Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols 63-58 Texas A&M loss
In a shocker, the Texas A&M Aggies upset Tennessee basketball in Knoxville Tuesday. Here are three things we learned from the Volunteers’ loss.
Officials will take a lot of heat for this one, particularly on a video in which one appeared to run into Rick Barnes and then accuse Barnes of making contact with him, but it doesn’t change the fact that Tennessee basketball had arguably its worse loss of the year. The Vols fell 63-58 at home to the Texas A&M Aggies.
Dry spells at the end of the first half and midway through the second half cost the Vols. Leading by three with 34 seconds left, A&M, led by first-year head coach Buzz Williams, made eight of nine free throws to close out the game and secure the win.
With the win, they improved to 10-9 on the year and 4-3 in the SEC. The Vols fall to 12-8 and 4-3 in league play with road games against the Alabama Crimson Tide and Mississippi State Bulldogs up next before returning home to host the Kentucky Wildcats of all teams. Here are three takeaways from what happened to Tennessee basketball.
1. Horrible rebounding was the whole story.
Usually, the Vols make up for a bad shooting night or struggles from certain players with their veterans finding other ways to score and great defense, including on the interior. Well, they did that in this game, as their their three upperclassmen all hit double-figures and they held the Texas A&M Aggies to 30 percent shooting from the field while blocking 10 shots.
But they forgot how to rebound. A&M crashed the boards and outrebounded the Vols 46-21. That included 23 offensive rebounds. Yes, A&M’s offensive rebounds surpassed the Vols’ total rebounds. That’s how bad this game was. It didn’t matter that they missed shots because they always got second chances, where they’d either get a make or go to the foul line.
2. Jordan Bowden is back to struggling.
To be fair, the rebounding is the only story. Jordan Bowden has struggled before, and as usual, he overcame it in this game by finding other ways to score. So despite going one-for-seven from the three-point line, he managed 13 points.
One problem in this one, though, was he uncharacteristically missed three free throw attempts, going four-of-seven from the line. Tennessee basketball went 10-of-15 overall while Texas A&M went 22-of-29. Now, that disparity will raise eyebrows because some people want to blame the refs, but Bowden missing three free throws has nothing to do with them. So that’s a concern.
3. Santiago Vescovi is settling in.
While his red-hot shooting streak has ended, Santiago Vescovi settling into the offense is one major positive, and he proved it in this one. Vescovi truly is a point guard now, as he had six assists and two steals to only two turnovers despite Bowden and Josiah-Jordan James both struggling.
Vescovi also managed to score 10 points despite going one-for-six from the three-point line. That’s because he’s finding other ways to get to the basket, and he’s drawing fouls and hitting his free throws. His improvement in the paint has been dramatic, and this is a major positive.