Tough? At least tough enough for LSU
I went to Thompson-Boling Arena looking for one thing Wednesday night: toughness.
That’s how coach Bruce Pearl set the agenda for Tennessee’s SEC date with LSU.
He talked this week about the Vols’ need to re-establish an identity for the stretch run of the 2010-11 season. And that identity was going to be No More Mr. Nice Guy.
“It’s my job to get it out of them,’’ Pearl said Tuesday. “It’s my job to demand it.’’
Well, he couldn’t demand it in person Wednesday night, seeing as how he was back at the house. It was associate head coach Tony Jones’ job to demand it for the 40 minutes against LSU.
In the end I don’t know how stone-cold tough you have to be to knock out the underwhelming, short-handed Tigers, 75-53, on your home court.
So I’m not issuing a definitive verdict.
Still, give the Vols credit. That they didn’t play down to LSU’s level and let the Tigers hang around was a take-care-of-business statement.
“Our message to the players was to get our identity back,’’ Jones said.
The identity Pearl and his staff established over their first five seasons at Tennessee was built on being the aggressor, giving no quarter, always playing harder than the other guys.
“We kind of got away from that,’’ Jones said, “especially in the second half against UConn.’’
A 72-61 loss at Connecticut on Saturday was hardly a disgrace. But it was a game the Vols could have stolen with a more focused effort and a little more, well, toughness.
LSU is no UConn, but Tennessee did limit the Tigers to 34 percent shooting, won the boards and converted 12 Tiger turnovers into 18 points.
From where Jones sat, that was tough enough.
“Making your opponents’ life miserable on the floor,’’ he said.
“Active hands, active feet. Cutting the court in half. Not losing focus. Most importantly, to go to war on the glass.
“We needed to throw the first punch, so to speak.’’
Speaking of the first punch, I saw an encouraging sign on the jump ball to open the game.
Tobias Harris waded into a crowd of jerseys at midcourt and secured the first possession for Tennessee. He didn’t knock anybody down or bare his teeth. But he got a 50-50 ball and set a tone.
After a tentative bit of skirmishing the score was 3-3 when another 50-50 ball was there to be had.
A Tiger had blocked Scotty Hopson’s driving shot and the ball was bouncing around for the taking. Harris went and took it and fed Hopson for a dunk.
Toughness equals basket. Message sent.
No one had a more disappointing day against UConn than Hopson. The chat rooms and talk radio have been all over him. He was resilient enough to come back with one of his best games.
Hopson’s 22 points (he had 17 in the first half) were the product of an efficient performance in which he was 9-of-14 from the field and had zero — zero — turnovers in 27 minutes.
“We challenged him to be more focused,’’ Jones said. “He answered the bell on this particular night.’’
It can be argued whether alert ball movement against a zone defense qualifies as toughness per se. Let’s give the Vols the benefit of the doubt and call it mental toughness.
Tennessee zipped the ball around deftly enough to get open looks and go 6-of-13 from 3-point range en route to a 43-27 halftime lead.
And John Fields had one ultra-toughman moment worth mentioning, blocking three LSU shots on one possession.
The Tigers, however, challenged UT’s manhood in the first half with 10 offensive rebounds, which allowed them to win the battle for second-chance points, 10-8.
Would a really tough team let that happen? Or, damage done, how would it respond?
At halftime Jones looked Fields right in the eye and pointed out that LSU’s post Malcolm White had nine rebounds.
In the second half, White had one rebound.
“We got back to playing that good smothering defense we played earlier,’’ Fields said.
“We hadn’t been playing the Tennessee basketball that got us those two big wins (Villanova and Pittsburgh) and that 7-0 start.’’
So now the Vols take their show back on the road, first to Ole Miss on Saturday then to Auburn next week.
If their true identity is toughness, we’ll see it there.
Mike Strange may be reached at strangem@knoxnews.com or 865-342-6276. Follow him at http://twitter.com/strangemike44 and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/strange.
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Comments » 15
UTByrd writes:
Couldn't watch the game but am glad to read of this victory.
In the words of Satchel Paige, "Don't look back 'cause some SOB might be catching up to you."
Take this game and build on it and good things will happen.
Go VOLS!!!!!
TennVol01 writes:
"they didn’t play down to LSU’s level"
Lesson learned I hope. A bit late, but learned.
FeelVol writes:
Well said Mike I'm taking your approach as well.
sol_way writes:
Strange!
eb502us#225637 writes:
Agreed, beating LSU by 20 is no great accomplishment.
While most seem to harp on our defense, it's the offense that is most bothersome. Too much standing around and settling for the three pointer without being agressive and taking it to the hole.
Problem as I see it is that we don't have any real agressive players and it's hard to be tough with a bunch of finesse players.
A complete change of attitude is needed. Do we have a team shrink?
196SVol writes:
Clearly Tony Jones is a better coach with this team.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
IMHO, the problem in our losses has been on both offense and defense. LSU was no worse than at least a couple of the teams the Vols let beat them. Their zone was no worse than some the Vols have struggled against. I thought the ball movement and penetration against it was about as good as we have had all season. It surely helps when guys are knocking down shots, but many of the shots were a result of the kind of inside-out action that we have seen WAY too little of much of the season. I saw this performance as a good early sign of how the team can finish the season. We'll know more, of course, after the Ole Miss and Auburn games. On paper, these shouldn't be that challenging, but they ARE SEC road games which aren't "gimmes" for anybody.
richvol writes:
Out of the five articles listed two of them require payment to read. All you are doing KNS is aggravating the declining readers you have left.
Oh,and by the way,out of the three articles you posted two are virtually identical...great work.
sol_way writes:
fair weather fans have been blasting the coaches,players and are now turning on the sportswriters. I guess they have become spoiled, that must bring some glee to the eye of coach Pearl and company. Thanks Bruce
Biggie writes:
I was really impressed with the crispness of the halfcourt offense starting out. Quick accurate passes sending the LSU zone into a scramble to cover. It led to open jumpers that our guys hit. Later, we got back to bouncing the ball around the halfcourt line and then throwing up a buzzer beater for awhile before getting back to the quick passes.
For you SP haters, Steven played toughest of em all. Great defense and dribble drove just enough to make some great kickout passes. If he could handle the ball a little better in a crowd, he could've been even more effective.
ballervols writes:
good win!
alvol writes:
Agree. Some of these nitwits that keep critizing S. Pearl have their heads where the sun doesn't shine. He's not the most athletic, but knows how to play the game.
Flabbergasted writes:
Let's get it right.
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
Satchel Paige
licknpromise777#651578 writes:
I'll take a 55% shooting night over toughness any day of the week.We dumped the turnovers and played ok against the zone..I watched Harris on every possession and he struggled to get position for good shots..There's an answer to the problem but I didn't see any pick and rolls or give and goes that played to his strengths..Most good teams have shut down his trademark coast to coast lay ups.Ole Miss might be 1-4 but they are a very good shooting team.Only GA wiped the floor with them and that was due to a 64% shooting game..Ole Miss is coming off 5 days rest;Warren and Graham are going to rain 3 pointers on us.If we can force them into at least 15 turnovers it will help greatly!!Generally we are good on the road but bad shooting and turnovers will turn this into an ARK.replay
johnlg00#206211 writes:
Granted that the next few aren't exactly "murderers' row", if they don't win them it won't matter much how they do in games against the toughies you mentioned. Since I am fairly sure the top teams will beat each other, the key to winning the division may well be avoiding losses to the Western Division bottom-feeders. If they develop the confidence and continuity to avoid losing the next few, they might have what they need to win a few of those others.
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