VANDERBILT-TENNESSEE -- BARE-KNUCKLE TIME

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zemek
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Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 4:17 pm

VANDERBILT-TENNESSEE -- BARE-KNUCKLE TIME

Post by zemek »

Analysis and information on Tennessee players includes contributions from college basketball freelance researcher and writer Nathan Giese

The Vanderbilt Commodores defeated Alabama a week ago. The result offered, for a moment, the hope of restructuring and renewal in this arduous SEC basketball season. Vanderbilt's performance at South Carolina over the weekend eroded that hope, but hours earlier on Saturday, Alabama delivered a stinker at Georgia, getting slaughtered in a completely disjointed and pervasively errant performance. Alabama could barely complete a pass or tie its shoes. The win over Texas A&M reinforced the notion that Bama was a lot more than just Collin Sexton, but that idea has not aged well.

VU's win over the Tide might look like a shiny poker chip at the end of the season, but right now, its value doesn't amount to much. With the SEC in a pronounced state of flux, how much is a given win worth?

Auburn and Florida are up today, but Arkansas and Kentucky could surge next week, and Texas A&M and Missouri might stop giving games away in the final 30 seconds. This season feels more fragile than SEC campaigns from recent years.

This begs the question: As Vanderbilt prepares to play Tennessee, are the Commodores playing an opponent which will fall into a slump?

Don't bet on it.

Tennessee is 1-2 in the SEC, but has lost at Bud Walton Arena in overtime to Arkansas after leading by multiple possessions late in regulation. The Vols lost to the hottest team in the league, Auburn, not a bad loss within the context of the moment. They then stormed back to play a near-flawless second half to thump Kentucky this past Saturday. This team's resilience appears substantial, more than Bama's and more than previous iterations of the Basket Vols.

Vanderbilt isn't playing a team which is likely to drift in uncertainty the way Alabama's non-Sexton roster did last week. This game will require more from Vanderbilt because Tennessee is likely to mount more of a challenge at the defensive end of the floor. VU, as is usually the case, would like to flourish in its halfcourt offense, but this -- more than Alabama -- sets up as a street fight VU will have to battle through.

It's bare-knuckle time for the Drew Crew.

Here is a look at UT's players of note:

Grant Williams: The team’s leading scorer at 15.8 points per game, Williams does most of his work inside the arc -- he has only 17 three-point attempts on the year (and hit three). He’s a frequent visitor to the foul line (68 attempts) and almost half of his shot attempts have come on post-ups. He excels off cuts and on offensive rebounds. More than likely, the 6-foot-5 Williams is going to be seen in the paint on a consistent basis.

Second on the team in blocks with 22, Williams is a very solid defender in post-up situations. In other areas of defense, mainly spot-up jumpers and in isolation, he’s average. Getting him on the move creates better chance to score against him. Dislocating him from the paint, more precisely the six feet within the rim, is valuable. His rim protection and his ability to stop dribble penetration as a help defender stationed near the basket enabled Tennessee to bother Arkansas over a week ago in Bud Walton Arena. When Williams fouled out late in regulation with the Vols leading by several points, UT lost hold of the proceedings. Arkansas rallied to force overtime and win in the extra period. His teammates are similarly essential to the cause, but if pressed to identify the most important Volunteer, Williams gets the slight nod.

Admiral Schofield: *Salute!*.

He may not be the second coming of David Robinson, but Schofield is a consistent presence offensively for the Vols. He’s taken 60 threes on the season and hitting at a 43-percent clip. He diversifies his offensive repertoire, so opponents never really know what he’s going to do. Jumpers, attacking the basket, moving without the ball, or in transition, Schofield is very solid in all areas.

Schofield has 15 steals on the year (just over one per game) and is allowing just 30 percent shooting as the primary defender. Opponents generally take jumpers against Schofield, but on 30 attempts are averaging just over half a point per possession.

Jordan Bowden: Even at 6-foot-3, Bowden is one of the best shotmakers in the country for his position, hitting 47 percent of his attempts and over 58 percent of his three-pointers. He’s a deadly scorer, but picks his spots cautiously, taking just the fifth-most shots on the team. Bowden will want to continue to display judicious shot selection yet find a way to carry more of the workload when the flow of the game needs to run through him.

Bowden is also a solid defender. Opponents have just 66 points on 90 possessions and are shooting just 30 percent from the field.

Best of the Rest: There isn’t a ton to separate the rest of the Vols’ regular players from each other. Bowden, Schofield and Williams are all double-digit scorers while the rest of the seven regular rotation players average between 9.9 and 5.6 points. A couple things to know:

Kyle Alexander has 24 blocks on the season and averages 6.3 rebounds per game. Lamonte Turner has taken the most threes on the team (72) but hitting just over 30 percent of his attempts. James Daniel III leads the team with 56 assists and, if you’re into that sort of thing, was one of the best mid-major players for Howard for a few years before transferring to Tennessee.

One other note: Forward John Fulkerson became a surprisingly important part of the win over Kentucky on Saturday. The Vols regularly got the ball to Fulkerson at the elbow and free throw line areas. Once in a while, Fulkerson dove to the basket to finish a play himself, but usually, he made an angled pass to Williams for a layup or dunk. Tennessee got precise passing and harmonious halfcourt offense from ballhandlers other than its guards. The passing of the UT frontcourt is something Vanderbilt will have to clamp down on.