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Tennessee basketball: Ranking all 6 Vols losses of 2018-2019 by heartbreak

By Caleb Calhoun

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: The Tennessee Volunteers bench looks on against the Purdue Boilermakers during overtime of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: The Tennessee Volunteers bench looks on against the Purdue Boilermakers during overtime of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images /

5. No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers vs. No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks

NIT Season Tip-Off; Friday, Nov. 23, 2018

Tennessee basketball would have at least won a share of the SEC regular season title had they beaten the Kentucky Wildcats on the road, and that’s a bigger deal than the NIT Season Tip-Off banner. Still, a November tournament championship is always something to celebrate.

And this loss directly caused that. Not only did that happen, but it was also an extremely close game. As a result, the Kansas Jayhawks loss on a neutral court was slightly more heartbreaking than the Kentucky loss on the road.

Coming off a big win over the Louisville Cardinals, Rick Barnes’s team was proving early that it wouldn’t have a drop-off after a successful 2017-2018 campaign. And this was a back and forth game that UT just happened to lose in overtime. For Rocky Top, there was one problem: The Vols’ top perimeter scorer, Lamonte Turner, was still getting healthy.

Nonetheless, he still took a lot of shots to get to 10 points, going 3-of-13 from the field. That high volume with such little results was always a formula for the Vols to lose, and it cost them an overtime win here. Had they not messed that up, they would have reached No. 1 sooner and had an extra quality win, maybe enough to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

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