Welcome back to the Starting 5! The Starting 5 is written multiple times per week by Adam Spencer to keep you up-to-date on all the news and events in the world of college hoops. You can follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamSpencer4 and @BlueChipGrit.
The Tennessee Volunteers are playing incredible basketball on the defensive end of the floor right now. Anyone with a pulse can see that.
Currently, the Vols have a sizable lead in the KenPom rankings when it comes to the best defense. Tennessee’s adjusted defensive efficiency number per 100 possessions, according to KenPom, is 82.7. For context, the No. 2 defense in the country belongs to Rutgers, which currently stands at 86.4 in the KenPom metric. That’s a difference of nearly 4 points.
For further context, no team in the history of the KenPom system (dating back to the 2001-02 season) has ever even finished with an adjusted defensive efficiency rating of less than 84.1.
The Vols don’t give up many second-chance points, grabbing the second-most rebounds per game in the SEC. The Vols grab 39.8 boards per game, behind only Alabama. When they’re not cleaning the glass, they’re preventing opponents from taking shots at all. They rank tied for second in the SEC, behind only Mizzou, in steals per game at 9.7.
That’s a lot of numbers to have thrown at you, so here’s where we’ll watch a couple of videos. Star guard Santiago Vescovi doesn’t get the credit he deserves on the defensive end. He has quick hands and knows when to be aggressive:
He averages 2.4 steals per game, which is second in the SEC. Zakai Zeigler is third in the league with 2.3 swipes per contest:
It looks absolutely miserable to play against Tennessee’s aggressive, handsy defense. The Vols have held 6 of their 8 SEC opponents under 60 points. No, they haven’t faced Mizzou or Alabama yet – the 2 highest-scoring offenses in the SEC – but there’s no reason to think the Vols won’t give those teams good games.
If the offense can continue to improve as the season goes along, the Vols will be in the mix for the SEC regular-season title, the SEC Tournament title and a Final Four berth.
Alabama improved to 8-0 in SEC play on Wednesday night at home against Mississippi State, but it wasn’t easy. When Jahvon Quinerly made a free throw to put the Tide ahead 66-59 with 1:50 left, it looked like they were well on their way to another easy win.
But the Tide didn’t score again. Mississippi State closed the gap to 66-63 and even had a 3-point attempt with 2 seconds left to try to tie the game that missed.
Let’s be blunt here. Last year, Alabama loses this game. This year, Alabama fought and managed to hold on for a win. Nate Oats acknowledged as much in his postgame press conference:
Oats is absolutely right. It’s a long season. You aren’t always going to have your “A” game. But you need to figure out how to win when you’re playing your “B” and “C” games.
Jahvon Quinerly had 14 points off the bench, playing a key role once again.
Wait. … What’s that?
I’m being told it’s time for Brandon Miller highlights!
The star freshman had 13 points and 6 boards. It wasn’t his best game of the year, but he was still making incredible plays:
OK, that seems to have fulfilled our Brandon Miller highlight quota.
Seriously, Alabama fans – enjoy this guy while you have him. I’d take him No. 2 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft if I were an NBA GM (and I hope to be one by June).
This is a strong Crimson Tide team that looks primed for big things as the season goes on.
Now let’s look at some other SEC top stories:
Next, let’s take a look around the rest of the college basketball world.
UConn rose to No. 2 in the AP Poll at one point during nonconference play, with many arguing that Adama Sanogo and company deserved the top spot.
Since then, though, the sky has fallen in Connecticut. The Huskies have lost 6 of their last 8 games and have now lost twice to Big East-leading Xavier this year.
So what’s changed? Simply put, the defense has collapsed. The Huskies didn’t allow any nonconference foe to score 70 points. In Big East play, 6 of their 10 opponents have eclipsed the 70-point threshold.
The Huskies will likely fall out of the top 25 next week, and the road to recovery looks daunting, with home games against Marquette, Seton Hall and Providence remaining on the schedule, as well as road trips to Creighton, St. John’s and Villanova.
We’ll see if the Huskies can stay on the right side of the bubble as March Madness approaches. It has been a dramatic fall for a team that handed Alabama 1 of its 2 losses earlier this year.
