Defense Paves Way In Tennessee's Opening Win
The Tennessee Volunteers did exactly what they needed to in their 2023-24 season opener on Monday night. They played a stress-free game of basketball. The Vols handled Tennessee Tech at Thompson-Boling Arena by a final score of 80-42. As it was so often last year, Tennessee's defense was the story of the game, but there were a lot of encouraging offensive takeaways in the win.
In the first 8 minutes of the game, it looked like a typical November basketball game. Both teams were very sloppy and neither offense was clicking. The teams combined for 9 turnovers by the second media timeout and Tennessee led just 7-2.
Jordan Gainey and Dalton Knecht were the catalysts that sparked the Volunteer offense as they finally started to show signs of life after the second media timeout. The Vols went into the half up 41-12 on the Golden Eagles in what was a ridiculously good defensive half.
Knecht finished with 17 to lead the Vols in scoring and Josiah-Jordan James tacked on 15 on 5 threes. Jonas Aidoo was every bit as good defensively as many thought he could be this season and had 4 blocks in the game.
Outside of holding Tennessee Tech to just .656 points per possession, Tennessee showed a lot on the offensive end as well. They hit 12-30 threes (40%), were perfect from the free throw line (10-10) and didn't need their preseason All-Conference first-team guard in Santiago Vescovi to do much to have a good offensive night.
Vescovi finished with just 2 points and had a tough shooting night, but Tennessee still scored 1.212 points per possession despite that. That goes to show how impactful the transfers can end up being for this team. It's also worth noting that Tennessee played tonight at a 66-possession pace which was about 1 possession higher than the pace they played at last year.
On the downside offensively, Tennessee had 2 stretches where the offense couldn't get a bucket and looked like the offense of last year. Over time, those stretches should become less frequent as the team learns that Knecht will be the one who gets them out of those ruts.
Zakai Zeigler also made his return to the court last night scoring 3 points and dishing out 4 assists in 13 minutes. Zeigler did not start the game and it appears that Tennessee could try to ease him back into game action after recovering from a torn ACL in around 8 months. It was a remarkable recovery time and a great moment for Zeigler to get back out there.
The Vols have a lot of positives to take away from opening night in a game that they were far from their best. When your two projected All-Conference players combine for 5 points and you win by 38, that's both encouraging and a sign that there are steps to take to get to the final form.
The first true test of Tennessee's season will come on Friday when the Vols travel to Madison to take on Wisconsin at 9 PM EST. The Badgers won their opener last night against Arkansas State by a final of 105-76.
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