Tennessee Basketball: Takeaways from Lenoir-Rhyne exhibition matchup
Offense is priority No.2
Coach Barnes will not have to ask twice to get somebody to raise their hand when looking for somebody to score, getting somebody to be a scorekeeper might be harder, due to the amount of work, but the athletics department has a budget for that and there is no need to find a volunteer for that, the players however will.
After losing their two top scorers, one would expect the Volunteers to struggle in the early goings to score, such was not the case versus Division II Lenoir-Rhyne. The fact that Chandler scored 21 points, Huntley-Hatfield scored 15, Powell contributed 14 as Oliver Nkamhoua and Uros Plavsic rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12 points and 10 points respectively, the Vols laid out how they plan on scoring this season.
The first who has to be mentioned is Kennedy Chandler as he will have the ball in his hands the majority of the time. Versus Lenoir- Rhyne, Chandler’s skills were on full display as his ability to attack the basket and shoot long range has been discussed already. Perhaps the most interesting stat was Josiah-Jordan James scoring just nine points, after a 2020-21 season of averaging eight, James is going to see an uptick in scoring.
Even coming off of wrist surgery James has the green light to shoot and shoot from everywhere, which is demonstrated in his 3for 9 from beyond the arc. James was able to get those shots off by using off-ball screens to get to the top of the arc.
Hatfield’s and Powell’s scoring output may be contrasting but equally as effective. Hatfield was the beneficiary of several Chandler drives and dishes that finished with dunks, while Powell filled his role perfectly by hitting 4 of 8 three-pointers. Santiago Vescovi will be getting his shots off as he replaces Chandler off the dribble/drive looking to have it kicked back out for the open three-pointer.
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As a secondary ball-handler Vescovi is comfortable dribbling the ball to an open spot to rise up. Vescovi was not particularly effective going 1 for 9 from the arc, but he will be getting a lot of kickbacks as his man sinks to stop Chandler from penetrating.