Nichols: No. 16 Tennessee stuffs rim and stat sheet in win over Georgia

Behind their three 5-stars, the 16th-ranked Vols notched a solid win against Georgia on Wednesday. But can they replicate it on Saturday to cement some long-awaited consistency?

Three 5-star Tennessee players walk into a gym.

One of them, a freshman, looks at the others and says, “Watch this!” before dropping 30 points for a new career-high. Mind you, these 30 points are the first such outing for a Tennessee freshman since Grant Williams in 2017, according to Tennessee Stats and Info. They’re also coming only four days after a previous career-high of 23 for the same player.

“Not so fast,” responds the threesome’s eldest player, who has become something of a mentor to the younger two. He then proceeds to add a season-best 18 points, six rebounds and three assists from a relatively new position, which had only opened due to an injury for one of the team’s two senior leaders.

Suddenly, those two realize they can’t find the third 5-star, another freshman. Only when they look up do they see him, swinging one-handed from the rim after a tomahawk slam that was so powerful, so nasty, so posterizing, that it could have elicited the Braves’ “Tomahawk Chop” in response.

The other players’ mouths drop to the floor. Meanwhile, the slamming freshman (11 points, two rebounds, three assists) simply jogs back on defense, adding to abilities that are sure to land him as an NBA lottery pick.

For now, though, Keon Johnson isn’t worried about his draft stock. Neither are Jaden Springer, whose 53 points have paced Tennessee in the last two games, or Josiah-Jordan James, whose versatility has become essential.

Instead, these three have more pressing matters — like being the driving force behind Tennessee’s newfound transition offense, which looks like the hardwood version of football’s run-and-gun.

Only this one is run-and-fun.

That’s certainly an apt description for most of Wednesday night, as the 16th-ranked Vols survived a poor final stretch to beat Georgia 89-81 in Knoxville.

The win avenged Tennessee’s loss to Georgia in Athens last season. That night, Anthony Edwards showed why he would become the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

This time around, Tennessee is the one with a guaranteed first-rounder on its roster, and maybe even two with Springer’s recent emergence. But it takes all three — Johnson, Springer, James — to really make this offense shine.

“I think that the faster we play and stay with it, people will try to slow you down,” said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes. “We want to get out. We want to go. We want to get in the open court. We’ve been talking about it for a long time, and right now they’re looking to do it. When it’s not clicking the way you want it to, that’s where we’ve got to take care of the ball and whatever it is we want to get into—we’ve got different ways we can get into different things—but we have to continue to be aggressive.”

That aggressiveness worked well for most of the night. Tennessee jumped out to a 13-5 lead off three 3-pointers, two from Santiago Vescovi and one from Springer.

Later, Georgia battled back within five points, 26-21, but an 18-5 run put the Vols up 44-26 at halftime.

Two-thirds of Tennessee’s points in that run came from Springer, Johnson and James. The Vols also finished the first half with 13 fast-break points and 16 in the paint.

Tennessee piled on in the second half, at least through the first 10 minutes. A 3-pointer from James connected to put the Vols up by 21, and the sophomore continued flexing his versatility.

That Swiss-Army-knife approach has paid off in major ways for the South Carolina native, who played more at the four spot Wednesday with Yves Pons sidelined due to a knee injury in practice.

“The fact is I see Josiah really starting to put together a game where he is being effective in a lot of different ways to impact the game,” Barnes said.

Added James: “We knew we would lose a lot of production with Yves being out. So, everyone really had to pick up the slack. I just wanted to be more aggressive on offense and I think the coaches really preached that to me throughout the week and that’s what I tried to go out and do.”

James hasn’t just been productive on the floor, though. As mentioned, he’s also become something of a mentor, or a “calming force,” in Barnes’ words, for Johnson and Springer.

“That’s why I think he has matured really well in terms of doing that,” Barnes said. “He is talking to the young guys a lot while the game is going on and trying to get them to understand what is happening and what we need them to do.”

“I just try to always encourage them,” James said. “Coaches are going to coach and be tough on them. They’re going to have good days and bad days. With me, knowing that I went through it last year, I just want them to know that if they’re having a tough day that it does get better and to control the things you can control and worry about getting better every day. They’re really doing a spectacular job. I think they’re just scratching the surface of where they can be right now. It all goes into their preparation. I see them there day-in and day-out, so I’m not surprised by their production, because we’re going to need it.”

One prime example of that production, and the spark that comes of it? The possession after James’s 3-pointer.

On the Vols’ next trip down the floor, John Fulkerson found Johnson as he sprinted toward the basket. The freshman rose toward the basket, hovering over Georgia’s Tounami Camara. Only then did he windmill a one-handed slam through the rim before hanging for a moment.

Maybe Johnson swung on the rim in celebration. Or, maybe he did that just to give everyone time to realize what they had witnessed.

OH MY GOODNESS, KEON JOHNSON 🤯 #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/MGPFm3Mcbk

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 11, 2021

What Keon Johnson just did is illegal in 48 states pic.twitter.com/uyowstQaNm

— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) February 11, 2021

When asked about his teammate’s slam, Springer could only replicate the shocked expression he had when it happened. Vescovi said he wasn’t surprised, that Johnson “is a freak.”

James, meanwhile, could only offer a jingle.

“I’m still speechless,” he said, before mimicking the SportsCenter theme. “Da-nuh—nuh, da-nuh-nuh. That will be on SportsCenter for a long time.”

And James was correct — Johnson’s slam was No. 1 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays this morning.

But to make that play, Johnson needed a solid pass from Fulkerson. 

In the same way, the Vols will also need their other senior, Pons, down the stretch. Barnes said he should be back on Saturday against LSU. But the Vols certainly missed his aggressiveness late Wednesday, even with four players in double-figures.

Instead, that aggressive nature flipped to Georgia, as the Bulldogs trimmed a 21-point deficit to as little as six.

The Vols gave up 17 turnovers, several in the waning moments. At one point, a Georgia player even swatted the ball directly away from Vescovi, who had stood motionless waiting for a play to develop.

Vescovi impressed on the stat sheet, as he finished with 19 points. But he also gave up four other turnovers, five in total. Springer coughed the ball up five times as well, while Johnson did so four times.

“It is frustrating, but I think you have to give Georgia credit,” Barnes said. “They got up there and they got their hand on it and would break it loose. But it’s the ones out front where you’re just standing very casual with the ball, and they break it loose and go down and get those. But I think you have to give Georgia credit for that; they got aggressive and they took the ball from us in those situations.”

“Our three guards had 14 of those turnovers,” Barnes added. “That’s the frustrating part, but otherwise, it’s never going to be easy. Games are never going to be easy when you play anybody in this league. When they are down, they are not going to stop playing. It is a long time over 40 minutes, but we can’t give up 55 points in the second half. And some of those we had no defense for because of the turnovers.”

Barnes will certainly keep that second half of film on a loop through the next couple of days, as he should. Overall, though, there was far more good than bad to take from Wednesday’s game.

Now, Tennessee turns its attention to LSU. When the Vols take the floor in Baton Rouge on Saturday, they’ll do so in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Of course, the building is named after one of the flashiest, most talented players to ever hold a basketball.

This weekend, we’ll see if Johnson and Springer can show some flashes of their own to put their stamp on an arena that’s roughly 94 feet from Tiger Stadium.

If the freshmen can do that, and Tennessee limits its turnovers, then the Vols won’t just be “Callin’ Baton Rouge” — they’ll be knocking down the door to some long-awaited consistency.

That’s a lot better than some rip-off joke about walking into a bar, especially as the calendar begins turning toward March.