GAINESVILLE, Fla. – One of the obvious elements that have made Tennessee's home court advantage so substantial the last several seasons under Rick Barnes has been the passionate, raucous and vitriolic atmosphere Volunteers fans bring when stuffing one of the largest facilities in the nation.
On Tuesday, due a fierce snowstorm that ferociously dusted the region Monday, Thompson-Boling Arena was about half-capacity for a date against the rival Florida Gators that was moved up two hours. The missing 10,000 or so fans, as it turned out, weren't needed. The Vols still had their signature defense.
And Dalton Knecht.
Knecht, the 6-foot-6 fifth-year grad-transfer from Northern Colorado, poured in a career-high 39 points on an array of offensive moves and shots, grabbed eight rebounds and provided plenty of scoring firepower to complement one of the nation's best defenses, as the sixth-ranked Volunteers throttled the Gators 85-66 in their Southeastern Conference snow date. Knecht went 13-for-23 from the floor, dropped four of six 3-pointers and made all nine of his free throws over 32 minutes.
Those numbers would have been even tighter and more efficient had Barnes not kept his SEC Newcomer of the Year candidate on the floor until about a minute to go, trying to let him get his 40-spot. Knecht's last shot of the night was a 30-foot rushed airball, which was an outlier to the show he put on for the balance of the game, which included a first-half stretch of eight consecutive UT field goals, as the Vols were taking hold of the game.
The performance came just three days after Knecht hung 35 on Georgia in a come-from-behind road SEC win and some six weeks since pouring in 37 points, then a career-best, in a road loss at North Carolina in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
"He's been doing it to everybody," UF coach Todd Golden said of Knecht, who began the day as the league's No. 4 scorer at 17.2 points per game, but left averaging 27.8 points on 57-percent shooting, 54 from 3 and 81 from the free-throw line in SEC play. "Obviously, we came into the game with an idea of how we'd try to turn his water off, but the first half I thought a lot of it was in transition and broken plays and he just didn't let us off the hook."
On balance, off balance, in transition, downhill drives, the 3-point line, whatever. UT's Dalton Knecht (3) had it working against the Gators.
Neither did the Tennessee defense, which smothered Florida, one of the nation's fastest and better offenses, into just 29.4 percent shooting on the game – 20 of 68 overall and just 5-for-22 from distance – with the Gators missing too many makeable opportunities around the basket, the likes of which need to be capitalized against such a ball-hawking unit. The 66 points were a season-low for an offense that came in ranked 24th nationally in offensive efficiency.
The Vols (12-4, 3-1) refused to let the Gators (11-6, 1-3) push pace and beat them to every spot, or so it seemed, in the halfcourt.
"That just set the tone," UF grad-transfer point guard Zyon Pullin said. "They're very physical. Definitely, took some time to get adjusted to it. They denied a lot of our guys. We have to find ways not to let that bother us next game."
"Toughness. They just play harder. It's that simple," Clayton said. "You can be more physical, but you got to want to be more physical."
Tennessee's defense walled up and denied Walter Clayton Jr. and his UF teammates all night.
The loss was Florida's seventh straight at Tennessee – dating to 2016 – where the Vols are now 52-5 over the last four seasons. That's a winning percentage of .912.
The Vols never trailed in this one.
UF was down 22-12 with just over seven minutes to play in the first half when Knecht took off a his run of eight consecutive field goals, including three 3s, plus an old-fashion 3-point play, that took the Vols to intermission up 44-32 and shooting 60 percent from the floor, courtesy of Knecht's 9-for-10 period and perfection on three 3s.
"This isn't a team you want to fall behind against," Golden said. "They're obviously very good defensively and very well-coached and play with great intent. Very disciplined. They're not going to make mistakes and allow you to get back in the game.
UF fell behind by 20 five minutes into the second, but worked the margin back to 10, at 61-51, when 6-11 forward Jonas Aidoo (19 points, 9 rebounds) hit a post-up move that was followed by two free throws and then a 3 by Knecht that soon had the Vols up by 22 and thinking about getting their new star a rare 40-point game.
"It starts with defense. Make a stop and score," Knecht said. "Then we're just feeding off the crowd."
On this day, it was half a crowd, actually. And it was plenty.
