Nobody wants to admit it yet but Tennessee’s once-great basketball team just doesn’t look like it did and the season is trending in the wrong direction.
Kentucky’s patchwork Wildcats hit an astounding 12 of 24 three-point attempts against what is considered a very good Vol defense. The visitors also hit half their two-point tries. They upset the home team, 78-73. It was a big letdown for the large loud crowd (22,272) at Food City Center.
The Volunteers tried to do the three-point thing and failed miserably. They attempted 45 and made 11. Team leader Zakai Zeigler missed the most, 10 of 11. Darlinstone Dubar was 1-for-7.
Calm coach Rick Barnes said he was disappointed.
“We didn’t honestly do the things that we had talked about, what we felt we had to do offensively … and then defensively, some of the breakdowns we just can’t have.”
Tennessee has lost three hard-fought games in the last four outings. Tennessee, now 4-4, has settled into the bottom half of Southeastern Conference standings. Everybody looks at everybody else and says not to worry, hang in there, we’ll get it together.
Maybe this is just a lull. Maybe this is the new reality. Tennessee’s Saturday foe is Florida.
This was a signature victory for Kentucky’s new coach, Mark Pope. He arrived late in Lexington after the legendary John Calipari switched to Arkansas. Pope discovered there were no returning players. He rounded up nine transfers and signed the best high school talent he could on short notice. His SEC record today is 4-3.
Big guard Koby Brea scored 18 against the Vols. Jaxson Robinson, 6-6 wing who came with Pope from Brigham Young, scored 17. Three other Wildcats made it to double figures.
Kentucky endured a serious handicap. Point guard Lamont Butler missed the game because of an injured shoulder. Backup point guard Kerr Kriisa is also injured.
Tidbit of good news: Igor Milicic rejoined the Vol offense. He scored 19, gathered nine rebounds and contributed four assists. Chaz Lanier scored 15. Ziggy scored 13. He hit five of 18 shots.
Kentucky started the game hot, hit four of its first five threes and stayed in control until late in the half. The Vols rallied with an 11-0 run and led 33-30 at intermission.
Kentucky started the second half hot and was ahead 45-34 when Tennessee started back. The Vols made nine of 12 attempts. They never caught up but they came close. A three by Lanier made it 74-73 with a minute and change remaining. Mistakes marred the closing.
The Wildcats didn’t get a field goal in the final five-plus minutes but nailed seven of eight clutch free throws.
Barnes was asked if the Vols are good enough to risk 45 three-point attempts even if Kentucky dared them to shoot.
“No, absolutely not,” said the coach. “We knew they would give us all the threes we wanted. We knew that was going to happen.”
Barnes added that it is hard to get inside when missing threes because the opponent keeps packing the defense in tighter.
The coach was careful not to shortchange the Wildcats’ accomplishment.
“I don’t want to not give Kentucky credit. I really don’t. They did exactly what we thought they would do. And we didn’t handle it very well.”
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
Live by the 3. Die by the 3.
Threes don’t fall? Hint: a few more twos will work just fine. “Kentucky gave us all the threes we wanted”? Apparently, our game plan ran along the same lines. Basketball mediocrity is littered with threes that don’t fall.
Kentucky baited Tennessee into taking all those 3s. And Tennessee fell for it. The defense was bad, some of it might have been fatigue from the Auburn game. They played late Saturday night, flew back, and had an early tip on a Tuesday. This team isn’t a #1 team despite that early ranking and they aren’t as bad as they are now.