After a torrid start, Tennessee basketball is fading as it nears the home stretch | Estes

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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…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/torrid-start-tennessee-basketball-fading-111105114.html

Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel

Publish date : 2025-01-29 11:11:00

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