Observations from Tennessee’s Exhibition Against Indiana
By Tucker Harlin
#12 Tennessee fell to #17 Indiana 66-62 in a charity exhibition in Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Sunday afternoon.
The lower bowl was full for the exhibition with a lot of Indiana red in the stands. Pat Adams even made an appearance in the officiating crew, adding to the big game feel.
October exhibitions aren’t supposed to be squeaky clean, and this game was about far away as you can get from perfection.
Here’s what I observed from each half of the exhibition.
FIRST HALF
Tennessee’s defense was nasty in the opening 20 minutes.
I went in with the expectation Felix Okpara was going to be the primary post defender, but J.P. Estrella and Cade Phillips both had nice moments off the bench against Oumar Ballo.
Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler had the four steals in the first half. Those two are as difficult to dribble against as they’ve ever been in Knoxville.
The offense was questionable in the first 20, shooting just 3/20 from three and 8/33 from the field.
Chaz Lanier made the most efforts to score, but he was 2/11 in the half. Possessions were too frenetic in many instances, but such is to be expected in an October exhibition.
SECOND HALF
Igor Milicic caught my attention early with an offensive rebound and finish at the rim seconds later. He scored on the next possession as the defender didn’t pursue on a push to the basket.
Okpara had a great sequence early in the half, blocking Ballo on one end and finishing with a hook shot on the other.
The offense encountered another one of those lengthy scoring droughts for five minutes between the nine and four-minute marks. Indiana used this to its advantage and finished the game on a 16-8 run.
The rather large number of Indiana fans who made the trip for the exhibition got loud in the final five minutes as Tennessee simply couldn’t respond on offense.
Both Lanier and Darlinstone Dubar didn’t see the floor in the final portion of the game. The rationale Rick Barnes gave for the two sitting on the bench was a need to learn how to impact the game without scoring the ball.
OVERALL
The fight from this team is there on the defensive end, as it is with every Barnes team. The play of Zeigler and Mashack is still a constant while the interior is much improved from last season.
The questions around the offense center around how it can steadily produce as opposed to where it will come from.
Sunday’s exhibition showed a team that was reliant on the guards to produce. The Vols shot a freezing cold 30.5% for the game, and the top three scoring guards shot about 23.5% from the floor.
In reality, the Vols wanted to work the ball inside on offense. Felix Okpara was able to finish some at the rim with hook shots in the paint, but it was a struggle to get the ball to Okpara, Estrella and Phillips.
The good news for the Vols is this one didn’t go on the record and it was played against the best team they’ll see before the SEC schedule.
Tennessee has just over a week between now and its season opener against Gardner-Webb next Monday. That game tips off at 7 p.m. and airs on SEC Network Plus.
