No. 8 Tennessee got back on the court Tuesday night for its second exhibition, this time against No. 2 Duke, and things did not go well from the start. Before the Vols could blink, the deficit was at 23 points. To make matters worse, guard Terrence Hill Jr. went down with a lower extremity injury in the first half and never returned.
Duke could barely miss, moved the ball quickly and had a clear height advantage. The same issues Xavier exposed in the first exhibition showed up all night in Durham as the Blue Devils rolled to a 101-64 win.
1. Duke punished Vols’ defensive inadequacies
The Blue Devils outscored the Vols 28-7 in fast-break points, with 15 coming before halftime. Deron Rippey Jr. did a lot of that work off the bench, finishing with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and three steals.
Duke scored at will, and most of those easy looks came before Tennessee could get its defense set. Tennessee never got Duke into any uncomfortable place in the game. It was a constant battle for Tennessee all night.
2. Atrocious night in the paint
After the Xavier loss, Barnes said his team had to rebound as a group. Duke beat Tennessee on the glass 45-29, outscored the Vols 44-16 in the paint and blocked seven shots. Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje had three blocks, while Patrick Ngongba and Cameron Williams had two each.
Tennessee shot 33.9% from the field and settled for too many jumpers, with Duke’s length making the paint a tough place to finish. When the Vols did get to the rim, the Blue Devils were waiting, blocking five of Tennessee’s layup attempts. Miles Rubin had seven points and five rebounds, but the Vols managed just 16 points in the paint. Xavier hurt Tennessee inside in the second half. Duke did it from the opening tip, and the Vols need answers there before the regular season starts.
3. Dai Dai Ames and Braedan Lue gave the Vols something to build on
Dai Dai Ames was Tennessee’s best player on the floor. He scored a team-high 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 13 in the second half on 6-of-10 from the field. Troy Henderson also helped early with 10 first-half points, going 2-of-3 from deep before exiting after an apparent ankle twist.
Braedan Lue was another positive. In 18 minutes off the bench, he pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, including two on the offensive end, and added a steal. On a night when Duke owned the glass, Lue was one of the few Vols who consistently came away with the ball in traffic. He’s been solid in the frontcourt through both exhibitions, and that is something I believe Barnes can build on.
Outside of that group, points were hard to come by. Tennessee went 4-of-18 from 3-point range and 1-of-9 after halftime. Juke Harris scored 10 points but made just two of his 10 shots from the field. The bench put up 39 points while the starters scored 25, and Tennessee will need more from its shooters when the season starts. It has not been good so far in these exhibition runs.
