[ad_1]
Dalton Knecht he kept it simple.
He tennessee basketball The guard had a defender in front of him. The other eight players were on the opposite half of the court thanks to their teammates clearing spaces. The decision was easy.
Knecht used a crossover and a hesitant dribble to get past Auburn’s Johni Broome and into the open lane. He dunked, swung from the rim and pumped his fist a little as he returned to the glowing floor in the midst of the final, best performance of his season at Tennessee.
“What he did in the last 12 minutes (is) one of the great performances I’ve been able to see,” Vols coach. Rick Barnes saying.
That particular play within Knecht’s unforgettable 12 minutes emerged from a small but brilliant adjustment in the Vols’ offense, and Tennessee used it repeatedly. He helped spark Knecht’s 25 points in 12 minutes between his Season-best 39 points to edge Auburn 92-84 at Food City Center’s Thompson-Boling Arena.
How Rick Barnes tweaked Tennessee’s offense to start Dalton Knecht
Knecht slid into the corner with No. 4 Tennessee (22-6, 12-3 SEC) maintaining a two-point lead with less than seven minutes left Wednesday against No. 11 Auburn (21-7, 10- 5).
He waited for Tobe Awaka and Josiah-Jordan James to join him.
Barnes had made a change to the under-8 media timeout and this was the move put into practice. He altered a basic set of Tennessee’s offense that has three players down near the baseline and two up outside the 3-point line. Typically, this gives Knecht (or whoever) the opportunity to start in the middle under the rim and use a screen in either direction.
“Instead of giving him a chance to come out from either side, we moved him to the side and told both guys to open him up,” Barnes said. “We really gave him two-thirds of the court to try to open it up and get the ball. He did it. Then it’s up to him to make the moves and the shots that he thinks he has.”
Knecht did it again and again. He ran down the baseline on the first play, using a screen from Awaka to switch to Broome. He pushed aside another Awaka screen to completely isolate him. He hit a three-pointer over Broome.
He used it differently the next time, splitting screens and bringing up Broome again. She walked past him to do a dunk.
“It just gave me a lot more space to isolate,” Knecht said. “Just to give me the full side, so if I want a screen, I ask for a screen. It worked.”
The Vols took advantage of the set eight times in 10 possessions in the final eight minutes. Knecht started five times on the left and three times on the right. He was 3-for-4 shooting in the close set with seven points. UT scored 13 total points on the possessions, pulling away from the Tigers.
“If people want to stick with the shooters, it’s going to give them too much room to operate and they’re going to get a basket whenever they want,” guard Zakai Zeigler said. “It’s going to work anyway.”
Dalton Knecht had his best half yet for Tennessee basketball
Knecht approached the scorer’s table with a towel draped over his shoulders, like a boxer returning to the ring. Barnes had called a timeout to return Knecht to the game with 2:45 left after giving him a brief respite to catch his breath.
The senior touched the ball on 17 of Tennessee’s last 18 half-court possessions. He scored in 11 of them. He made nine field goals in those 18 possessions and took 11 shots.
“There aren’t many of those guys who can do it like he did,” Barnes said.
Tennessee turned to Knecht when trailing by eight early in the second half. He scored twice against Auburn’s zone defense, hitting a 3-pointer and then using a baseline cut for a dunk.
He had felt good in the first half after consecutive shots. He was locked in in the second half, fighting off Auburn players pulling his jersey, triple teams and more to produce at a ridiculous rate.
Knecht scored 27 points in the second half, surpassing his notable previous halves at North Carolina, Mississippi State and Georgia. Wednesday was his sixth 20-point half and his best yet. It was also his sixth 30-point game and fifth in the SEC, setting him up for SEC Player of the Year honors, All-American honors and putting his name in the national player of the year conversation. .
“In the end, we were just distracting ourselves and trying to give him room to operate,” Barnes said.
It was that simple.
mike wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you to access all of this.
[ad_2]
Source link