Vols back home to face Tigers
If recent history is any indication this roller-coaster of a Tennessee basketball team, as Rick Barnes described them, could be in for a good performance Tuesday night against Auburn as the Vols look to avenge a loss to the Tigers’ in the SEC opener for both squads.
Tennessee (11-12, 4-6) will be looking to bounce back after a loss at Arkansas over the weekend. Auburn (9-13, 3-7) is looking to stop a five game losing streak that’s knocked off any luster from a surprising 3-3 start to conference play for Bruce Pearl’s team.
The Tigers will also be without the services of leading scorer Kareem Canty (18.3 ppg), who is sitting out a second straight game while indefinitely suspended for a violation of team rules.
Two aspects of this Tennessee team favor the possibility of a solid showing against the Tigers. First, this squad—even more than most college basketball teams—plays far better at home than on the road. Secondly, this team has made something of a habit of following up a bad performance with a good one in SEC play.
Tennessee is 3-2 at home and 1-4 on the road in SEC play. At home the Vols average a high-octane 81.4 points per game vs. only 70.6 on the road. That’s a huge discrepancy even in a sport where playing at home is a huge factor.
The Vols played probably their best game of the season last week, erasing a 21-point first half deficit to beat Kentucky, but then looked nothing like the same team in an 85-67 loss at Arkansas.
Barnes has been around a long time, but even he says he doesn’t recall having a team with this wild of a swing between how they perform home vs. away. One reason, in Barnes’ mind, for the wild deviation has been that too often, the only guys he feels that deliver in the same fashion on the road are seniors Kevin Punter and Armani Moore.
“I don't know if it is a mindset or a comfort level. I don't know. When you go on the road and you are like we are, you have to have more than two guys ready to play. We haven't gotten it consistently,” Barnes observed. “Kevin and Armani have been pretty consistent all year. We put a lot on those guys, and you think about the minutes they play…they (also) play almost every minute in practice. We need all of our players to help us.
“When we are playing good basketball, we are getting more of an all-around team effort, and we haven't gotten much of that on the road. The only time I can say we did it was the one game that we won at Mississippi State. When you think about it, a lot of guys made some plays in that game, and it was without Armani Moore."
Tonight the Vols will be facing a team whose road struggles have been even worst than their own. Auburn is 0-5 in the SEC away from home, a record that includes a 76-61 loss at Missouri, the lone conference win of the season for the last place Tigers.
Tennessee had more than its share of chances to win that first match-up, owning a two-point lead at the half despite opening the game shooting 0-for-11. As they have at other points this year though, the Vols unraveled in the second half.
Canty and Bryce Brown led the Tigers with 20 each in that game, but without Canty, this is a different looking Auburn team.
“Kareem Canty is a good player, but when you go back to our game down there, he played well, but there were some other guys that hurt us, too. It wasn't like he was the one guy that beat us when we were down there. There are other guys that we are going to have to deal with,” Barnes said of the absence of the Tigers’ leading scorer and its impact on the game.
“January was a long time ago, and the fact is I do think we are a better team, but we are so up-and-down that I don't know what to tell you to expect. We seem to think we are going to turn the corner in some ways, and then we revert back to doing something that isn't very good.”
Auburn looked like it might be a surprising SEC dark horse early in league play when back-to-back wins over Kentucky and Alabama put them at 3-3 in the league. Since then though things have come apart a bit during a losing streak that’s now hit five.
Canty’s absence is part of the problem now, but the Tigers were showing signs of springing a leak before he got himself suspended.
Barnes still sees a team that will make you work hard on the defensive end, something that’s not always been his team’s strong suit this season.
“I think they're like most teams: if they get a chance to take advantage of you, they can. On the offensive end, I think they do a really good job of executing their offense. I think they know what they're looking for, and they're going to work hard at making all their possessions count,” he said of preparing for the Tigers.
Auburn generates a ton of its offense outside the three-point line, where they’re connecting on 34.8% for the season. They also lead the SEC in made threes (204) and attempts (587).
