Tennessee Basketball Chokes Away a Home Game in Vols’ 67-56 Loss to Vanderbilt: 3 Takeaways

Tennessee basketball choked away a home game 67-56 against the Vanderbilt Commodores Wednesday. Here are three takeaways from the Volunteers’ loss.

With a 15-12 record and everything on the line going into the game, the same Tennessee basketball team that beat the Kentucky Wildcats a month ago lost a home game to the Vanderbilt Commodores…the team they beat on the road in January as well.

The Vols went into halftime down 28-18 and, despite coming within a point multiple times, could never close the deal.

With the win, Vanderbilt improves to 15-13 overall and 8-7 in the SEC, while Tennessee falls to 15-13 and 7-8 in the conference.

That comes with three games left and the NCAA Tournament on the line.

Here are three takeaways from the Vols’ loss.

1. Tennessee basketball still does not know how to deal with success.

A month ago, when Tennessee beat the Kentucky Wildcats and Kansas State Wildcats in the same week and followed that up with a road win over the Auburn Tigers, we said the Vols had turned a corner in learning to deal with success. We were wrong. After that, they blew two more 15-plus point leads, and then they lost at home to a team they beat on Wednesday.

This Tennessee team was awful in front of its home crowd as it was just starting to generate interest in Rick Barnes’s second year with the program. And with the NCAA Tournament likely on the line, they took an in-state rival for granted and blew it. You could clearly see they took Vanderbilt for granted because of one side of the ball.

2. Offense was historically atrocious.

The Vols went into halftime with a mere 18 points, having shot 25 percent from the field. That’s flat out embarrassing. It didn’t get much better in the second half. They finished the game a pathetic 18-of-62, including 3-of-17 from the three-point line.

Meanwhile, they also blew shots at the foul line. A team that typically shoots 72 percent on free throws, the Vols were 17-of-26 from the line Wednesday, good for 65 percent. Awful shooting like that all the way around usually gets you beat, but there’s another aspect to this.

3. Tennessee basketball’s combo guards have no idea how to move the ball. 

This goes directly to Lamonte Turner and Shembari Phillips, the two biggest culprits for the loss on Wednesday. In fact, the loss is squarely on them. If they aren’t hitting their outside shots and they have a size disadvantage, they have no concept on how to move the ball. As a result, all they did was drive to the basket all night, forcing turnovers and making ill-advised no-look passes.

Turner had two turnovers off the bench, Phillips added three, and the two combined to go 3-of-19 as a result. The real question: Why was the ball in their hands so much? Whatever the reason, it created a disaster that both freshmen have to get better at managing.