BigOrangeBasketball.comTennessee Basketball

Earlier this week, Bruce Pearl said this was a “must win” week for the Vols against LSU and Florida at home.

So far, the Vols are 0-1 for the week.  They have now lost two conference home games and can ill-afford to lose a third.  For every home loss, you have to win two on the road to make it up.  

Couple that with the fact that Tennessee now has only the sixth-best record in the SEC, and you could say the Florida game is about as close as it gets to a “must win.”

For the Vols to get the win and keep their conference championship hopes alive, they first need to forget about ESPN Gameday and get focused on basketball.  Let Dickie V climb through the student section, but the Vols need to concentrate on the task at hand…which means playing solid fundamental basketball.

Without a doubt, Tennnessee is a team whose confidence has been shaken dramatically of late.  The Vols have lost four of their last five home games.  The offense, once the staple of Pearl’s teams, has become inconsistent, and the perimeter shooting game very shaky.

Tennessee desperately needs a fast start against Florida on Saturday night.  It will need to get the crowd into the game early.

Florida is a good matchup for Tennessee.  The Gators are not overwhelming physically and they don’t feature an explosive guard, although Nick Calathes is solid.

The Vols have the opportunity to get physical with the Gators.  Florida is long, but soft.  Gator sophomore center Alex Tyus presents the biggest matchup problem for the Vols.  He will have a size advantage against Tyler Smith and a quickness advantage against Wayne Chism.

The best matchup for Tyus is Emmanuel Negedu, but he won’t be sitting on the bench. 

Pearl has indicated since the LSU game that Negedu is deserving of more minutes.  If I’m Pearl, I start Negedu in this game and match him up against Tyus.  Chism then takes Chandler Parsons, and Smith takes Dan “Hatchet” Werner.  That’s the best frontcourt matchups that the Vols have to counter the Gators.

Again, it’s paramount that the Vols get off to a quick start in this game, offensively and defensively.  With as much trouble as they are having on the offensive end, they cannot afford to play catchup again from a double-digit deficit.

If you believe in statistics, then you might remember this one going into Saturday night’s game…the Vols are 0-5 this year when the opponent scores 80 or more points against them.

The Vols must find a way to elevate their game in this one.  It’s about as close to a “must win” game as it gets.

In a game that was dubbed a “must win” by Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl earlier this week referring to last night’s contest against LSU, Pearl finds himself in a “must learn” situation following the Vols’ 79-73 loss.

There’s no question that 19 games into this season, Pearl is still searching for answers with this team.  Last night, he doesn’t start Bobby Maze for the first time this season, and for the first time all season, Renaldo Woolridge doesn’t  play.

It’s a difficult situation to be in this deep into the season, experimenting extensively to find the right player combinations.

However, in spite of last night’s second SEC home loss, a silver lining may have appeared for Pearl and the Vols in what transpired in the game between the 13- and nine-minute mark of the second half.

Trailing 61-45, the Vols went on a 15-0 run to cut LSU’s lead to 61-60 with 8:50 remaining and a dead ball out of bounds.

Note to Pearl, your lineup during that stretch was Maze at the point, J.P. Prince at a wing, Scotty Hopson at a wing, Emmanuel Negedu at power forward and Wayne Chism at center.

For the life of me, I don’t know why Pearl substituted at the 8:50 mark with the Vols on a 15-0 run, but he did, and that’s a moot point at this point

Again, as I’ve said several times already this season, the key to this team and this season could be the most unlikely of candidates, the 6-7 native Nigerian with the super-model friend, Negedu.

The Vols are simply better when Negedu is on the floor.  They are better defensively, they rebound better, they score more effectively inside, and they play harder.

Negedu seems to be just one of those guys who makes the team better, and right now, he’s the only Vol that I can say that does that.

Tennessee scored 15 points during that four-minute stretch in the second half to close the gap to one.  During the final 8:50 of the game, of which Negedu spent the majority of the time on the bench, the Vols scored 13 points.

So what do you do with the rest of the lineup with Negedu in it?  I say you move Tyler Smith to the No. 3 position, and you can interchange just about everybody else. 

