Twice in the 2020s has Tennessee basketball lost three consecutive games.
That is in play for the No. 13 Vols (7-2) when they hit the road for the mid-state to face Illinois (6-2) on Saturday in Bridgestone Arena (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Tennessee comes off back-to-back disappointing losses to Kansas and Syracuse, and the early-season meshing has come with struggles.
“We just got to play harder and play to win more,” guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said. “I feel like some guys are just playing and not playing with a purpose, so we just got to keep going and play with a purpose.”
Tennessee owns 13.2 turnovers per game, ranking 246th in the country out of 365 teams. Right after back-to-back single-digit turnover efforts, including a season-low seven against Kansas, the Vols went to Syracuse and gave up 17 free possessions.
“The only thing you really can attribute to is just like lack of focus, lack of attention to detail,” assistant coach Justin Gainey said.
On three occasions this season, the Vols have allowed 17 or more turnovers. That brings their comments to light.
“I think we’ve been clear with the communication of the purpose,” Gainey said. “The purpose is to get better every game. To play team-selfless basketball and to be the hardest-playing team in the country. After that, there’s nothing else to worry about. You figure everything out.”
The common phrase has been locked in — that the Vols have not been. That continued to be the emphasis heading into another ranked battle on Saturday.
“I think you just got to lock in on that, on a day-to-day basis,” Gainey said. “Lose yourself in the game and then let the chips fall where they may. But I think if we do that, we’ll be happy with the results (and) the outcome at the end of the day.”
Part of those struggles comes with Gillespie as the facilitator. Though he’s in his fourth year of collegiate basketball, he’s also on his third different team.
Head coach Rick Barnes said that Gillespie is still learning how to run a team, and that is the case. He’s never been asked to operate an offense like he has at Tennessee — and it’s a stern switch from all-conference guard Zakai Zeigler, who had been a staple for four seasons under Barnes.
Gillespie is averaging a career-high 2.7 turnovers per game.
“Just being more of a leader, talking to the guys more and just making the right plays all the time,” Gillespie said. “We can’t have silly mistakes like we’ve been having.
It comes with finding an identity. Tennessee rostered nine new players this offseason and lost culture-setters in Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack. The Vols aren’t sure what their identity is yet, but that is what the early-season nonconference slate was set up to determine.
“I hate to talk about past teams, right, but those teams had guys that have been in the program for a while,” Gainey said. “They had an identity. They knew what the identity was. They were developed in that identity, right? And so, I think for this team, going through these tough times, these tough moments — adversity is good for them. And within that, they’ll find who they are as individuals and who they are as a team.”
The next opportunity comes with the 14th-ranked Fighting Illini. Illinois enters with a pair of ranked losses to Alabama and UConn. It is another ranked task for the Vols, and one that possesses a strong offense.
Kylan Boswell leads a quintet of double-digit scorers at 17.3 points per night. Andrej Stojakovic and David Mirkovic follow at 16.3 and 14.3 points per game, respectively. The Illini scored 90.4 points as a team, ranking 20th in the nation.
They do so with second-chance opportunities. Illinois is fourth in the country in rebounds and offensive rebounds per game. The Illini haul in upward of 44 rebounds per game, 13 of which are on the offensive side. It makes up for being a poor shooting team from deep at just 32.5%.
“They’re just a really talented team and a really — I think they’re kind of physical,” Gillespie said. “But we’ve seen that a lot this year, so we just got to come out and play how we play.”
