CHICAGO — It’s called getting over the hump for a reason.
Tennessee basketball is still trying to scale it. Three tries later, the Vols continue to come up shy of breaking through to the Final Four, and by a large margin. Back-to-back Elite Eight efforts have seen the Vols lose by a combined 52 points to the top-seeds in their NCAA Tournament region.
Both defeats saw Tennessee slip into first-half holes too deep for it to dig out of, brought about by a lack of scoring efficiency that continues to plague head coach Rick Barnes’ group when it gets within reach of program history. It’s been since the Vols’ 2024 battle with Purdue that they had a fighter’s chance as the closing minutes ticked away.
With its 95-62 loss to Michigan this time around, Tennessee joined the 2011-13 Florida teams as the only ones to lose three consecutive Elite Eight games.
“I felt like we weren’t ready,” Ethan Burg said. “We also didn’t execute completely the game plan. We wanted to stop (Yaxel Lendeborg). He got hot real quick. We talked about transition defense, something that we didn’t execute as well. When you play a team this good, the room for errors, it’s got to be smaller.”
The Vols allowed the Wolverines to have their way on both ends of the floor. Big 10 Player of the Year Lendeborg had his, tallying 27 points while driving a multi-faceted Michigan scoring attack. The forward helped his offense push the pace after Tennessee missed shots, contributing to 21 points off fast breaks.
Michigan’s tempo gave the Vols fits all afternoon long, and with some of Tennessee’s top defensive options in early foul trouble, things got ugly.
“We had open looks,” Barnes said. “We had some open shots that didn’t go down, and that’s where they were able to get out and capitalize.
“It put us back on our heels a little bit, where we had to continue to guard. That’s what got us through this tournament, but our missed shots led to a bunch of points for them.”
The Vols shot it at a 32% clip, slightly improved over their 29% mark in last year’s season-ending loss to Houston. Still, the number never would’ve been remotely good enough to give Tennessee a shot at pulling the upset.
After a regular season filled with elongated scoring droughts that played a big part in the tallies filling the Vols’ loss column, Tennessee paved its road to March Madness’ second weekend with strong shooting outings. The Vols knew they would have to replicate a similar performance to claim a Midwest Regional title, but a rough start from the field discouraged them.
“I felt like at some point, we kind of gave up,” Burg said. “I feel like that doesn’t identify us at all. If everything else, I feel like we’re the mentally toughest team in the nation. We went through a lot of hard times this year.”
Tennessee did experience its fair share of low points this campaign, more so than either of the teams that earned two-seeds in the Vols’ last two runs. A three-game losing streak, blown double-digit leads to Kentucky and consecutive losses to rival Vanderbilt created an underdog mentality that kept Tennessee fueled. Still, those bumps in the road also tested the fortitude of a contingent that featured nine new players.
The strain wore on them at times.
“I think people know it’s hard,” Bishop Boswell said. “I don’t think they really realize the just the physical and mental tolls that this stuff takes on you. It’s hard for everybody, coaches and staff included. I think if it wasn’t for each other, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
