Tennessee is out for revenge today against Aggies
Fifth ranked Tennessee (20-6, 10-3) will host Texas A&M (15-11, 6-7) tonight and the Vols will be out for revenge. It’s been just two weeks since Tennessee turned in one of its shakiest performances of the season in an 85-69 loss to the Aggies.
It was an ugly shooting night for Tennessee in College Station in that first meeting (37% overall, 27% from three), but that was hardly the reason that things went so badly.
Texas A&M’s backcourt duo of Wade Taylor IV (25 points) and Tyrece Radford (27) went off on the Vols. Texas A&M made 28 shots in that win, Taylor and Radford combined to make 17 of them.
The Vols also had their hands full on the glass, which isn’t surprising. Texas A&M leads the SEC in rebounding (+7.5 per game) and is one of the best rebounding teams in the nation. The Aggies’ Anderson Garcia pulled down 17 boards on his own, including nine on the offensive end.
“It feels like a long time ago in some ways, we’ve had so many other games in between, but anytime you go through the second go round, you do have some familiarity with it,” Barnes said of seeing the Aggies just two weeks after the first meeting between the two squads.
“But still the prep has got to be the same. And I do know that you’ve got to do a lot better job defensively than we did the first time.”
Texas A&M has fallen on hard times since that win, losing three straight games at Vanderbilt, at Alabama and most recently at home to a struggling Arkansas team.
That win over the Vols gave the Aggies’ NCAA hopes a huge boost, their three game skid has put those hopes in jeopardy.
Tennessee meanwhile has put together three straight wins against the dregs of the SEC (Arkansas, Vandy and Mizzou), though there have been some bumps in the road.
Barnes hasn’t seen a Texas A&M team that’s lacked effort in this current three game losing streak.
“I know one thing, they’ve played hard. You go back and look at the Alabama game where Alabama I think made 18 threes. (Texas A&M’s) effort was phenomenal. I think they had, 27 rebound offensive rebounds,” Barnes commented. “Buzz’s (Williams) teams are going to play hard, but they’re going to go at it.
“I can only tell you, they continue to play hard and aggressive and do what they do. But our league has a lot to do with it. And the fact that you know each other so well and games are going to be decided by a couple possessions here or there.”
Rebounding is always a point of emphasis on the practice floor for Barnes’ teams, but that emphasis has taken on an even keener edge since that Texas A&M contest.
Tennessee hasn’t been out rebounded in the three games since that loss to the Aggies.
On Tuesday night at Missouri Barnes took some pointed action to enhance his team’s rebounding prowess, playing Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka together for 14 minutes in the second half. The Vols out rebounded Missouri 19-12 in the second half. Awaka finished with a career high 18 points to go with 10 rebounds.
It’s not all that unusual for Awaka and Aidoo to be on the floor together, but it is unusual for them to spend that much time together on the court.
That won’t become Tennessee’s predominant line-up, but it’s got to be comforting for Barnes to know he has that in his back pocket if rebounding is an issue. The trade off, as Barnes explained, is that it changes up Tennessee’s defensive approach.
“Defense (is the key for them playing together). Because of our defensive package, they both can get into ball screens, and sometimes we’ll switch one through five,” Barnes shared.
“Normally we’ll go switch one through four, but with one of them at the four, which would probably be Tobe, he would be doing more switching than he’s normally used to. But he did a good job the other night and he’s gotten better with it. And so the better all of those guys get where we can switch, it helps us.”
Aidoo played all 20 minutes of the second half at Missouri, something Barnes noted that he physically wouldn’t have been capable of doing a year ago.
Tennessee had some serious defensive issues the Aggies’ guards in that first match-up, but the Vols’ offense was nothing to write home about either.
Only Dalton Knecht (22 points, 6-of-11 from three) and Zakai Zeigler (15) got into double digits. This is stating the obvious, but Tennessee has been a much better offensive basketball team when more players are involved on that end.
In the three wins since that loss Tennessee has had either four or five players in double figures.
Surprisingly, Knecht almost wasn’t one of those at Missouri on Tuesday. He hit halftime with just two points on two free throws, missed his first eight shots of the game and didn’t make his first shot until there was 13:18 left to play.
But then he got hot. Real hot.
Knecht made 6-of-8 from the floor, splashed three triples and scored 15 points, all in the final 13 minutes and change. Of all the crazy moments we’ve seen from him this season, that might have been his neatest trick yet. Oh, and he also added a career high 10 rebounds for this first double-double in a Tennessee uniform.
“That’s what I think good offensive players do,” Barnes said of Knecht’s second half fireworks at Mizzou. “There’s going to be nights you make them, nights you don’t. But all we’ve told him is that he can score a lot of different ways. He doesn’t have to be making threes, he can get out and run. He can get to the offensive boards. He can play in the mid range and we do a lot to try to get him the ball when we think he’s effective.
“Where I think he wants the ball, but he can, again, score many different levels but the fact is I do think he’s a guy that has that mindset. I think the Jordan Gainey’s got that mindset. I think Zakai Zeigler’s got that mindset. They think the next one’s going to go in and they’re not afraid to keep shooting it.”
Tip-off for tonight’s game is at 8 p.m. with ESPN carrying the broadcast.
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