
Zeigler added 22 points, ten assists and two steals while James had 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Vols will travel to Gainesville to take on Florida on February 1st.
Other stuff:
• “Let’s show everyone who has the right shade or orange and who’s the real UT.” These were the words of Tennessee football head coach Josh Huepel during a media timeout midway through the first half.
• Kris Budden made a return to Knoxville as part of the ESPN sideline crew. She worked locally for several years at WBIR and was interviewed by yours truly. It’s been a delight to watch her career blossom. She’s one of the good ones.
• Texas coach Rodney Terry is in a precarious situation. He was an assistant to Chris Beard, one of the best coaches in the country, when Beard was fired after an altercation with his wife earlier this season. Terry was also an assistant under UT coach Rick Barnes from 2002-11. Terry has done a commendable job since becoming interim coach and has gone 10-3, including the loss at UT.
• The University of Texas was founded on September 15, 1883. The University of Tennessee was founded on September 10, 1794, 89 years and five days prior.
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