Tennessee basketball: Vols struggling to handle success without Lamonte Turner

Ever since losing Lamonte Turner, Tennessee basketball has had one big problem. The Volunteers simply can’t handle success.

When Tennessee basketball began the season in November, they seemed to hint that they wouldn’t miss a beat after losing so much talent. Sure, Lamonte Turner was struggling, but he had fully made the transition to point guard, and things were working.

The Vols scored a huge win over the Washington Huskies, then they almost beat the Florida State Seminoles only to respond by beating the VCU Rams the next day. As Turner’s injury got worse, UT did struggle in December and lost four of five. But ever since they retooled the roster and brought in Santiago Vescovi as SEC play began, a new issue began to emerge.

Now, Tennessee basketball simply can’t handle success. Remember, after losing their first SEC game to the LSU Tigers, the Vols won back to back games against the Missouri Tigers on the road and the South Carolina Gamecocks at home.

Following those wins, news broke that Uros Plavsic was granted an eligibility waiver from the NCAA. How did the Vols respond to this momentum? They lost by 17 points to the Georgia Bulldogs in the worst half of defense in maybe three years.

Rocky Top responded to that issue, though, with back to back elite defensive performances. They held both the Vanderbilt Commodores and Ole Miss Rebels to under 50 points in dominant wins. Then they went to face the No. 3 ranked Kansas Jayhawks on the road, a team they would obviously not look ahead of, and they played hard enough to only lose by six.

So after two elite defensive performances and a six-point loss to a top five team on the road, the Vols were back home again to face a .500 SEC team at home. And what did they do? They lost to the Texas A&M Aggies 63-58.

What’s happening is clear. Tennessee basketball loses focus once it gets a bit of success and builds confidence. We wouldn’t say that just because they lost. But the way they lost both of those games that we’re saying they shouldn’t have lost proves it.

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A staple of Tennessee basketball under Rick Barnes, and that has been true even through the tough times of this year, is that when the Vols are struggling from the outside or the other team is red-hot, they still are always tough defensively, they hit their free throws and they are aggressive on the boards. Those little things still help them win a lot.

But in both losses, they sacrificed something. Against Georgia, they simply forgot how to play defense for a half. It is true the Dawgs got red-hot shooting the ball, but UT couldn’t force any turnovers even as Barnes turned up the tempo. That was simply a lack of focus.

On Tuesday, it was a different story. Tennessee basketball refused to crash the boards. They held A&M to 30 percent shooting from the field. For a Barnes-coached team, that’s how you win. But Texas A&M outrebounded the Vols 46-21. They got 23 offensive rebounds alone. It was embarrassing for all the big men on Rocky Top that night.

Again, that’s due to a lack of focus. It’s blatantly clear that was the case in the last two unsatisfactory games by the Vols. As a result, we feel safe saying that Barnes just has to work with this team on handling success better. The good news, though, is they are clearly better than what they showed in those games.

Earlier in the season, Turner’s veteran presence helped Tennessee basketball make sure it handled success better. Now, that pressure is on Jordan Bowden, Yves Pons and John Fulkerson. They need to be the true veterans on the team. Sure, the Vols will struggle. But they showed last Saturday they are capable of playing with elite programs.

This team is good enough to make a run, and the NCAA Tournament is still on the table. They have some tough games coming up. The key for the future, though, is to make sure they don’t take nights off when they are rolling and about to face an underperforming team. That’s always a problem with youth, and the veterans on this team have to help Barnes keep it from happening.