If I’m Pearl, here’s the five that get the most minutes and the most playing together…Maze, Hopson, Smith, Negedu and Chism.

Physically, Smith is better suited to the three anyway.  He doesn’t shoot it well from the perimeter, but none of the other Vols do, either.

The Vols are now 3-2 in the SEC and in fourth-place in the SEC East.  Pearl is still searching for answers.  If he pays attention, and my bet is that he does, he may have found an answer last night.

The Gators come calling Saturday night.  I expect more adjustments with the lineup again.  Let’s hope Negedu is a key part of the adjustments.

As I watched Saturday’s loss to Memphis, I found myself asking the question over and over in my head…are the Vols getting better or worse?

More specifically, are the Vols better today (Jan. 24) than they were Nov. 28 when they defeated Georgetown in the Old Spice Classic?

Saturday’s 52-point performance against Memphis was  the third-lowest offensive output by a Vol team in the Pearl era.  (In 2006, the Vols scored 44 points in a loss to Butler, and in 2008, 47 points in a win against LSU.)

Earlier today, I thought Bruce Pearl articulated Tennessee’s problems very well.

“One of the things that has hurt our offense has been the way we’re defending,” Pearl said. “We’ve slowed the tempo down.

“As a result, we’re playing better defensively, but there’s fewer transition opportunities.  There’s fewer fastbreak opportunities.  There are fewer possessions because we’re not turning people over as much, and so as a result, now you get into the offensive end where we’re seeing more halfcourt defense.”

If this basketball team were positioned on the political spectrum, you could say it has gone from extremely liberal to reactionary.  The Vols have shut down their aggressive style to try and overcome their shortcomings on defense.  But by shutting down their aggressive style, they have hurt themselves offensively in the process.

In the last two games, at least, Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith have become Tennessee’s go-to guys.  While Chism and Smith are good players, they’re not go-to guys.  This team doesn’t have a go-to guy, at least one that has emerged.  For this team to be most successful, eight to ten players need to carry the load.  This team doesn’t have one or two guys good enough to do that.

Most notably, Cameron Tatum and Scotty Hopson have stopped looking for their outside shots.  What’s most troubling is that Hopson is not even getting himself position to shoot when he takes the pass on the wing.

While the Vols have not been consistent shooting the ball from the outside all season, they have to keep shooting it.  This team simply can’t rely on its offense from the post and expect to win, a notion not lost on Pearl.

“Scotty and Cameron, as our 2 guards, have got to be aggressive shooting the ball and working to get open,” he said.  “We’ve got to make some more perimeter shots.  There’s no question about it.”

It’s clear that Pearl is still searching for the answer for this team that will give it the best chance to win.  When the Vols extend their defense, they routinely get torched by the opponent.  When the Vols slow down the tempo to protect their defense, the offense suffers.

“We’re trying to find that happy medium,” Pearl admitted.

Clearly, the Vols are still searching for it.

Kentucky continues to solidify its position atop the SEC.  With road wins now over Tennessee and Alabama, I think there’s a very good chance that the Wildcats could go into their March 7th game at Florida 15-0 in the SEC with a great chance to go undefeated in regular season conference play.

Tennessee’s win last Tuesday night at Vanderbilt doesn’t look quite as good now after Florida’s dismantling of the the Commodores in Nashville yesterday.  Not a good start for Vanderbilt at all.

Headliner game this week would have to be Florida at Tennessee Saturday night on ESPN as the network brings its Gameday crew to Knoxville.

Here are my rankings for this week…

1. Kentucky (5-0) – Solid wins over Auburn and Alabama.

2. Tennessee (3-1) – Off last weekend after road win at Vandy.

3. Florida (4-1) – Blowout win at Vandy after disappointing road loss at USC.

4. Mississippi State (4-1) - Continue not to be impressed, but who else can you put at No. 4?

5. South Carolina (3-2) - Gamecocks move up to No. 5, but company not impressive.

6. LSU (3-1) – Tigers finally step out of conference to play a team in the RPI 200!

7. Auburn (2-3) – Road win at Arkansas.

8. Vanderbilt (1-4) - Disappointing start.  Loss two games at home last week to intradivision rivals.

9. Ole Miss (1-4) – Still miss Chris Warren.

10.  Alabama (2-3) – Worst 2-3 team in the league.

11. Georgia (0-4) – What’s to say?

12.  Arkansas (0-4) – Along with Vandy, biggest disappointment.

When Tennessee and Memphis renew their annual basketball rivalry Saturday afternoon at Thompson-Boling Arena, the circumstances surrounding the game will be much different than they were a year ago.

