KNOXVILLE – Reason hasn’t left yet. It’s still here. Seems like a few minutes ago, it reminds you, that Tennessee basketball had the No. 1 team in the country. And it nods in agreement when a disappointed Rick Barnes grasps at a silver lining: “We’ve lost four games. So we’re not that bad, OK?”
Fair enough.
But just how good are these Vols?
Their status as a serious title contender has taken some dents recently, the latest being Tuesday night’s deeply frustrating 78-73 home loss to Kentucky, a game the 12th-ranked Wildcats won by simply allowing the eighth-ranked Vols to keep hoisting bricks.
Tennessee’s 45 attempts from 3-point range were the most in any game in the Barnes era and the second-most in program history. If you’re going to shoot that many, you’d want to be good at it, right? Not these Vols. They made 11.
That’s 24.4% from 3-point range and 34.7% overall, making the third SEC loss – all against highly ranked teams – in which they’ve failed to reach 35%.
“Of the 45,” Barnes said, “I would say 95% were wide open. But that was by design. That’s what they were looking for, and when we obviously weren’t making them, they were going to back up even more. And why not? …
“I don’t think they were the least bit concerned about us shooting the ball tonight.”
If Kentucky just showed everyone else how to beat a team that no one could handle for about two months earlier this season, that’s troubling, and especially so for a Tennessee program that’s not exactly known for invincibility under Barnes in March.
Tuesday’s game, truthfully, could have been a lot worse. Kentucky (15-5, 4-3 SEC) nearly outplayed Tennessee (17-4, 4-4) from wire to wire. The brief exception being an 11-0 Vols run before halftime as the Tommy Bowl was simultaneously cheering and holding its breath about Zakai Zeigler’s right knee.
Zeigler’s jogging back with teammates after intermission was the highlight of the evening for Tennessee, keeping a disappointing game from becoming a catastrophe.
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But it didn’t change the fact that Kentucky led for more than 35 minutes and shot 50% overall and from 3-point range against Tennessee’s highly rated defense. It’s astounding the Vols still had a chance to pull it out in the final minutes, though other numbers help explain that. Tennessee had an 18-8 edge in offensive rebounds, a 13-5 edge in turnovers, an 8-3 edge in steals.
Effort stats. Let no one accuse these Vols of laziness. They get after it. They are tenacious and relentless and all those other adjectives that any coach adores hearing – and Barnes seems to always bring out of his teams.
But ultimately, someone has got to be able to step up and throw the ball in the basket.
This season, there’s no Dalton Knecht out there to seize the moment.
Zeigler was 1-for-11 from 3-point range Tuesday. Chaz Lanier was 3-for-10. Jahmai Mashack is a wonderful defender and glue guy, but he’s not the player you want isolated with the basketball and an expiring shot clock. Igor Milicic Jr., had his best game in weeks against Kentucky, scoring 19 points. But he’d only reached double figures once in his past six contests.
Serious question: Who on this Tennessee team really scares you offensively?
The Vols too often appear stagnant and out of ideas offensively, and this isn’t the first otherwise stellar Barnes-coached Tennessee team to show such a vulnerability.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, Tennessee ranked No. 173 nationally in scoring offense and No. 157 in field goal percentage. But here’s the thing: Kentucky arrived at No. 293 in scoring defense. The Wildcats struggled this past weekend against Vanderbilt, allowing the Commodores to take a 14-point lead at halftime.
If ever there seemed a matchup for Tennessee’s offense to get back on track after a hard-fought defeat at top-ranked Auburn, it would’ve been this one. Instead, Kentucky figured out the best way to stop the Vols offensively was to sit back and let them shoot.
And they won’t be the last to try it in this brutally difficult conference.
Sixth-ranked Florida visits on Saturday.
“All you’ve got to do is look at the numbers,” Barnes said. “People are going to say, ‘Until they prove they can make them, we’re going to let them have all they want.’”
Reason says these Vols are capable. But there’s a growing sense that, after such a fast start, this team is running out of steam as it rounds the turn into the home stretch.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee basketball is fading in SEC play after a fast start
