Tennessee needed an entire team to beat No. 1 Auburn on the road. Instead, just two Vols showed up on the plains. Everyone else was flat.
Kudos to Tennessee coach Rick Barnes for finding a way to keep his sixth-ranked Vols in a dogfight to the bitter end. Congrats to Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler for being a dependable presence on both ends of the court with 14 points in a 53-51 loss to the Tigers.
After those two, it’s time to ask for some NIL money back.
The Vols’ vaunted trio of transfers, guards Chaz Lanier and Darlinstone Dubar and forward Igor Milicic Jr., only accounted for 15 points on 2-of-9 shooting on Saturday night. That left Zeigler to attempt, as best he could, some pretty difficult shots to keep Tennessee in the game.
Zeigler made some clutch plays, but the 5-foot-9 point guard, who is known more for his defense and leadership skills, couldn’t connect on the Vols’ final offensive possession, which ended in a missed three-pointer. However, Ziegler wasn’t to blame for Tennessee’s shortcomings when the top team in the nation seemed very vulnerable.
Despite shooting just 4-of-15 from the field and missing all six of his three pointers, Zeigler still managed some timely points and held the Vols together in a hostile environment. That’s commendable given what he had to work with. The senior also had six rebounds, five assists, two steals and only turned the ball over once.
Ziegler wasn’t supposed to be a scorer this season. He was supposed to do his thing: play defense, be a leader and divy out dishes. Now, he might want to rethink his role since Tennessee’s incoming scorers can’t score.
One has to wonder how far Ziegler can drag his newfound teammates into March if they can’t find a scoring option when times get tough – and times were very tough at Auburn. Missed calls and bloodied noses were the theme of the game as Tennessee went back to what Barnes is known for – defense.
I’m well aware that defense isn’t the sexiest thing to titillate fans, but it’s become apparent that Barnes is shutting things down offensively because he doesn’t believe he can outscore anyone unless he can stop them more times than not.
Former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said at halftime that his Auburn team just needed to make more shots. Yes, that would be nice, but Barnes’ new/old favorite style of basketball was a big part of the 22-20 halftime score, in which the Tigers led. Barnes wanted things, slow and he certainly achieved that goal.
The Vols held Auburn to 18-of-58 shooting. Ouch. That’s 31-percent. Auburn only made three of their 20 three-point attempts. That’s bad. Tennessee didn’t do much better, just 31.5-percent shooting overall and 18-percent from three-point range, but that’s become more the norm than the exception.
The Tennessee-Auburn game was ugly. No question. That could just be the beginning. If the other Vols beyond Zeigler can’t find a way to manufacture some scoring and play with more effort, particularly in setting screens and rebounding, they’re going to be in many more ugly basketball games this season. The ugliest might come far too early in March.
