Dribble Handoff: What Kansas, Auburn, Tennessee get from college basketball’s

It’s Christmas time, and that means conference play is about to start ramping up across college basketball. With several weeks worth of data available, it’s now apparent what the strengths and weaknesses of many teams are as we prepare to flip the calendar from 2022 to 2023. CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm already has a projected 68-team NCAA Tournament field, and it’s never too early to start thinking about what “Quadrant” your favorite team’s next game will fall under.

With the 2022-23 college basketball officially taking shape, it’s time to assess what certain teams need the most. Unlike in professional sports, you can’t sign a free agent or make a mid-season trade to bolster your roster. In the spirt of Christmas, however, we can wish for certain things to magically arrive under the tree for certain programs.

Last year, we gave Alabama a lockdown defender, Bob Huggins a Hall of Fame season, Illinois a healthy Andre Curbelo and Bill Self a chill pill. It didn’t all pan out, but at least in the case of Self, things turned out pretty well as he guided Kansas to a national title.

For this year’s holiday-themed Dribble Handoff, our writers are playing the role of Santa Claus and giving away some much-needed gifts throughout college basketball.

Tennessee gets: An effective offense

Tennessee is A) off to a 9-2 start, B) the only team to beat Kansas, and C) in possession of some strong computer numbers (No. 3 at BartTorvik.com, No. 4 in the NET, No. 5 in Sagarin, No. 6 in KPI). The Vols are really good once again and benefitting from the best defense in the country, according to KenPom.com.

But the offense is a bit of a mess.

The Vols are 49th in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom, which is the lowest such ranking for any team in the top 15 of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1. They rank 275th in effective field goal percentage, 236th in offensive turnover percentage, 274th in 2-point field goal percentage and 231st in 3-point field goal percentage. Nothing comes easily on that end of the court, which is an obvious problem if Tennessee’s goal is to make the Final Four for the first time in school history. 

Unless things dramatically improve, this will go down as the third straight year that the Vols have been elite defensively but maybe not quite good enough offensively to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.  Something needs to change on the offensive end, or else the Vols could end up producing another wonderful regular season that leads to another early exit from the NCAA Tournament. Take last season, when they shot 11.1% from 3-point range in a second-round loss to lower-seeded Michigan, or the season before when they shot 33.3% from the field in a first-round loss to lower-seeded Oregon State. — Gary Parrish

Cal gets: A change in fortune

Since Louisville’s at least managed to get a pair of wins before Christmas, Hoops…