If you had told Rick Barnes on day one of practice that his Tennessee Volunteers would have been in NCAA Tournament bubble conversations during the next to last week of the season, he would have gladly taken it.
He has six freshmen and five sophomores on his roster and as this team goes forward, even now, it is in uncharted territory.
Saturday at South Carolina was definitely a challenge for a young team as the Gamecocks had lost four out of five while the Volunteers were coming off an emotional home loss to Vanderbilt.
Things snowballed in a hurry as the Volunteers turned the ball over seven times in the first eight minutes and found themselves in the direct firing line of a proud South Carolina team that was eager to turn its season around.
“We started three freshmen (Lamonte Turner, Grant Williams, and Kwe Parker) and a sophomore (Kyle Alexander) and Robert Hubbs,” said Barnes, “I can’t say enough about Robert. He did everything he could to have an impact on the game and we even had to let him bring the ball up the court to make sure he got the ball up the court.”
Hubbs was 7-of-14 from the field with 16 points, although Tennessee’s backcourt play was frustrating for Barnes. The Vols had only three assists against 20 turnovers which resulted in 27 Gamecocks points and were 1-of-13 from behind the arc where they average six per game.
“South Carolina has been down a little and that can happen to any team in college basketball,” noted Barnes, “I think they are one of the top 20 teams in the country. You come in knowing that they have been struggling, you know their work ethic character and what Frank does, so they came out and fought back.”
Barnes saw his team fight back after it trailed 27-9 with 7:58 remaining. The play of Grant Williams inside and then Hubbs picking and choosing his spots to score allowed them to score six apiece in the latter portals of the first half. Tennessee found some momentum and then outscored the Gamecocks, 21-11, to cut the lead to 38-30 at the break.
Barnes lauded a lineup of Williams, Alexander, Hubbs, Schofield, and Shembari Phillips, who ended the first half and allowed Tennessee to get to within four before a 17-4 run gave South Carolina the separation it needed at 55-38 as the Gamecocks then ran to their 21st win of the season.
“I thought we had five guys that played their hearts out,” commenced Barnes, “Those guys played hard and made some mistakes but still you could tell they were in the game.”
Barnes talked about the fine line that was a turning point that allowed South Carolina to turn back the momentum once and for all.
“Robert came down and made a tough pass and somebody threw it to Kyle and he wasn’t ready and they go down and they get one more point,” he noted, “When we had to go to our bench in the second half, we just went backwards every time. We couldn’t play those guys the entire time even though we were playing some zone.”
For Tennessee, games at LSU and home to Alabama in the coming week will give the Vols a shot at a winning record. This team was picked 13th in the conference in the preseason and for it to have a chance to finish with a winning record, finish in the middle of the unpredictable SEC, and then possibly pick up an NIT bid is a positive in every since of the word.
“We’re going to regroup; we have to,” he said, “We have two games left and a conference tournament.”