LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sense of urgency. Tennessee men’s basketball Coach Bruce Pearl drilled the phrase into his players’ minds all week.
Today, there is a massive sense of despair.
Kentucky slapped UT with a dominating 77-58 victory on Saturday in front of a crowd of 24,394 at a boisterous Rupp Arena.
The loss was devastating for the Vols, who entered the day in a four-way tie atop the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division. Now, with only four regular season games remaining, it is highly unlikely UT will defend its league title, and a spot in the NCAA Tournament next month is anything but a given.
“As a head coach, I have never been so embarrassed by how I coached or how my team played,” Pearl said. “I apologize to our fans and the University of Tennessee. We didn’t play with poise, passion or with a purpose, and I thought that there were times where we quit.”
The contrast between the numbers for UT (16-10, 7-5) and Kentucky (19-8, 8-4) were alarming. The Vols shot a measly 31.7 percent from the field, including 4 of 24 from 3-point range (16.7 percent).
Kentucky, meanwhile, seemingly couldn’t miss. The Wildcats scored early and often and converted 59.6 percent from the field.
“(UT) is a good team with a good coach at a great program,” Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie said. “They have a lot of really great players. We knew we had to keep playing because it’s a 40-minute game.”
For some, the game appeared all but over just a few minutes after it started.
UT missed its first seven shot attempts and did not score in the opening eight minutes. The Wildcats quickly built a 10-point lead and staved off a handful of UT mini-runs. The Vols had a couple of pushes in the second half, but trailed by double digits during the entirety of the final 20 minutes.
“We have to go back to the table and focus on all our stuff and stop worrying about other things,” UT center Wayne Chism said. “We should have won because we needed this win. We didn’t come out like we wanted and we lost.”
Part of the problem: the struggles of Tyler Smith, UT’s leading scorer entering the weekend. Smith, a former Giles County High School star, was averaging 17.6 points per game, but he went scoreless in the first half. He finished with six points on 1 of 11 shooting, and his only field goal came one minute into the second half.
Smith’s offensive struggles had a trickle-down effect on his teammates, who often look to the junior forward to spark the offense.
“We feed off him a lot,” said UT freshman Scotty Hopson, who led his team with 14 points. “He’s our leader and is probably one of the best players on the team. When he’s going, our team is going. When he’s not, we have to find guys to step up.”
Few did. Only two players outside of Hopson recorded double-digits in scoring. They were Chism (10 points) and J.P. Prince (11).
Kentucky countered with a remarkable all-around team effort. With UT concentrating heavily on star guard Jodie Meeks, who dropped 54 points on the Vols in Knoxville, others did their part.
Center Patrick Patterson returned after missing two games with an ankle injury and scored a game-high 19 points. Teammate Darius Miller, a freshman wing player, had career highs in points (17) and assists (6).
UT hosts Mississippi State on Wednesday, and the Vols can ill afford to hang their heads with the end of the regular season nearing.
“We have to bounce back big time,” Chism said. “It will be hard, but we are going to have to do it.”
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