Tennessee forward Renaldo Woolridge gets fouled by Brevard's Travis Jackson at Thompson-Boling Arena on Wednesday night.
The new-and-not-yet-improved Tennessee men's basketball team offered a bit of everything Wednesday night.
The Vols were missing some things, too, as one might expect with the departures of four starters from a year ago.
Tennessee scored a 91-42 victory over Division II Brevard before an announced crowd of 17,878 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The final score didn't matter so much as who, when and how the 23rd-ranked Vols scored their points.
Preseason All-SEC pick Scotty Hopson and freshman Tobias Harris, a McDonald's High School All-American, took steps toward proving they can be the 1-2 offensive punch UT needs, scoring 17 and 16 points against the undersized Tornados.
Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl was focused on other games within the game: The perimeter game, the post game, passing and rebounding.
"We have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but I'm satisfied with where we're at right now,'' said Pearl, whose Vols will play host to their second and final exhibition game at 7:30 p.m. Monday against Division II Indianapolis.
Among Pearl's chief complaints about Wednesday's performance:
n The Vols' inability to create turnovers in the full-court press and on its inbounds and under-the-basket pressures;
n Entry passes into the post;
n Unforced turnovers in transition; and
n Rebounding.
"Once we get healthy the determining factor of who will be out there will be who can defend and who can rebound,'' said Pearl, whose team out-rebounded Brevard 54-40 and committed 10 second-half turnovers. "We've got a lot of guys who can score.''
There were, however, some things Pearl was pleased with against Brevard.
Hopson and Harris, who shot a combined 12-for-17 from the floor and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line, both drew praise for their maturity and poise.
And, for the most part, Pearl was impressed with the play of point guards Melvin Goins and Trae Golden, who combined for seven assists with no turnovers.
Senior transfer John Fields showed Pearl enough that the Vols' head coach predicted Fields will set at least one team record this season.
"John Fields is going to get that single-game shot-blocking record, which is only six,'' Pearl said, referring to a record currently shared by Wayne Chism, Elgrace Wilborn, Doug Roth and Reggie Johnson. "He had some nice moments out there and had a nice presence out there.''
Fields scored only six points, but he had seven rebounds and blocked five shots.
The competition for back-up duties on the wing has heated up again, too, with freshman Jordan McRae struggling through a 2-of-8 shooting performance with seven rebounds and three turnovers while junior Renaldo Woolridge made 4-of-7 shots and pulled down eight rebounds with no turnovers.
Fourth-year junior Cameron Tatum, the projected starter on the wing, was held out of the action. Tatum missed three weeks of practice with a bone bruise on his knee before returning to workouts on Monday. Pearl said Tatum will play in Monday's exhibition.
Senior post Brian Williams, who had 11 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, will likely regain the starting role at the post. Williams missed five days with a sprained ankle that was still not yet completely healed Wednesday, so Fields started in his place.
The Vols open the season at 9 p.m. on Nov. 12 against Chattanooga.
Mike Griffith covers UT men's basketball. He may be reached at 865-755-5599. Follow him at http://twitter.com/mgrif32 and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/askgriff
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Comments » 36
redskinvol1 writes:
Buzzball this is not.Thank you coach Pearl.
Orangeblood13 writes:
Q the naysayers
After 1 game
volrush17#609372 writes:
ATTACK-ATTACK-ATTACK!!!!!
Go Vols!!!!
Class of 1972-stadium Vol's
tmartin writes:
Williams has already lost his starting position? What a releif, maybe we will be alright after all.
usnavyvolfaninva_still_getting_paid writes:
It'd be nice to have all the injuries out of the way by the time the real season starts! LOL.
Sounds like a good game tonight. GBO!!
usnavyvolfaninva_still_getting_paid writes:
Anybody who's seen BW this season, has he lost weight? I saw a pic of him and it looked like he lost weight.
razin55 writes:
The game was good to get the 1st time Vols feet wet.
