NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Rick Barnes’ shouts echo through Food City Center when Tennessee basketball is practicing.
He is quick to stop the play and reset if it does not go as intended. He’ll voice the corrections until the action matches. But when the games begin, the play is not what is supposed to be. And for that reason, Tennessee basketball has dropped three games in a row.
The most recent comes from a second-half fallout to Illinois, 75-62, in Bridgestone Arena. Tennessee took a two-point lead into the break, but faltered when the lights got brightest — allowing the Illini to rattle off a 27-13 run over the final 11:03.
“It’s concerning when you don’t play what we practice,” Barnes said.
Tennessee (7-3) dominated a physical Illinois team, on paper. The Vols hauled in 15 more rebounds than the Illini, and posted a season-high 23 on the offensive end. Illinois (7-2) head coach Brad Underwood even admitted that he doesn’t remember the last time one of his teams has been “annihilated” like that on the glass.
But that did not translate into winning basketball. In fact, Barnes believes his team does not understand what goes into winning.
“I think they prepared the way we’d like for them to prepare, but when the game goes on, they lose all thought of what we’re supposed to be doing,” Barnes said. “And that goes back to playing the game, instead of understanding how to work it. And it’s a very delicate fine line there.”
That’s part of the details which Barnes is critical of. They faltered on free-throw boxouts, missed free throws and failed at being a proven threat from distance to be taken seriously from the arc.
It even came down to a simplistic play in the second half when Cade Phillips did not take the ball fully beyond the baseline out-of-bounds marker and passed the ball in, resulting in a turnover.
“Little details,” Barnes said. “Not listening coming out of timeouts, not doing what we say we’re going to do. Mistakes.”
The problems come all the way down to running offensive sets. Sometimes, the Vols are in a position to push the floor and get a look before the defense gets set. Other times, there is a designed look that is to be run.
Barnes says they aren’t doing that.
“We talk about what we’re going to do, but we don’t get to it,” Barnes said. “And that’s a problem that we’ve got to get fixed.”
Nate Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie continue to be the forefront of a struggling offense. The touted scorers combined for 34 shots and five turnovers, posting 24 total points. Tennessee accounted for 61 possessions, but offensive rebounds allowed for continuous possessions. Still, that is over half of the Vols’ offensive sets ended at the hands of Ament or Gillespie.
Ament is now 12-for-47 (25%) from the field with 12 turnovers in his last four games. Gillespie is 21-for-67 (31%) with six turnovers during the same stretch. That is over 100 possessions concluding in the fate of the newcomers’ hands.
“We need more balance there,” Barnes said. “I mean, that’s a glaring stat tonight.”
And with their ball-demanding abilities, Tennessee never put together a string of runs. Illinois head coach Brad Underwood only felt threatened once in the game on Saturday.
Late in the first half, Bishop Boswell buried a wing three with the shot clock dwindling to tie the game at 32-all. Tennessee got a stop on the defensive end, and Cade Phillips put down a layup to give Tennessee its first lead since 2-0 in the first 15 seconds of the game.
From there, though, Illinois made halftime adjustments — and ran away in the second half 43-28. The Illini put together 1.293 points per possession, the most Tennessee has allowed all season, including a hefty 1.536 mark in the second half.
“The fact is, we’re inconsistent,” Barnes said. “And I said that to the team the other day. That’s why we need everybody.”
And that starts with the leaders — or lack thereof.
“We don’t have it right now,” Barnes said.
Boswell tried to play damage control by claiming it as his job. He gave props to J.P. Estrella as one of the vocalists in the huddle. Those are the ones that are supposed to carry over what Tennessee has had in previous seasons.
“I think we see it from everybody through periods,” Boswell said. “But just consistently, we need everybody to have a voice whether they’re in the game, on the bench. It just takes everybody to win games like this.”
But to Barnes’ point, the Vols don’t have that level of leadership. And some of it does stem from 11 new rostered players, and Amaree Abram, one of the veteran transfers, sees the department deprived.
“It’s very important,” Abram said. “That’s kind of what we’re lacking — leadership.”
That soul-searching process can begin when Tennessee takes 10 days away from competition, though Barnes would rather be playing since these problems are avoided in practice. The next opponent will enter Food City Center on Dec. 16 when the Vols host No. 6 Louisville.
“We’ve got to play how we practice, and you got to realize every game takes on its own personality and we haven’t been able to adjust to that,” Barnes said.
