College basketball ends right and bright for only one tournament team. All the others take a hit.
The March madness show is over for Tennessee. The superior Houston Cougars brought down the curtain, 69-50, Sunday in Indianapolis. The ending did not match the effort of this special season.
Zakai Zeigler, with tears on his face, came off the court for the last time with a few seconds remaining. He went straight to Rick Barnes, hugged the coach tightly and apologized.
Barnes said that really hurt.
“I knew how much he cared. He said ‘I’m sorry’ but he’s got nothing to be sorry about. He gave us everything.”
The Final Four remains a forever far-out goal. Try to forget the details of this Elite Eight opportunity. Tennessee shooters had an inept afternoon. They lost the game in the first 10 or 12 minutes. They fell behind 17-4. Four minutes before intermission, they were down 21.
The Vols were overmatched. Houston’s offense was better than expected. Houston’s defense was better than Tennessee’s. The Cougars shut off Ziggy penetration. That took away the already limited inside game. Houston won the backboard battle.
Tennessee was awful from three-point range. It missed the first 14 attempts. It finished five of 29. Chaz Lanier went two-for-12. Ziggy was one-for-six. Jordan Gainey hit a pair. He was the lone bright spot. He led the Vols’ only rally.
Gainey and Lanier finished with 17 points each. You might not believe the Zeigler stat line: one-for-nine on field-goal tries, five assists, four turnovers, five total points.
Jahmai Mashack, in his last outing, had five rebounds, four points and two steals. The two guards made some marvelous career memories. This just wasn’t the day. Overall, Tennessee accuracy was 28.8 percent.
Barnes will never stop loving this team.
Zakai Zeigler #5 and Tennessee coach Rick Barnes near the end of Sunday’s game. The Vols were eliminated by the 69-50 loss to Houston. Zeigler played four years for Barnes, and Vols fans rallied to buy the Ziegler family a home here during Ziggy’s first year when their apartment in New York City was destroyed by fire. Robin Wilhoit has a sweet story and some photos here.
“They know I’m an older guy. They know I would love to win a national championship, but they have absolutely not one thing to hang their head down or be sorry about because they had truly – we have a slogan, give your all for Tennessee. They did that. In more ways than you can imagine.”
Barnes added “just incredibly blessed and grateful … there are 10,000 coaches that would love to be where we are right now.”
Shack had a powerful closing line: “I really wanted to get there for him. I wanted people to realize how good of a coach he is.”
Tennessee set a record. The 15 first-half points were the fewest in NCAA tournament history by a high seed. Tennessee’s 15 were the fewest in an Elite Eight game since seeding began in 1979.
This was UT’s worst half since it lost to Florida in the Swamp in mid-January. It also trailed 34-15 at the half in that game.
“First half obviously got away from us,” said Barnes. “Their second-chance opportunities were big. We felt like we got some shots … but we weren’t able to get anything inside … the second-chance points were hard when you’re shooting as poorly as we were.”
As bad as things were going, Barnes said he still had hope at halftime.
“If we could go back and put some things together, but it’s hard when you’re not able to go inside and get some easier baskets or put some pressure on the rim … We have to do that with our penetration game, trying to get fouled. Obviously, they keyed heavily on guards. I don’t think you come out thinking it could happen. You come out expecting to play at a high level.”
Better was a fair summation. The Vols had more life. Gainey scored 10 points in a row – his pair of threes, a basket off a rebound and a drive down the lane. That reduced the problem to 44-30. Tennessee eventually closed to 50-40.
Houston slammed the door with three threes by Emanuel Sharp and another by Mylik Wilson. That was the unofficial end.
Sharp scored 16 points. All-American guard L.J. Cryer had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson was gracious, “Congratulations to Rick and University of Tennessee. Making the Elite Eight is an amazing, amazing accomplishment.”
Sampson said he knows what losing is like.
“I know the heartbreak and the tears that are going on in that locker room, but they had an awesome season and they’re coached by a Hall-of-Famer in every sense. So, congratulations to Tennessee on a great year.”
There were two memorable comments from fans.
“Other than offense, defense and rebounding, we played well enough to win.”
“It is now officially baseball season at Tennessee.”
Saturday NCAA schedule: Florida vs. Auburn, 6:09 p.m., Duke vs. Houston, 8:49, both on CBS.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
Time to go fishing in the portal. Mid-majors need to protect their shores. Pirate ships on the horizon.
This was a stellar year and in a couple of ways a great year for Tennessee Basketball. The most prominent was the on-court play and greater off-court contributions of class-acts Ziggy and Mashack…and oft over-looked Gainey. They will be missed and remembered for a long time.
The game was a tale-of-two-halves. The second half was a 35-35 draw. Tennessee would have won the second half if they hadn’t had to play a street ball shoot out the last 3 minutes and their cold shooting and trapping defense left the Houston end nominally defended…of necessity. But the game is two halves and we got smoked right out of the gate.
BARNES IS A CLASS ACT. Hope we can keep him for a while. Of necessity, he had to replace Knecht and did with Lanier.
Marvin, thanks for always giving us insight that our amateur eyes can’t see or understand completely. My brother and I always say…”I think I know what I saw, but let’s wait for Marvin to tell us what really happened.”
Something has to be done about the “Potty-Training” Portal. College sports is nothing but a Junior Pro Circus. Make these kids have only one bite at the transfer apple. Make them take a legitimate course schedule and make a well-monitored “C” average. Student Athlete is a misnomer at least and an outright lie in the preponderance of probability.
A fitting epitaph. After Kentucky, “The final-four was in sight.” I suppose San Antonio was a bridge too far. We were an elite eight; we did not make the final four. Does that make us a sad-six? Out team beat two of the final four during the season and many others. Many thrills. When the shots don’t fall, it’s over…for all the teams but one. Not the greatest but a very good season.
Thanks Marvin. We know this was gonna be an uphill climb before it started.
But…This was hard to watch. Outmatched yes. But where were the threes? Where were the rebounds? The bobbled dribble/ turnovers hurt. Too many missed free throws.. And…. Where was the regroup game plan mid-point?
We will cherish the good season.