Tennessee’s loss to Kentucky was disappointing. UT head coach Rick Barnes’ response to the Vols’ first loss at home was even more troublesome.
“We knew (Kentucky) would give us all the threes we wanted,” Barnes said of his team, which made just 11-of-45 shots from beyond the arc against the Cats. “We knew that was going to happen. And we didn’t start the game the way we wanted to, with what we had talked about, trying to move the ball.
“We knew we could shoot a three any time we wanted to. Of the 45, I would say 95-percent were wide open, but that was by design. That’s what they were looking for. When we obviously weren’t making them, they were going to back up even more. Why not?”
That’s not the only issue for the Vols, who shot the second-most three-pointers in a game in program history and have made just 15-of-67 threes in their last two games. Sure, not moving the ball and trying to take it to the basket instead of settling for three-point attempts was troubling, but there seems to be a more pressing issue than just poor shot selection on offense. The Vols seem to have a coaching and/or an effort issue.
“The way we started the game defensively wasn’t good,” Barnes said. “It wasn’t the same sense of urgency…We’re disappointed. We didn’t honestly do the things that we had talked about, what we felt we had to do, offensively probably more than anything. Then, defensively, some of the breakdowns we have, we just can’t have.”
Barnes sees the problems his team is having. He’s not stupid. He’s also plenty smart enough to know the Vols aren’t good enough to settle for every three-pointer that comes their way, no matter how open the shots might be.
“Absolutely not,” Barnes replied at the notion that his team is good enough to settle for three-pointers. “We talked about it. It’s hard to get inside when you’re not making threes because they’re just going to keep backing up…You could tell they (Kentucky) really wanted to try to take away the lob tonight. Make Zakai (Zeigler) go in and see if he could finish enough, and stay with some shooters with that penetration.
“But it is no different than everybody. We’ve been played the same pretty much all year.”
That’s a scary statement by Barnes. Here’s the way it reads to me: opposing defenses know how to stop the Vols, and they have no answer – or won’t provide it. Barnes seemed to be grasping at straws after the loss to Kentucky.
“We need to throw it in there, but it’s all about space,” Barnes said when asked how to right the Vols’ offensive woes “…I do think that (forwards) Cade (Phillips) and Felix (Okpara) can give us some of that. Are they going to make them all? No, but they need to touch it some. And we’ve talked about that enough, too.
“We didn’t start the game executing. I can’t tell you the number of times we just didn’t execute what we said we wanted to do. That’s on me. Obviously I didn’t get the message to them loud and clear and we’ll fix that…People are going to say, ‘Hey, until they prove they can make them (three pointers), we’re going to let them have all they want.’
“So if you’re not going to work harder offensively, if you shoot early and quick against a team that is sagging, it’s really hard on you to get offensive rebounds because they’re set. You’ve got to get the ball going side to side and we didn’t do that at all early in the game.”
The stats sheet would suggest that shooting is the problem that could undermine the Vols. However, after hearing Barnes, I’m not sure his players are listening. That will be their ultimate undoing if Barnes can’t get things fixed soon.
