Vols Now 3-0 After Road Win

Tennessee followed up an impressive season opening win with an equally impressive win over UT-Martin earlier this week, but tonight’s game was possibly a glimpse of what might be to come for the Vols over the next six weeks heading into conference play. 

The Vols won on the road in a hostile environment tonight by ten points. You cannot take road wins for granted, and any road win is good, especially when you win against in-state schools who would love nothing better than to beat the Vols.  

Tennessee is talented, athletic and deep this season to be sure, but with so many first year players, you had to figure that their first road game might be a tough one and it was.  

MTSU is a well coached basketball team and certainly worthy of their pre-season accolades. The Blue Raiders repeatedly carved up Tennessee’s full court press for numerous uncontested lay-ups. I counted eight of them.  

Set plays out of bounds worked throughout the ballgame as the Vols never seemed to adjust, and the zone defense employed by the Blue Raiders really slowed down the Vols offensive attack in the first half.  

Tennessee shot the ball well, but it was obvious that the zone limited the one-on-one playmaking ability of the Vols. Tennessee had scored 60 first half points against UTC and 57 verses UT-Martin.

The Vols scored 36 first half points tonight. Well below it’s season’s average.  

It could have been a much more interesting finish had the Blue Raiders connected on a few more free throw attempts. MTSU only managed to hit 12 free throws on 25 attempts.  

On the bright side, the Vols showed poise and focus in front of 11,802 fans in Murfreesboro and they did win the ballgame. Tyler Smith scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Bobby Maze had 12 points, J.P. Prince and Scotty Hopson poured in 10 a piece.  

A win is a win, but MTSU did expose some of the weaknesses that Coach Pearl and the Vols will have to address. The Vols post defense was inconsistent at best and the newcomers looked lost most of the night when trying to press full court.  

All in all, it was a good win against a quality opponent, and one that will serve the Vols well later in the season.