As Armani Moore, Derek Reese, Devon Baulkman and the injured Kevin Punter Jr. made their way to midcourt for the pregame Senior Day festivities, the Tennessee fans made plenty of noise.
After the opening tip, though, the loudest chants inside Thompson-Boling Arena came in the form of “UT Diversity Matters” from the protestors in the student section opposing the plan to defund Tennessee’s diversity office.
The rest of the announced crowd of 14,424 had little to cheer about as the Vols dropped their home finale 83-60 to Ole Miss on Saturday.
“Today we weren’t very good in any area of the game,” UT coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought (Ole Miss) pretty much beat us any way you want to beat a team and I hate that for our seniors because I wish we could have finished on a good note for them.”
UT (13-18, 6-12 SEC) jumped out to an 11-9 lead with 14 minutes, 56 seconds remaining in the first half, but proceeded to go through its coldest shooting stretch of the season.
Over the next 14:04, the Vols failed to make a field goal, missing 15 consecutive shots over that span.
“I feel like we were settling for long shots,” Moore said. “They were kind of baiting us into shooting shots that they wanted us to shoot. … We just have to learn how to be aggressive, but be aggressive in a smart way.”
The offensive lull coincided with Ole Miss guard Stefan Moody, the SEC’s leading scorer at 23.4 points per game, sitting on the bench with two fouls.
With Moody on the bench from the 13:13 mark to halftime, Ole Miss (20-11, 10-8) out-scored the Vols 22-11.
Six of those points came on free throws during UT’s field-goal drought, which was ended by an Admiral Schofield 3-pointer with 52 seconds left in the half. Baulkman followed that with a transition dunk to make it 31-22 at the intermission.
“(We did a good job on Moody early), but (Sebastian Saiz) stepped up really big,” Baulkman said. “We didn’t defend him and we’re really small in the post and that hurt us.”
Saiz finished with a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass that helped Ole Miss score 28 second-chance points. Tomasz Gielo scored 16 and Moody poured in 12 in the second half.
Baulkman’s Senior Day started with him crying on Barnes’ shoulder as they hugged at midcourt during the ceremony and ended with the guard scoring a team-high 18 points while adding three rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“I played my heart out,” Baulkman said. “Everybody made mistakes, I made mistakes too, but I tried to give my all. We lost, but individually, that’s a good way to walk away.”
In his final game at Thompson-Boling Arena, Moore scored 13 points. Freshman Admiral Schofield added 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The Vols’ offense rebounded in the second half to shoot 51.6 percent (16-for-31), but defensively they couldn’t stop the Rebels, who shot 57.1 percent (16-for-28), enough to climb back in to the game.
UT managed to make it 64-51 with 7:36 left to play, but Ole Miss quickly reeled off a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 20.
“The tough thing about Senior Day is, unless you have a mature team, they lose focus and start worrying about other things as opposed to thinking about what they have to do to win games,” Barnes said.
The loss solidifies Barnes’ worst regular season record in his 29 seasons as a head coach.
Before the season, the Vols were picked to finish 13th in the SEC, but Barnes said that he had been to the NCAA tournament with less talented teams.
A season plagued with inconsistency, mixed with injuries to Punter and junior guard Robert Hubbs, never allowed that possibility to materialize.
“We can always look back and say the what-ifs,” Barnes said. “… Even if we had a .500 record or whatever, this time of year is about being in the NCAA Tournament. That’s what you play for. We have to understand, anything other than that, we haven’t succeeded.”
Following Mississippi State’s victory over Auburn on Saturday, the Vols, who have lost four straight, will open the SEC tournament against the Tigers on Wednesday at 7 p.m inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
“Our mindset needs to be to go hard,” Baulkman said. “We have to work on our weaknesses and adjust our game. We have to talk to the young players and let them know that we need everybody.”
