Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols’ 71-53 loss to No. 5 Villanova Wildcats
A 9-0 start by the No. 5 ranked Villanova Wildcats was never overcome. Tennessee basketball, ranked No. 17 in the AP Poll, lost in a blowout 71-53 in the Hall-of-Fame Tipoff Tournament in Uncasville, Conn. Saturday afternoon.
Up next for Tennessee basketball is the No. 18 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels Sunday afternoon in the consolation game for both teams in the Connecticut based tournament. UNC lost 93-84 to the No. 6 ranked Purdue Boilermakers Saturday. Purdue will face Villanova for the tournament championship two hours before the consolation game.
With the win, Jay Wright’s Wildcats improve to 3-1 on the year, their only loss coming to the No. 2 ranked UCLA Bruins. Rick Barnes’ team, meanwhile, falls to 2-1 on the year. Villanova also extended its lead in the series to 5-1 against Rocky Top. Here are three things we learned from the Vols’ loss.
3. Awful three-point shooting proved costly.
When John Fulkerson was out, the Vols began to work on their three-point shooting, and that made them a much deadlier team. However, the shots just weren’t falling. UT went 5-of-28 from beyond the arc, shooting just 17.9 percent. Santiago Vescovi was the only one who was semi-efficient, going 4-of-12 and hitting all five free throw attempts en route to 23 points.
To be fair, the Vols as a team shot well from the free throw line, going 10-of-13 on the day. It was just the three-point shooting. Josiah-Jordan James was 0-for-6 despite lots of great looks, Victor Bailey Jr. went 0-for 4, Justin Powell went 0-for-3, and Olivier Nkamhoua passed up too many great looks to go into the paint for ill-advised plays, which leads to our next takeaway.
2. Turnovers were a problem.
Part of this was due to Tennessee basketball not going inside at the right times. Nkamhoua was already brought up for going inside at the wrong times, but then there were moments when the Vols passed up opportunities in the paint. That’s why Fulkerson only had four points despite making both of his attempts.
The ball movement in general was just a problem. UT had 18 turnovers on the night. Fulkerson, Vescovi and Kennedy Chandler all had three turnovers. This was largely due to not shooting more threes with great looks, as the shooting struggles affected the decision-making.
1. Foul trouble limited the defense
Villanova, despite shooting 13-of-16 from the free throw line, was actually off on the day when it came to shooting the ball. The Wildcats were just 8-of-24 from three, uncharacteristic for a team coached by Wright. However, the Vols got in foul trouble, and that changed things.
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Barnes was forced to go zone at times, and Nova was actually able to win the rebounding battle because of that despite Tennessee basketball’s length. Vescovi, UT’s leading scorer, had four fouls, and Fulkerson, Chandler and James all had three fouls. As a result, Villanova was able to dominate even further. That and just an off-day shooting the three is what made this a blowout.