Tennessee rolls Rebels: Four quick takes

Tennessee opened SEC play in style, blowing out No. 19 Ole Miss 90-64. Here are four quick takes on a thorough beat down from the Vols.

1 — Really just took them out behind the woodshed — There was never really a lot of doubt in this one. Tennessee trailed at 3-2 just over a minute into the game and then never trailed again.

The Vols’ defense out of the gate was suffocating. Ole Miss didn’t get into double digits as a team until 9:13 remained in the game. The Rebels heated up a little after that but Tennessee still owned a 40-31 lead at halftime.

Ole Miss hadn’t exactly played a killer schedule in the non-conference (their best win is over Memphis), but the Rebels did arrive in town with a spotless 13-0 record and were ranked No. 19. (Now, the computers and Vegas were not as impressed with the Rebels as the voters).

It was just a business like beatdown.

There weren’t really any extended, spectacular runs on Tennessee’s part, just a lot of solid basketball on both ends of the court.

Ole Miss came into the game shooting 40% from three-point range, second best in the SEC. Tennessee’s defense took a bite out of that percentage. Ole Miss shot a decent percentage (6-of-16) , but made but they were stuck on just two makes for a long portion of the game and never really made one that mattered.
The Vols made life tough on Rebels’ leading scorer Matthew Murrell. He was averaging 17.0 ppg and making 48% from the floor.

Being the focal point of Tennessee’s defensive game plan has got to be a drag. Murrell was hounded all over the court. He finished with 11 points but was harassed into a 3-of-11 shooting day.

By my count he got one clean look from three today and that was in a secondary break situation. Tennessee just constantly found him in the half court and never seemed to let him get a clean look or even a clean catch.

We’re all accustomed to see these guys play great defense. When it’s married to efficient offense like it was today, well, the sky is the limit for this bunch.

2 — Aidoo again — We all (or at least me) made a big deal of Jonas Aidoo busting out offensively in December with four straight double-digit games. Aidoo hadn’t ever had even back-to-back games in double digits prior to that streak. During that little streak he set a new career high with 29 points.

But he’d scored just 15 points in the Vols’ last three games. Now, he had missed some time with illness and had also battled a calf strain and he played just 11 minutes against Norfolk State on Tuesday.

Well, he started off SEC play with a BANG. Facing an Ole Miss front line that is as long and defensively capable as any in the league Aidoo went to town.

He posted his third double-double of the season with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

He was a monster in the paint and he was efficient. Aidoo got his 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting and was 4-of-5 at the line.

The 19 field goal attempts shattered his previous career high of 16. The fact that Aidoo has enough confidence in himself and is assertive enough to take nearly 20 shots in a game is still a little hard for me to wrap my head around.

No one has ever doubted Aidoo’s talent. But he’s not ever seemed like the kind of guy that was going to be selfish enough (in a good way) to go out and do what he did today.

That was eye opening. He’s put up more points, but considering the level of competition he was facing today that was the most impressive performance of his career in my opinion.

Aidoo isn’t going for 20+ every night obviously, but he just showed every SEC coach out there that he’s capable of it, which is going to make Tennessee a hard team to game plan for.

3 — ZZ is back — His head coach said on Tuesday he didn’t think that Zakai Zeigler was 100% all the way back to where he was before he tore his ACL last February.

I don’t know coach, No. 5 looks pretty good to me.

He was fantastic today, posting a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists with just two turnovers in a team high 37 minutes.

Those numbers don’t capture the defensive menace he was for the Rebel’s guards today. He finished with just one steal, but his ball pressure was a constant and a the ‘tip of the spear’ for a Tennessee defense that held Ole Miss 14 points below its scoring average.

Zeigler struggled with his shot the first few weeks he was back, but that’s not been the case lately. He was 4-of-11 from three today and in the last four games he’s 14-for-33 (42%).

Zeigler’s double-double today gives him six for his career, breaking a tie with Rodney Woods for points/assists double-doubles and setting a new school record.

4 — Quick hits — Tennessee got to 41 points in the first half with Dalton Knecht scoring just two points. That’s a positive comment on the Vols’ offense.

Barnes called a set for Knecht on the first possession of the second half to seemingly try and get him going. Knecht drew a foul and made 1-of-2 at the line.

Knecht finished with just eight points, but he didn’t force anything, going 3-for-6 from the floor in just 19 minutes.

Jahmai Mashack had a great game and it doesn’t all show up in the box score. He had 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting and was 2-of-3 from three. One of those threes beat the halftime buzzer and gave the Vols a nine point lead at the break. He also had four assists and four rebounds and was a terror on defense.

Mashack played 23 minutes today. It looks like he’s maybe taking some minutes from Jordan Gainey who played 12 minutes today.

Tobe Awaka gave up all kinds of length in the paint today, but was undeterred. He had nine points and three boards in just 11 minutes. Awaka, who shot 42% from the line last year, was 5-for-5 at the stripe today and is now shooting 74% on the season.

As a team the Vols were 11-of-13 at the line with the bigs—Awaka and Aidoo—going a combined 9-of-10.

Tennessee started ice cold from long range today, going just 1-for-12 from three. They finished hot, making 10-of-18 from long range to close it out.

The Vols were confronted with a long front court today and it seemed reasonable to think they’d get challenged on the glass. Nope. Tennessee DOMINATED Ole Miss 47-24 on the glass. The Vols owned a huge 19-4 edge on the offensive glass which translated into a 22-5 advantage in second chance points. That’s enormous.

Santiago Vescovi continues to quietly heat up. He had 11 points and was 3-for-8 from three.

Neither he nor Josiah-Jordan James (8 pts, 8 rebounds) had huge scoring nights but both tied for the team high in +/- at +28.

Tennessee didn’t put Ole Miss in the double bonus in either half today.

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