No. 7 Tennessee fell to No. 1 Kansas on Wednesday in the third-place game of the Maui Invitational tournament in Honolulu.
The Vols lost 69-60 to the Jayhawks as both teams played their third game in three days on Wednesday.
Tennessee and Kansas had a back-and-forth game through the first three quarters of the contest until Kansas was able to pull away from Tennessee with around 10 minutes to go. The Vols struggled to shoot the ball efficiently on Wednesday, going just 31 percent from the floor and 27.3 percent from behind the arc.
Despite losing two of three in Honolulu, Tennessee has plenty of early-season lessons to be learned from the past two games after losing to the AP No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country. On a more positive note, Tennessee was able to force 15 turnovers out of Kansas which helped the Vols stay in the game as the offense struggled on their end.
Santiago Vescovi led all scorers in the game with 21 points as the fifth-year senior dropped in five three-pointers over the course of the game. Jordan Gainey and Dalton Knecht both finished the game with 13 points each.
FINAL in HONOLULU
No. 1 Kansas: 69
No. 7 Tennessee: 60Tennessee falls to the top two teams in the country on back-to-back days. Vols just couldn't find consistent scoring success against the Jayhawks. Tennesee will take on UNC in Chapel Hill next.
Final stats: pic.twitter.com/PHCLE6oKX2
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) November 22, 2023
For more on Tennessee’s loss to Kansas on Wednesday, check out Rocky Top Insider’s postgame takeaways here.
After falling to the Jayhawks, Vols head coach Rick Barnes met with the media to discuss his reaction to the game. Barnes spoke about Santiago Vescovi’s big scoring night, Zakai Zeigler’s early-season offensive struggles, SEC play coming up soon, and much more.
More from RTI: What Rick Barnes Said After Tennessee Fell To No. 1 Kansas
Check out both the Tennessee and Kansas postgame press conferences from Wednesday in Honolulu below:
Tennessee Postgame Press Conference (Click the link below to start)
Head Coach Rick Barnes:
Kansas Postgame Press Conference (Click the link below to start)
Players:
Head Coach Bill Self:
One Response
I’m not sure if Coach Barnes realizes the impact of his defense on shooting. The defense is fatiguing, especially the more into the season the team plays. There seems to have been little retrospection in the off season as to why Barnes is .500 coach in the Tournament. Not sure what the strategy needs to be, other than different if he he wants a different result.