Just a note on Rick Russo and Mike Grifiths sports report on TV spot at 6;20, a very classless move to continue your discussion while the National Anthenm was being played behind you.
midnite__VOL writes:
swiperboy !!!!!!!!!!!
BigOrangeInVA writes:
I know what you mean! I was watching the game online and didn't even recognize BW. Obviously a little rusty with it being their first live competition against a much weaker opponent but, overall, I liked what I saw. I'll be anxious to see Golden against a quality defense but he and Goins are going to be a dangerous tandem in the backcourt.
keepitreal4vols writes:
Ok Griff, Why does this story start off talking about a foul on Woolridge---did you forget to copy and paste the punch line?
PopsinCapetownSA writes:
Williams has not lost his startin job; must be a gator fan.
chbradshaw writes:
The caption for the last photo somehow made its way into the lead for the article.
I guess it was an exhibition effort by the copy staff as well. I doubt we'll see these mistakes in the regular season.
skm writes:
maybe he meant queue as in line 'em up.
team overall looked pretty good last night. i know this, if we have to have a basket in clutch time, we will go low to tobias. the guy's post game is tremendous and automatic. scotty's perimeter shot was on last night. a good sign
Witch_Doctors writes:
Witch Doctor wish this little-man interloper was smart enough to understand how the NCAA works...not gonna happen in December but Witch Doctor tired of explaining. Witch Doctor say whine whine whine like someone stole your barbie dream house
Bones never lie.
Tennfan4075 writes:
Again you don't know what your talking about. The NCAA is not going to drop any hammers in December. Any kind of penalties will not come until at least February and probably not until April after the season.
bryanvolsfan writes:
They usually play sloppy the first 2 pre-season games, and then they always look ALOT better come the first game of the year! Didnt get to see the game but really interested in seeing Tobias, Jordan and Trea play in Pearl's system.
Sounded like Scotty is MUCH improved.
Volsfan2456 writes:
Williams looks leaner. Hopson looks bigger and stronger. Team looked good and this was a game for knocking off the rust. GBO!
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
Good post. I've said on here a few times, folks just don't know how good Tobias Harris is. I know Hopson came in with the hype and it has taken a while for him to shine, but Tobias is the real deal. Tobias may have been the best player in the nation coming out and we have him. This is a final 4 team.....
hcjournals#206623 writes:
Griffith is better than that. He's not going to keep stirring this up just so he can get national bylines. This story is so yesterday. Tired of hearing about it.
licknpromise777#651578 writes:
Good to see Harris live up to the hype;He will fill the scoring gap from the loss of Prince.Finally we get a forward that can score of the dribble!!I also like how McRae goes strong to the basket and passes well..Goins looks a step faster and we need that..Will this be Hopson's year??Too early to tell but his shooting mechanics improve every year.To win the tough games his 3's must fall.Hall did not play..Is he Hurt or just playing bad??
ellerbee123 writes:
I am soooo tired of hearing about Bruce Pearl and what he did. Let's talk major issues. Like the money Fulmer practically embezzled from the University of Tennessee while sitting up there on his fat a-- and taking $2,000,000 a year while doing NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING. I think the University should sue. He lied about his recruiting, etc. So, why don't they get off Pearl who actually works for his money and go after Fulmer who for all intents and purposes stole in excess of $10,000,000.00 from UT.
deVOLdog writes:
Not going to disagree with what you said, but I love your optimism.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
Hall is hurt; he had surgery on a foot back in the pre-season and hurt his foot again in practice early in the week. Not sure if it is the same foot. As I posted on the article about his injury, I REALLY hope this doesn't become some kind of chronic injury. We could REALLY use a healthy, active Hall for relief in the post.
