2024-25 has been an incredible season for Tennessee basketball, as Rick Barnes and company have scrapped and clawed their way through a brutal SEC schedule.
The Volunteers finished fourth in the best conferences in America despite playing against an NCAA Tournament-caliber team each and every night. The SEC has a chance to get 14 teams in the Big Dance and it appears that the floor for the conference is 13, which is why Barnes called it arguably the best conference ever earlier in the season.
Despite all of his success during his time in Knoxville, Barnes still hasn’t been able to get Tennessee over that hump and into its first Final Four in program history. However, the Volunteers seem to be playing their best basketball at the right time as we get deep into March.
Tennessee started its SEC Tournament campaign off with a comfortable win over a red-hot Texas team in the quarterfinals before knocking off top-seeded Auburn in a 70-65 battle in the semis. Now, Barnes and company will get a chance to battle for the trophy on Sunday against Florida.
Regardless of whether Tennessee wins the SEC or not, there are still a few things that could prove very costly in a one-game setting like the NCAA Tournament.
The double-edged sword of Tennessee’s physicality
Tennessee is one of the most physical teams in the nation, which makes it very difficult to play against. That all starts with Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack, whoa re two of the best defensive players in the country and give Tennessee that edge on the court.
The SEC as a whole is one of the most physical conferences in college basketball. Just go watch both of the Volunteers’ meetings against Auburn this season. Both were absolute dogfights and were two of the most high-quality games between any teams this season.
Now, being physical and imposing your will on the game will never be deemed a bad thing, but it does have a chance to put Tennessee in some compromising situations when the tournament gets going. There’s no guarantee that the officials in the NCAA Tournament, which are usually from a neutral conference, will let the Volunteers play as much as a lot of the SEC crews did.
That could be a problem for a few reasons, but foul trouble is at the top of the list. If the crews in the tournament aren’t letting Zeigler hound ball handlers and Mashack blow up screens and dominate with his imposing frame, the two of them could end up in some troubling situations.
Losing Zeigler especially could really cripple Tennessee, especially on the offensive end of the floor. He is the man that gets the Volunteers organized on that end, and while he isn’t their top scorer, he is the guy they lean on to control the tempo and pace of the game.
Tennessee has a vaunted defense. They lead the nation in opponent 3-point percentage, rank third in opponent field goal percentage and are in the top 10 in points allowed per game. However, taking some of that physicality away could make it much more difficult to dictate the terms to the opposing offense, which could be a crucial factor against other elite teams.
Can the Volunteers’ offense keep up?
There’s no question that Tennessee’s defense is good enough to make a run to a Final Four and possibly win a championship, but the other side of the ball is a question.
The offense sunk Rick Barnes and company two years ago in a Sweet 16 upset at the hands of Florida Atlantic. Last season, Dalton Knecht led Tennessee to the Elite 8 while spearheading a very good offense, but that side of the ball has become a minor question mark again this season.
North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier is a great scorer, one of the best in the SEC even. While he isn’t quite what Knecht was as a scorer, Lanier can shoot it and is able to fill it up from all three levels and is someone that Tennessee relies on for a lot of its scoring. This season, Lanier is averaging 17.9 points per game and is shooting better than 40% from 3-point range.
Chaz Lanier against #7 Texas A&M
30 points
5 rebounds
8-13 3PT pic.twitter.com/MsmkwBvpQA— Rocky Top Now (@rockytopnow) February 24, 2025
Outside of Lanier, Tennessee has struggled at times. Zeigler and Jordan Gainey are both capable shooters, but they are not all that efficient from beyond the arc. Zeigler can also really get to the rim but is very small, which limits his finishing ability at times. Mashack plays a ton of minutes as someone who isn’t a natural scorer on the offensive end at times, leaving Tennessee vulnerable to getting shut down by some of the elite defenses in the nation.
Big man Igor Milicic Jr. is the X-factor for the Vols on that side of the ball. The 6-foot-10 Croatian can space the floor and score in the post with nice touch around the rim. He is only averaging 10.2 points per game this season, but a hot run in March could make all the difference for Tennessee.
Regardless of how Milicic plays, there’s a high likelihood that Tennessee will run into some problems with its spacing at some point during its tournament run. There’s a chance that its defense is good enough to get it through that stretch or that game, but that is something that Barnes and his staff will have to navigate. If they fail to do so, it could be the reason that the Vols get sent home.
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