Tennessee’s offensive improvements have been dramatic over the last month, but inside a hostile Bud Walton Arena the Vols’ offense fell flat and Arkansas handed UT a 58-48 defeat.
So, what went wrong for Tennessee’s offense as its eight game SEC win streak came to an end?
Missed Chances Early
Tennessee’s offense didn’t come out the gates fast, scoring just 13 points in the first 11 minutes of the game as turnovers and a struggle to find open looks plagued the Vols.
However, the Vols trailed by just one point and started to find some offensive groove. Tennessee started to get open looks, but couldn’t get them to fall.
Santiago Vescovi — who entered the game leading the SEC in three-point shooting percentage — missed back-to-back wide open looks. Vescovi was so open on the latter attempt that he even took a dribble in place.
The next two possessions saw Kennedy Chandler miss an open look at the rim and a Josiah-Jordan James three rattle out.
“We had seven straight possessions where we couldn’t have gotten a better look at the basket,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “We couldn’t get it to go down and then the foul trouble hit and we’re just trying to manage the game.”
Tennessee absolutely missed a chance to take a moderate first half lead. Instead, the Vols could never get a lead over three points.
Questionable Charge Calls Lead To Crippling Foul Trouble
Tennessee’s top four scoring leaders in SEC play lived in foul trouble Saturday. Zakai Zeigler, Kennedy Chandler, Josiah-Jordan James all had two or more fouls in the first half and the latter three had four fouls for much of the second half.
It wasn’t just the foul trouble that stalled Tennessee’s offense, but the way they happened. Chandler’s second and third fouls — as well as Vescovi’s fourth foul — were on charges drawn by Jaylin Williams.
“The guys were frustrated,” Barnes said. “I know it’s a hard call. From the referees standpoint I know they would tell you it’s one of the toughest calls, but that’s the one they have to study, study, study. When a guy leaves his feet he’s got a chance to come down and you can’t slide in at the end. … You have to play on, but does it affect them? Of course it does. I hope I feel different after watching the tape because I know how I feel right now about it. I really do hope I feel different after seeing the film.”
Barnes was trying his best to be diplomatic postgame, but it was clear he did not think the charge calls were correct. Besides the fourth foul on Vescovi — which was an obvious block — the four charges Arkansas’ drew were at least borderline calls. Tennessee’s seventh-year head coach is correct that Williams slid under Chandler on his second foul and the third foul was close too.
That’s how life goes on the road in the SEC, but there’s no doubt the charge calls and the foul trouble they created limited Tennessee’s chances of surviving an ugly defensive game.
“It changed the entire game from our end,” Barnes said.
Vols Make Least Amount Of Threes Of Season
Tennessee has been, to varying degrees, a team reliant on its three-point shooting this season. The Vols shot it poorly from deep, making just four-of-24 attempts from beyond the arc.
The four triples is the least Tennessee’s made all season and doesn’t give the Vols much of a chance to beat quality opponents on the road.
So, was it simply a poor shooting night for Tennessee or did Arkansas force the Vols into low quality attempts?
“We just didn’t shoot the ball well today,” Josiah-Jordan James said. “It’s one game. One bad day. We’re not going to hang our hat on it. We’re not going to get too down on ourselves because we missed a couple shots for 40 minutes. We practice hours on end. I don’t think there’s really much to adjust. We got the looks that we need. We’re going to knock them down in the future.We’re playing well up until this point, so we just didn’t play well today. We just didn’t shoot the ball well today. I don’t think there’s really much to address. We got the looks that we wanted.”
There certainly was an element of bad, “it’s not our night” shooting in Tennessee’s loss. Vescovi struggled badly making just one-of-nine triples and Josiah-Jordan James went zero-of-six from deep.
The juniors missed good, open looks that would have given Tennessee a much better chance to pull off the road win. However, give Arkansas credit for making life hard on the Vols.
Ball Stops As Arkansas Takes Away Driving Lanes
While Tennessee missed open shots that could have made the game more competitive, Arkansas deserves plenty of credit for what it did on the defensive end.
Like Tennessee against Kentucky on Tuesday, Arkansas was dialed in from the start and didn’t have defensive breakdowns to give the Vols easy looks.
Arkansas played strong wing help defense against Tennessee’s dribble-drive guards and did an exceptional job of making every pass and cut difficult for the orange-and-white.
“We kind of tried to do too much off the dribble,” James said. “In this game, in this type of environment— they’re such a heavy gap team that one-or-two dribbles you have to be able to pick it up and make the extra play. I feel like me, myself, and us as a team didn’t really make the extra passes, extra swings that we needed to. We did a little too much dribbling.”
Tennessee’s inconsistent front court was of little help for the Vols’ struggling offense, placing all the pressure on the Vols’ backcourt.
The Vols’ guards couldn’t get the ball moving the way they have the last few weeks and it showed with just five Tennessee assists.
“There was no flow in the game from our end,” Barnes said. “They were physically going to try and be very aggressive with our guards and we felt that coming in with their size against our size. … I thought we had some chances early to get some momentum and get settled in but when you’re missing shots it puts that much more pressure on the defensive end. I felt like early we were dribbling too much east-and-west doing nothing north-and-south.”
It’s just one loss, at a place Tennessee hasn’t won since 2009, against a top 25 team playing extremely well, but the offensive step back makes you hesitate.
The Vols have shown they can have offensive success against good teams at Thompson-Boling Arena. They haven’t proven they can do that away from home and Arkansas was the last chance of the regular season.
How consistent Tennessee’s offense can be away from Thompson-Boling Arena will be an unanswered question heading into the postseason. That’s an alarming question for an offense that is improving and has the potential to reach the Sweet 16.
