Tennessee basketball dropped its second game in less than 24 hours as they concluded its Maui Invitational run with a 69-60 loss against No. 1 Kansas on Wednesday afternoon.
The game was back-and-forth for the first 30 minutes before Tennessee’s offense ran out of gas and the Jayhawks opened up their lead.
Here’s three quick takeaways on a disappointing loss.
Santiago Vescovi Finds His Stroke
Tennessee shooting guard Santiago Vescovi was doing just about everything on the basketball court well during the Vols’ first five games this season. Everything besides make three-pointers.
When Vescovi missed his first triple against Kansas, the career 38% three-point shooter was three-of-18 (17%) on the season.
But Vescovi scored twice at the basket early against the Jayhawks and then the floodgates opened when he got his first triple to go. The Uruguayan sharp shooter made a trio of three-pointer in the first half including one that tied the game at 35-35 going into halftime.
The importance of Vescovi making some shots is obvious but he was also very good in other actions against the Jayhawks. He got Jordan Gainey a wide open three and Jonas Aidoo an easy dunk in the first half and was the main catalyst for the Vols’ offense.
Vescovi didn’t stay as hot in the second half but still finished the game with 21 points and was by far the Vols’ best offensive player.
Turnovers The Only Thing That Went Right For Tennessee’s Defense
Not many teams shoot 52% from the field against Tennessee but that’s exactly what Kansas did against the Vols.
Running most of its offense through big man Hunter Dickinson, the Jayhawks frequently got good looks at the rim and made Tennessee’s defense rotate throughout possessions. Playing its third game in as many days and its second game in 18 hours, those rotations unsurprisingly looked a little slow.
Tennessee was able to get enough stops by forcing turnovers. Kansas coughed the ball up 15 times and while the Vols’ ball pressure certainly gave them trouble many of those turnovers were simple careless.
The Jayhawks cleaned those mistakes up down the stretch of the game and cruised to the victory as Tennessee couldn’t get shots to fall.
Tennessee’s Offense Breaks As Shots Don’t Fall
Tennessee’s offense completely fell apart in the final 10 minutes of the game. Over an eight minute stretch from the 10-minute to two-minute mark in the second half, the Vols scored just four points.
It was a scoring drought that was extremely reminiscent of Tennessee’s issues from a season ago. Those issues didn’t show up in the Vols’ first four games but have been apparent in the last two losses.
Tennessee missed a number of strong looks from the perimeter, making just four-of-19 shots from three-point range in the second half. And the Vols offense did struggle to create good looks during the stretch and they didn’t get hardly any second chance opportunities.
But there were still a number of good looks at the basket that they missed. Mashack and Zeigler made floaters that certainly weren’t bad looks. Jonas Aidoo missed a good look at the basket created by a Gainey drive.
Dalton Knecht’s issues were the headline though. The Northern Colorado transfer has been Tennessee’s best offensive player this season and was dreadful in the second half against Kansas, making just one-of-eight second half shots.
It wasn’t only jump shots that Knecht couldn’t get to go. He missed a trio of shots at the basket that he’s made at an incredibly high clip this season.
So there were a myriad of reasons why Tennessee’s offense broke in the second half. It’s a real negative and my lasting image leaving Maui.
Final Stats
Up Next
After playing three days in as many days, Tennessee basketball has a week off before facing No. 14 North Carolina on Nov. 29 in Chapel Hill as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge.
One Response
At some point, you have to admit that Tennessee is not just “cold”. They just really are not a very skilled offensive team. Creating turnovers is of limited value when you’re incapable of turning them into points.