Yes, on paper this looks bad. Tennessee Basketball has suffered a season sweep at the hands of the Kentucky Wildcats after losing to them 75-64 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday night two weeks after falling to them at home.
In both cases, Kentucky, ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll and No. 18 in the coaches Poll, was hurt. They were without Lamont Butler in their win at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn., and they were without Jaxson Robinson in this game. Oh, and Butler also left and didn’t return with just over eight minutes left in the game.
When you add in the fact that Kentucky just suffered a bad loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks two Saturdays ago, is led by first-year head coach Mark Pope and has been wildly inconsistent, it’s understandable that this loss would concern Tennessee Basketball fans. The rivalry alone adds to that.
However, this loss means nothing for the Vols.
Tennessee, ranked No. 5 in the AP Poll and No. 4 in the Coaches Poll, lost for one simple reason: Their shots weren’t falling, and Kentucky’s were. It was just one of those games where you get all the bad breaks and tip your hat to the other team for making everything.
The Vols were 3-of-18 from the outside while UK was a red-hot 12-of-24. That was a 27-point difference. Also, if you watched the game, Tennessee had wide open looks, and many of Kentucky’s shots were heavily contested. It didn’t matter.
Now, you might say that this is a concern for Tennessee in which if their shots aren’t falling they’ll lose in the NCAA Tournament. That’s an overreaction here. Rupp Arena is good for about three extra misses and probably three extra makes in favor of UK. There’s no March Madness environment that will compare.
Through all of this, Tennessee still managed to lead by two with just under four and a half minutes to go. The poor shooting just doomed them in the end, as Kentucky went on a 12-2 run after that point and took control of the game late.
Of course, Kentucky’s three-point shooting was identical to what it did in Knoxville, going 12-of-24 there as well. The Vols lost that game by shooting 11-of-45 from three. It was another abysmal night, but there’s a difference between shooting 45 threews and shooting 18.
In that game, UT showed no motion on offense, Chaz Lanier took himself out, and they refused to utilize an inside-out presence. That wasn’t the case here, as Zakai Zeigler consistently drove to the basket, and Igor Milicic Jr. worked to score from anywhere on the court.
By the way, Milicic was solid from three as well, going 3-of-4 from outside en route to 16 points. Zeigler had 17 points, six assists and two steals. The problem is nobody outside of Milicic hit a three. Lanier was 0-for-7 but still had 10 points. Jordan Gainey was 0-for-4.
What’s key in all this is the Vols ran their offense and got the looks they wanted but just didn’t see the shots fall, to a certain degree because of the arena they are playing in. Even with Kentucky banged up, that’s nothing to worry about come tournament time.
UT falls to 20-5 and 7-5 in the SEC with a loss. They will return home to face the Vanderbilt Commodores Saturday in their first SEC game that’s not either against a ranked foe or on the road against a team projected to make the Big Dance. UK improves to 17-7 and 6-5 in the SEC with a visit to the Texas Longhorns set for Saturday.
