Tennessee’s coaches put together a small compilation of clips from the Vols’ 73-43 loss against Florida last month. But they weren’t clips of critical moments in the game or of Tennessee’s miscues. They were clips of Florida players talking trash and “disrespecting” Tennessee in the final minutes of the game.
“At the end of the game, the way they were talking,” Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack said. “It’s basketball and I think we don’t sugarcoat nothing. People talk but we don’t take well to that. … We’re not going to let anybody walk over us.”
25 days after Florida whipped Tennessee in Gainesville, the antics were fresh on Vol players minds as they enacted revenge in a 64-44 victory at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
“Very angry and we had to take it personally,” Tennessee guard Jordan Gainey said of his reaction to the clips. “We didn’t like what we saw and that point it just became personal to me.”
“I feel like I can speak for the whole team, I was just fired up and ready to go for the game,” Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier said. “Everybody was excited for this one.”
After Florida physically dominated Tennessee in Gainesville, the Vols came out with incredible intensity and physicality in the rematch. Tennessee held Florida to just 14 points in the paint, 27 fewer than the first game, and blocked seven shots.
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Florida dominated Tennessee on the glass in the first game but the Vols earned the advantage in the second game. The Gators had just two three second chance points on Saturday after scoring 19 in the first meeting.
“That’s how we play the game,” Mashack said. “That’s been Tennessee basketball. We’re a tough team no matter what. We want to make that known. That this is the same team that’s tough. We’re going to go into every game being tougher and going through that experience has helped us in the long run.”
Most impressive is what Tennessee did to Florida’s offense. The Gators entered the game with the nation’s third most efficient offense. Their previous season-low was 70 points and they’d scored less than 80 points just four times.
Tennessee held Florida 26 points under its previous season-low and to an abysmal .710 points per possession.
“We’ve been amazing offensively all year and Tennessee made us look terrible today,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said postgame.
“I’m glad you guys took it personal too, by the way,” Rick Barnes told his team postgame.
Tennessee snaps a two-game losing streak with the victory and improves to 18-4 (5-4 SEC) with the victory.
