NCAA Basketball: Best games from 2019-20 season – Tennessee vs. VCU

Tennessee and VCU gave us a thrilling NCAA Basketball game when they faced off in the Emerald Coast Classic; let’s remember how it went down.

Back at the beginning of the nonconference play, few people could fathom how the national pandemic would eventually terminate and topple the NCAA Basketball season. Despite this, there were still stellar moments throughout that season, especially in the opening weeks of play.

Our look at the top 40 games from the 2019-20 season continues with one of those preseason tournaments, watching a pair of ranked teams give us a stellar game.

26. #17 Tennessee 72, #20 VCU 69 (Emerald Coast Classic)

November 30, 2019, The Arena at Northwest Florida State in Niceville, FL

Though the college basketball season was shortened and most of the postseason wasn’t played, there was still plenty to talk about from last season. Several months earlier, we got a fantastic slate of early season nonconference tournaments, with several games from those already appearing in this series. Today, we turn our attention towards the 3rd place game between a pair of ranked teams coming off losses.

Tennessee had been fantastic in recent seasons but were replacing a lot of talent, with the losses of Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams among others. While players like Jordan Bowden and Yves Pons remained, this Volunteers squad had been picked to finish just 5th in the SEC. they got things off to a solid start, winning their first 6 games and entering the top 25, but had lost a 3-point outing to Florida State the day before.

VCU wasn’t a team that was coming off an amazing season, but with Marcus Santos-Silva and Marcus Evans, there were some high expectations for the Rams. They began the season ranked and had also won their first six games, including a great effort over LSU. However, the day before they too had fallen in the Emerald Coast Classic, losing by three points to the Boilermakers of Purdue.

Two teams bent on leaving Florida with a win got off to slow starts, but then the points really started pouring in. Bowden scored four in a hurry for the Volunteers while the Rams made a trio of 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the game. The offensive fireworks did not stop for either team, as they were trading baskets on nearly every possession, with neither team able to grab a significant advantage.

Unfortunately, VCU could not keep up the momentum, suffering a long field goal drought late in the first half. A 3-pointer from Nah’Shon Hyland gave the Rams a 19-18 advantage, but their next made basket wouldn’t come for nine minutes. Fortunately, they hit a few free throws and their defense kept them in the game. By halftime, the Tennessee advantage was 11 points, though with a drought like that it could have been much worse.

A quick pair of free throws from Bowden gave the Volunteers a 13-point lead, which would become their largest of the day. VCU had a quick answer, scoring the next six points to get back in the game. Santos-Silva and Jenkins led the Rams on another quick spurt and pretty soon this was a ballgame again.

While they traded buckets with Tennessee for quite a while, VCU finally tied the game up on another Santos-Silva shot with just over seven minutes left. A jumper from KeShawn Curry gave the Rams their first lead in a long time, though it was quickly erased by another long-range shot by the Volunteers. They traded the lead back and forth several more times in the forthcoming minutes.

VCU pulled back to within a point in the final minute but failed to score on their next two possessions. John Fulkerson made a pair of free throws to give the Volunteers their 3-point lead back. On the ensuing possession, De’Riante Jenkins struck gold, hitting the 3-pointer to tie the game with just 5 seconds left. The Volunteers had one last shot, and Lamonte Turner made the Rams pay, sinking a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to pull off a fantastic victory.

The Volunteers turned the ball over 13 times and blew a 13-point second-half lead, but they did just enough to pull out the win. Fulkerson led the way with 17 points and seven rebounds, though of course, they needed all of Turner’s 12 points to get the job done. VCU made 46% of their 3-pointers, including that key one in the final seconds, but just couldn’t do enough after digging themselves a big hole in the second half.

Tennessee’s season continued with limited success, as the Volunteers eventually struggled to an 8th place finish in the SEC. They did pick up a road win at Kentucky in early March, but this wasn’t an NCAA Tournament team and they certainly missed some of the studs of previous postseason runs. Still, coach Rick Barnes built a fantastic roster before and will certainly have the Volunteers competing at an elite level again.

VCU needed this win but lost another heartbreaker in Florida. The Rams failed to live up to the high expectations and floundered late in the season in conference play. They wound up just 8-10 in A-10 play, securing the 8-seed in the conference, though the tournament would never be played. After great expectations, they too had faltered down the stretch.

But none of these failed expectations matter. Both teams would’ve liked to have played for the Emerald Coast Classic, but instead gave us a fantastic third-place game. Turner’s buzzer-beater remains one of the great moments in early nonconference play while these two then-ranked foes certainly lived up to the hype in this matchup.