Tennessee was in for a rude awakening this past Saturday when it welcomed Alabama to Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Vols, who entered the game as the SEC’s only remaining undefeated team, turned in their worst performance of the season in a 71-63 loss to the Crimson Tide. What could go wrong, did go wrong, as they shot 32% from the field, 4-of-21 from three and missed nine free throws.
Tennessee’s struggles can be attributed to many different reasons, but three in particular. The reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Yves Pons, had to sit on the bench in foul trouble for most of the first half, five-star freshman guard Jaden Springer only played five minutes due to an ankle injury, and Rick Barnes sat John Fulkerson on the bench for the final eight minutes of the game due to poor performance.
The offensive struggles bled over to the defensive side of the ball, the perceived strength of this basketball team. Alabama took advantage of the collective slump and reeled off five consecutive three-pointers to begin the second half and pull away. After shooting 2-of-9 from three in the first half, the Crimson Tide shot 8-of-11 over the final 20 minutes of play to hand the Vols a reality check.
That reality check didn’t make more a fun film session for Barnes’ squad on Sunday.
“It was tough because they have to look at it again and see the things that we didn’t do well,” Barnes said of Sunday’s film session. “I think they saw that we didn’t do anything well. I don’t want to take away anything from Alabama. They won the game, but we didn’t resemble anything that we’ve practiced, that we try to do.
“We had a ton of wide open shots that we missed. We didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line. We missed shots at the rim, missed dunks, missed tip-ins. Believe me, we got a lot of wide open shots. You know they’re going to make some threes. That’s what they do, but it wasn’t the threes that bothered us so much, from a coaching staff’s standpoint. It was getting blown by to the rim shots where we stopped helping each other in the gaps. We got frozen and we simply weren’t concentrating, thinking about what we need to do. We can’t play like that.”
The analytics back up Barnes when it comes to Tennessee’s shot selection against the Tide. According to ShotQuality, the Vols beat Alabama 74% of the time based off the shots they took. As for the Crimson Tide, they win 26% of the time based off the shots they attempted.
Still, there were other areas where Tennessee needs to improve on if it’s going to get back on track. Barnes mentioned the defense, but he was also adamant following the game that Fulkerson must play better moving forward. If he doesn’t, even the fifth-year senior could see a reduction in minutes.
“It’s obvious that teams are going to be physical with John,” Barnes said. “They’re going to meet him high and around the rim. So, he’s going to have to work harder than he’s ever worked for space on the floor. He’s going to learn to play quicker. He’s going to need to get back to playing the way he was at the end of last year and he hasn’t played that way. It’s almost like he keeps waiting and it’s taking away space from him.
“Fulky is the kind of guy you don’t need to run a lot of plays for. He knows enough about the game, that once we get into our free movement, he knows how to move and get the ball in the areas he needs to. He’s got to get back to that. When you watch him, he’s not bringing any of the thrust that we need him to bring. Whether he’s going into a ball screen, or moving off that ball screen, just anything, he needs to bring more thrust to it.”
Tennessee will need Fulkerson to rebound quickly. The Vols (7-1, 1-1 SEC) welcome another fast-paced, high-scoring team in Arkansas (9-1, 1-1 SEC) to Thompson-Boling on Wednesday night. The Razorbacks are also coming off of their first loss of the season, a 13-point loss to Missouri at home. Tennessee defeated the Tigers by 20 in its SEC opener a week ago.
Arkansas will be without graduate transfer forward Justin Smith against the Vols. Smith is dealing with an ankle injury that required surgery and will hold him out 3-6 weeks. He started each of the first nine games and was averaging 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds. Smith ranks second in the SEC in offensive rebounds (3.44).
Tipoff between the Vols and Razorbacks is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
