Fulkerson’s Lucky Charms Lead The Way as Tennessee Catches Fire Against Ole Miss
For the most part, Tennessee’s offense has been ugly this season.
The Vols have often won their games due to their lockdown defense and in spite of a mostly lackluster offense.
And after Lamonte Turner’s career in orange and white ended due to shoulder surgery, the Vols’ scoring took another step back after losing a key shooter and playmaker.
You can look at the schedule and find clunker after clunker since then.
There was the brutal 17-point loss to Georgia. There was the one-point win against South Carolina where the Vols could only muster 56 points and won on the strength of their defense. And, of course, there was the awful night against Wisconsin, when Tennessee lost by 20 and failed to reach fifty points at home.
So when Tuesday night’s date with Ole Miss (8-9, 0-4 SEC) began with an offensive flurry for the Vols, Thompson-Boling Arena exploded.
Can you blame them?
Fans got to witness their Vols jump out to a huge early lead and never let up, winning 73-48.Big man John Fulkerson led the way, scoring a career-high 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Fulkerson, who was having some fun during his postgame press conference, credited his big night to his pregame meal: Lucky Charms.
“Before the game, I ate Lucky Charms,” Fulkerson said. “It worked. That was the first time I’ve ever done that [before a game], and it was the first time I’ve scored that many points in my entire career…I might be onto something”
Fulkerson went on to explain his philosophies on milk.
“I like whole milk,” he said. “2% is watered down, and skim milk…I’m not going to judge you if you drink skim milk, but like, you might as well drink water.”
Tennessee (11-6, 3-2 SEC) started hot and stayed that way for most of Tuesday’s game. Fulkerson had ten points before Ole Miss’s entire team did.
While the Vols racked up 42 points in the first half, shooting 52% from the field and 92% from the charity stripe, their defense remained predictably excellent as they limited Ole Miss to just 23 points in the half.
With Tennessee’s offensive barrage came highlights. Santiago Vescovi threw a pair of over-the-shoulder dimes for assists, one of which led to a thunderous dunk by Yves Pons. Josiah-Jordan James absorbed a foul and kissed a tough layup off the glass and in for an And-1. On defense, Pons and Olivier Nkamhoua both had blocks which got the crowd onto their feet.
Perhaps most importantly, Vols fans at the game had a lot of fun. In the second half alone, I counted five airballs from Ole Miss players, each of which received chants from the crowd more raucous than the last.
After the game, head coach Rick Barnes reflected on his team’s recent rough stretch of games. Now that the Vols have won two straight SEC games, he told the media that he hopes his team has turned a corner.
“I’d like to think that we’re starting to understand what goes into winning,” Barnes said. “We certainly understand what goes into losing.”
Tennessee’s next game will be in Allen Fieldhouse as they take on third-ranked Kansas.
The Jayhawks are expected to have a number of players suspended, including star center Silvio de Sousa, after a brawl at the end of the their game against Kansas State on Tuesday night.
