Tennessee: A Rising Contender in College Basketball

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Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:03 >> I thought Tennessee has really impressed me lately, to be honest with

00:07 you, the win at Tuscaloosa, the win last night in Columbia connects

00:12 an unbelievable 6-6 stretch that can have a guy all over him and

00:18 he can still turn around at the top of the key and dagger right in the guy's face.

00:23 He took some sloppy shots last night, but

00:26 he hit some moving threes in the deep corner pocket with the and one and

00:31 the four-point play.

00:32 That Tennessee team has everything, size, physicality, experience.

00:37 And people say they're not going anywhere cuz Barnes will choke.

00:40 Do you buy that?

00:42 >> No, I do not.

00:43 I don't believe that is an issue at all.

00:47 He's a terrific coach.

00:49 What has been a problem lately is that their offenses haven't been any good.

00:53 When they had Grant Williams 2019, they didn't choke.

00:56 They got out shot in a game by Purdue and Edwards.

01:03 Carson Edwards was ridiculous that day.

01:05 He was throwing in 40-foot threes.

01:07 What was Tennessee supposed to do?

01:09 It was an absurd show.

01:11 And for a long time, Tennessee went bucket for

01:14 bucket in that game when they had an offense.

01:17 The last several years, elite defense and almost no offense.

01:21 But now with Connect, and he's the key to all of this,

01:24 Connect puts everybody in the role that they should be offensively.

01:28 Cuz now you have a legit first option who's one of the best first options in

01:32 college basketball.

01:33 And Santiago Vescovi becomes a really nice second perimeter option.

01:37 And Zaki Ziegler becomes a guy, make the open three and create everything.

01:42 And Jonas Adu down in the post, now he's singled up on almost everybody he plays

01:46 cuz there's multiple three options everywhere.

01:49 And he's really quick and got great hands and really fast.

01:52 And so he can undo a single defender one on one.

01:55 It's a totally different Tennessee team than what has been put out in

02:00 the tournament the last several years and lost relatively early.

02:04 I think they have a great shot to win it all.

02:06 I would put them second or third in line to win it behind UConn,

02:11 maybe Purdue, but nobody else in front of them.

02:14 [MUSIC]