Vols Lay Egg In Stunning Loss to Ole Miss

The Vols follow up their best performance of the season against Kansas with perhaps their worst, as they fall into bad habits in stunning loss to the Rebels.

The Tennessee Volunteers have been one of the most confusing teams in college basketball in the last three weeks of the season. Tennessee looked good in home wins against Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt, even if they did struggle with their shooting at times. Then they went on the road and were hammered by Florida, and followed that up with a home loss to Missouri, a team they had beaten on the road by 20 a month before. After grinding out an ugly, close win over Mississippi State, the Vols upset Kansas on Saturday, a game they never trailed in and led by as many as thirty. Coming off their best game of the season without a question, the Vols went on the road to Ole Miss. Rather than building on their momentum and proving their shooting woes were solved, the Vols laid an egg against the previously .500 Rebels, taking their fourth SEC loss by a score of 52-50.

This is typically the area where the game is analyzed and broken down, but rather than looking at points and assists for individual players, it is time to talk about how the Vols roll out a dud like this. Some nights in basketball, shots simply don’t fall. Sometimes you run into good teams that get hot when you are off. In losses to Alabama, Florida, and Missouri, the Vols most to three teams currently ranked in the top twenty five in the country. The Vols struggled to shoot against Alabama, and the Tide were red hot from deep. Against Florida, the Vols quite frankly struggled to do anything right, as they were trounced in Gainesville on clearly their worst night of the year. Missouri came in and was able to use their size to be more physical than Tennessee, while the Volunteer shooting hurt them again. These are losses that are not difficult to make sense of. Tennessee losing to Ole Miss is not like the previous three losses. No offense to the Rebels, but Ole Miss should have never been in this game. An 11 point lead in the second half, with Tennessee’s defense and the struggles Ole Miss has in scoring, should have been a chance for Tennessee to slam the door. Instead, the Vols gave up an absolutely inexcusable 19-4 run, going over 10 minutes without hitting a field goal. Even with that, the Vols had a chance to win late, but missed free throws and a poor inbounds play left the Rebels celebrating the upset. The question is, how did it happen?

Figuring out Tennessee basketball isn’t hard. The Vols have blueprints to win, and they have blueprints to lose. Tuesday night, Tennessee followed their blueprint to lose for the last four years to a tee. When Tennessee has lost games in the last four years, they do not get the ball to their big men inside to score nearly enough, settling for far too many jump shots and three-point tries. The Vols did not create near enough touches for Yves Pons, who has been red hot offensively, or John Fulkerson on the blocks. The two Tennessee big men are so dangerous when they get the ball in the post, and they simply were not given enough touches there. Similarly, the Vols settled for too many outside shots, specifically threes, which they are below average at making on the season. Tennessee took and missed far too many threes, just like they always do when they lose. Their guards also failed to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket, either looking afraid to drive or too willing to pass out of a good look. The Tennessee guards have excellent size and strength, why they do not work to finish at the rim more is baffling. Then, the Vols saw perhaps their oldest nemesis, a long scoring droughts. In nearly all of Tennessee’s losses over the last four years, Tennessee has had long stretches where they cannot buy a bucket. They did it again against the Rebels, where they just couldn’t get anything to fall. Some of this was due to shot selection and attitude, but it was exacerbated by two new wrinkles the Vols have struggled with this season.

Tennessee has turned the ball over at a much higher rate in their losses. While this isn’t exactly surprising, it is jarring just how many turnovers the Vols give up when they are off when compared to how efficient they are in games like Kansas. Tennessee started strong against the Rebels, then turned the ball over eleven times in the second half. There is no excuse for Tennessee guards to be so careless with the ball. Part of what created those mistakes was the second part of Tennessee’s issues this year; The Volunteer guards struggle against pressure zone. When they are pressured at the top of the offense, with zone defenders closing on and doubling the ball, Tennessee has struggled all season. Tennessee just can’t seem to find a way to defeat an aggressive zone, and Ole Miss hounded Tennessee with it in the second half. Tennessee’s guards do not like being pressured, and the Vols seem to struggle to defeat that pressure when there is zone behind it. Tennessee looks too much to perimeter passing against aggressive zone defenses, rather than inside where their talented big men can try to defeat it on quick catch and shoot chances. When the Vols struggle to hit free throws, like they did again in Oxford, that simply compounds their offensive struggles.

The Vols had a bad shooting night, but played defense well enough to win. The Vols looked like a Final Four team against Kansas, and it looked like that team started the game in Oxford. The team that was bashed by Florida ran out for the second half. The book is out on Tennessee, pressure the guards in an aggressive zone, reap the benefits of turnovers, hesitant drives, and the Vols not involving their best offensive players of their own accord. Rick Barnes has to get his team refocused before their game on Saturday against Kentucky. The Vols have to learn to handle pressure, be aggressive driving to the rim, and commit to getting their best players the ball in scoring positions more often. Shooting some free throws wouldn’t be a bad idea either. This Tennessee can go to the Final Four if they play like they did against Kansas, or they can get bounced in the Round of 32 if they have their offense go to sleep for a 10 minute stretch and they can’t pull out of it. This is not a new problem for Tennessee. The Vols showed against Kansas what they can do when focused and motivated. Unfortunately, they also showed what they can do when they don’t give great effort and fall into bad habits in a loss to an Ole Miss team they should have rolled. Barnes can work on the zone concepts and free throw drills in practice, but at some point this Tennessee team has to decide to bring the same mentality and effort as players that they had against Kansas in every game they play, not just the ones they decide to get up for.