Vols can beat Kentucky, go deep in NCAA Tournament with Jordan Bone's 'super power'

ST. LOUIS — Tennessee sophomore guard Jordan Bone hit a few shots Saturday that built a lead over Arkansas that never got below double digits in the final 28 minutes of the SEC Tournament semifinals. Good for him.

Some nights that will happen, some nights it won’t. It’s some of the other things Bone did that really matter. Things he must do every night if this team is going as far as it can go. And in perhaps the best half of Tennessee basketball of this season, in an eye-opening rout of an NCAA Tournament team, we were reminded it can go very far indeed.

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Bone has 17 of his team-high 19 points in the first half of the 84-66 laugher at Scottrade Center, which does two things for the 25-7 Vols. It gives them a crack at Kentucky in Sunday’s championship game, a chance to win a tournament they last won in 1979. And it should — emphasis on should — cement a spot for them in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena next weekend for the start of the tournament that matters most. The one that determines a national champion and gets Americans aged 9 to 90 sharing the joy of the biggest gambling ring in the world.

This team is a strong No. 3 seed, sniffing No. 2 seed territory, and it should have the benefit of starting the NCAA tourney in a building as draped in orange as Scottrade will be draped in Kentucky blue Sunday. It’s a team filled with a bunch of highly likeable kids who seem to like each other even more than the average person who encounters them likes them. This is part of why they should be considered a Final Four threat even though by traditional measures they don’t have Final Four talent. And even though the “guard play wins in March” adage casts doubt on a team that relies most on two bruising forwards.

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Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield (28 points, 12 rebounds combined) were a problem Saturday for Arkansas and will be a problem for Kentucky and whoever’s after that. But Bone has a gear that should be a problem for everyone, too.

“We kind of talk about his speed like it’s a super power,” UT sophomore center Kyle Alexander said after Bone finished 8-for-11 with four assists and one turnover in 29 minutes.

“We need his speed, his speed really is a huge advantage,” coach Rick Barnes said.

“He doesn’t even realize it sometimes,” Alexander said.

“Bone is my roommate and I tell him all the time, ‘You’re the best guard in the country, you’re the best guard in the SEC,’ because he can do that every game,” UT sophomore shooting guard Jordan Bowden said.

“We know what he can do, and for him to come out here and not do it or hesitate to do it, it bothers us as friends and teammates,” sophomore guard Lamonte Turner said. “So when he does it, we get excited. When he does it, we’re a different team.”

So … just do it every night, right? That sounds simple, but Bone has a team to run. That means getting others the ball at the right time, in the right spots, so they can score. There’s more to this than raw speed, and an opponent is going to figure out a guard who puts his head down and charges every time. It’s using speed and it’s changing speeds and it’s having a plan at any speed. Obviously, he isn't consistent enough yet.

“I watch a lot of film, and it’s just a matter of knowing when to do it, which is very hard,” said Bone, who leads the Vols with 115 assists against 42 turnovers. “It’s very hard to know when to go, and that’s something that me and the coaches work on in film sessions, just breaking down certain plays and telling me when to go. But I feel like I used my speed really well tonight and I just have to be aggressive like that tomorrow.”

And beyond, which the Ensworth product hopes will begin in his hometown of Nashville. His scoring Saturday, featuring a 7-for-7 first half from the floor, will get him in the headlines (I’ve got one: “Razorbacks beaten bad, to the Bone.”)

It got him a spot next to Barnes at the post-game press conference. It made him busier in the locker room than after a typical game, reporters wondering how a 6.7-a-night guy nearly tripled that against the Razorbacks.

But it was awareness and speed on defense that got him a steal, which he turned into a fast-break layup on the other end. Then he blocked Anton Beard at the rim. He took a Turner steal the other way for a two-handed dunk. And one of his best moments came in the second half when he didn’t go.

Arkansas guard Darious Hall was in Bone’s face, smiling and daring him to drive. Bone jabbed and got himself some space. He could have ventured into the teeth of a defense that was more aware of him in the second half. Instead, he swung the ball to Schofield popping off a screen. On time and on the mark. Schofield buried a three and it was 51-32 Vols.

“You can see he knows the game, he knows what to do,” Schofield said. “He just has to be more confident in his ability.”

Amid the reporters asking questions of Bone, Bowden grabbed a TV station microphone and approached. He asked Bone about a pretty pull-up jumper he hit with the shot clock expiring.

“I really felt like Jordan Bowden,” Bone said and they had a good laugh, two roommates, one of them a passer who took 11 shots, the other a shooter who got zero shots, both of them happy to be on a team that wins a lot and in different ways.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.