After the Kentucky Wildcats beat Tennessee 78-73 Tuesday night, Rick Barnes said his team wasn’t good enough to attempt 45 three-pointers. While he may not have thought about it at the time, that was a direct shot at Vols leading scorer Chaz Lanier.
UT went 11-of-45 from beyond the arc against Kentucky. Lanier, for his part, scored 15 points while going 3-of-10 from outside. That doesn’t seem like just an awful night shooting, even if it is below average. Those things just sometimes happen.
However, given Kentucky’s defense, it was a flat-out embarrassment.
Mark Pope completely sold out to take away the inside-out game the Vols like to run typically through Zakai Zeigler. He willingly let the Vols take wide open shots from outside all night. Lanier, who is shooting 41.6 percent from three on the year and was at home, should have hit at least half of his attempts.
Given his play under the lights, though, Pope banked on Lanier shrinking from the moment. He was right.
In non-conference play, as the Vols were riding high with the No. 1 ranking for five weeks, Lanier was on track to shatter Chris Lofton’s single-season three-point record at Tennessee. He was shooting at an insane clip, and many were asking if he is as good as Dalton Knecht.
This didn’t come from out of nowhere either. Lanier got better from three every year playing for the North Florida Ospreys, going from 30 percent as a freshman to 44 percent, while hitting nearly three and a half per game, last year. Barnes targeted the 6’4″ 175-pound scorer to do just that, and he was obliging…until January.
Dating back to an abysmal 1-of-9 performance from three in a 73-43 loss to the Florida Gators, which cost UT its No. 1 ranking, Lanier is 18-of-58 from beyond the arc, or 31 percent. He was 56-of-120 before then, or 46.7 percent.
The only explanation is that while the competition increased, Lanier’s play decreased.
We should have seen signs for this in December. On the road against the Illinois Fighting Illini, Tennessee’s toughest test before SEC play, Lanier was a measly 2-of-6 from outside. Simply put, when the lights have been brightest, his play has been dimmest.
Before Tuesday night’s loss even happened, there were clear warning signs of this. Florida and Illinois were the first. Then, at the Texas Longhorns, Barnes benched him for refusing to shoot on a play called for him. At the Vanderbilt Commodores, he did shoot 4-of-6 from outside, but with the chance to tie it with a free throw at the end of the game, he missed.
Last Saturday’s loss at the Auburn Tigers should have been the biggest red flag. Barnes wanted a three to try to win the game in the end, but he called the play for Zakai Zeigler, not Lanier. That combined with what Pope did shows there’s a growing chorus of coaches who don’t believe in Lanier under the lights, including Lanier’s own coach.
Look, Lanier doesn’t deserve all the blame. Zeigler has to hit wide open threes too and was 1-for-11 in the game. Igor Milicic Jr., despite playing well Tuesday, has been way too streaky for another guy Barnes relied on to shoot well from outside. Darlinstone Dubar just can’t get into a rhythm.
Lanier, though, is the best of all those players and easily the best shooter. If a player of his caliber is getting wide open looks against a top 12 team at home, he’s got to shoot at a high rate. Failing, as he did against Kentucky, is just another piece of evidence that he can’t meet the moment.
