CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Rick Barnes hadn't quite seen a 20 minute-stretch like it. Josiah-Jordan James hadn't seen Barnes quite as mad.
Tennessee, coming off of two close losses to No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Purdue in the Maui Invitational, looked out of its element in the first half against No. 17 North Carolina at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill on Wednesday.
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For Barnes, confidence quickly gave way to confusion. The No. 10 Vols' patented defense had no answers for the Tar Heels' offense, digging themselves into a hole that seemed too deep to climb out of, particularly on the road.
Tennessee closed the gap in the second half, but a valiant comeback effort that cut a 20-point deficit down to single digits in the final eight minutes was ultimately overshadowed by the struggles in the first half in the Vols' 100-92 loss.
"I told our team at halftime, it was the worst basketball half team I've ever coached," Barnes said. "You ever see a team that has the ability that we have to be that bad in the first half? There was no doubt that Hubert (Davis) would have them ready to come out and really be aggressive and play hard.
"I thought we were stagnant, I thought we had guys—and mostly older guys—that were getting beat off the bounce, that didn't follow our scouting report."
At the core of Barnes' frustration was how good Tennessee has already proven to be in its previous six games.
Losing two games in a three-day span against a stacked field at the Maui Invitational was hardly an indictment on the Vols (4-3), who at times have looked every bit the part of the team that has been favored by many to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
But in the first 25 minutes against North Carolina (6-1), Tennessee looked like it had glaring issues for the first time this season, despite shooting better than 56% from the field.
WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee coach Rick Barnes recaps loss to UNC
"That was the most mad I've seen (Barnes)," James said. "Rightfully, so. We were down on ourselves but coach really put an emphasis on our toughness. It wasn't just about Xs and Os. Credit to Carolina. They executed the way they were supposed to do. They were just tougher than us in the first half."
James helped spearhead Tennessee's second half performance, joining Dalton Knecht who scored 22 of his game-high 37 points in the period as even a double team could do little to slow him down before leaving the game with an ankle injury with one minute, 39 seconds to go.
James finished with 20 points of his own, at times taking over for the Vols. His 3-pointer with under eight minutes left cut Tennessee's deficit down to seven before North Carolina pulled away down the stretch.
"Really proud of Josiah," Barnes said. "He played way more minutes than we would like for him to play. He was the one guy from start to finish that I thought was ready to play and has been in these games and played like he had been in games like this."
"We tried to flip the script in the second half," James added. "That locker room talk was about testing our manhood and our toughness. I'm proud of the way we responded in the second half."
Now the concern isn't so much that the Vols can't get back to playing up to its full capabilities—Barnes is confident that they can. But how long will they have to try without Knecht?
His absence has yet to be determined. Barnes said after the game that he rolled his ankle after stepping on another player's foot on a play that he was fouled on trying to drive to the basket.
MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Tennessee guard Josiah-Jordan James talks loss at UNC
Tennessee has veteran experience it can turn to if it has to as players like James, Jonas Aidoo and Zakai Zeigler proved on Wednesday.
Aidoo provided 13 points, despite being hindered by foul trouble throughout the game and Zeigler scored 9 points and rallied seven assists in his first appearance in the starting lineup this season.
What Tennessee will also need is the most from Santiago Vescovi, who has seemingly struggled to gain his footing in the Vols offense. He went scoreless in two halves, sat long stretches on the bench with multiple fouls and turned in a plus/minus of -14 in 13 minutes, 58 seconds on the floor.
The Vols return to Knoxville for the first time in three weeks on Tuesday to face George Mason at Food City Center (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) to begin its final non-conference stretch, which still includes games against Illinois and NC State before SEC play starts in January.
"We're good. We're a good team," Barnes said. "You think about from the time we've started, going from Michigan State, Wisconsin—we've done a lot of traveling. That's not an excuse. I've always said, you can't win big games unless you get in them. I'll also tell you this, I just want to be there in March. We've played three really good teams. Arguably the three best post players in the country...We need everybody to get better, which we will."
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