By Dave Ford

Less than 24 hours after basking in the glow of a last-minute win over Florida, Vols head coach Bruce Pearl met with the media at his weekly luncheon, and expressed his concern for the team’s upcoming games against LSU and South Carolina.

“We will have played two games in between South Carolina’s last game. I don’t know how often or if that’s ever happened,” said Pearl on Feb. 1 inside Thompson-Boling Arena. “They played Georgia (Jan. 30) at home and have all week to get ready for us. We played Florida at home (Jan. 31), travel  to play a late game Thursday night against LSU and then we’ve got to come back and play South Carolina Saturday late afternoon. It puts us at a real disadvantage.”

The fatigue factor is something every team is dealing with at this point in the season, but having to play two games in three days, not to mention against two of the SEC’s best players in LSU’s Tasmin Mitchell and South Carolina’s Devan Downey back-to-back, is a challenge the Vols (16-4, 4-2 SEC) have yet to face.

“Two of my favorite players in the league,” said Pearl. “Tasmin Mitchell is as tough as nails, tough as they come. (He’s) physical, strong, productive—you’ve gotta game plan around both of those guys. Whether it’s (a matter of) they get theirs and you stop the rest or you try to prevent them from getting theirs and take what the rest of them give you; there’s two schools of thought.”

Downey currently leads the league in scoring with 22.9 points per game to go along with 3.6 assists and 3.0 steals, while Mitchell is putting up 17.9 points and grabbing 9.6 boards per contest.

Last week it was Downey who, for all intents and purposes, single-handedly led the Gamecocks (13-8, 4-3) to their upset win over then-No. 1 Kentucky.

Pearl sent a message to UT fans that when Downey and company roll into town on Feb. 6—it’s must-see basketball.

“Downey is amazing, this is an amazing story what he’s doing right now. He is in a complete zone. You need to come Saturday night to watch him. This kid’s special, you gotta see it to believe it. He can go by you, he can elevate, he can shoot over you,” he said.

But first comes the road matchup with LSU (9-12, 0-7) on Feb. 4—a 9 p.m. tipoff on ESPN2. While the Tigers are losers of seven straight, Pearl said UT needs to understand they will come out battling like a wounded beast.

“They’ve got those Tigers that sit out in front (of the arena),” he said. “Right now, they haven’t won in the SEC. How do you want to go in and face a tiger? You want to face him when he’s fat and happy or do you want to face him when he’s got a thorn in his paw? We’re going down there understanding we’re going to face an LSU team that’s not very happy.”

As for the state of his team, Pearl said although the deep shots have not been falling, he likes the shot selection.

“I’m so comfortable with the guys who are shooting the ball, and I know what the percentages are. But I’m not uncomfortable with them, they’re good shots,” he said. “Wayne Chism is averaging a double-double in SEC play. Wayne Chism is the second-leading rebounder in the SEC and in SEC play. It’s really wonderful to see his maturity and his growth.”

Along with Chism’s 13.2 points and 10.7 rebounds in SEC play is Hopson’s 13.2 points per game average and 43 percent (10-of-23) shooting from 3-point range.

Because of their recent production in big games, Pearl said he now knows who needs to get the most touches on the
offensive end.

“I told our team we have to recognize a few things—newsflash, Scotty Hopson and Wayne Chism are our best offensive players,” he said. “We need to recognize that that’s where the ball needs to go.”

With its offensive identity now in place and 10 games remaining,  Tennessee could be primed for a strong run in preparation for the postseason.