Vols a model of inconsistency amid their 2-4 month
Tennessee’s six-game February basketball snapshot contains the program’s sixth triumph ever against a No. 1 team and a 2-4 record.
The 66-54 loss at Kentucky on Saturday that followed Wednesday’s 68-59 downing of top-ranked Alabama inside Thompson-Boling Arena kept Volunteers fans on a rollercoaster ride with only four games remaining in the Southeastern Conference’s regular season. A 2-5 month is a real possibility Tuesday night given Tennessee (20-7, 9-5 SEC) travels to surging Texas A&M (20-7, 12-2).
“If we keep our heads down now, we’re never going to be the team we want to be,” Vols sophomore guard Jahmai Mashack told reporters in Rupp Arena after getting swept by the Wildcats. “We’ve got to take this loss and move on, because we’re trying to win in March.”
The Vols are providing more questions that answers right now — “If I knew, we would fix it,” coach Rick Barnes said Saturday — but it’s clear that defensive lapses can’t be tolerated if they hope to do something special next month. Tennessee has ranked among the top in most every defensive statistic nationally but did not look the part Saturday when Kentucky took a 39-19 halftime lead.
“When you go into games, I think all coaches are most concerned about making shots, but we know that we can also win without making shots,” Barnes said. “Our mindset should be that if we’re not shooting well, they’re not going to shoot well. We know the body language of our guys, and they allowed what was happening on the offensive end to filter over into the defensive side.
“That’s not who we normally are.”
Tennessee missed 10 of its first 11 shots in Lexington, which indeed left the Vols hardly resembling the same tenacious squad that took down the Crimson Tide.
“There are a lot of great defensive teams in college basketball, including us, and what separates us from other great defensive teams is our energy playing defense,” Mashack said. “Energy with defense is going to unlock everything else — rebounding, offense, transition, post-ups, layups, free throws. When you have energy with our team, it helps a lot, and I think that was the main thing lacking.”
Said Barnes: “We’re a good basketball team, and I’ve seen a lot of up and down teams. I just want us to be consistent with our effort. We shouldn’t have spotted them 20 points like we did.”
Despite this month’s erratic outings, Tennessee remains very strong on the metrics front with a No. 3 standing in the NET rankings behind Houston and Alabama and No. 4 in the Pomeroy rankings behind Houston, Alabama and UCLA.
Mashack’s moment
Mashack is averaging 3.9 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, but the 6-foot-4, 201-pounder from Fontana, California, blew past those figures Saturday with 16 and eight. He set career bests in both categories.
“He brings a competitive edge, and it’s a talent,” Barnes said. “He can guard anybody on the court, and the more he gets out there, the better he’s going to get offensively. If you’re going to go down, you want to go down with a guy fighting like that.”
Said Mashack: “I just want to be the best twoway player that I can be. I know I can play this game offensively.”
The Vols scored 35 second-half points in Lexington, with Mashack and senior guard Santiago Vescovi combining for 26.
Odds and ends
scoring 19 points in 26 minutes
After
during last month’s loss to Kentucky in Knoxville, senior forward Uros Plavsic tallied two points in 18 minutes Saturday. … Vescovi made three 3-pointers against the Wildcats and now has 253 for career, which is tied with JaJuan Smith for third all-time in program history behind Chris Lofton (431) and Allan Houston (346).