TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Tennessee Volunteers’ other players knew before anyone else that Dalton Knecht was going to be a college basketball star this season, and they knew because Jahmai Mashack was already on the team.
They knew before Knecht, the Northern Colorado-transfer-turned-NBA-lottery-lock, became the first SEC player since LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal in 1991 to score 35 points in consecutive SEC games. They knew before he started taking over games, thrilling with buckets from 25 feet away and from above the rim and from all points in between. Before a ridiculous dunk in an exhibition at Michigan State’s Breslin Center gave a hint of things to come. Before Rick Barnes blew the whistle on the first preseason practice.
They knew because defense is half the game and, in their eyes, Mashack is as good at it as anyone. So of course he was the one taking on Knecht in the summer pickup games. Imagine those battles.
“We see him as the best defender in the country,” Tennessee senior wing Josiah James said late Saturday night of Mashack, who should be considered the star of No. 4 Tennessee’s 81-74 comeback win Saturday at No. 14 Alabama, just as Knecht was the star of the Vols’ 92-82 comeback win Wednesday over No. 11 Auburn.
Together, though with significant help from every member of the rotation of this complete team, they have the Vols (23-6, 13-3 SEC) in position to earn the first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed in program history, which would help the pursuit for the first Final Four and national championship. But let’s not bypass the 11th SEC regular-season championship in school history, dating to the first in 1935-36, which was the fourth season of SEC existence.
That’s in sight now with two games to play — at South Carolina and home vs. Kentucky, capping the first-ever UT stretch of four straight top-20 teams — and it would deserve a well-stitched banner, considering the SEC is the best league in college basketball and the best it’s been in a long time. If someone knows when it was better than this, please leave a comment and make a thorough case.
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There’s symmetry to the way the Vols won the week against two teams in Alabama that also have realistic Final Four aspirations. Knecht outscored Auburn 25-21 after the Vols trailed by eight midway through the second half, a takeover that might have clinched SEC Player of the Year for him and should bolster him in the national discussions.
After the Vols trailed by seven midway through the second half at Alabama, Mashack’s contributions weren’t as quantifiable. That’s the life of a stopper compared with a scorer. But it was something to behold as well. And he actually had a run on both ends.
It started in the first half, when it was apparent this would be a game for the 6-4 junior from Fontana, Calif. He came off the bench early to apply himself to Alabama point guard Mark Sears, one of the toughest covers in the sport. When Alabama’s Aaron Estrada started going off, Barnes sent Mashack that way.
This will be the first highlight they play on the video board for Jahmai Mashack’s senior day next season #Vols pic.twitter.com/uO8XGmNw37
— Reece Van Haaften (@Reece_VH) March 3, 2024
It started a few weeks ago when Mashack approached Barnes, who had been playing Mashack as a four in small lineups, and asked him to resume letting him guard guards. That’s his strength.
“I told my coaches, ‘What was I thinking getting away from that?’” Barnes said. “Because he’s elite at it.”
He was elite at it against Sears and Estrada, even when both managed to muscle in bank shots against him. Mashack’s minutes are never guaranteed in part because he’s not a consistent scorer. And in part because this eight-man rotation is loaded. But in this game, against the No. 1 offensive team in the country, with two guards he could stay in front of like no one else, he was going to play a lot.
He turned the game in the second half. The Alabama lead was 62-57 when he got the ball in the lane, attacked, drew defense to him and dropped a bounce pass to Jonas Aidoo for a dunk. It was 62-60 when Zakai Zeigler found Mashack alone in the corner. He’s not a great shooter but he’s a capable one, and Barnes insists on no hesitation when he sees an open look.
Mashack swished it to retake the lead. Tennessee would keep it the rest of the way.
Instead of celebrating, Mashack saw Alabama trying to push the ball, got from one side of the court to the other and leaped to pick off Sears’ pass intended for Estrada. Mashack saved it to Zeigler, who got it to Aidoo for a layup plus the foul. On the next UT possession, with Knecht (13 points) drawing extra attention as will be the norm from now on, Mashack made a nice move in the lane and got to the rim for another bucket.
He had eight points, six rebounds and four assists in 27 minutes. Those are the quantifiable contributions. There was a lot more to it than that.
“He might have played his best game since he’s been at Tennessee,” Barnes said.
“It’s fun guarding offensive-heavy teams like that, it’s what college basketball is now,” Mashack said. “It’s what basketball is turning into, an offensive-heavy game. So you’ve got to have guys who want to play defense. I love it. My team loves it.”
They love it so much that they held Alabama without a field goal for a stretch of 9 minutes and 3 seconds in the second half. Again, this is the most efficient offensive team in the nation. Playing in what has become an elite environment, supporting a program that would be in great shape for its third SEC title in four years. But for the 20 misses on its final 23 shots against the veteran, gritty Vols.
“Oh wow — that’s a Rick Barnes masterclass,” James said when that stat was relayed to him by a reporter.
“The tougher teams are going to win games like this,” Mashack said. “You’re not gonna win with just being better, you’re not going to win with just execution. You’re going to win with toughness and fight and grit. Who wants it more? And Alabama, man, they were an impressive team, especially here, I feel like they make a lot of their shots here, they get on runs, that’s what their offense is, they’re built on that. So we had to be the tougher team.”
It helps to have the toughest player.
(Photo of Jahmai Mashack, left, attempting to knock the ball away from Alabama’s Mouhamed Dioubate: Gary Cosby Jr. / USA Today)