Canty was obviously responsible for much of that production, but the Tigers are still a trigger-happy team from three-point range even without him.
What the Tigers do not do well is keep the other team from scoring. They’re the worst defensive team in the league in terms of field goal percent defense (44.5%) and scoring defense (77.5 ppg).
With Canty out Auubnr’s most effective scorer is Tyler Harris (6-foot-10, 228). The younger brother of former Vol Tobias Harris, he’s a averaging 14.8 pg and pulling down 7.9 boards per game. Cinmeon Bowers (6-7, 250) is nearly putting up a double-double (11 ppg, 9.2 rpg).
TALKING TURNER
Point guard play—or at least requiring leading scorer Kevin Punter to handle that job while being the No. 1 offensive option—has been a problem for this team all year.
It’s easy to forget that Barnes hoped he had that problem solved, or at least addressed, with freshman Lamonte Turner, who’s redshirting this season after being ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
Turner is practicing with the team, and while he doesn’t dominate the proceedings, it’s obvious that he could have helped this team.
The upside is that he’s gotten coached, learned the system and should be in position to walk in and take the starting point guard job from day one next year.
Barnes leaves no doubt that he thinks the future is bright for Turner, but he also feels like he’s contributed to this year’s team by making Punter better by competing with him.
“He's helped us this year. I think he's helped Kevin [Punter] a lot in practice, Kevin having to guard him. Obviously, Lamonte's learning our system, which is going to help him going forward. He's going to be a terrific player. I don't think there's any question when you work as hard as he works. He is a guy that loves being in there,” Barnes said of Turner.
“He really wants to be coached. He's one of those guys that you love. When you tell him to do something and you walk out of the gym, he's going to do what you tell him. He's been a really nice addition to us. Obviously we wish he was playing, but the fact is he's helped us in his own way just by what he's done in practice. Going forward, you talk about the ceiling, he's one of those guys with these other young guys that we're expecting to be the guys that are going to lead the way going forward.”
Turner’s competitive spirit is on display daily in practice. And as Barnes notes, he’s always on the floor at the end of the day still getting shots up.
He’s also engaged with this team, and perhaps a little bit of a coach himself, something Barnes illustrated with a tale about Turner from last week’s win over Kentucky.
“It tells you a lot when you watch him during a game. He is locked in. The other night during the game that we were playing Kentucky, we watch these guys, and they get tired. Somebody yelled out to me, 'It looks like Detrick is getting tired.' I heard one of the coaches say, 'Who do you want to get for Detrick?' Lamonte said, 'Detrick? He just made a three, Coach. Leave him in,’” Barnes joked.
“He is engaged. He gets excited for the guys during the game. That part of it is good. He will be a really good teammate and has been a good teammate for these guys.”
STAY AWAY FROM WEDNESDAY NIGHT
If Tennessee wants to avoid playing on opening night in the SEC Tournament, this is a big week for the Vols. With Missouri out of postseason competition and holding what looks like a death grip on last place, there will be only one Wednesday night game in Nashville this year, between the 12th and 13th place teams in the league with No. 11 receiving a bye into Thursday.
With wins over Kentucky and South Carolina and a ‘would-coulda-shoulda’ loss to Texas A&M Tennessee has shown it can compete with the best teams in the conference, so making some noise in the tournament isn’t out of the question. However, doing so while being required to play on Wednesday night makes that a tougher trick.
Currently, Mississippi St. (2-8) and Auburn (3-7) are in that Wednesday night slot but the Vols (4-6) are tied with Alabama (4-6) just one game ahead with the Crimson Tide holding the tiebreaker.
Winning at home tonight against Auburn and following that up with what should be a winnable game at Missouri on Saturday would put the Vols at .500 in league play and keep give them some breathing room in avoiding playing on that first night.
That’s still a month in the future, but this is a big week on determining where the Vols will be sitting one month from now in the conference standings.