Newcomers stand out for Tennessee basketball during 3-game exhibition trip to Italy
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Tennessee basketball finished up its summer trip to Italy Monday, downing the Lithuanian U21 team by 25+ on both Friday and Saturday before posting a similar dominant win over A.S. Stella Azzurra on Monday.
The trip took Rick Barnes’ squad to Lake Como, Florence and Rome as part of their 3-game exhibition tour. Fans who tuned in saw Barnes hand the coaching duties over to Associate HC Justin Gainey while he observed from the opposite side of the court.
The Vols beat the Lithuania u21 team by scores of 97-57 and 116-90 before downing Stella Azzurra 97-51 on Monday. That moves the Vols to 22-7 all-time in international exhibition matchups.
More than anything, the Vols’ weekend was a good way for Tennessee to get a look at a few newcomers who are slated to get some playing time this season. Dalton Knecht, Freddie Dilione and Jordan Gainey especially stood out for Tennessee among strong veteran performances from Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo.
Knecht, who transferred from Northern Colorado, showed off a strong shooting ability for the Vols against overmatched competition. The 6-6 wing boasted a dangerous ability to hit the 3 last season for the Bears and it showed in orange this past weekend. All in all, Knecht finished with 49 points (16 ppg) and hit 12 of his 25 attempts from range.
It wasn’t just Knecht letting it fly from range, though. The Vols took a lot of shots from beyond the 3-point line this weekend, hitting just over 35% of their 119 attempts (42 makes). That’s an average of nearly 40 a game.
It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from an international exhibition game in August, but the Vols really struggled to protect the basketball in Italy. Tennessee totaled 34 turnovers across its 3 games, an average of about 11 per game.
Something Tennessee was watching heading into the exhibition matchups was Dilione and Gainey’s knack for playing the point position with Zakai Zeigler still recovering from tearing his ACL at the end of last season. Both showed promise.
Dilione showed a strong ability with the ball in his hands and was a comfortable floor general but ran into some efficiency problems.
Gainey was one of the more surprising developments of the weekend, as he was one of Tennessee’s top scorers and, especially Monday, showed flashes of defensive brilliance. Time will tell if the USC Upstate transfer can dance with SEC-level talent come early January.
(All unofficial written stats courtesy of Ryan Schumpert, Rocky Top Insider)
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
