Tennessee basketball drops in polls, but don’t panic; Injuries costing Vols

A 26-point loss on the road to the Florida Gators was disturbing last week, but it proved to not be a fluke when Tennessee basketball lost at home to the Missouri Tigers Saturday night. Now, the Vols are paying for that two-game skid.

With a 10-3 overall record and 4-3 SEC record, UT fell from its No. 6 ranking in both polls last week to No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 17 in the Coaches Poll. The Vols fell to No. 42 in the RealTime RPI, and most importantly, they fell out of the top 10 to No. 11 as of Monday in the NCAA NET Rankings, which are the main metric for March Madness.

However, Tennessee basketball can rely on a few excuses at the moment for these issues. We should note that UT has played the past two games without Jaden Springer. In their first loss, to the Alabama Crimson Tide, they lost Springer five minutes into the game.

Well, in Rick Barnes’ Monday press conference, which you can watch and read the transcript of here, a few more details helped explain the Vols’ struggles. Not only has Springer been out, but Santiago Vescovi has been dealing with a hip pointer. Barnes did not have any official updates on either player Monday.

Still, Vescovi, Springer and Victor Bailey Jr. are the team’s three best offensive guards. Vescovi, who shoots 40.3 percent from three and 74.1 percent from the free throw line, was horrendous last week, going 3-of-11 from the field and 2-for-6 from the foul line. Combine that with Springer, by far the most efficient offensive player, not playing, and you can see how these losses come.

Bailey only made things worse by having a really bad night at Florida, going 1-for-12. He rebounded to score 12 points against Mizzou, which is why it wasn’t a blowout, but another top offensive guard being banged up and the other being out were still too much to overcome.

Simply put, Tennessee basketball is banged up right now. If Vescovi, Bailey and Springer are all healthy, Barnes has options. However, he needs them at full strength to be able to run the system he wants to run, especially with the way they stretch the floor for him.

Now, to be fair, there are no excuses for how soft John Fulkerson played inside last week, and the same goes for Yves Pons at Florida. That contributed to those losses and the embarrassment in Gainesville as well, and Barnes is right to call his inside players out for it. E.J. Anosike still has yet to live up to his preseason hype as well.

Springer and Vescovi being fully healthy, though, can offset things like that. Josiah-Jordan James and Keon Johnson need to be more aggressive while those two heal, as both of those guys have some talent offensively as well, even if defense is where they excel.

With the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Tuesday and the Kansas Jayhawks in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday looming, Tennessee basketball will have to address these issues in a hurry too. However, if Springer is good to go and Vescovi gets fully healthy, dramatic improvement should become evident.