Oops, that didn’t go as planned.
Tennessee, playing its best basketball of the season in a four-game winning streak, seemingly peaking for tournament time, lost its way at Missouri and lost a significant game, 73-69.
It failed the basics.
The Vols didn’t take care of the ball. It lost 15 turnovers.
The Vols couldn’t guard a guard. Tiger T.O. Barrett scored 28.
The Vols missed six of 14 free throws. Missouri hit 17 of 22.
Tennessee’s second-half defense was anemic. The Tigers had too many easy shots. They hit 61.5 percent. For the game, the winners got 40 points in the paint. That is not supposed to happen. Interior defense may have been the worst it has been this season.
Rick Barnes was not a happy camper.
“Missouri deserved to win the game … Barrett got what he wanted … You can’t turn the ball over 15 times like we did and expect to win a game.
“It was ridiculous. This is what we looked like a couple months ago, a month and a half ago, or whenever.
“It’s just frustrating, because I know we’re better than that. For whatever reason, we didn’t have the same intensity. I didn’t think our guard play was good enough. They did what they had to do and we didn’t.”
And if that wasn’t enough, Barnes said some of the shot selection wasn’t good either.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the Tennessee attack with 19 points on eight-of-21 shooting. He was three-for-12 on threes. He had six assists.
Felix Okpara hit seven-for-seven, mostly dunks, and added a free throw. He didn’t get the ball in the second half of the second half.
Bishop Boswell scored 13 but had a hard time trying to slow Barrett. Barnes talked about more double-team defense but it didn’t happen.
Nate Ament did not play all that well. The final stat line (17 points, five-of-14, two-of-five threes, five-of-eight on free throws) looked better than his actual performance. He had a long dry spell.
“He’s going to have to get himself going. He’s got to be the one to fight to get open,” said Barnes. “They’re not doing anything different he hasn’t seen. It’s going to be on him.”
The coach says Nate must fight through contact and hope he gets some calls for freedom of movement.
“But if he doesn’t fight it, he’s not going to get those calls.”
Jaylen Carey got 10 rebounds but missed all his shots, three field-goal tries and two free throws. JP Estrella made a brief comeback from his foot injury and went 0-for-3.
All that said, it was a close game. Tennessee had an early lead of 10. Missouri was up by eight middle-late in the second half. The score was tied six times. The Vols were on top for 25 minutes, Tigers up for almost eight.
Missouri missed all nine three-point attempts in the first half. It hit four of eight after intermission.
As usual, Tennessee won the rebound battle but it didn’t cash in as many opportunities.
Example: The Vols had six offensive rebounds in the first five minutes but, amazingly, scored only three second-chance points in that flurry.
Tennessee is 10-5 against SEC foes. Tough-enough Alabama will be a Food City Center on Saturday.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
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