Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes received actual on what value the Volunteers of their loss to Kentucky. Regardless that the No. 5 Volunteers had been on the highway, they had been favored to take down the No. 15 Wildcats. Sadly, Rick Barnes’ workforce dropped a second straight sport to its SEC rival. Tennessee now sits at 20-5 and 7-5 within the convention.
Within the postgame, Tennessee’s head coach broke down what went improper for the Volunteers, notably within the final 5 minutes.
“Approach, means too many defensive breakdowns on our half. Give Kentucky credit score, however now we have means too many defensive breakdowns on issues you’ll be able to’t do there on the finish of the sport. After which I believed offensively that we had a couple of guys who received too emotional and didn’t make good selections. I don’t wish to say something to remove from Kentucky. Mark (Pope) has completed an ideal job with that group. We had been proper the place we would have liked to be and didn’t make sufficient profitable performs on both finish of the courtroom.”
The Volunteers had a lackluster exhibiting after a couple of very encouraging wins
Tennessee basketball was heading into Lexington off a powerful three-game profitable streak. The signature victory got here in opposition to No. 5 Florida with out star level guard Zakai Zeigler. The Volunteers avenged a brutal loss to the Gators with a 64-44 win at house. The Volunteers rose to No. 5 within the rankings and had been projected as a No. 1 seed in ESPN’s bracketology heading into this week.
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Whereas that seed is certain to drop, Rick Barnes’ workforce will nonetheless be within the working for one of many prime 4 spots going ahead. Nevertheless, the Volunteers’ possibilities of profitable the SEC common season title are over, as they’re 4 video games behind No. 1 Auburn within the convention.
Tennessee struggled on each ends Tuesday night time, taking pictures simply 16.7% from three-point vary. On the opposite finish, the Wildcats had been devastatingly environment friendly on this ranked conflict. Kentucky shot 50% from the sector and 50% from three-point vary in a sport that it managed a lot of the means.
Trying forward, Tennessee basketball has six common season video games left on its schedule. Three of these come in opposition to ranked opponents, together with a highway journey to No. 8 Texas A&M and a house conflict in opposition to No. 2 Alabama.
The Volunteers will want extra consistency from their main scorer, Chaz Lanier, in these video games in the event that they wish to win. The grad switch from Northern Florida has been phenomenal for many of this season however solely mustered ten factors on 13 pictures in opposition to Kentucky.
General, Rick Barnes is true. This was a workforce loss, and the Volunteers didn’t match Kentucky’s depth. Tennessee basketball may have many extra alternatives to climb again up the SEC standings. Nevertheless, to get a No. 1 seed within the NCAA Event, the Volunteers should begin racking up the wins like they did earlier this season.