Tennessee Cruises Against Lenoir-Rhyne In Exhibition Win
After knocking off Michigan State on Sunday, Tennessee closed the preseason with one final warmup game against Division ll Lenoir-Rhyne. The Vols handled the Bears at Thompson-Boling Arena by a final score of 90-48. Tennessee played 13 guys including 2 walk-ons in the win and 12 different guys scored.
The most notable storyline of the game wasn't what was happening on the court, but on the bench. Zakai Zeigler who remains out with a torn ACL, was sitting next to Rick Barnes in a Santiago Vescovi jersey. Zeigler was showing his support for his teammate who was back at home in Uruguay as his grandmother is not doing well.
Barnes said that he asked Zeigler to sit next to him so they could share ideas and their thoughts on the game.
On the court, Tennessee was led by Jonas Aidoo (14 points), Jordan Gainey (13 points) and Dalton Knecht (13 points). Unlike the Michigan State game, Tennessee was very balanced with only Knecht and Gainey playing 25 minutes or more. It was apparent that Barnes wanted to give the young guys a chance no matter how much they're going to play once real games start.
Takeaways:
With a blowout expected, this was a good chance to take note of certain players and certain team trends both positively and negatively. So without further ado, let's get into it.
1. The Tobe Awaka breakout hype is real
This was the first major thing I noticed when watching the game. Awaka scored 11 points on a perfect 4-4 from the field in just 9 minutes. It doesn't seem likely that Awaka will start at all this season barring an injury to Aidoo, but he's really developed his basketball skills and is no longer just a pure physical specimen. It will be very hard to keep Awaka off the floor even if it means trying small doses of him and Aidoo together.
2. Rick Barnes is not pleased with the offense in the exhibitions
Obviously, Tennessee didn't shoot the ball super well against Lenoir-Rhyne, but Barnes in his press conference talked about how they need to execute more consistently as a whole. I'm not overly concerned about that. When it comes to executing sets, getting Zeigler and Vescovi back should solve some of that issue.
However, Barnes made the point that offensive rebounding needs to be better because there are nights when they won't shoot the ball well. That is definitely a fair point, but on a more positive note, Barnes believes this team will be a good shooting team. If this team is a good shooting team and doesn't take a huge drop off on defense, we're in for a special year.
To add one more note, Barnes said that Vescovi would be back with the team yesterday (November 1st).
3. Freddie Dilione isn't quite ready to play against high-level competition
I wrote over the summer that with Zeigler out, Dilione could hold down the fort as a potential point guard option. Right now, I don't think the coaching staff sees him as a point guard and I'm not sure he's ready for high-major competition in a significant role yet. When I watch Dilione right now, I don't think he has the speed or strength to get past defenders. His passing still looks pretty good, but overall, he might be more of a work in progress than I thought.
However, I do think it's good that he got to campus early and redshirted. That should probably help his understanding of his role and development as the season goes on.
4. Jahmai Mashack has developed into a solid playmaker
I wanted to save this one for last because this was something I did not expect at all. Mashack is playing with so much more confidence than last year and so many parts of his game have gotten better. Barnes trusts him to handle the ball and he looks good doing it. Mashack had 4 assists in 19 minutes against Lenoir-Rhyne and also hit another 3. Mashack did have 2 turnovers in 19 minutes on Tuesday and 3 turnovers in 29 minutes against Michigan State, but again, he's not expected to play the point in any given game for that long.
I don't expect turnovers to be a non-issue with Mashack as he's still relatively new to the position at Tennessee, but his offensive game has come a long way since the end of last season.
Tennessee will officially open up their regular season on Monday against Tennessee Tech at Thompson-Boling Arena. I would assume Vescovi is playing now that he is back from Uruguay, but we'll see about where Zeigler is at. Barnes was adamant once again that Zeigler needs to get to 100% before he is playing in games.
For now, though, that's a wrap on the preseason. There are a lot of things to like so far from what should be a great season of Tennessee Basketball.
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