No. 1 Tennessee Basketball Crushed By Florida as Offense Disappears

Tennessee basketball collapsed on offense on the road at Florida to lose its first game of the season.

Tanner Johnson | 18 Hours Ago

Jan 7, 2025; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. (1) blocks a three point basket from Tennessee Volunteers guard Chaz Lanier (2) during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

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Tennessee basketball collapsed on offense on the road at Florida to lose its first game of the season.

Tennessee is no longer undefeated after getting destroyed in Gainesville on Tuesday night 73-43 in the Vols' first SEC road game of the season. The final total of 43 points is the lowest in head coach Rick Barnes' time at Tennessee.

The No. 1 Vols (14-1, 1-1 SEC) will have to put this one behind them quickly as there were little positive things to take from this game. The No. 8 Gators (14-1, 1-1 SEC) dominated Tennessee in every way. The Vols could not hit a shot from outside and could not penetrate Florida's defense to get easy looks in the paint.

Chaz Lanier had his worst shooting performance of the season and only scored 10 points. Zakai Zeigler only had 10 points and could not get any of his teammates going either, finishing with one assist.

The game started horribly for the Vols on offense, a sign of things to come. They missed their first six shots of the game and were down 6-0 at the first TV timeout. It was 12-0 Florida after Zeigler fouled a 3-point shooter. Nearly seven minutes into the game Felix Okpara Jr. hit two free throws to put Tennessee on the board. He then got a dunk on a nice lob from Zeigler.

Jordan Gainey hit two free throws to cut the lead to 6-12, but the Gators responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to make the lead 18-6. Lanier finally hit his first shot of the game to cut it to 10. The Vols' defense was not the problem early, as the Gators only had 22 points with 7:27 left in the first half. However, at that point Tennessee was 3-18 from the floor with six points coming at the free throw line.

It was 28-14 after Tennessee's defense gave up consecutive layups with under five minutes to play in the half. The Vols trailed at the half 15-34 in what was a disastrous half of epic proportions. Tennessee shot just 4-29 from the floor and 0-14 from 3-point range.

Jan 7, 2025; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators center Rueben Chinyelu (9) reacts after a foul call against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Lanier finally hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring in the second half, but the Gators still led by 16. The Gators then responded with a 9-0 run to make it 43-18. The second half was merely a formality, as the game was decided within the first few minutes and Tennessee had no answers.

It was 56-27 with 8:23 to play in the game after Jahmai Mashack missed two free throws. The Vols let the Gators do whatever they wanted for the rest of the game and did not make any effort to trim the margin to make the game look more respectable. The score looked just like the game did, lopsided.

Tennessee went nearly eight minutes without a made field goal before Zeigler hit a 3-pointer to end the drought. It was just the second triple of the game for the Vols. The game mercifully ended for the Vols after a few more uneventful minutes.