BTW, CBP's list of complaints about the team looks depressingly like the main gripes I had about last year's team. I didn't see the game, but I was really hoping the pressure defense would be better this year. Maybe it's mostly a matter of guys in and out of the lineup with so far mostly minor injuries. Hopefully they will also get better at feeding the post.
huntined#565710 writes:
They didn't look sharp at all. They threw the ball away too much and Williams still can't hit a 2 foot shot right under the basket. First game as I know but this team has a long way to go.Pearl will have do do his best coaching this year if we go any where... They did win big so GBO!!
licknpromise777#651578 writes:
Thanks for the info;not to worried about Hall because he can't score off the dribble and Harris makes him look like a 3rd stringer..Your right about the defense especially in half court..It won us a lot of games..Bruce is a fanatic about defense so eventually it will come along
Witch_Doctors writes:
Witch Doctor say you must be listening to the voices in your head as no one posted any of that. Witch Doctor say you gonna have to interlope better if you gonna hang with us.
Bones never lie.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
I don't disagree about Hall not being a scorer in the post, but he could still be valuable in defense and rebounding, just to give the other posts a break or fill in when they are in foul trouble. My defensive complaint was that last year and so far this year, the Vols weren't forcing the turnovers in the full-court press the way they did in CBP's first couple of years. I was however VERY pleased with the half-court defense the team played last year. If they can match that kind of effort and results this year, I won't worry that much about the lack of a devastating full-court press.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
That's what you do in season openers, 1)play a patsy, 2)play sloppy. Often a team in ANY sport shows their biggest improvement between the 1st and 2nd game. This team will shine.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
ROTFLMAO!!!! Not sure he embezzeled it, but I kinda see where you are coming from. LMAO, that's funny.
VolJunkie writes:
It's only Brevard but ...
Vols dictated tempo and ran at every opportunity; most of the turnovers were related to transition/fast break. Errors of being aggressive.
Amazingly athletic team with lots of energy generated by players competing for minutes let alone starting.
Good outside shooting with lots of looks down low. BW looks "nimble" and has softer hands with some nice moves on the low block.
Fields is a beast. Agree with CBP, he will get break the shot block record.
Good to see the return of the 8-12 foot jump shot.
Again, it's Brevard, but some good signs of things to come.
Go Vols!
Juzkruzin writes:
It really doesn't matter who you are playing, a turn over is a turn over. A missed shot under the basket is a missed shot. The BO looked great at times and not so great at other times. This is called, I think pressing yourself, because you want to be of the starting five. If not starting the 1st or 2nd off the bench. The Vols will settle down once a starting five is put on the floor, but that doesn't mean your name is in concrete. That is why everyone was a little on edge last night. They are thinking starting five and some did things that you will not see in a game or they will be riding the pine. Indy will give the Vols a better game than Bevard did last night night, as they have some kids that was offered D-1 Sholarships, but didn't accept them hoping for a piece of paper from IU Hoosiers. We really want know for a fact what kind of team we have until the SEC Schedule starts. They will have a tough time against Pitt in NY, if Pitt has the team they usually do. One game at this time makes a season, maybe later in the year in the SEC, one game may mean a ton, but right now CBP is looking at the talent, who can play what all positions, who cannot play a position, who is best in the open court on defense, who can press the best, etc., so when game one for real comes around he will have some ideal who to start, who to sub with, like Prince last year when he played all five positions, so could Tyler Smith. So don't put a lot into last nights game it was like a science lab a lot experiments going on. Instead of posting (I think, etc.,) come out and watch them play the next game and see if you can pick out the starting five!!
In ref to B. Williams, yes he has losted weight, but still has enough to hold his own under the basket and his rebounding seems to have improved a lot. Used two hands instead of one like last year, when he would get the ball taken away from him under the other teams basket for an easy put back
TKO writes:
POS moron
TKO writes:
At least Brevard enjoyed a nice cookout at Pearl's house and parting gifts.
Stokes44yrs writes:
I agree somewhat , but you're maybe wrong about Williams...even if he missed some this time. He has been off the court with an injury remember.
I think he's gonna be a go to when he gets in the swing of things.
Stokes44yrs writes:
I can't help but laugh but I tried really hard not to! If you're going to be mean you can't be funny about it. It's sorta like republicans watching John Stewart! Vol fans shouldn't laugh.
jhayes0926#638474 writes:
we are all tired of the Fulmer cr-p. that is ancient history. can't you find something else to moan about?
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