Last season, the stars aligned perfectly as No. 1 ranked Memphis hosted No. 2 Tennessee.  Last season’s matchup was the most-hyped of the college basketball regular season, and for an entire week, the two arch rivals were at the center of the college basketball universe.

In an epic game that became the highest-rated game in ESPN history, the Vols won 66-62, and for the first time in school history, Tennessee became the No. 1 team in the country.

This year, the circumstances are different.  The Vols are currently unranked, and the Tigers are barely ranked at No. 22 and No.24 in the two major polls.  The Tigers will most assuredly fall out of the Top 25 with a loss to the Vols.

CBS, anticipating a higher-profile game than it has turned out to be, snatched this year’s contest from the clutches of ESPN.  The network will broadcast the game to a national audience.  Gus Johnson and former UNLV point guard, Greg Anthony, will have the call.

Despite the fact that this year’s game has lost some of its luster compared to last year’s, the game is still important, and the rivalry lives on.

While this Memphis team is not particularly physical, it is quick, and its slash-to-the-basket offense could cause problems for a Tennessee team that has had difficulties stopping dribble penetration.

Much to the consternation of UT point guard Bobby Maze and head coach Bruce Pearl, Memphis features another big, physical point guard in Tyreke Evans.  A true freshman, Evans is 6-6 and 220, and the Tigers’ leading scorer at 16.6 ppg.

Memphis’ offense is designed to slash to the basket, and the Vols will have to be prepared to stop it.  Much like the strategy employed by Tennessee in last year’s game, the Vols will be better off to concede the perimeter shot.

For Tennessee, I see two keys to the game offensively.  First, the Vols need another productive offensive performance from freshman Scotty Hopson.  In Tennessee’s last two games, Hopson has shown flashes of why he was so highly regarded coming out of high school.  Memphis does not have a particularly good matchup for Hopson, and Tennessee is a much better team when Hopson is good. 

The other key factor is bench play.  Both coaches will go deep down their benches.  This season, the Vols are getting 27.6 points per game from their bench, compared to 16.5 points per game from their opposition.  Tennessee will need another solid scoring performance from its bench, and from J.P. Prince, in particular.

This should be an up-and-down, high flying game.

While its not the national marquee matchup it was last season, it remains a high-profile game featuring two of the nation’s highest profile teams.

Let it be said that I can get frustrated with Vol center Wayne Chism just like the next Tennessee fan.

Wayne can go from 0 to 20 faster than any college basketball player I have every seen.  Like 0 points in 11 minutes against South Carolina to 20 points

Vol Junior Center Wayne Chism

and seven rebounds against Vanderbilt on Tuesday night.

But by and large this season, Chism has been pretty good, just as he has for most of  his 2 1/2 seasons with the Vols.  For the record, Chism is the SEC’s fourth leading rebounder this season, while averaging 12.5 points a game.

But besides the headband, the bankshot three’s and his ineffable smile, what I appreciate most about Wayne Chism is that he was a real pioneer for Tennessee basketball under Bruce Pearl.

A four-star, highly-recruited prospect coming out of Bolivar Central High School in West Tennessee, Chism chose to come to Tennessee when Tennessee wasn’t cool.

While Chism’s high school teammate Willie Kemp did the more fashionable thing by signing with Memphis the same year, Chism signed with the Vols.  All this before Pearl had ever coached a game at Tennessee and all this at a time when Tennessee basketball had been left for dead for most of the previous 25 years.

Even as Chism came to campus for his freshman year, he was generally regarded as at least the third best signee of Pearl’s first recruiting class.  Fellow freshmen Duke Crews and Ramar Smith received much more of the spotlight.

