J.P. Estrella’s season-ending injury, Darlinstone Dubar’s lack of emergence and Cameron Carr’s entry into the transfer portal all finally came back to bite Tennessee Basketball. The same team to give them their first loss of the year was the one to expose it, this time in the SEC Tournament championship game.
Rick Barnes’ team, ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll and No. 6 in the Coaches Poll, lost to the Florida Gators, ranked No. 4 in both polls, in the tourney title Sunday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. This was a rubber match, as UT lost by 30 in Gainesville while Florida lost by 20 in Knoxville during the regular season.
In both cases, the losing team shot historically bad. Neither shot lights out in this game. What it came down to was Florida’s size and depth advantage. While Florida led 39-30 at halftime and build a 13-point lead in the second half, Tennessee clawed back and cut it to five with seven minutes to go.
However, Florida’s size advantage made it difficult for the Vols to defend, and as a result, they got into serious foul trouble. Both Chaz Lanier and Jahmai Mashack fouled out with more than five minutes to go, and Felix Okpara finished the game with four fouls.
UT didn’t have the horses to keep up. Florida’s ability to get back in transition combined with their size allowed them to wear the Vols down. The biggest difference in the game was on the boards, where the Gators had 14 offensive rebounds to the Vols’ five.
Amidst the foul trouble, Jordan Gainey stepped up in a big way, scoring 24 points. Zakai Zeigler still did everything he could, scoring 23 points and coming away with eight assists and three steals. Before fouling out, Lanier scored 11 points. Not having a guy like Carr late hurt, though.
Down low, Felix Okpara did his part with three blocks. Cade Phillips and Igor Milicic Jr., however, disappeared. Philips just wasn’t big enough to handle Florida’s size and athleticism, which is why Estrella, who had more experience, could have been used. Dubar, had he developed, could have been an asset down low too.
Milicic’s lack of production was totally inexcusable, though. While he isn’t expected to offset a team’s major size advantage as a stretch four, he’s supposed to make up for it by being able to score from the outside. Well, he took just three shots, only two from three.
Early foul trouble proved costly for him, but he played the latter part of the second half with just three fouls, so he should have been able to do a lot more than he did. In the end, he had just four points, which is not what Barnes recruited him to do.
Todd Golden’s team, meanwhile, had five players score double figures, led by Walter Clayton Jr. with 22 points. Alex Condon had 13 points and nine boards, Will Richard had 17 points, Alijah Martin had 10, and Thomas Haugh added 11 off the bench.
With the win, Florida, which was the No. 2 seed in the tourney, captures its fifth SEC Tournament title since 2005 but first since 2014 and improves to 30-4 after a 14-4 regular season record. Tennessee, which was the 4-seed in the tournament, falls to 27-7 after finishing the regular season 12-6 in league play.
