Santiago Vescovi hit a three from the wing and got fouled. He sunk the free throw and Tennessee led 4-2. From there, nothing seemed to go the Vols’ way.
“I didn’t like our mindset coming in,” Vols’ head coach Rick Barnes said. “I felt like we think we’re good enough to just go out and play. Today proved that we’re not.”
No. 11 Tennessee had a horrific offensive game in the 78-66 loss to unranked Colorado. The Vols shot a dreadful 16-63 from the field. They had just six field goals and shot 5-for-17 from deep through the first half of play.
“Whether we’re making threes or not, you should be able to play better basketball than we played today,” Barnes said.
Despite the poor offensive half, the Vols still led by two going into the break.
Things didn’t get better in the second half. Colorado went on an 8-0 run early in the half to gain a lead that it wouldn’t give back to the Vols, and with less than six minutes to play the Buffs led by 11.
“Coming out of the half, first four minutes, we gave them a lot of confidence,” Josiah-Jordan James said. “If you give them confidence – it’s hard to beat good players with confidence.”
James was one of the only Vols that had a good performance. The veteran forward had 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting.
Tennessee finished the second half shooting 10-for-37 from the field and 5-for-20 from deep. The bright spot – if there is one – was that the Vols were solid from the line, shooting 24-for-30.
Colorado’s offense made the Vols’ defense look nonexistent. The Buffs were getting anything they wanted in the paint, shooting an efficient 53% from the field.
“We looked like we were frozen on the defensive end,” Barnes said. “We did things with an older group that should never happen. That’s disappointing.”
In the long run, an early season loss to a potential tournament team might not matter, but it did give Barnes some ideas for what needs to change. One change is coming to the lineups immediately.
“He was totally out of control tonight,” Barnes said of guard Zakai Zeigler. “I already told him he’s not starting. We’ve got to get better execution at the start of the game.”
Zeigler and the rest of the Vols’ guards didn’t do Tennessee any favors Sunday. Zeigler was 4-for-12 with two turnovers and Vescovi was 2-for-13 with four turnovers.
“I thought our guard play set the tone in a negative way for us,” Barnes said.
Vescovi didn’t play well in Tennessee’s exhibition against Gonzaga as well as the first two regular games of the season. Barnes believes it’s a matter of getting settled in.
“I think he tries to do too much,” Barnes said. “I think he’s got to play the role we need him to play.”
Tennessee now has the opportunity to respond to the loss. Luckily for the Vols, there is still a lot of basketball to be played. Tennessee will take on Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday before taking on a loaded field in the Bahamas in a few weeks.
“I’m excited to see how we respond throughout the rest of the season,” James said. “I think this loss will be really good for us.”
