Chance to improve gladly taken by McRae, Golden

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trae Golden's knee was sore, the vision in his right eye blurred by conjunctivitis, he couldn't hit a shot and no one wanted to pass him the ball through the first 24 minutes of Saturday night's all-star game.

But the second half of the 38th annual Derby Festival Basketball Classic was a different story for the Tennessee signee and Georgia Mr. Basketball award winner.

Golden scored all of his 21 points in the second half and nearly led his team back from a 22-point deficit. His 3-pointer and ensuing free throw pulled his team to 119-116 with 4:22 remaining.

Golden's team wound up losing 133-124, but not before he and future UT teammate Jordan McRae had shown both strengths and weaknesses.

At the very least, the Vols are getting two competitive players who will go hard to the final whistle - even in an all-star game.

"My knee is not 100 percent; I'm hoping it's just tendinitis,'' said Golden, who after an 0-for-4 shooting and zero-rebound first half hit eight of 16 shots in the second half and grabbed four boards. "Then I put some drops in my eye because it was bothering me.''

While Golden struggled in the first half, McRae was lighting it up, scoring nine of his 14 points in the first half and grabbing four of his six rebounds through the first two 12-minute quarters.

"You're not going to have your best night every night, and it was an off night shooting for me,'' said McRae, who was 6-of-15 from the floor but just 1-of-5 shooting beyond the 3-point arc. "Hopefully I won't have many of those nights at Tennessee.''

Both Golden and McRae said playing in the Derby Classic reinforced their suspicions that they need time in the weight room before competing in the SEC.

"This was a great experience, it's another level,'' said Golden, who attends McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga. "I'm just going to go home and get back to working out and get ready to come to UT.''

McRae, a lanky 6-foot-5 wing from Midway, Ga., said the physicality of the contest got to him, too.

"I've got to get stronger,'' McRae said. "But right now, I'm tired, and I'm ready for some rest.''

McRae played 22 minutes and recorded a blocked shot and an assist in addition to turning the ball over once. UT fans will be reminded of former Vol JaJuan Smith when they see McRae play.

He's built similar to Smith, but is two inches taller.

It remains to be seen if he can show the same defensive tenacity that made Smith the most dangerous weapon in UT coach Bruce Pearl's "Controlled Chaos" press.

Golden is a cross between departing point guard Bobby Maze and Maze's predecessor, Ramar Smith.

Golden has a thick build like Ramar Smith, but appears to lack his quickness (the knee might have been a factor). Golden handles the ball in the same steady manner as Maze and has the same high basketball I.Q. Like Maze, Golden isn't shy about putting up shots, either, as his 20 shot attempts were the most by any player in Saturday night's game.

Golden doesn't appear to have much of a vertical leap, however, and three of his shots were blocked by 6-10 Louisville recruit Gorgui Sy Dieng, who had eight rejections.

McRae is a high-riser, with a vertical of at least 38 inches based on his performance in the all-star game's slam-dunk competition.

McRae was effective on the boards in the first half before his all-star team coach made an adjustment.

"Coach told me to get outside and let our big guys rebound,'' McRae said. "He wanted me to get out on the break, or I would have kept hitting the boards.''

McRae's obvious weakness is his strength; he will have a difficult time matching up with some small forwards because he is so thin and can be easily posted up.

One statistic that didn't show up in the boxscore was the "Plus-Minus," which measures how the team did when each player was in the game.

Pearl often uses the statistic to measure the efficiency of the Vols' players.

Golden's team had a plus-five while he was in the game (meaning they were outscored by 14 when he wasn't running the point) while McRae had a plus-four.