University of Tennessee Athletics
5 Quick Things: Feb. 3
February 03, 2017 | Men's Basketball
Winners of four straight, Tennessee goes in search of its fifth true road win on the season when it travels to face Mississippi State on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network).
1 | TOUGH ENOUGH
The last time the Vols trekked to the Magnolia State, it suffered an 80-69 defeat at the hands of Ole Miss -- a loss that came after surrendering a 13-point second-half lead. Coach Barnes attributed the setback to his young squad being out-toughed by the Rebels, challenging his team to find a way to compete for 40 minutes. Outwardly, the current four-game winning streak might appear as evidence that the Vols have turned the corner as it relates to toughness, but sophomore Admiral Schofield says UT has a ways yet to go.
"We still don’t think we’re tough enough," Schofield said. "Toughness is not just defined by physicality. It’s defined in the mental aspect as well. Mentally, we’re not there where we can just continue to play for 40 minutes straight and finish games as strong as we need to. We’ve had 30-point leads (in games) where we’ve only won by 10 or nine. That’s not a sign of a tough team."
2 | CAN THE VOLS SCORE 80?
Tennessee is a perfect 9-0 this season when it scores at least 80 points, and the Vols have hit that mark in four of their last five SEC games. When the Big Orange hosted Mississippi State on Jan. 21, the Vols posted a 91-74 victory that jumpstarted UT’s current four-game win streak. Saturday’s rematch with the Bulldogs takes place on the road, where Tennessee has already surpassed the 80-point mark in victories at Vanderbilt and Auburn—totaling 87 points in each of those triumphs. Head coach Rick Barnes and the Vols won their last game against MSU in Starkville, defeating the Bulldogs last season by a score of ... (can you guess it?) ... 80-75. Tennessee has won three straight meetings—and six of the last seven—at Humphrey Coliseum.
3 | TWO WEEKS IN BETWEEN
Tennessee is facing Mississippi State for the second time in as many weeks on Saturday, having picked up a 91-74 win over the Bulldogs in Knoxville on Jan. 21. Paced by 19 points from Robert Hubbs III, the Vols led by as many as 24 in the second half en route to the victory. Could the nature of that win cause UT to take its preparation for the Bulldogs for granted this week?
"We played well that day," said head coach Rick Barnes. "But I don’t think it’s ever easy. It’s not supposed to be easy. I just have a lot of respect for Ben Howland and what he’s doing. He’s got the youngest team in the country and he’s going to continue to coach them and teach them. What we did the last game we can look at, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve got a new 40 minutes with them and we need to keep getting better."
4 | HUBBS ENTERS FEBRUARY ON VERGE OF 1,000 POINTS
Senior wing Robert Hubbs III enters the month of February needing just 66 points to reach 1,000 for his career. The Newbern, Tennessee, native will become the 48th all-time member of UT’s 1,000-Point Club and the first addition since current Miami Heat guard Josh Richardson scored his 1,000th point at South Carolina on Jan. 20, 2015. The reigning SEC Player of the Week, Hubbs leads the Volunteers in scoring this season with a career-best 14.8 points per game. His 325 total points already exceeds his scoring total from last season (318). He has scored in double figures 19 times this season, including six 20-point games. When the Vols defeated Mississippi State last month, Hubbs scored 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
5 | SEC COACHES TAKING NOTICE
After his Auburn squad fell to the Volunteers on its home floor Tuesday, Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl stated that Tennessee was one of the “hardest-playing teams in the league" and that UT "played harder than us tonight."
"It’s just (an acknowledgement of) the work that we put in," sophomore Admiral Schofield said. "We know our identity, but we still don’t think we’re tough enough. We’ve still got a long way to go in maturity aspects, but for an opposing coach to say something like that, it’s humbling because we do work on that.
"We’re undersized, and we know we aren’t going to be able out-rebound everybody every night. A lot of teams are more athletic than we are. But we’ve got a lot of heart on this team and a lot of guys who want it."
Pearl’s comments fell in line with similar sentiments shared by SEC coaches after facing Tennessee this season.
"Size does not affect Tennessee," Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland said after the Bulldogs' Jan. 21 loss in Knoxville. "They have one of the shortest teams in the country, but they are wide, they are physical, and they are athletic ... They play the right way."
