Grant Williams finds edge, pace to ignite Vols basketball against Florida

Mike Wilson
Knoxville

Florida came to Tennessee on Wednesday with a natural goal for stopping Grant Williams: The Gators wanted to limit touches for the Vols standout forward.

Tennessee’s Grant Williams scores over Florida’s Kevarrius Hayes on Wednesday, February 21, 2018. Tennessee defeated Florida, 62-57.

Florida coach Mike White was left saying it was easier said than done afterward and offered a litany of compliments to the Tennessee sophomore. He called Williams disciplined, versatile, much improved, tough and skilled among his many praises, which rolled together led to what happened Wednesday.

“He took the game over,” White said.

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Williams had a game-high 23 points in Tennessee’s 62-57 win against the Gators, dominating the final 12 minutes of the second half. He shot 8-for-13 from the field and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line in an efficient showing.

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It proved a necessary performance Wednesday to win, but also provided a strong response to a five-point, four-rebound outing Saturday at Georgia that UT coach Rick Barnes criticized.

On Saturday, Barnes said Williams needed to “quit talking about it and do it.” On Sunday, the two had a talk about what Williams needed to do and Barnes narrowed it down to a need to “go back to himself.”

“It was about that edge I have, because last year I think I was a lot more aggressive on the rebounding and pursuing the ball and offensive rebounds and things like that,” Williams said. “But this year I’ve kind of been focused on scoring, which I can’t do, because that’s something I want to make my mark on is being a good rebounder and a guy that’s really tough.”

Williams grabbed six rebounds against Florida, joking that he was a little mad that Admiral Schofield bested him with eight rebounds. But it mattered little, Williams said he was “excited to be on the glass” and he grabbed two key defensive rebounds to spark a 7-0 Tennessee run midway through the second half.

The Charlotte native scored 10 first-half points, coming in with a declared mindset of attacking and willing his way to the basket in lieu of settling for longer shots.

“Georgia, I was kind of being passive and I was playing slow,” Williams said. “I wasn’t playing with pace like I normally do and I wasn’t being aggressive. (On Wednesday), I was just saying I was going to get the ball where I wanted to get it and put the ball in the basket.”

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The sophomore forward made quick, hard plays to the basket, scored with a variety of post moves and with both hands on a fantastic offensive night. But early in the second half, Williams hit the bench after he drew his third foul only 29 seconds after halftime.

He sat for more than eight minutes, returning with 11:36 to play and the Vols leading by only one. He got rolling immediately, posting up and backing down for an easy layup. He pulled down a pair of defensive rebounds that led to two straight Schofield field goals before scoring twice in a row himself.

“He started finally catching it going to the basket,” Barnes said. “That’s what he did early in the year and he finally got back to it (Wednesday).”

Williams finished with 13 second-half points in 11 minutes to reach 23 for the night – his highest-scoring game since he set a career high with 37 at Vanderbilt on Jan. 9.

His showing led to an important win with only three regular-season games left and a bounceback feeling that Williams summed up with a comment about the Vols that easily could have been about himself.

“When you lose like that, especially like in a game against Georgia or Alabama, if you’re a team that’s competitive and really excited to play, you’re going to come out the next practice and show that,” Williams said. “If you come out kind of like it never happened, at the end of the day you’re not a good team. That’s something that we started with the Monday after and that’s something we focused on, just being aggressive and getting back how we used to play earlier in the season.”