Vols’ Fulkerson needs more help

KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee men’s basketball team lost 63-61 Saturday at South Carolina, blowing a late lead to split the season series with the Gamecocks and fall to 14-11 overall and 6-6 in the Southeastern Conference.

The Volunteers return to competition with a home game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against Vanderbilt (9-16, 1-11) — Tennessee won the season’s first meeting with the Commodores 66-45 on Jan. 18 in Nashville — and then will play at Auburn on Saturday.

Here are three observations from the loss to the Gamecocks:

1. Lacking contributions: The Vols blew the “John Fulkerson” game, as their 6-foot9, 212-pound junior forward finished with a career-high 25 points to go along with nine rebounds. Rick Barnes wasn’t pleased with Fulkerson’s six turnovers, but the Tennessee coach should have been equally — if not more — displeased by the fact that aside from Fulkerson, junior forward Yves Pons (13 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and freshman guard Josiah-Jordan James (nine points, five assists, two blocks), no other Vol showed up. Point guard Santiago Vescovi scored seven points but turned the ball over four times, senior Jordan Bowden finished with just five points and no other Tennessee player contributed.

2. Not that way: The Vols went away from what made them successful. Ahead by six points with 3:40 remaining, they short-circuited the rest of the way: Tennessee turned the ball over four times, went 1-for-3 on free throws and took just three shots from the field, with the last one James’ last-second attempt at a tying basket. Some of the trouble was due to poor execution, but the Vols also seemed to take the air out of the ball and choose to have longer possessions. The downside to that? Tennessee isn’t very good in late-clock situations. With the game on the line, the Vols got out of the flow of what they had done throughout the evening — and it came back to haunt them.

3. The charge … was a charge: Many with Tennessee ties were up in arms about Fulkerson being called for a charging foul with 10.4 seconds to play and the Vols trailing by one. Fulkerson received the ball at the block, took a step to his right and was attempting to spin over his right shoulder when he appeared to dip his shoulder into South Carolina’s Keyshawn Bryant. No matter how many ways the play is slowed down on video, it was a charge. If you want to see an egregious charge call against Tennessee on Saturday, look at the one in the first half called against Jordan Bowden. Regardless, Fulkerson’s charge was very low on the list of reasons the Vols lost in Columbia.