NASHVILLE – Twenty wins sounds far better than 19 on a NCAA tournament resume.
Thanks to Tennessee’s 69-53 victory against Mississippi State on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena, the Vols got exactly that. Led by four players in double figures, Tennessee (20-11) pushed past the shorthanded Bulldogs and into the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament.
The fifth-seeded Vols will face Alabama, the tournament’s No. 4 seed, Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
Jordan McRae led UT with 17 points, including an eye-popping 360 dunk in the game’s closing moments. He was joined in double digits by Trae Golden’s 15 points and 10 apiece from Jarnell Stokes and Quinton Chievous.
Despite boasting a roster trimmed by injuries to six scholarship players, 13th-seeded Mississippi State (10-22) never wilted despite trailing the whole way.
The Vols mounted a 14-2 run over a 5-minute, 35-second stretch late in the first half to build a 35-16 lead and sat on the cushion throughout the second half. They led 35-19 at halftime on 15-of-31 shooting.
Never going away, the Bulldogs cut UT’s lead under 10, 57-49, with 4:42 left. McRae answered by making a driving layup in traffic and was sent to the free-throw line. He missed the free throw, but Stokes corralled the rebound and converted a layup to push the Vols’ lead back to 12.
Mississippi State was led by 19 points from Trivante Bloodman.
Tennessee and Alabama split the season series, each winning at home. The Tide won 68-65 on Jan. 12. The Vols won 54-53 on Jan. 26.
More coming online and in Friday’s News Sentinel.
Brendan F. Quinn covers Tennessee men’s basketball. Follow him at Twitter.com/BFQuinn
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Comments » 42
peerlessvolfan writes:
Yeah, Baby! Go Vols!
JSmith525 writes:
Nice win Vols now put a beatdown on Bama.... Go Vols!!!!
CroKev writes:
Nice to get the kinks out before facing Bama...
Olddogsrule writes:
Do not miss McCRASHES highlight and 360 dunk! Pefect! Form was textbook! Judges average score was 9.9!!!!!!~!
Central_IL_Vol writes:
Go Vols; Beat the stinking Bammers!
CrankE writes:
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Go VOLS!
murrayvol writes:
Miles was a damn good player. His analysis is suspect.
That said, many on the Selection Committee are fond of the Big 10. Not too high on the SEC.
Basketvol writes:
This team SHOULD be in with this win, but I don't think they are. Better bring it for two halves against Bama and leave no doubt. What a dunk from McRae! Nice game from Chievous. Proof that maybe Coach Martin knows a little more about basketball than random posters on an online forum.
BIVOLAR_BEARE writes:
That should do it and a win against bammer would secure it..GBO!!!
mocsandvolsfan writes:
Yep we should be in now but beat the heck out of Bama just because it's Bama.
johnlg00 writes:
Well, I gotta say I can't remember a less-impressive 16 point win in my life! I'm not nearly as concerned about the margin of the win as I am by the almost-total lack of apparent interest or energy by nearly the whole team, nearly the whole time. If they go into tomorrow's game walking around in a daze and leaving the ball laying all over the court, they are going to get DRILLED! These guys just aren't good enough to think they can just turn it on and off as they choose. From everything I have heard from and about CCM, he is all about forming good HABITS and playing the way you are supposed to, regardless of the opponent or the score. I just hope the Vols understand how lackadaisical and sloppy they looked and vow NEVER to come out that way again!
chaos001 writes:
Not their greatest effort.
Was it me or did Golden have a bit of bad attitude on the court?
redskinvol1 writes:
A win is a win.Great job Vols on the win no doubt but the effort needs to be turned up a bit against Bama.Must play harder and for the whole game.Still need one.Go Vols!!
1vavolfan writes:
Chill out John, its a win in the SEC tournament. Those are about as rare around here as an Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I agree the effort was poor in the 2nd half, I would have liked to see CCM bring in Reese or Yemi to give UT a little spark and to save the legs of the big 3.
John_10065 writes:
Minnesota is a strong team that has a some very impressive wins. a decent overall record and have a good coach with a NC in his back pocket.
I like 'em and I like Tubby Smith. Too bad many of the boosters and faithful at UK had the bus warmed up for him when he got there. I'll always cheer for Tubby. Unless of course he is playing against UT.
orangecountyvols writes:
John,
Absolutely. Even after timeouts because of the shoddy ball handling and disinterested defense, the Vols still came out of the timeouts doing the same stuff. It's as if the 19 point lead, and the 16 point halftime lead mentality was to assume the game was a cinch. We've seen the uninspired level of play all too often in the past. It's almost as if they just won't respond to a chewing out.
