Tennessee basketball: Vols drop an awful performance in the SEC Championship Game

The Tennessee basketball team loses their second straight SEC Championship Game. Here are three takeaways from the game.

With a chance to win the first SEC Tournament title in 40 years against an Auburn team playing its fourth game in four days, Tennessee had one of their worst performances I’ve ever seen.

Auburn took a 32-23 lead into halftime thanks to Tennessee’s 12 turnovers. The Vols had 12 turnovers with only eight made shots in the first half, that’s not winning basketball. Surprisingly Tennessee was just down nine points, even though it felt like 20.

The second half was much of the same. There were no halftime adjustments from Rick Barnes. There was no emphasis on getting Grant Williams involved. And, there was no change to the defensive mindset from the Vols.

Tennessee played horribly; they played like they celebrated too hard last night after the Kentucky win. They played as if the Kentucky game was for the SEC Championship.

1. Defense was lazy

We all knew that Auburn was going to jack up the three-point shot. We all knew that Auburn could make the three-point shot. What we didn’t foresee happening was the Vols giving up an SEC Tournament record 15 made three-point shots to Auburn.

Hats off to Auburn because they made the shots, but a lot of them were wide open. A lot of the shots came from lazy rotation defense or flying past the shooter and leaving them wide-open.

We’ve talked a lot this season about the defense; if Tennessee plays like this, it will be an early exit in the NCAA Tournament.

2. The Vols went away from Grant

Why in the world would you a team not want to get the back-to-back SEC Player of the Year more involved in the game? Williams only took nine shots during the entire game. He did end up scoring 13 points with eight rebounds.

To be fair, there did look like there were a few times where Williams didn’t look like he wanted the ball, but the offense wasn’t flowing through him. There were some other players step up, but if the Vols want to win, they have to get Grant more involved more often.

3. Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers owned Tennessee this season

There’s no denying it now; Bruce Pearl owns Rick Barnes and the Vols. The past two seasons when both schools have been good, Pearl is 3-0.

This season, his Tigers kept Tennessee from winning an SEC Regular Season Championship, an SEC Tournament Championship, and a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

When everything was on the line, Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers prevailed by embarrassing the Vols.

Before the first Auburn game, I was thinking about writing a post titled, Bruce’s barbeque was the best thing for the Tennessee basketball program.” And, while I don’t want a handful of games to sway my opinion, I can’t honestly say it was best for the program.

The season isn’t over, Tennessee is a legit National Title contender. However, they have to play with the same effort and passion they did against Kentucky to make a run.