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Four quick takes on a rough road trip to Rupp

Tennessee went into the toughest environment in the SEC and didn’t look entirely ready to face the challenge. The Vols got into a big first half hole, and after that, things got predictably ugly in an 83-58 loss in Rupp Arena. Here are four instant takes from the blowout.

1 — Gotta hang around early — This is stating the obvious, but when you go into a hostile environment like Rupp Arena, you have to be able to stick around in the early going, weather the crowd and the emotion and let the game settle in a bit.

Suffice it to say that Tennessee didn’t get that done tonight.

The Vols had three turnovers before the first TV timeout, but the real hint that trouble might be on the way was when Kentucky started dropping in three balls with regularity (more below).

Kentucky quickly grabbed a double digit lead and then doubled the Vols up at 31-15 with 8:32 still left in the first half. The Wildcats made five three pointers in the first 10:50 of game play.

The flurry seemed to nudge the Vols toward panic mode, making them feel like they needed to keep pace from long range. As most know, that is straight up not this team’s game.

In SEC play, Tennessee ranks 11th out of 14 teams, making 33.8% per game. That didn’t stop the Vols from launching nine in the first half alone (going 2-of-9) and going away from their strength of working the ball inside to Grant Williams and/or Robert Hubbs.

Tennessee eventually cleaned up the turnover issues, finishing the half with just six, but the Vols never tightened up their perimeter defense in the first 20 minutes and went into half time trailing 47-32.

2 — Good gracious, guard the three-point line — Kentucky isn’t exactly a prodigious three-point shooting team but they’re solid, knocking down 37.4% in SEC play. More importantly, they have a few guys you must absolutely find and close out on no matter what in Malik Monk and Derek Willis.

That duo combined to go 8-for-11 in the first half and Willis was a ridiculous 4-for-4 from long range. Those guys are good, but those kind of efficiency numbers are pretty much inexcusable as I can guarantee you closing out hard on each of them was a focal point of Tennessee’s scouting report and game plan.

Those are two guys you just can’t leave or lose track of and Tennessee did so time and time again in the first half, much to its detriment.

That lack of defensive execution early in the game was a red flag for what was in store. It was a night when you knew going in you were probably going to have to be borderline brilliant on that end of the floor to just compete and the Vols were just flat out poor.

Kentucky cooled way off in the second half, making just 1-of-7 from long range, but by that point it simply didn’t matter.

3 — Guard play — We’ll get to Jordan Bone in detail below, but outside of him it was a tough night of work for everyone who made an appearance playing in Tennessee’s backcourt.

The guards don’t deserve all the blame for a stagnant offense tonight, but it starts there. When Tennessee beat Kentucky last month in Knoxville the offensive execution—especially in a high level second half—was impressive.

Tennessee finished that game with 18 assists vs. just nine turnovers, consistently running their stuff against Kentucky and getting the ball to their playmakers in spots where they could score or create.

That never came close to happening tonight with any regularity. Kentucky’s ball pressure kept Tennessee’s guards off-balance all night long. Dribble penetration was rare, which meant that Kentucky’s defense rarely broke down leaving open cutters or shooters.

As a result the Vols assist numbers were atrocious. Tennessee had just three assist vs. six turnovers in the first half, meaning that almost everything on offense was reliant on one-on-one play.

The Vols would finish with just seven assists on the night.

Meanwhile, Kentucky was doing pretty much whatever it wanted on the offensive end to start the game. In the first 20 minutes the ‘Cats had 11 assists on 15 made field goals with only two turnovers.

That’s some brutally efficient execution and not exactly indicative of a team facing a difficult defensive challenge.

As noted, Bone had himself a solid evening, at least on offense. Outside of him though, there were absolutely no bright spots in the backcourt. Tennessee played four guards tonight, outside of Bone those guards shot 2-of-18 from the field and scored xx points.

4 — Give it up for Bone (nod for you as well Admiral) — You’ve got to look hard for a bright spot after this one and it’s not hard to settle on the freshman point guard as that bright spot.

He finished with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, was 2-of-4 from three point range on a night the rest of the team was 1-of-11 and chipped in with four rebounds and two assists.

Bone has shown some flashes of tantalizing potential this season, but he’s had a fairly rough stretch since dazzling everyone with a 23 point, five assist night at Vandy a month ago.

Since that night, when Bone was 8-of-12 from the floor and 4-of-5 from three point range he’s not come close to matching that kind of offensive efficiency.

In the eight games since his Vandy explosion Bone has gone just 17-of-65 (30%) from the field and only 1-of-13 from three point range (7.6%). That’s right, in the eight preceding games before tonight, Bone had connected on only one three point attempt.

Bone would have had to have been Michael Jordan in his prime to lift Tennessee to victory tonight, but his effort helped prevent this one from being a blowout of epic proportions.

It’s also an excellent sign going forward. Bone, like this team, has been up and down enough that we probably shouldn’t just assume he’s going to build on this performance, but it was a nice showing in a tough environment for a young man who has been struggling to find his groove in the last few weeks.

Schofield also deserves a shout out tonight, as usual, he was asked to bang all night with bigger guys and he did his job. He led Tennessee with 17 points and seven rebounds.

On the other side of the equation, it’s going to be difficult for Tennessee to beat anyone, let alone hang close with Kentucky, when Robert Hubbs has seven points and three rebounds.

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