Florida had lost two of its first four SEC games a season ago, and fell to 6-3 in league play after taking an uncharacteristic loss to Tennessee basketball on Feb. 1.
That 20-point win for the shorthanded Vols flipped a switch on the entire season. A vastly different finish ensued, and the Gators went on to win 18 of their last 19 games en route to hoisting the national championship trophy in San Antonio.
With Tennessee sitting at 1-2 in the conference ahead of Texas A&M on Tuesday, the challenge of improvement is what head coach Rick Barnes presents moving forward.
“We have to get better, and we got to get better as individuals,” Barnes said. “We got to really understand the game, because when you turn the ball over like that, I told them yesterday, you don’t understand the game of basketball. You don’t understand athletics. It’s hard enough to beat somebody, let alone you beat yourself by just not taking care of what I think are simple details.”
Between consistent reminders and turnover balloons in practice, the message has not proven to have considerable results. In three conference games, the Vols have turned the ball over 14, 15 and 18 times — resulting in 45 free possessions that amounted to 60 points.
Mississippi Valley State commits the most turnovers per game in the nation at 17.4 a night. With Tennessee’s 15.67 turnovers a game in conference play, the Vols would rank just six spots ahead of the Delta Devils in 359th place out of 365 teams.
Season-wide, Tennessee sits at 12.9 giveaways per contest, which places 259th in the country.
“I’m not sure it could be anymore (frustrating) because I had to watch it live, you know?” Barne said. “But it’s the way we turned the ball over, just so many unforced turnovers.”
It’s those inconsistencies that get most under Barnes’ skin. When Tennessee dropped three straight games to Kansas, Syracuse and Illinois, it had been the practice reps that failed to transfer over to game reps.
Then, the Vols rattled off a convincing win over then-No. 11 Louisville, coupled with two buy-game wins. But conference play began, and the results have fallen back into a hole with two road losses to Arkansas and Florida.
Managing the inconsistencies is a question that needs more proven results than spoken answers.
“When I ask them that question, what do you think their answer is?” Barnes said. “‘I don’t know.’ And I don’t understand (that) either… I know we got a group of guys that care. But all I can tell you, in the end, I tell them that if they don’t fix it, it’s because they really don’t care. Because it’s right there. I mean, there’s no question about it.”
Guard play has been the strongest reason for concern. Tennessee was aware that Ja’Kobi Gillespie would be the focal point of opponent scouting. Each game, the goal has been to eliminate the senior guard from on-ball impact.
The problem lies in the fact that the Vols don’t have a proven ball-handling option when Gillespie is shut down.
“When other teams put our other guards in position, they’re going to have to handle the ball more than maybe they’re used to,” Barnes said. “Are they going to make the right decisions? Are they going to get us organized when teams are just flat-out taking Ja’Kobi out? … there’s a lot of little things that can be big things if we don’t see it.”
That’s part of why Bishop Boswell ended up with six turnovers on Saturday.
The next challenge comes with “Bucky Ball” on Tuesday. Texas A&M’s first-year head coach, Bucky McMillan, brings a unique system to the table that runs off a fast-paced offensive and defensive system.
Tennessee’s defense will be challenged in a different way, but it is facing one of the few opponents that turns the ball over identically to the Vols. The Aggies give away 12.4 possessions on average, and have turned it over 15, 14 and eight times in three conference games so far.
“That’s his style of basketball, and he’s got a group of guys that are buying into doing that,” Barnes said.
Tennessee and Texas A&M square off in Food City Center with a 7 p.m. ET tip on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
