The Vols gave the biggest guy at the bar a run for his money. But their beer muscles just weren’t real enough.
Tennessee started fast and intoxicated a sell-out crowd by going toe-to-toe with a vastly more talented Kentucky squad before sobering up and falling 66-48 to the No. 1 Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on Tuesday night.
It was not just another night at the arena for UT or a rowdy crowd. But it was for the Wildcats, who have grown accustomed to withstanding spurts of overachieving play from lesser opponents during a school-record 26-0 start.
“That’s that target we have,” UK junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein said. “Every time we step on the floor. Every time, literally. I’ve been here for three years and whether you’re the worst of Kentucky or the best of Kentucky, they’re still trying to beat Kentucky, so you have to come out ready to play with them.
“If not, they get beer muscles and they think they can play with you.”
UT did play with the team that some have dubbed the best in college basketball history for 30 minutes, and even took a 26-23 lead with 4:02 to play in the first half courtesy of a Tariq Owens and-one tip-in.
Owens does not have real muscles at this point in his college career, though, so his athletic tip-in – it seemed to even surprise him – could only be attributed to the beer muscles that Cauley-Stein described.
Then he passed the pitcher to Devon Baulkman, who stifled a 6-0 UK run with an acrobatic and-one putback of his own.
The snow day party was alive in Thompson-Boling Arena as the break neared.
But the Vols forgot to order another round at halftime, and the hangover left them seeing double every time they rose to shoot the ball in the final 20 minutes.
UT missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts, went 1-of-6 at the charity stripe and scored a total of three points outside the paint in the second half as the Wildcats welcomed them back to reality with a steady flurry of jabs that culminated with a 5-0 run over a three-second span to make the score 56-44 with 6:54 to play.
“You have to come out ready to swing or you’re going to get hit in the mouth a couple of times and it’s going to look like you’re playing bad,” Cauley-Stein said. “Or it’s going to look like maybe they have a chance to win, and you have to try and turn it around in the second half, and that’s just how it is.”
That’s just how it is for Kentucky, and that’s just how it was on Tuesday.
Like many of UK’s opponents have this year, Tennessee played with great effort, and the final score may not have indicated how close the game truly was.
But even the best beer muscles are not good enough to beat the biggest guy at the bar.
David Cobb is a senior in journalism and electronic media. He may be contacted at [email protected].
