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New Year’s Resolutions: Tennessee Volunteers

Jarnell Stokes, Madison Jones

Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes drives to the basket as Wake Forest’s Madison Jones, left, defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wake Forest in Paradise Island, Bahamas, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Bahamas Visual Services, Tim Aylen)

AP

Over the course of the holiday week, we at College Basketball Talk will be detailing what we believe will be the New Year’s Resolutions of some of the nation’s most talented, most disappointing, and thoroughly enigmatic teams. What can we say, we’re in a giving mood.

Who else made Resolutions? Click here to find out.

WHAT DOES TENNESSEE PROMISE TO DO MORE OF?: Get more scoring production from their backcourt.


  • Why it will happen: Jordan McRae is off to a fine start for Tennessee, but the Volunteers have to get more scoring punch from the rest of their backcourt. Josh Richardson is hovering around his offensive averages from last season -- so not much additional production can be expected from him -- but Tennessee can count on some improvement from prized in-state freshman guard Robert Hubbs III and his fellow freshman Darius Thompson. Hubbs (31 percent) and Thompson (37 percent) are both shooting the ball poorly to start the season but their learning curve has gone up and Tennessee has to hope that they’ll only improve shooting the ball from here. Memphis transfer Antonio Barton is shooting some solid percentages and there should also be an increased comfort level with him in the lineup as well as the season progresses.
  • Why it won’t happen: Asking a pair of freshmen to improve during the conference portion of the schedule is never a fun thing to do and Tennessee has such a good frontcourt that it might not even matter some nights. What if the learning curve is just too steep for Hubbs and Thompson to be effective scorers this year? Thompson is more of a natural distributor anyways, but Hubbs needs to attack the basket and get to the free throw line if his shooting percentages don’t go up. And where has Antonio Barton been during big games? The senior was a combined 0-for-9 shooting and didn’t register a point when Tennessee lost consecutive games to Wichita State and North Carolina State earlier this month.

WHAT DOES TENNESSEE SWEAR THEY WILL DO LESS OF?: Rely on their big three to carry them every game.


  • Why it will happen: While Tennessee should work through their frontcourt of Jarnell Stokes and Jeronne Maymon, as well as guard Jordan McRae, they’ll need more from the rest of their team to hang with the big boys. Tennessee is too talented to not have a couple of guys step up with so much focus being drawn to those three players and the Volunteers are hoping their latest win against Morehead State will be more of the norm in terms of their balance. Sophomore Derek Reese saw his first action of the season and registered a double-double while Josh Richardson stepped up his scoring punch to lead the team with 19 points. The Volunteers don’t need guys like Reese and Richardson to carry the offense, but those role players have to score when they’re open.
  • Why it won’t happen: While the Morehead State game was a nice boost in morale thanks to the aforementioned balanced effort, the Eagles are hardly the kind of talented team Tennessee will play night-in and night-out in the SEC. And the Tennessee role players have been miserable lately against good competition. Maymon, McRae and Stokes combined for 43 of Tennessee’s 61 points in a loss to Wichita State and followed that up the next game with 48 of the team’s 58 points in another loss to North Carolina State. No player for Tennessee -- besides those three players -- scored more than six points in either of those two losses. Tennessee’s role players have looked overwhelmed against good competition lately and its a troubling sign they’ll need to fix in order to compete in the SEC.

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