The ugly, grime-time style of basketball that got Cuonzo Martin thrown under the bus by Tennessee fans and soft-skeleton UT Administrators was in top shape Wednesday night, trudging past Tennessee 59-56. Our previous concerns about Tennessee’s apparent lack of urgency rang true in Columbia. The Vols tend to play with totally unflappable confidence, in place of the hot-cold emotions of previous Tennessee teams, and that calm confidence seems to be a positive until Tennessee loses its shot the way Rick Barnes’s team lost it in Columbia.
Rick Barnes has gotten very positive results in W-L column to this point in the season, but something has to be adjusted. Tennessee looks, on the floor, like a team in desperate need of inspiration. The calm, cool, workman approach got the Vols through the out of conference leg looking like a 3-4 seed. But the vibe, now that it is in SEC play, has gone entirely Jekkyl/Hyde, and when Tennessee can’t find its shot, it becomes quite vulnerable. The head-scratching demeanor and ice-cold shooting leaves you wondering: which version of this team is the identity and which version is the anomaly? Certainly, a team that can bang with the Kentucky’s and North Carolina’s of the world shouldn’t come out and get slopped by Missouri, even on their worst night.
One wonders if we’ve just seen the 2017-2018 Vols hit their ceiling, and that now the moment is too big. Best case scenario, Tennessee is simply a Nuevo Riche basketball team, and it’s still learning how be a successful team. Whatever the case, Barnes and company must right the ship ASAP.
