Is Tennessee basketball’s offense broken? The concerning numbers after Kentucky loss

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Rick Barnes liked most of the 3-pointers Tennessee basketball took against Kentucky.

So did Wildcats coach Mark Pope.

If that seems confusing, there is a simple explanation: Barnes felt that 95% of Tennessee’s 45 attempts were wide open. But, he confessed, that was entirely by design — which is why Pope was comfortable with the clean looks.

“I don’t think they were the least bit concerned about us shooting tonight,” Barnes said.

Accurate — and problematic.

No. 8 Tennessee (17-4, 4-4 SEC) chucked 45 3-pointers against No. 12 Kentucky (15-5, 4-3), the most in Barnes’ 10 seasons. It made only 11. It lost 78-73 at Food City Center.

“All you’ve got to do is look at the numbers,” Barnes said. “People are going to say, ‘Hey, until they prove they can make them, we are going to let them have all they want.’ “

The numbers behind Tennessee’s offense and 3-point dependency

Kentucky led 71-63 with 5:20 to play Tuesday. It took one field goal in the rest of the game.

Tennessee took 15 and 14 of them were 3-pointers. Twice it shot three 3-pointers in a 14-second span thanks to offensive rebounds. It shot six in the final minute.

“They basically dared us to shoot threes,” Vols guard Chaz Lanier said. “They played off and really just sagged inside the paint.”

Kentucky wisely hedged its game plan to an unfortunate reality for Tennessee.

The Vols are not a reliable 3-point shooting team, but they are devastatingly reliant upon making 3-pointers. They take 44.4% of their shots from 3-point range, the highest clip in the SEC. They are eighth with a 33.4% 3-point percentage. They hit 24.8% on 3-pointers with 29.3 attempts per game in four losses.

Tennessee gets 37.6% of its points on threes, the second-highest rate in the SEC, according to KenPom. It ranks second-to-last with 42.7% of its points from two-pointers.

This is to say, the Vols are not a threat to score inside so teams do not respect UT on the interior. Opponents can safely dare Tennessee to win from three and the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tennessee-basketballs-offense-broken-concerning-100501259.html

Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel

Publish date : 2025-01-29 10:05:00

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