There’s absolutely no reason for this Tennessee team to be good. They don’t have the flashy names. They don’t have that top-end talent. I’d venture to guess if you ask most fans for a Tennessee player they likely don’t name one. Sure, Grant Williams is an All-American candidate and Admiral Schofield is a potential 2nd round pick. But in today’s age of college hoops, there is no reason for Tennessee to be good.

So what’s happening?

It starts with the defense. That’s the one thing that Rick Barnes brought over with him from Texas. The first year was a bit of a struggle as they ranked 150th in the country, but since then it’s been 55th, 6th and now 13th. They run a man defense, with a lot of hard hedges. It’s actually pretty intriguing to watch. They press, but it’s not a real press. Their guards just like to apply pressure to waste a bit of time and before the inbounds pass you’ll see someone like Williams with his back to the ball. That’s why they are just ‘average’ when it comes to turning teams over.

In the halfcourt the man defense is pretty in your face. They like to get up and pressure the ball. They have a bunch of help side defense. It’s somewhat similar to the old ‘fort’ defense you heard in CYO ball. Look at the spacing yesterday against Gonzaga. On a side ball screen pretty much everyone has a foot in the lane.

The defense is predicated on forcing difficult drives, challenging at the rim and then rotations on threes. A large reason as to why they can do this? Roster versatility. They can go small and move Williams/Schofield at the five with Jordan Bone, Lamonte Turner and Jordan Bowden. They can go small and bring in Kyle Alexander in the frontcourt with Williams and Schofield.

Offensively they can be a bit of a weird mismatch. Most teams in college don’t play through a forward like Tennessee does with Williams. Teams prefer to play through a lead guard or dump it to a big guy in the post. Williams like to be in the midpost. He’s not a ‘point forward’ but he’s a forward initiator – somewhat similar to what UNC did last year with Theo Pinson. They like to ISO him in the mid post and then he’s improved passing so there’s spot up shooters or the ability for him to drive.

There are questions about Tennessee’s ability to win a national title. I’ve brought it up before – the top-end talent. Yes, I think Schofield will be a 2nd round pick, but when you look at history of title winners there are always multiple NBA players. Does Tennessee have that? While they have improved shooting, they are nearly 300th in the country in 3PA/FGA and average at shooting as a team. It’s improved, but is it good enough to win six games? Either way, the fact that we’re even talking about this just shows that Rick Barnes has been beyond tremendous at Tennessee.