Villanova handed Tennessee its first loss of the season Saturday during the first game of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off. The Vols’ offense struggled mightily while Villanova led for over 38 minutes and cruised to a 71-53 win.
Here’s three quick takeaways.
Horrific Offensive Performance
Kennedy Chandler drove into the lane and hit a floater on what looked like a clear and-one. Instead, Chandler was whistled for a charge and what followed was an abysmal afternoon for the Vols’ offense.
Tennessee didn’t score until 6:07 into the game, mustered 15 first half points and turned it over 18 times in one of the worst offensive performance of the Rick Barnes’ era.
The issues with Tennessee’s offense revolved around Chandler. The Vols are heavily reliant on the five-star freshman and the Memphis native struggled, especially in the first half. Chandler missed all five of his shot attempts including a trio of open looks at the basket.
Still, the offense was much worse when Chandler sat on the bench and he spent a lot of time on it in the first half. Chandler left the game with 10:48 left in the first half after picking up his second foul. He didn’t come back in until the 3:26 mark.
In those seven minutes, Tennessee scored six points and Villanova extended its lead from seven points to 20.
While it was not the difference in the game today, Barnes decision to sit Chandler was catastrophic. The Vols’ offense just doesn’t have near enough firepower without him.
Anything that could have gone poorly for Tennessee’s offense Saturday went poorly. The Vols shot 19-of-57 (33%) from the field and five-of-28 (18%) from three-point range.
Santiago Vescovi was the only Tennessee player that had any offensive success, scoring 23 points on 17 shot attempts.
Tennessee won’t have long to get the bitter taste out of its mouth as they face either Purdue or North Carolina tomorrow.
Vols Get No Interior Production
One of the storylines I was watching entering this weekend was how well Olivier Nkamhoua would play in his first taste of big time college basketball this season.
Nkamhoua was far from Tennessee’s biggest issue Saturday, but the Vols got little from the junior power forward. The Finland native didn’t score, taking just two shots. Nkamhoua grabbed six rebounds but provided nothing on the offensive end.
Outside of Nkamhoua, the Vols also had very little success from its front court. John Fulkerson made two-of-two shot attempts for four points. Fulkerson couldn’t provide an offensive spark, however, when trying to create offense Fulkerson struggled, including turning it over three times.
Tennessee’s back up big men gave the Vols nothing. Uros Plavsic and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield combined for 17 minutes, two points and four rebounds.
The Vols’ four guard lineup with Josiah Jordan James playing power forward provided no offensive relief as the junior shot zero-of-six from three-point range.
In total, Tennessee’s front court combined for six points.
Tennessee Rotates Defenses
Tennessee’s defense was far better than its offense Saturday. The Vols held a high powered Villanova offense to 71 points and 1.06 points per possession.
The Vols didn’t lock the Wildcats down but they limited one of the nation’s best offenses and did enough for Tennessee to have a chance to win. Obviously the offense didn’t deliver on that.
What was most surprising though, was the amount of zone defense Tennessee played. Rick Barnes and associate head coach Mike Schwartz are known for their desire to play hard nosed man-to-man defense. However, the Vols had some success playing zone.
Tennessee went to the zone defense in the first half as the Vols’ guards (Chandler and Vescovi) got in foul trouble. Villanova loves to post up its guards in the half court. Tennessee decided it wasn’t going to help on the post up at the risk of giving up open triples.
That led to fouls on the Vols’ guards trying to play post defense and Tennessee having to play zone.
Tennessee’s zone did some nice things including ball pressure at the top forcing Villanova into turnovers.
Still, Villanova found holes in Tennessee’s defense and hit enough three-pointers to keep the Vols from making a second half run.
In total, the Vols held the Wildcats to 37% shooting from the field and 33% from three-point range.