Worse, it just makes it much harder to bounce back with an effort necessary to defeat people like Alabama. Yes, they can do it, but it'll be tougher with no real surge of momentum as evidenced by the 2nd half performance which was a standoff against a MSU team out hustling them with fewer players they could call on.
Jimmy Dykes often is overly critical of Tennessee it seems. This time, it was hard to disagree with him however.
Here's hoping it'll be back to seeing the Vol team we know who can look interested for 40 minutes.
John_10065 writes:
I am going to watch it after the fact but given that they owned them all the way through says something.
I think we need to look at the bright spots.
Golden didn't have a great game but UT still won.
Stokes has 3 steals and 2 assists? COME ON! That's a big guy in the paint.
We had 21 points off the bench. Sure it was MS but still if you can get 1/2 that on average you will do well.
Now it's time to watch it on replay but if I agree with you John, I'll come back and say it. I would rather have a sloppy win against MS to put a few heads on straight for Alabama than have a perfect game against MS and look like UT is having it's "special day" playing against them.
It's been quite a streak. Teams are up and then they're down. Better to be down for one game you can win than be down on one you have to play up for to prevent a loss.
SevenT writes:
Tennessee is playing good ball, I just hope Kentucky gets an opportunity to spank their arses in the finals
johnlg00 writes:
I have commented several times how much I hope the Vols can shed their apparent SEC tournament jinx. I have often taken the "just win, baby" attitude even when they didn't play well. However, it seems to me that a team with no more history of tournament success than the Vols have had can't take the court with a "relax, we got this" attitude. I've just seen it too many times before. I REALLY hoped I would see something different this time. So far, I haven't.
As far as tomorrow goes, yeah, "just win, baby". I'll take another one where we have to hope a shot rolls off at the buzzer and UT has one more point on the board. But I don't see how wins like that can fill the team or, more importantly, the selection committee with confidence that putting the Vols in the tournament is the best choice out of all the alternatives. They need to play as if they still had to EARN their spot, because, well, they DO have to earn it.
wigmeister writes:
NEXT!!!!!!
johnlg00 writes:
Well, of course you are right about the bright spots, not least of which is that they got a win they just HAD to have. And, yeah, if they were to pick one game to be really UP for, I would hope it is tomorrow's. It's just that tournaments are MUCH more about "momentum", a somewhat suspect and ill-defined term, than are most regular-season games, if only because of the quick turnaround time. That CAN be a benefit for a team if they come off of a lazy, sloppy win determined to NEVER do that again. They get a quick chance to wash the bad taste out of their mouths. I just hope that IS the conclusion they have drawn.
usnavyvolfan__now_proud_navy_dad writes:
Nice win today! Loved McRae's epic 360 dunk! Just keep it going (and thank God we don't have UGA to worry about. Thanks, LSU.)
underthehill writes:
At one point Jimmy Dykes (announcer) commented ..Golden was not engaged on defense..and it was obvious he was not..he set the tone for the lack of team effort in the second half..I think Martin was doing all he could to increase the team intensity and nothing worked..I assure you the committee saw the same thing..the only way this team makes it is to beat bama and they will need to bring the intensity for 40 min..not one half..
secten#238516 writes:
I couldn't agree with you more, if they play like they did today, Bama will beat them big time! GBO!
chaos001 writes:
Chievous has a great game as well. He's definitely progressed. That tip that almost went through MSU's hoop was his only really negative play.
John_10065 writes:
LOL
They were 13-1 going into league play with a win against Memphis. They have wins against 4 teams who were in the top 25 over the season. They have a RPI rank of 24 and a BPI rank of 30.
Their problem is how they finished. 5-11 over the 2nd half of the season looks bad but it isn't enough to wipe out the rest of their resume.
I realize that the rankings are obviously slanted towards the Big 10 and especially the Big East but objectively MN has evey right to make the dance as UT does. Subjectively it pisses me off that they could take a spot that UT might slip into.
But I still cheer for Tubby. If for no reason that his unceremonious exit from UK that he really didn't deserve.
jt45 writes:
I agree, it seemed like they just let up in the second half. Its going to take a much better effort to beat Bama.I hope they play aggressive offense the whole game. They never seem to be in sync when they try slow down into that halfcourt mode. You can almost see the turnovers before they happen at times, for instance Jorden always makes a high bounce before he drives and gets picked half the time as he tries to split the defenders. And once Golden gets frustrated his play changes drastically. There are times when you can actually tell how the tempo is going just by watching his expression.
