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Tennessee basketball 2019-2020 season recap: Vols five most painful losses

By Caleb Calhoun

FAYETTEVILLE, AR - FEBRUARY 26: Tennessee Volunteers huddle together before a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena on February 26, 2020 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Volunteers 86-69. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
FAYETTEVILLE, AR - FEBRUARY 26: Tennessee Volunteers huddle together before a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena on February 26, 2020 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Razorbacks defeated the Volunteers 86-69. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images /

There were some tough breaks for Tennessee basketball in Rick Barnes’ fifth year. Here are the Volunteers’ five most painful losses for 2019-20.

Before the coronavirus outbreak canceled their first SEC Tournament game, Tennessee basketball was 17-14 and 9-9 in league play and looking to make a run in the tournament to get onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. That wouldn’t have been the case, though, were it not for a few rough losses that hit them during the year.

UT had a very highly ranked strength of schedule and flirted with the top 60 in all the crucial rankings. What held them back, however, were missed opportunities that they would give anything to have back given how everything played out.

There were plenty of thrilling wins for Tennessee basketball this year in what was clearly a transition season. But the losses were brutal as well. In this post, we’re going to break down which ones were the worst.

Our criteria for these rankings include how bad the loss was and how heartbreaking it was. However, the team deserves a break for all of these losses due to all the transitions that Rocky Top underwent in the middle of the year.

Already, Rick Barnes had to replace four starters, including his three leading scorers, rebounders and assists men. Then, of his only two returning rotational players, one of them, senior Lamonte Turner, had season-ending shoulder surgery. Finally, his five-star combo guard who would help offset some of this, Josiah-Jordan James, also missed games and played all year banged up.

The result was Jordan Bowden as the only holdover with significant experience and Yves Pons and John Fulkerson needing to develop fast. Barnes also had to throw in European freshman Santiago Vescovi at point guard before he was ready. That made for the roller coaster year that happened.

Such issues make all these games forgivable, but they were still tough to swallow. So let’s break them down. These are the five toughest losses for Tennessee basketball that occurred during the 2019-2020 regular season.

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