The Good, Bad, and Ugly: Tennessee vs. South Carolina

Breaking down the good, bad, and ugly from the Tennessee Volunteers' upsetting loss and underwhelming performance against a tough South Carolina Gamecocks team

Tennessee was upset by the South Carolina Gamecocks on Tuesday night. Unlike many predictions, the Volunteers walked away with a loss, totaling their record to 15-5. Here is everything you need to know about the good, bad, and ugly from the South Carolina loss.

The Good

Dalton Knecht. During this game, Dalton performed as well as he could, considering that he shot 11-24 from the field and 3-8 from deep. Knecht totaled 31 points. He also rebounded fairly well, having seven rebounds during his 34-minute stretch. Another plus to this game was the big minutes Tobe Awaka had. In 15 minutes of game time, Awaka had eight rebounds and 6 points.

The Bad

The bad would be how this team underperformed in passing the ball. It is unusual for a team to have more assists than Tennessee throughout the entire game, but the Gamecocks did just that. South Carolina finished the game with 15 assists, and the Vols finished with only 11 assists, which is very uncharacteristic.

The Ugly: The performance from many of your big-time players. Zakai Zeigler struggled from the field as he didn't make a shot away from the free throw line. Josiah Jordan-James and Jordan Gainey also seemed to struggle quite a bit trying to put the ball in the net. During this game, Jonas Aidoo faced plenty of foul trouble, causing him only to play 21 minutes, barely over half of the game. It is important to note that this team's performance was not very good down low, likely due to Aidoo's tough night. Aidoo has played a key part in Tennessee's success, and the last thing they need is for their dominant big man to get into foul trouble early on.

The Volunteers will now turn their focus to Kentucky, where they play on the road Saturday night in what is expected to be one of the most electrifying SEC games of the year.

Tennessee Volunteers G Dalton Knecht and Santiago Vescovi during the loss to South Carolina. (Photo by Randy Sartin of USA Today Sports)

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