The real UT prevailed on Saturday night in Austin.
The Tennessee Basketball Volunteers had to fight hard and overcome spurts of poor play on Saturday night against Texas, but when the clock hit triple zeros the Vols had earned an SEC road win. During the first half, the Vols were shooting well. However, turnovers and tough shot-making from Texas led to only a 2-point lead for Tennessee at the half.
Early in the 2nd half, Tennessee continued to turn the ball over and gave up the slim lead. Texas then turned to the talented Freshman Tre Johnson, and no matter what Tennessee did for 5 minutes or so he could not miss a shot. Luckily, Tennessee was scoring enough to never trail by more than 2 possessions, and then in the final 5 minutes, Tennessee made the winning plays. Darlinstone Dubar had a thunderous putback slam and a clutch corner 3 to put the Vols ahead 61-60 with 4:02 to play. Felix Okpara had a role-player masterclass with his paint protection and a crucial rebound and putback to put the Vols ahead 63-60 with 3:20 to play. However, Zakai Ziegler shined the brightest in clutch time with his facilitating and scoring. Rick Barnes decided to iso Ziegler for several possessions in a row and he simply made things happen. It was the type of performance from a Senior that will be necessary to win on the road this year in the SEC.
The final score would end up being 74-70 after a free throw contest in the final 30 seconds. Tennessee had a roller-coaster week to start SEC play with a blowout win, a blowout loss, and then a down-to-the-wire battle last night in Austin. Moving forward I would expect more of the same. Obviously, the Vols have things to improve on with 15 games left to play this year, but a 2-1 start is nothing to be ashamed of in this conference. Cut down on the sloppiness, find more rhythm on offense, and continue playing at the same level defensively. If the Vols can do all 3 their record will be fine at the end of the season.
Tennessee will welcome a red-hot Georgia team to TBA this Wednesday as they are coming off 2-ranked wins in a row. This is by no means a below-average Georgia team as it has been in years past so the Vols better be prepared to take care of business.