By Stephen Mason
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It was a rocky start for the No. 18 Tennessee Volunteers (2-0) in their second game of the season, giving up three offensive rebounds to Northern Kentucky (1-1) in the first few minutes of the game, all of which ended in points for the Norse. However, the team turned it around and ended up running the Norse out of the Food City Center with a final score of 95-56 in the Vols’ favor.
Although the Vols fell behind early in the game, they were able to use their depth to wear out their opponent. After a lightning start, the Norse were held to 56 points and finished the afternoon 21-for-58 from the floor.
Tennessee’s depth also allowed the team to apply full-court pressure on the Norse for most of the game. This resulted in 15 forced turnovers, which Tennessee turned into 20 points. The team’s size advantage was evident for most of the game as they outrebounded Northern Kentucky 47-24.
Sophomore forward J.P. Estrella led the team in this category with 11 rebounds. He finished the afternoon with a double-double, scoring 17 points as well. Estrella has shown the Vols what they missed last year and has developed into one of their most impactful players on the court.
“No one can really stop him down there in the paint,” said Ja’Kobi Gillespie. “He’s using his size, and if he continues to play the way he’s playing, we should be good.”
While he has had a massive impact offensively, Coach Rick Barnes doesn’t believe that either Estrella or his teammates have reached their full potential defensively.
In his postgame press conference, Barnes stressed the need for his bigs, like Estrella, Okpara, and Brown, to learn how to defend the three-pointer. That was why he started Cade Phillips in this afternoon’s matchup, as he had successfully done this in the past.
With the size and the speed of this year’s Tennessee team, Barnes may put together one of his best defenses yet. However, some areas, like defensive rebounding and perimeter defense, need to be improved. While Tennessee was able to address both these areas today, the tougher competition that awaits them in Las Vegas and then Southeastern Conference play will not be as forgiving as Northern Kentucky.
The best demonstration of growth in the team today was seen in the play of freshman Nate Ament. Early in the game, the 6-foot-10 forward was pushed around by the Norse defense and struggled to finish in the paint. However, during one of the early timeouts in the first half, something changed as he started playing a lot more aggressively and confidently.
Ament finished the game with a team-high 23 points and five assists.
“Nate was assertive, he was driving the ball, and he was passing on top of the zone,” Barnes said. “I thought he was really starting to see the court better.”
With this being only his third collegiate start, Ament has needed some coaching up on how to best utilize his size and his shooting capabilities. In this afternoon’s game, the results of Barnes’ coaching could already be seen, as Ament put together his best performance.
“During practice, Coach Barnes harps on me a lot about going straight up in the paint and not fading away,” Ament said. “So that’s just a product of him trying to help me learn the game.”
However, this style of play will almost always draw multiple fouls from the opposition, so improving from the foul line has been another focus for Ament.
“I’ve been working on my free throws every day after practice. Shooting 60 to 100 every day, just trying to be more efficient with those shots,” Ament said.
In today’s game against the Norse, Ament went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line, an improvement from his 5-for-7 showing against Mercer and his 4-for-6 showing against Duke.
While Northern Kentucky was not an opponent that pushed Tennessee to its limits, today’s game showed the team the areas that it will need to continue working on. Barnes has all the pieces he needs for an elite defense; the challenge will be putting them all together before facing a tough opponent. The team will face three more relatively easy opponents at home, where they can keep on building their team chemistry before facing some of the top teams in the country Las Vegas.
On the bright side, the highly touted freshman, Ament, has already shown great signs of growth in these first few games of the season and is on the trajectory to become one of the best freshmen in the country. As his confidence continues to grow, look for him to start causing Tennessee’s opponents a lot more problems.
UP NEXT: The Volunteers will continue their five-game homestand against North Florida on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network Plus.