Tennessee basketball's Rick Barnes gets 100% real on what cost Volunteers in loss to Kentucky
Today at 12:41 AM
Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes got real on what cost the Volunteers in their loss to Kentucky. Even though the No. 5 Volunteers were on the road, they were favored to take down the No. 15 Wildcats. Unfortunately, Rick Barnes’ team dropped a second straight game to its SEC rival. Tennessee now sits at 20-5 and 7-5 in the conference.
In the postgame, Tennessee’s head coach broke down what went wrong for the Volunteers, particularly in the last five minutes.
"Way, way too many defensive breakdowns on our part. Give Kentucky credit, but we have way too many defensive breakdowns on things you can't do there at the end of the game. And then I thought offensively that we had a few guys who got too emotional and didn't make good decisions. I don't want to say anything to take away from Kentucky. Mark (Pope) has done a great job with that group. We were right where we needed to be and didn't make enough winning plays on either end of the court."
The Volunteers had a lackluster showing after a few very encouraging wins
Tennessee basketball was heading into Lexington off an impressive three-game winning streak. The signature victory came against No. 5 Florida without star point guard Zakai Zeigler. The Volunteers avenged a brutal loss to the Gators with a 64-44 win at home. The Volunteers rose to No. 5 in the rankings and were projected as a No. 1 seed in ESPN’s bracketology heading into this week.
While that seed is bound to drop, Rick Barnes’ team will still be in the running for one of the top four spots going forward. However, the Volunteers’ chances of winning the SEC regular season title are over, as they are four games behind No. 1 Auburn in the conference.
Tennessee struggled on both ends Tuesday night, shooting just 16.7% from three-point range. On the other end, the Wildcats were devastatingly efficient in this ranked clash. Kentucky shot 50% from the field and 50% from three-point range in a game that it controlled most of the way.
Looking ahead, Tennessee basketball has six regular season games left on its schedule. Three of those come against ranked opponents, including a road trip to No. 8 Texas A&M and a home clash against No. 2 Alabama.
The Volunteers will need more consistency from their leading scorer, Chaz Lanier, in these games if they want to win. The grad transfer from Northern Florida has been phenomenal for most of this season but only mustered ten points on 13 shots against Kentucky.
Overall, Rick Barnes is right. This was a team loss, and the Volunteers did not match Kentucky’s intensity. Tennessee basketball will have many more opportunities to climb back up the SEC standings. However, to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Volunteers must start racking up the wins like they did earlier this season.
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