Tennessee closed the year in ugly fashion this afternoon, falling hard to Wisconsin 68-48 in one of the lowest offensive outputs of the Rick Barnes era. Here are four quick takes on a rough outing for the Vols.

1 — Not the start you want — Everyone entered Saturday wondering what Tennessee would look like without Lamonte Turner on the floor.

The early answer was not good. On either end of the floor.

Tennessee started 2-of-9 from the field while the Badgers began a blistering 6-of-8 to go in front by double digits before the second media timeout of the game.

It didn’t get a lot better for the rest of the first half. Tennessee shot just 33% in the first 20 minutes of play and had as many turnovers (8) as assists. Meanwhile Wisconsin stayed hot all the way to the break, shooting 50% in the half and 7-of-13 from three-point range

I don’t know that Turner’s absence was a huge deal for the offense, the Vols have been struggling to score against good teams for pretty much the whole season. They were really stagnant on that end, missed point blank range shots, committed fouls off the ball and just generally didn’t look like a team with much of a pulse on offense.

Tennessee often fell into the trap of settling for midrange jumpers or forced threes late in the shot clock. The Vols got very little in the way of penetration and Wisconsin’s length bothered the Vols when they did manage to get to get the ball in good position in the paint.

Wisconsin is obviously a very good defensive team but I think we’re going to see the Vols struggle to score the rest of the way. Again, this was a problem before Turner shut it down but his absence really seemed to exacerbate the situation.

2 — That’s not how you want to finish either…— As bad as Tennessee was in the first half they were even worse coming out of the halftime locker room.

Down 14 at the break it was imperative that Tennessee come out with some juice and generate some early momentum to climb back into it. Instead they came out listless, disoriented and totally ineffective.

Tennessee had more turnovers (6) than shot attempts (4) in the first six of the second half and Wisconsin quickly pushed the lead out past 20 points.

The Vols didn’t get their first points of the second half until Davonte Gaines hit a pair of free throws with 13:35 left on the clock. It was just a brutal stretch of offensive basketball, as bad as I can recall seeing from this team.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin called off a bit but Tennessee was so bad offensively that it didn’t matter and the lead swelled to 28 at one point. It was the largest deficit Tennessee has faced since last year’s loss at Kentucky.

There’s no way you can say that was all because of Turner’s absence though that has to be considered a factor.

Jordan Bowden was clearly trying to pick up the slack and maybe he was also pressing. He finished with just 7 points on 13 shooting.

I also think some of what you saw from Bowden today was the result of him becoming the focal point of an opponent’s defensive scout and game plan. He didn’t get many clean looks and was never in any kind of rhythm.

I thought moving Josiah James to the point would be good for both him and the offense as a whole. I was wrong. At least for today. James had a tough day to put it mildly.

He didn’t make his first field goal until he knocked down a three ball with 7:03 left in the game and shot just 1-of-6 from the field with four assists and three turnovers. Tennessee is going to need better play from the point guard spot than that.

3 — Depth and defense… — These are two big concerns going forward if Tennessee is going to turn things around and improve upon the ineffective effort we witnessed today.

Defense is going to be critical because based on what I’ve seen through 12 games of this season, scoring is simply going to be a struggle. If Tennessee allows teams to shoot at or near 50% like they have recently against Wisconsin and Cincinnati they’ll have virtually no shot at winning based off what we’ve seen from them offensively.

If the Vols are going to have a shot at competing in the SEC they’re going to have to turn into a team that can lock people down on defense. I’m not sure they can and losing Turner certainly does’t help in that regard.

Tennessee was much better on defense in the second half today but they were so inept offensively that they would have had to nearly have pitched a shutout to give themselves a chance.

Tennessee’s bench flashed some ability today but not nearly enough to make the kind of difference that would have mattered in this one. Jalen Johnson knocked down a couple of threes and finished with a career high six rebounds. Pember hit the first three of his career and Nkamhoua showed up in the paint to grab 10 rebounds.

4 — Quick hits — Tennessee threatened to have the lowest scoring game of the Barnes era today before a late flutter of offense pushed them past the 47 points they put up against Memphis two weeks ago. As it was the 48 points are the second lowest point total for any Barnes coached team in Knoxville.

Tennessee didn’t have a player score in double figures. John Fulkerson and Jalen Johnson led the team with nine points each.

It was an ugly day overall but Yves Pons added to his team leading block total with one more today. The one he had early in the second half was just a sensational play. I’ve said it before but I think Pons is probably the best shot blocker I’ve seen in Orange.

Tennessee finished with more turnovers (17) than assists (12). That’s a nearly sure fire recipe for disaster.

Davonte Gaines looked like he was trying to do a little too much in his first career start. He did some nice work on the defensive end but was just 2-of-7 from the field.

I don’t know if it was reluctance on his part or an inability of the guards to get him the basketball but John Fulkerson needs to shoot more. He scored nine points today and was 3-for-3 from the floor. Fulkerson is never going to be a high volume shooter or anything of that sort but he needs to put up more than three shots.

On the subject of Fulkerson, he’s got to become a more effective rebounder. He had Yves Pons combined for just six boards today You’re not going to win many games when that’s what you get from your starting front court.

Tennessee shot just 31% in the second half. It was staggeringly ugly offensive basketball

Wisconsin’s Micah Potter managed to pick up four fouls in six minutes of court time, that’s hard to do.