Davidson vs Tennessee

picked 12th out of 15 in the A10.

Good details from Ben McKee:

Tennessee basketball hosted Davidson in a secret scrimmage on Sunday that it won 81-63.

In talking to some people, Chaz Lanier had a great day. He scored 27 points on 7-of-12 shooting from three. Felix Okpara also had a strong outing with 20 points. He just fits so well in UT's system and really benefits from the guards. Zakai Zeigler was Zakai Zeigler.

Jahmai Mashack was playing well until he got banged up. It's not anything serious, but they did shut him down in order to be cautious. Sounds like Jordan Gainey and Cameron Carr each had positive moments, though Tennessee would like for them to be more consistent. Carr continues to flash on the defensive side of the ball.

JP Estrella had an okay day. Mostly because he is in the process of getting back into the flow of things after he was limited over the summer due to a stress fracture in his foot.

Cade Phillips played really well. He had a strong offseason and appears positioned to be a key role player in Tennessee's rotation this season as an energy guy that comes in, plays great defense and rebounds the basketball.

Sounds like Igor Milicic Jr. and Darlinstone Dubar struggled in the scrimmage. The two are still adjusting to the system and what Rick Barnes wants from them. That is probably one of the bigger question marks for Tennessee right now: figuring out how Milicic and Dubar fit best at the four.

I don't think UT's defense was really tested all that much. Think it would have liked for Davidson to dribble the ball more and put pressure on the defense so that UT could learn more about themselves. This Sunday's exhibition against Indiana will be a really nice test for Tennessee. Hoosiers were picked to finish second in the Big 10 and will have more size than the Vols.

On the recruiting front, sounds like five-star Nate Ament had a great official visit this weekend. He has a great relationship with Rick Barnes and enjoyed the time spent together.

Four-star guard Isaiah Denis was also in town for the second consecutive weekend. He was here on an unofficial visit following his OV last week for the Florida game. Still work to get that one across the finish line, but I would think it's a great sign that he returned to Tennessee for the second week in a row instead of taking his Kansas OV.

Lastly, Tennessee continues to be in a great position for five-star guard Brayden Burries despite a recent article some of you asked about because UT wasn't mentioned. He's just not very talkative, so if you don't ask him something directly, he's not going to offer it on his own. But Tennessee has a great relationship with Burries and his parents. UT assistant coach Rod Clark travelled to see him play on Friday night in Vegas, which is why Burries had to reschedule his previously scheduled OV to Tennessee for the Alabama game. I reported last week that Burries was moving the OV to December, but the family is trying to finalize his OV for Nov. 12-14, which would allow him to watch them play Montana on a Wednesday night.

Correction, the game will be played at Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena. 

As predicted, they are trying to just gradually drop the TBA from the name. And it's not even that I think that TBA is some iconic name like Neyland that just can't be messed with, but I hate the very idea that people who donated major money toward the funding of the facility to the point that their names were put on it are now sort of pushed to the curb for a grocery chain. 

I tend to agree. It will be a huge disappointment to me if Milicic isn’t a key contributor. In the offseason we heard really good things about how he looked in practice. I can’t evaluate his scrimmage performance because 1) I didn’t see it to have any context, and 2) I’m not smart/savvy enough to do a very good job of it.
But I think you’re right that we need him to give us significant offensive help. As far as Carr’s inconsistency, thank goodness we haven’t seen any of our starters the past few seasons who were inconsistent… haha 😆

SECN+

Thanks but I don't get that channel.  Guess I'll try to listen to the radio play-by-play on the internet, assuming the Vol radio network is carrying it.