We thought it was over. In this era of the transfer portal, Rick Barnes was supposed to find the right offensive guys to make sure he would never return to the coach whose teams are capable of insanely awful offensive droughts.
Apparently, that’s not the case.
One day after setting a school record for five straight weeks at No. 1 in both polls, Tennessee suffered its first loss of the season. The Vols fell to the Florida Gators, ranked No. 8 in both polls, 73-43 on the road. This happened three days after UT beat the Arkansas Razorbacks 76-52 but Florida lost at Kentuky 106-100.
So what happened?
It wasn’t a red-hot shooting night from Florida. They only shot 30 percent from three. It wasn’t the turnover game. UT had 12 to Florida’s 11. It wasn’t the home crowd in Gainesville. Students aren’t even back from Winter break yet
Everything came down to a Barnes-led team laying another gigantic egg offensively. This has always been a common theme for his program, but we forgot about it last year with Dalton Knecht being able to score from anywhere on the court.
Tennessee shot 4-of-29 from three. At one point, they were 1-of-24. That alone could explain a loss and a bad offensive performance and could be forgivable. Sometimes, teams have bad shooting nights. However, they only made 12 field goals overall, shooting just over 21 percent.
This is where the Barnes special delivers.
If a Barnes team is not hitting its shots from outside and the other team is on any sort of hot run, the Barnes team shies away from the paint and the midrange and refuses to find a way to manufacture buckets. That’s exactly the case here.
Igor Milicic Jr., the four who can score from anywhere on the court, stayed on the perimeter. Jahmai Mashack continued to prove to be an unreliable wing. Felix Okpara, oddly, didn’t even look athletic enough to get proper positioning against Florida in the paint.
Then there were the two stars, Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier. Neither could get separation from Florida’s defenders. At the end of the day, Todd Golden’s Gators looked significantly quicker than the Vols, and that proved devastating once it was clear their shots wouldn’t fall.
Maybe this is the difference from last year. Lanier could still be Knecht, but Knecht could command a larger presence in the paint. Also, Tobe Awaka was such a force down low that the combination forced teams to respect where Tennessee could score from. That may not be the case this year.
As a result, yes, this loss is concerning. It’s not some random night in January in which they just shot poorly. Tennessee has some real issues if they run into an athletic team and their shots aren’t falling. It’s something they may not be able to fix.
If Barnes wants to make this team immune to that issue, he’s got to work extra hard to get Darlinstone Dubar more playing time. Dubar could be the X-factor who develops just enough to make sure there’s always an offensive threat in the paint. However, Barnes will stay on principle in who earns playing time, and that could prove costly.
There’s not a lot of time to get this right. Tennessee, which falls to 14-1 and 0-1 in SEC play, will visit the Texas Longhorns on Saturday. Florida, which improves to 14-1 and 1-1 in the SEC, will visit the same Hogs team UT beat last week this Saturday.
