Mike Strange: Tennessee basketball picks bad time for bad effort
Tennessee freshman Jordan Bowden, under a doctor's care, watched in street clothes as his team played Wednesday night.
And Tennessee's NCAA tournament hopes might have deteriorated beyond medical attention. It could be time for the last rites.
In what amounted to an in-state postseason bubble battle at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Vols picked a horrible time to have a horrible game.
Beginning with a designed play on which Vanderbilt scored on the opening tip, curiously lethargic Tennessee was in a hole from which it could never dig out. A 67-56 loss to the Commodores was troubling on several levels.
"We didn't compete in the first half,'' said coach Rick Barnes. "You’ve got to give Vanderbilt credit because they understand what this time of year is about, obviously, and we don’t. You don’t perform like that in a situation like we’re in right now.''
Rexrode: Vanderbilt tougher than Tennessee, and that's a mouthful
While the Vols were not competing, the Commodores roared to an 18-4 lead. When Tennessee did ramp up the energy in the second half, it wasn't good enough. The Vols got within a point twice but never led.
"You'd think with it being a rivalry game, that guys would have energy,'' UT sophomore Admiral Schofield said, "but I don't know particularly what it was.
"This game is not on the coaches. It's not on Rick Barnes. It's on Tennessee basketball. We didn't come out with any fire today.''
If the lack of fire was disconcerting, so was the glut of poor choices on the offensive end. Tennessee opened ice cold and never warmed up, checking in at a season-worst 29 percent from the field. Which explained a new low for points, only two games after the previous low in an 83-58 rout at Kentucky.
Luke Kornet had something to do with that. Vandy's 7-foot senior flirted with a triple-double. The seven blocked shots, several in the closing minutes to stymie UT's rally, were more problematic than the 13 points or 11 rebounds.
Seniors have been a nemesis lately for the Vols. Physically, Kornet is the opposite of Georgia's 5-foot-9 guard J.J. Frazier, who bedeviled UT in this same building 11 days ago. But Kornet's impact was just as great, blocking and altering shots.
"Luke was incredible,'' said Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew. "That's as good a five-minute defensive stretch as I've seen from anybody in the country.''
All of which leads to the most troubling situation: The Vols fell to 15-13, 7-8 in SEC play, with their fourth loss in the past six games. There are three games left, the next two on the road.
Vandy, meanwhile, improved to 15-13, 8-7 SEC, with its third consecutive win in Thompson-Boling.
Tennessee, in short, looked nothing like the team that stormed into Memorial Gym in Nashville five weeks ago and shot out the lights in an 87-75 victory.
Freshman point guard Jordan Bone, the hero of that win, was virtually invisible Wednesday, scoring two points in 13 minutes. He spent most of the second half on the bench watching Shembari Phillips and Kwe Parker try to defend Vandy's guards so Tennessee could creep back in striking distance.
The Vols did, but the strike came up empty. When Tennessee got within 44-43, Vanderbilt scored on five consecutive possessions then paraded to the free-throw line to ice it.
As a footnote, senior Robert Hubbs III passed the 1,000-point mark for his career. After a win over Missouri on Saturday, a jovial Barnes made a show of teasing Hubbs about his new cornrow hairstyle. Barnes had lost his sense of humor by the final horn against Vandy.
"I'm baffled and frustrated by it,'' he said. "This time of year you can’t come out at home and play like that.
"I’ve been doing it a long time, but I don’t have all the answers because I’m surprised by that. I just can’t believe we wouldn’t be more focused.''
Believe it. It happened. And at the worst possible time.
Mike Strange may be reached at mike.strange@knoxnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @Strangemike44.
