Tennessee Vols Begin SEC Play At Mississippi State
The Tennessee Vols begin SEC play in Starkville, Mississippi this evening as they take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Vols opened with a road win last season at LSU, and hope to do the same tonight.
The Vols have played to a surprising 8-4 start. They have played several good teams during this stretch with wins over notables Mercer and Butler, and losses to Kansas, Marquette and North Carolina State. They have played a good pre-season schedule to get ready.
But here is the facts. Tennessee is down to nine scholarship players. The Vols received bad news yesterday as freshman point guard Braxton Bonds’ appeal for eligibility was denied by the NCAA yesterday. He would have been able to spell Senior Josh Richardson, who is the team’s on court leader, in case of foul trouble. Bonds, a Christ Presbyterian School product from Nashville, Tennessee will be redshirted according to head coach Donnie Tyndall.
The Vols have lost Ian Chiles (surgery on shoulder upcoming) and Freshman Jabari McGhee (broken foot). Both of these were reserves, but on a young team like Tennessee it would have been valuable minutes to give the starters a rest.
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The Vols have been resilient so far, and there is no reason to think that characteristic won’t continue. The Vols have started slow in most of the games this season. That is a worry for Vol fans and Coach Donnie Tyndall. The Vols started out the ETSU game last week by giving up 13 straight points to ETSU before finally scoring. Tennessee ended up winning by 10. A good start will help matters tonight. They do not want to get down early to the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State has a record of 7-6, but they are 6-2 at home. They are coming off of a big win over a very good Florida State team. State is a team that likes to play the half court game. The Vols will try to push the ball up the floor on the Bulldogs to try and get them in a full court game. It will be interesting to see if Tennessee can be successful running against State.
State is led by Senior Roquez Johnson. Johnson averages about 11 points and 5 rebounds per game. He is 6-7 and 210 pounds. The Bulldogs Gavin Ware will cause the most problems for the Vols. Ware is a big body 6-9 260 pound Junior. Tennessee has nothing close to this size inside. Gavin averages 10.4 points per game and is the leading rebounder. Tennessee will counter Ware with 6-8 205 pound freshman Willie Carmichael, who has played well as of late, and 6-10 210 pound Tariq Owens. The Vols will go after Ware with their speed on the wing to try and get him in foul trouble. Mark that one down.
Tennessee has the best player on the court tonight in Senior point guard Josh Richardson. Richardson is scoring, assisting, defending and leading the team in general. If Josh goes down with an injury or foul trouble…well I don’t even want to think about it. There is not another point guard on this team.
Tennessee’s strength is that they can shoot the ball from behind the arc. Newcomers Devon Baulkman and Kevin Punter are shooting the lights out from three point land. Robert Hubbs III is playing better now as well, and seems to be regaining the form that made him a Tennessee High School Mr Basketball winner. The Vols need Hubbs to step up.
The second most valuable player on this team is hard working Armani Moore. Moore just outworks his opponents, and he does anything and everything to help Tennessee win. At just 6’5 210 pounds, Moore battles on the boards and bangs with the bigs in Tennessee’s match up zone.
Moore is a clutch time player. He is averaging just under 10 points per game, and averaging almost 7 rebounds per game. He gets it done night in and night out for the Vols. He has been consistent in his play which is good for such as young team, and gives the Vols about 30 minutes per game. He is the work horse.
Junior Derek Reese will be important tonight as well. Reese is a 6-8 220 lb Junior. Reese has been up and down this season offensively shooting only 36% from the field, but seems to hit big shots down the stretch for the Vols in big games. He hit a tough three pointer against Butler to help win that game. Reese is averaging just over 4 rebounds per game to help in that category which will be crucial tonight.
Tennessee is capable of winning this game in Starkville. The problem for the Vols is that they do not have a lot of experience playing on the road. Especially playing on the road in the SEC. It is tough on experienced teams to win on the road, so it will be compounded for a team like Tennessee. This game will go a long way to define what Tennessee will do this season.