‘We Have Everything’: Tennessee’s Offense Silences Doubters At Wisconsin

MADISON, Wisc. — Tennessee talked about getting better offensively this offseason. They went out and added a pair of offensively minded players in the transfer portal. They looked much improved in an 89-88 exhibition win over No. 4 Michigan State.

But it was the preseason and Tennessee scored 99 against Gonzaga last preseason. All of it provided abundant reason for optimism but an ounce of skepticism remained.

No more. Tennessee’s offense answered the bell and any remaining questions in a 80-70 road win at Wisconsin on Friday night.

“We’re just really talented,” sophomore Tobe Awaka said postgame. “We have a lot of versatile pieces that can help us in the court offensively, but also defensively switching. We’re able to play different lineups, big, small, things of that nature. So we’re just really all around. We have everything.”

Tennessee came out firing, scoring 13 points before the game’s first television timeout. The Vols hit shots in the first half, making 58% of their shots from the field and from three-point range in a 43-point first half.

But it was the 37-point second half that showed the offensive development even more. Tennessee shot zero-of-eight from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes. In recent seasons, that shooting performance was a death knell for Tennessee. Not against Wisconsin.

The Vols weren’t without scoring droughts but they didn’t linger. That’s where Tennessee’s scoring depth showed off. Tobe Awaka was scoreless 30 minutes into the game. Then he scored six points over a three-minute stretch as Tennessee stretched its lead from three to eight points.

“I thought Tobe’s buckets were huge,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought they were really big. I thought he’d come in — I thought he gave us a lift, obviously rebounding the ball and I told the coaches we got to get him in the game more. And we actually tried to isolate him and let him go at it because we’re gonna need him to do that.”

Tennessee’s scoring depth showed up against Wisconsin. Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi — the Vols’ top two returning scorers — scored five points apiece. But nine Vols scored and four scored in double-digits.

More From RTI: Everything Rick Barnes Said After Tennessee Defeated Wisconsin

The scoring depth is great. Having a consistent go-to scorer is even better. Kennedy Chandler was that for a month to close his lone season in Knoxville. But Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht appears to be a guy Tennessee hasn’t had since Grant Williams was winning back-to-back SEC Player of the Year honors.

Knecht followed up his 28-point performance against Michigan State with a 24-point performance on just 15 shots against Wisconsin.

The when and how of the 6-foot-6 wing’s offensive output was even more telling. With Tennessee’s offense skidding and the Kohl Center rocking as Wisconsin cut the Vols’ lead to three with eight minutes remaining, Knecht drove baseline and finished a reverse layup and-one as the shot clock expired.

Then in winning time, Tennessee isolated Knecht and the senior drilled a contested midrange jumper as the shot clock expired and finished at the hoop to send the sellout crowd into the cold Wisconsin night.

“Offensively, he’s a very talented player,” Barnes said.

“Dalton’s a bad man,” Awaka said. “Very bad man.”

Knecht isn’t the only reason to be excited about Tennessee’s offense. They appear equipped to survive on nights when he struggles. But a closer like Knecht is invaluable in college basketball. Combine that with a veteran team with SEC experience and sky-high defensive standards— there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about basketball season in Knoxville.

“We can find a multitude of ways to win,” Josiah-Jordan James said. “We’re just proud of everybody. We’re always trying to improve, but we always got to be able to rely on our defense. There’s some areas we gotta clean up, but I’m just proud of everybody and it shows that we’re a tough, resilient team.”