Marcus Thornton may not step onto the court inside Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday, but Donnie Tyndall is not going to allow the Georgia forward to catch his team off guard.
“We will prepare as if he’ll play,” the first-year Tennessee head coach said. “If he doesn’t we’ll tweak a few things, but the way we play with our press back to zone and him being a big guy, it really won’t be that big of an adjustment if he doesn’t play.”
Thornton, who is Georgia’s leading scorer and rebounder at 13.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, respectively, has missed the Bulldogs’ last two games with a concussion that he suffered against Vanderbilt on Jan. 27. He has not yet been cleared to play as of Thursday evening.
Without the senior on the court, the Bulldogs have failed to eclipse the 60-point threshold in back-to-back losses at South Carolina (67-50) and Kentucky (69-58).
Those contests marked only the second and third time that the Bulldogs, who rank fifth in the SEC in scoring offense at 70.6 points per game, have scored below the 60-point mark this season.
“Offensively, they certainly aren’t as good without him because he gives them that inside attack,” Tyndall said. “Without him, they go to some younger guys. Their other post player is more of what Derek Reese is — kind of a pick-and-pop four man as opposed to a true low-post player.”
Aside from the underperformance of their offense as a whole, replacing Thornton individually has proven to be a problem for the Bulldogs as well.
Against South Carolina on Jan. 31, Georgia (14-7, 5-4 SEC) elected to start freshman forward Yante Maten, who scored three points on 1-of-5 shooting and corralled six rebounds in 18 minutes before fouling out.
On Tuesday’s matchup versus No. 1 Kentucky, it was redshirt sophomore forward Houston Kessler who got the starting nod, scoring seven points on 2-of-3 shooting in 18 minutes of play.
If Thornton can’t go on Saturday, Tennessee (13-8, 5-4) will have to focus in on the other four members of the Bulldog team who own double figure scoring numbers — Kenny Gaines (11.3), Charles Mann (11.1), Nemanja Djurisic (11.0) and J.J. Frazier (10.9).
“They have a balanced attack,” Tyndall said. “They have veteran guards, which is so important. They’ve got big guys who have physicality and girth, which has caused us some problems all year long … They are just a well-rounded, physical basketball team.”
Going into Saturday’s contest, the Volunteers will be dealing with lineup changes of their own.
In their matchup against Mississippi State on Tuesday, freshman forward Tariq Owens made his second career start and contributed four points and two rebounds while battling foul trouble for the majority of the night.
Despite the lack of playing time, Tyndall stated on Thursday that he was “planning” on starting Owens for the second consecutive game.
“I thought he was pretty good offensively,” Tyndall said. “Defensively, he got some cheap fouls … I thought he looked pretty confident out there for a guy who hasn’t played a whole lot of minutes this season, but that’s not surprising. That’s why we started him because he’s been doing those things in practice.”
Tipoff between the Vols and the Bulldogs is scheduled for noon and can be seen on ESPN2.
