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Tennessee Basketball Suffers Embarrassing 92-82 Loss at LSU Tigers: 3 Takeaways from Vols’ Performance

By Caleb Calhoun

Mar 1, 2017; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard Robert Hubbs III (3) shoots a jump shot against LSU Tigers guard Brandon Sampson (0) during the first period during the first period at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 1, 2017; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard Robert Hubbs III (3) shoots a jump shot against LSU Tigers guard Brandon Sampson (0) during the first period during the first period at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /
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Tennessee basketball suffered its most embarrassing loss of the season at the LSU Tigers 92-82. Here are three takeaways from the Volunteers’ loss.

They took the Vanderbilt Commodores for granted last week and lost. After that, it seems like they have just quit. Tennessee basketball had its most embarrassing loss to the season Wednesday night, falling on the road to the LSU Tigers 92-82.

That’s right. A team that was in the Top 40 of the RPI a month ago and looking to make a significant play at the NCAA Tournament fell to the worst team in the SEC.

LSU was 9-19 overall and 1-15 in the conference going into the game. But now they are 10-19 and 2-15.

Meanwhile, Tennessee basketball just lost its third straight game and falls to 15-15 on the year and 7-10 in the conference.

This is obviously a terrible way for Rick Barnes’s team to end the season, but that’s where they are. Here are three takeaways from the Vols’ loss to the Tigers.

1. Defense was atrocious.

Seriously, this was far and away the worst defensive performance of the year for Tennessee Basketball. Johnny Jones’s team came into the game averaging 75 points a game, so it’s not like the Tigers are bad at scoring. But in this game, they dropped 92.

Tennessee shot 41 percent overall and 43.5 percent from three en route to 82 points, they out-rebounded the Tigers, and they only had 14 turnovers, which is not great but not terrible. So why did they give up 92 points? They couldn’t stop fouling. It was the worst defensive performance by the guards you could witness, but the bigs in Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams did not guard the paint either. That combined with LSU going 7-for-15 from three is why they got 92 points.

2. It was the perfect storm for scoring droughts inside. 

So they had 82 points, as we mentioned. But the LSU Tigers play terrible defense. There were still offensive issues, mainly scoring in the paint. Robert Hubbs III had a rare off-night with 8 points on 4-of-13 shooting, and that didn’t help. Meanwhile, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield both got in foul trouble.

That really limited the Vols inside, so although Shembari Phillips and Lamonte Turner were actually scoring on this night, the inside game was gone. At one point in the second half, the Vols hit one of 15 field goals. But even with these issues, there’s really only one thing to point to.

3. Tennessee basketball just quit.

This was embarrassing. Rick Barnes’s players all year have had serious issues taking teams seriously, and once again, they failed to do that Wednesday night with the LSU Tigers. This team had lost 15 straight and was playing in an empty arena.

But Tennessee managed to march into Baton Rouge and do what it did against the Vanderbilt Commodores, Georgia Bulldogs, and Mississippi State Bulldogs. With the mindset that they had let the NCAA Tournament slip away, they just refused to get up for this game. And they embarrassed themselves in the process. They should be branded as quitters for that performance, and they deserve no pass for it.

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