Now let’s talk about the craziness that is the Big Ten:
Next, let’s take a look at this weekend’s schedule.
The Big 12/SEC Challenge takes place on Saturday and provides us some of the best matchups of the weekend, so I’ll focus on that set of 10 games in this section. Here are the top 5 Big 12/SEC Challenge games I can’t wait to watch on Saturday:
The SEC has won the last 2 challenges and tied the year before that. Will the Big 12 snap its winless streak or will the SEC prevail once again? Or will we have another deeply unsatisfying tie? We’ll find out on Saturday with wall-to-wall Big 12 vs. SEC action!
Now let’s answer a couple of random questions before we get out of here and enjoy our weekends:
Should college hoops conferences have all-star games like the NBA?
I doubt it would ever happen, but it could be a lot of fun. Imagine an SEC East roster with Oscar Tshiebwe, Terry Roberts, Kobe Brown, Colin Castleton and Santiago Vescovi going up an SEC West roster with Brandon Miller, Wendell Green Jr., KJ Williams, Wade Taylor IV and Ricky Council IV. That would be some must-see TV, even if they didn’t play any defense like in the NBA All-Star Game. I’d be pumped to watch (and bet on) that.
Who is the second-best team in the Big Ten these days?
That’s a really tough question as there is a lot of mediocrity behind Purdue these days. Rutgers has a head-to-head win over Purdue – the Boilermakers’ only loss in B1G play thus far – so it has to be in the mix. I also still cling to hope that Illinois can figure things out with all the talent on that roster. Indiana deserves a mention here, too. The Hoosiers have Trayce Jackson-Davis, who is an incredible player, and have also dealt with some injuries lately. I’d be surprised if one of the Rutgers/Illinois/Indiana trio didn’t finish second in the Big Ten standings when all is said and done.
Enjoy the Starting 5? Have a question? Want to yell at me about something? Follow me on Twitter @AdamSpencer4 or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.
View Comments
Always a good day when the B1G Trainwreck is collapsing.
And will forever be. F**k B1G fans, especially UM and OSU fans.
"No. 10 Texas at No. 4 Texas (Saturday at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN)"
I guess No. 10 UT at No. 4 UT would have been too confusing...
actually it would have been UT vs TU but that may have been confusing too. So vols vs horns isnt too difficult. As it stands TU gets a win and a loss on saturday.
Lol yeah, if Texas vs Texas was on pay per view Longhorn fans would actually believe it and pay the $49.95. Then they'd act like they got ripped off when they realized it was a typo.
Tennessee is the original “UT.”
Established in 1794 so I’m pretty sure we have seniority over those posers in the wrong shade of Orange.
My prediction:
Tennessee 73
Horns 61
Not one word about Florida winning 4 of 5 after dropping what Spencer himself termed a "must win game" vs TAMU in the Gators second conference game. But he gives Mizzou a couple of bullets for beating Ole Miss (who he himself calls one of the worst teams in the SEC).
In fact, Adam throws around more underhanded comments about UF..."the (KState) Wildcats should win comfortably". Why can't you just say KState should be favored to win?
Gators have played the hardest schedule in the SEC outside of Bama. He made fun of Florida losing to FAU early in the season...yep the same FAU team that is well in the top 20 with a 20-1 record. Gators 8 losses: UConn, Xavier, TAMU (2), Auburn, OU, FAU, and WV. Meanwhile they handled Mizzou. Adam is a puddle of sh!t.
I don't mean to be that guy, but Florida has actually won 5 out of 6 of their last games after dropping that 1st game vs TAMU, even better than 4 out of 5.
7 of their 8 losses are losses vs arguably top 25 teams. I fully agree with you here, not sure why Florida isn't getting the respect that it probably should deserve. I hope we beat KState tomorrow just to prove this man wrong.
You are correct; 5 of 6.
Ummm, also not a word from Adam about the Aggies taking it to Auburn on their home court and sitting at 6-1 in conference just behind bama and UT.
AM playing very good basketball
AL is the best in the SEC no doubt.
Very true.
TN is a close second though.
They can wave bye bye to that #1 seed though.
Getting thumped by 30 to the unranked Sooners right now.
GBO
I think we need to reevaluate that Bama as the best team in the SEC. UT has a big argument for that after beating Texas.