Still Im glad they got the win and hope they bring their best against bama
johnlg00 writes:
Yeah, Chievous was one of the few real bright spots in the whole day. If he hadn't been putting out the effort, I don't know what might have happened. About the only positive the rest of them can draw from today was that they won in their sleep, so maybe if they show up AWAKE tomorrow against a MUCH better team, they can win that one, too.
KnoxVegas88 writes:
Something tells me you enjoy seeing men getting their arses spanked, SevenTeeth.
BIVOLAR_BEARE writes:
Why do these DA analyst still show UT with 19 wins?? I've seen several times where they mention UT won today, but continue to show 19 wins instead of 20 which should have been recorded after the game today..
emailnodata (Inactive) writes:
Pretty uninspired the entire game.
You could tell they just wanted to be done.
Not all bad.
Now, Bama.....UT won't be tired, WILL have played, I expect them to really get after it tomorrow.
emailnodata (Inactive) writes:
Some credit to Jimmy Dykes (sp)....
he's working his tail off to try to get SEC teams in the Big Dance.
Jimmy, that is appreciated.
johnlg00 writes:
Right now all I care about is how many wins they have this time tomorrow! By the time the selections are made, I would surely HOPE they are working with the correct records.
johnlg00 writes:
You spelled it right. And I agree that Jimmy is pretty much pulling for the SEC. I may not agree with everything he says but I agree with him more often than not. He knows the game and tells it like he thinks it is, whatever he thinks. Overall, for my money, he is one of the better analysts around. I know I find him a LOT easier to take than Dickie V!
emailnodata (Inactive) writes:
I like Jimmy, and the lawyer guy (cannot think of his name), the really abrasive one.
They understand the kids and the content of the game.
FanNotSheep writes:
Sometimes you can't help playing to the level of the opponent. Miss. State is a grinding team with so many players injured, just like UT was early when they were trying to find a post-Maymon identity. In their case they lost too much to really do much more than what you saw today.
Hopefully Vols come out fast tomorrow and build a big lead. You see it every year -- the team with a game under its belt in the unfamiliar gym comes out more comfortable than the team playing its first game. But the second half is often the test, when fresher legs will give Alabama an advantage.
I do think this could be a play-in game. Vols are last team in and Bama is listed as next-four-out on ESPN, and if that's fairly accurate you could see how a loss to Bama could result in them being picked over us, especially if they were to win another game. And if a dark horse SEC team wins it all things could really get jumbled, because you know the Big East and Big Ten won't allow SEC to have too many teams in.
Basketvol writes:
Amen to that. UGA really had our number this year. I hope we beat Bama and then get Florida and Kentucky on our way to the championship.
One_in_West_Knox writes:
Do the Vols realize it's "win or go home" the rest of the way?? It didn't seem like that at times in the second half.
John_10065 writes:
John,
Watching the replay, there was some really sloppy things going on, I admit. But I have to think a lot of it was the fact they had such an easy time getting a big lead and sitting on it.
And I have to say one thing. Late in the game when MS acted like it was going to make a game of it, UT put the brakes on them and stopped any last minute heroics.
Not every team can stop momentum like that late in a game. The Lucky Lizards for example couldn't do that against Arizona or UK this year!
mocsandvolsfan writes:
I think they were thinking about staying fresh for the next game. I wouldn't be too surprised if Martin told them to take it easy for this obvious missmatch. We DID handle them fairly easy on their attempts to come back as someone stated above.
I think these freshmen and co. from Miss. st. may have gotten valuable experience for next year to go with new players. may be a tough team...They DO need some big recruits though to hang with SEC.
orangecountyvols writes:
Vols,
Good comments all. Back to Jimmy Dykes.
I don't know about you guys, but one thing IMO which is a bit annoying, is to hear announcers rattling on during the game at the same time someone scores, and they don't tell you who made the basket. They are still on the side comments and unless you know who made the basket, you just won't know it. It doesn't happen all the time, but is enough to be a little annoying.
Remember Nesser and Dykes going on and on about the LSU guy "not shooting free throws with correct form?" Those two almost got into it ................and although Dykes was telling everyone the LSU shooter was doing it all wrong, what was amusing was he was knocking them down !
Those announcers do know their jobs however, it seems still they are on an ego trip sometimes. Especially Bilas.
Vitale? That poor guy is constant motor mouth, talking the whole time play is taking place. Each time there is a Duke game, you can count on him and Bilas being on the mike. ( Just as Rebecca Lobo was for every U Conn women's game.)
BTW, nice to see Notre Dame sweep all 3 from them this year. ( Plus, the Big East championship game was a setup..........once again played in Hartford. ) Sweet !
Lizardgrad89 writes:
Kudos to Mississippi State for continuing to fight throughout the season. Faced some serious adversity but never packed it in.
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