Ramar and Duke are now gone from the program, but Wayne presses on, and along with Tyler Smith, provides the nucleus of this Vol team this year.

Chism has yet to make an All-SEC team or garner any other individual postseason honors at Tennessee.  But what he has done has helped lead Tennessee to an SEC championship and back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances.

For a pretty cool guy, Chism did the uncool thing by signing with Tennessee when he did.  When it’s all said and done, Chism should be remembered as one of the first players that brought Tennessee basketball back to prominence.

Tennessee continued its undefeated streak on the road in the SEC Tuesday

Tyler Smith Battles Vanderbilt's A.J. Ogilvy and Darshawn McClellan For The Ball In UT's 76-63 Road Win Against Vandy

night, defeating Vandy 76-63, in Nashville.

Following the Vols’ home loss to Kentucky last Tuesday night, it was critical for Tennessee to pickup another road win, and they did just that at one of the most difficult road venues in the conference.

In particular, I was impressed with Tennessee’s post defense against the Commodores.  The combination of Brian Williams, Wayne Chism and Emmanuel Negedu held Vandy center A.J. Ogilvy to only seven points last night.  It was nice to see the Vols hold an opposing team’s leading scorer below his average for a change, and the Vols did just that.

For most of the night, the Williams/Chism/Negedu combo was in the right position in the post against Ogilvy.  Make no mistake, Vanderbilt was looking to go inside to Ogilvy on most every possession, but the Vols did an excellent job of fronting Ogilvy and not losing the front position when Vanderbilt reversed the ball.

Vol fans can also take solace in that for the second-straight game, Scotty Hopson made a solid contribution offensively for Tennessee.  Held scoreless in the first half, Hopson had 11 key second-half points, including an important rebound dunk off a missed free throw midway through the second half.

I was, and still am, hesitant to call Hopson’s performance against South Carolina a breakout game for him, but it was very encouraging to see him follow that performance up with another solid performance against Vandy…and do it on the road.

It is clear that Tennessee has the potential to be a much better basketball team when Hopson is producing offensively.  And credit goes to Bruce Pearl for not pulling the plug on Hopson after such a slow start to the season.  His patience with Hopson now appears to be paying dividends.  For the first time all season, we are beginning to see what all the fuss was about with Hopson.

The other key to the victory was the Vols’ performance from the foul line in the second half.  Despite missing two front ends of one and one’s, the Vols shot 9-12 from the free throw line in the second half.  That’s the kind of free-throw shooting it takes to win on the road.

It cannot be underestimated the value of Tuesday night’s win for Tennessee. Winning on the road is never easy, and winning at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym is even harder.  Not many teams are going to win in Nashville this year or any year, so the Vols are a leg up at the moment in that regard.

Pearl is now 2-2 at Memorial Gym in his four years at Tennessee.  That’s pretty darn good.

Next up for Tennessee is the matchup with Memphis and our favorite coach, John Calipari, Saturday afternoon at 3:30.  The game will be televised nationally by CBS.

With the first full week in the books, Kentucky has emerged as the early frontrunner to win the SEC, although admittedly it’s still early.

Kentucky has the best win in the SEC to date…on the road at Tennessee.  The Vols have the second best win…last night’s victory on the road at Vanderbilt.

Through the first week of games, the SEC is 7-12 on the road, with four of those wins coming from Kentucky and Tennessee.  Why focus so much on road games?  Because that’s where the better teams in the league separate themselves.

Without further adieu, here are my rankings entering this week’s play.  (FYI, I have taken last nights UT/Vandy game into consideration since it was played last night.)

