Vols Ready to Get Hot as They Fire Up SEC Schedule

The Vols basketball team is about to get hot and heavy in SEC action as they welcome Ole Miss to Thompson Boling Arena Wednesday night. What will it take for Tennessee to make a run at the conference title? Staying healthy and making shots always help.

Last time the Vols hit the court…they played Bama without arguably their two best players in John Fulkerson and Kennedy Chandler.
Certainly not ideal….but head coach Rick Barnes says you gotta roll with the punches.
Said Barnes:”I mean we really do have a mentality that we’re gonna. What we have we’re going to play, and we believe it today. With the group we had, we could have won the game. You think back to last year. The game with Vanderbilt over there. Remember they had two players that didn’t play. Pippen and DeJesus and how well they played. Can we play without certain guys? I think we can. That’s where I said at the beginning of the year, we’ve got quality depth, and it’s up to them to make us use that depth.”
At least Fulkerson and Chandler will be back for the Ole Miss contest.

The Vols are third in the SEC in three pointers made…but the team’s overall shooting percentage is not where coach likes it.
Said Barnes:”I mean I think we’ve got guys that I think can shoot, and I think one of the reasons that our percentages aren’t what they need to be. We haven’t taken those shots the way that we practice them. Off-balance. Not doing our work early. Anxious because you haven’t made one, and I’ve got to make one. A lot of the mental side to it.”
To kick start the SEC. what will it take for the Vols to be successful? It’s pretty simple.
Said forward Uros Plavsic:”Most of it is just Tennessee basketball. We’re going to go there and play Tennessee basketball like we always do. Play our hardest. And give our all for Tennessee at that moment.”
Said Barnes:”The biggest thing is that they understand that we’re in a possession league if teams are playing well. You think about it. We’ve played 3 games where it has been a possession. We’re 1-2 in those games. You go back to both of those games. We had pretty good looks to maybe win the game or put us up. So getting guys to understand that every possession matters is a big, big thing.”