Well, here it is, the final regular season recap of the year. While the Tennessee Volunteers entered the afternoon with the SEC regular season title in hand, today’s game against Kentucky still mattered for multiple reasons. For starters, it’s a game against arch-rival Kentucky — a game against them matters regardless of the outside factors. But what about those outside factors? Well, it was senior day, meaning it was the last time Dalton Knecht, Santiago Vescovi, Josiah Jordan-James (and Colin Coyne) will set foot on the court as players. There’s also the appeal of securing the last 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Tennessee entered the game holding the 1 seed in the West region, but a win in today’s game would do a great deal in maintaining that spot. Not to mention a nice 7-game win was streak. None of that mattered though, and in the end, Tennessee fell to Kentucky 85-81. The Volunteers got a monster 40-point offensive performance from Dalton Knecht and it wasn’t enough. They finish 14-4 in conference play.
In addition to Knecht, the Volunteers got a solid performance from Zakai Zeigler, who finished the game with a 9 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. He also had 17 points and fronted the press that let Tennessee get back into the game. Jonas Aidoo finished the game with 11 points and five blocks.
The two biggest takeaways was Tennessee’s inability to get any offense from someone besides Knecht before it was too late, and Kentucky went scorched Earth from three in the second half. Very rarely are you going to to beat a team that shoots 51 percent from three – and you’re certainly not going to do it when your supporting cast shoots 15 percent in an entire half of basketball.
If you were a fan of Tennessee’s offense the last two years, you’re not only a sicko, but you probably enjoy the first twenty minutes of this game. Through the first 17 minutes, Tennessee only had 18 points. And were shooting an abysmal 18 percent from the field. Ready for these stats? At the end of the first half Tennessee players not named Dalton Knecht were shooting 3 for 20 from the field. They had as many airballs as made shots. And they had four of their shots blocked. That’s right. They had more shots blocked than field goals made. Somehow, though, Tennessee only found themselves trailing by four as their entered halftime, 33-29.
The second half saw significantly more offense from both teams — each scoring over 50 points. For Kentucky, they went on to finish the game a staggering 12 for 19 from three after starting 3 for 10. Tennessee made multiple efforts to claw their way back into it, but it felt every time they could get within five points, Reeves or Sheppard would make a clutch shot to silence the crowd and end a Tennessee run. At the four minute mark, Tennessee found themselves trailing by 14 points.
It wasn’t until the final minute and 30 seconds that Tennessee decided to implement a full court press that forced three Kentucky turnovers and allowed Tennessee to claw and fight their way back into the game. With 22 second left, Tennessee had the ball down just three points. The play was initially drawn up to get Dalton Knecht a three point shot from the right side of the floor, but the future First-Team All-American slipped and fell which caused the offense to pivot, and led to an eventual Josiah Jordan-James missed three off the back iron with ten seconds left. James finished the game 2 for 9 from the field, but no miss was bigger than that one.
For Kentucky today, they were sparked by fifth-year senior Austin Reeves, who recorded his sixth straight 20-point game. The Wildcats also got a monster performance from Reed Sheppard off the bench, who had a team-high 27 points on 70 percent shooting from three. Defensively, Kentucky played their best game since Auburn and were anchored by sophomore big-man Ugonna Onyenso who had four blocks.
For the Volunteers, this is now their fourth straight game where they struggled to generate offense from someone not named Dalton Knecht. Aside from rough shooting nights from Santiago Vescovi and Josiah Jordan-James, Tennessee got only five points off the bench for the second consecutive game. After a decent stretch during conference play, Jordan Gainey is back to struggling to score the basketball. If this team wants to make a serious run in March they need production from one of their upperclassmen guards. Some stats for you to consider moving forward. Tennessee is:
- 17-2 when Jonas Aidoo scores in double figures. 7-5 when he does not.
- 16-2 when Josiah Jordan-James scores 8 or more points. 8-5 when he does not.
- 19-1 when players not named Dalton Knecht score a combined total of 55 points or more. 5-6 when they do not.
I will repeat myself. If Tennessee wants to make a run in March, they are going to need either Vescovi, Josiah Jordan-James, or Jordan Gainey to show up on the offensive end.
Up next for the Volunteers, the SEC tournament in Nashville. The Volunteers will play on Friday, March 15 at 1:00pm ET.
If you couldn’t watch today’s game, you can find the full box score here.