1.  Kentucky (3-0) - Best win in the SEC thus far…on the road at Tennessee.

2. Tennessee (3-1) – Second best win in the SEC…on the road at Vandy and still best conference RPI.

3. Florida (3-0) – First test may come tonight at South Carolina.

4. Mississippi State (3-0) – Still not convinced but did win at Arkansas.

5. LSU (2-1) – Blowout win at Ole Miss moves Tigers up the list.

6.  Vanderbilt (1-3) – Convinced they’re better than 1-3 start.

7. Arkansas (0-3) – Slow start, but couple of good non-conference wins.

8. South Carolina (1-2) – Key home game tonight with the Gators.

9. Auburn (1-2) – On road at Kentucky tonight.

10. Alabama (1-2) – Key home game with Kentucky Saturday.

11. Ole Miss (1-2) – Misses Chris Warren.

12.  Georgia (0-3) – Just plain bad.

Tennessee Needs Emmanuel Negedu

An All-Points-Bulletin should be issued regarding the whereabouts of Vol freshman Emmanuel Negedu. 

He’s been missing in action from the court recently and was nowhere to be found on the floor in Tuesday night’s home loss to Kentucky.

I’ve been advocating more minutes for Negedu for several weeks now.  His hustle and aggressive play have been trademarks of Bruce Pearl’s teams at Tennessee, at least the first three years.

While basketball is a team game, sometimes an individual can create a spark that will ignite a team.  I believe Negedu could be that guy for the Vols.

I can’t take credit for this suggestion that I heard from another Vol fan, but I think it’s a credible one.  As much difficulty as Tennessee has had lately getting consistent outside shooting from its cast of wing players that includes Scotty Hopson, Cameron Tatum, Renaldo Woolridge and J.P. Prince, why not move Tyler Smith to the No. 3 position on the floor and insert Negedu at the 4 spot?

While it’s hard to argue that Smith is a significantly better outside shooter than Tennessee’s current wing players, he has been a more consistent scorer.

I was encouraged in the Georgia game when Negedu was the first substitute into the game to replace Wayne Chism, instead of Brian Williams.  Pearl even went so far after the game to say that Negedu and Williams would battle it out for that first post spot coming off the bench.

Then Kentucky comes to town, and Negedu doesn’t even get into the game.  Granted, Williams had a couple of baskets in the Kentucky game, but he committed some untimely fouls and missed several key free throws.

At least Negedu isn’t a liability from the free throw line.  In fact, he’s shooting 83% from the line this season.  At least you know if he’s fouled, there’s a pretty good chance he’s going to convert at the free throw line, which is so important in a big man.  Williams, by the way, is shooting 54% from the line.

One and a half seasons in, I’m just not sure Williams has much upside potential for Tennessee.  While he runs the floor pretty well for his size, he is very slow laterally, hence the foul trouble and the challenge to be an effective player in the halfcourt on both the offensive and defensive ends. He’s still a slow big man.

Negedu, on the other hand, at least athletically, is far superior to Williams.  At 6-7 and 230 pounds, Negedu is strong and quick, and an excellent leaper.  Most importantly, he plays harder than any Vol I’ve seen this season, save for possibly Tyler Smith.  And while he may not be a prodigious scorer at this point, he’s not a liability at the free throw line.

And as poorly as the Vols were defending Meeks on Tuesday night, I would have at least given Negedu a shot at him.

This Tennessee team desperately needs a spark right now.  Don’t worry about his offensive production, Bruce.  Dane Bradshaw didn’t give you a lot of offense, either, but he gave you a whole lot more.

Tennessee needs Negedu.

Kentucky’s Jodie Meeksavich or Jodie MIssel, call him what you want,          

Kentucky's Jodie Meeksavich Ripped Tennessee For 54 Points Last Night (AP Photo)

ripped Tennessee for 54 points last night in an 18-point Wildcat blowout of the Vols at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Should anyone be surprised?  After all, Meeksavich does lead the SEC in scoring, averaging 24.2 points per game entering last night’s game.  The Vols only allowed him 30 points above his average.

Just last Saturday, Meeksavich torched Vanderbilt for 21 points at home, shooting 5-15 from two-point range and 3-9 from three.

If your team struggles offensively, schedule Tennessee.  The Vols rank last in the SEC in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and three-point field goal percentage defense.

And by the way, if you are so inclined, you can catch Meeksavich’s performance all over again tonight at 6:00 Eastern on ESPN Classic.  ESPN has dubbed it an “Instant Classic.”  That’s not what I would dub it.