Tennessee forward Grant Williams recaps the Vols' win against South Carolina Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
Rick Barnes is not one to quickly offer praise in the moments after a Tennessee basketball game. But the Vols coach didn’t have much to critique after UT blew out Ole Miss for its third straight resounding win on February 3.
He lobbed praise all-around on that night, including on his “really good” guards.
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Since then, Barnes’ refrain has been the opposite when talking about guard play – it was “not good” against Alabama, then it was “poor” against South Carolina.
“I’m seeing that we need to get better,” Barnes said Tuesday.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes recaps the Vols' win against South Carolina Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
The No. 17 Vols (19-6, 9-4 SEC) are 25 games into its season and Barnes is seeing similar problems repeated with inside-out offensive flow and turnovers as they head into Georgia at 6 p.m. ET Saturday (SEC Network).
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Tennessee had 15 turnovers compared to 12 assists against South Carolina on Tuesday, following up 13 turnovers to seven assists at Alabama and 13 turnovers to 10 assists at Kentucky. The Vols narrowly won against South Carolina and Kentucky, while losing handily at Alabama.
“It’s on our guards,” sophomore guard Jordan Bowden said. “Our guards have to take that responsibility to not turn the ball over. That’s one thing that coach preaches on is turnovers. Our guards have to do better at that. We have a chance to improve in practice and get better for Saturday.”
Tennessee guard Jordan Bowden recaps the Vols' defense Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
James Daniel III had four turnovers Tuesday, while Lamonte Turner had two and Bowden had one with the timing of the turnovers as big a concern as the volume.
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Tennessee had a nine-point lead against the Gamecocks with 3:43 to play that evaporated behind a string of miscues. Turner was called for a charge, then Bowden got caught driving on the baseline and threw a pass wildly out of bounds. Daniel dribbled himself in an impossible spot on the baseline and went out of bounds for a third turnover in three possessions as South Carolina cut the lead to one.
“You can’t” is how Barnes opened his summation of those three turnovers, as the concern about guard play with only five regular-season games remaining builds.
“After 25 games, yeah (it’s concerning),” Barnes said. “Our guards have played enough.”
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14 of 40![Tennessee guard James Daniel III (3) shoots past South]()
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Starting point guard Jordan Bone was exempt from the turnover issues Tuesday, having four assists and no turnovers. He holds a 24-to-3 assist-to-turnover ratio in the past five games, but Bone played only 15 minutes against the Gamecocks because Barnes said he wasn’t pushing the ball up the court enough.
“The best thing Jordan Bone does is run and I don’t know why he doesn’t do that all the time,” Barnes said. “That’s when he’s at his best, when he’s getting the ball down the floor. But when you change things up on him, he struggles a little bit. But he’ll get better with it.”
South Carolina coach Frank Martin had high praise for the Vols Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
Daniel is in his fifth year in college after playing his first four at Howard and Turner is in his third year at Tennessee. With that level of experience, Barnes expects better and more consistent play out of his on-ball guards.
“Just taking care of the ball and knowing what we are looking for and having someone that can control the game and the tempo with knowing what we’ve got to do,” Bowden said. “If we get it inside, getting it inside. If we are looking for a shot, we’ve got to get a shot. We just have to have a floor general and taking the time, getting the ball in and doing what we’ve got to do.”
Tennessee still is winning games at a consistent pace lately, rattling off wins in seven of its past eight. But the Vols know they can get better yet, and steady guard play could make the difference.
“I think it would make us one of the top teams in the country,” sophomore forward Grant Williams said. “Our guards can do it. They’ve proven that they can.”
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