With seven newcomers making their Tennessee basketball debut, the butterflies were fluttering around Thompson-Boling Arena as the Volunteers kicked off the 2014-15 season in their exhibition match-up against Pikeville.
Those nerves played their part in the opening minutes of Monday’s contest as the Vols failed to secure a lead until the 9:19 mark of the first half, but in the end UT managed to pull themselves together and pick up an 80-62 victory over the Bears.
“Just like in any other game, you come out and you got butterflies and you are kind of nervous,” junior guard Armani Moore said. “Obviously, we got a whole bunch of new guys who haven’t really played in this arena in front of fans before.
“It was just a process of us having to slow down and once we got that under control I thought we played pretty good.”
That process, however, took a little longer than the Vols would’ve liked, as Pikeville jumped out to an early lead and maintained it for the majority of the first half.
It wasn’t until Moore hit a 3-pointer with 9:19 left in the half that Vols pulled ahead of the No. 2 NAIA team in the country.
UT would relinquish that lead only one time the remainder of the contest when Colt Chapman hit a layup to give Pikeville a 22-21 advantage with 7:44 remaining in the opening period.
On the ensuing Tennessee possession, though, a Josh Richardson jumper gave the Vols the lead for good.
The early struggles for the Vols, however, weren’t solely based on a large dose of first-game jitters. They were also caused by UT’s inability to take of the basketball, as they committed six turnovers in the first 8:01 of the game.
In total, the Vols committed 18 turnovers in their first action of the season.
“We share the ball,” head coach Donnie Tyndall said. “We are an unselfish team … With that being said, 18 turnovers is certainly going to be an Achilles heel if we don’t change that from an offensive standpoint.”
After the Vols pulled ahead, Pikeville managed to hang around, until a 10-0 Tennessee run to end the first half dashed any hopes of exhibition upset.
Moore paced the Vols with a team-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting while collecting seven rebounds.
“I’ve been working hard this off-season working on my offensive game,” Moore said. “Most importantly, my teammates did a good job of finding me when I was in the right spots at the right time.”
One of those teammates was Richardson, who finished the day with 15 points, five assists and three rebounds as UT’s starting point guard – a position that he was thrown into only a few weeks ago.
“He was pretty solid and he embraces that roll more than maybe I thought he would,” Tyndall said. “It puts the ball in our best player’s hands more often. I think everybody could see that we don’t have a natural point guard, but he will get better.”
In Monday’s contest, 11 players saw the court for the Vols and all 11 found a way to score, a stat that Moore believes shows what this team has the ability to do.
“It says that everybody has talent,” Moore said. “It’s all about staying humble and getting better each and every day.”
The Vols will look to continue their improvement in their final exhibition matchup against Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday before they tip off the regular season against No. 15 VCU in the Veterans Classic in Annapolis, Md.
