After a 99-year wait, the Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball team will officially be ranked No. 1 in America for just a week.
Thee days after upsetting previously No. 1 Memphis, 66-62, Saturday at the FedExForum, the Vols—who had jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 for the first time in program history when the national rankings were released on Monday—were in turn knocked off by Southeastern Conference Eastern Division rival Vanderbilt, 72-69, Tuesday night in Nashville.
The quick turn-around between important road games against ranked in-state rivals had an obvious effect on the Vols, as the 14th-ranked Commodores began the game with a flurry of three-pointers to race out to an early double-digit advantage and then withstood a couple UT rallies to hold on down the stretch for the victory.
A dreadful Tennessee offensive performance Tuesday against the Commodores indicates tired legs after the physical, hard-fought win over the Tigers Saturday night. The Vols hit on an unusually low 32.8 percent of their shots from the field at Nashville’s Memorial Gym, connecting on 20 of 61 shot attempts.
UT Coach Bruce Pearl said his team’s offensive effort left a lot to be desired against the Commodores.
“It was pitiful,” Pearl commented on the Vols’ dismal offensive performance. “We just didn’t get a lot of the contributions that we usually get.”
Tennessee was led by reigning conference player of the year Chris Lofton’s 25 points. Lofton was responsible for 6 of the Vols’ 7 three-point field goals in the game. Tyler Smith contributed 11 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for UT. JaJuan Smith added nine points, and Ramar Smith and J.P. Prince each scored 8 points. Sophomore forwards Wayne Chism and Duke Crews contributed four points each to round out Tennessee’s scoring.
After scoring 18 points and pulling down a career-high 18 boards in the Vols’ win over Vanderbilt last month in Knoxville, UT’s Chism was plagued with foul trouble through much of Tuesday’s game and finished with just four rebounds in 23 minutes of playing time.
The Vols, however, out-rebounded the Commodores 45-38. It marks the 10th consecutive contest UT has out-rebounded its opponent.
Vanderbilt’s Shan Foster, the favorite to win this season’s conference player of the year, led the Commodores with a game-high 32 points, including 6-of-9 from behind the 3-point arc. Jermaine Beal chipped in 17 for Vanderbilt and Commodore’s guard Alex Gordon finished with 11 points.
The Vols (25-3 overall, 11-2 conference) still leads the overall conference standings by one game over Kentucky (15-10 overall, 9-3 league) and Mississippi State (18-8 overall, 9-3 league) with the improving Wildcats visiting Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena for a key division showdown Sunday at noon.
If the Vols, who have won a league-best 30 straight games at home, win out in their last three conference games, they will win their first outright league crown in 41 years.
A win over the Wildcats would all but lock up an Eastern Division Championship for the Vols. A loss to the Wildcats, however, would put Kentucky in the driver’s seat for capturing the division championship and give the Big Blue a tie-breaker edge over the Vols if both teams finish with identical league marks.
Pearl has made it clear the Vols’ main objective going down the stretch of the regular season schedule is to win the program’s first outright league title since 1967. Even in the midst of all the national hype in the days before the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown at Memphis Saturday, Pearl maintained that Tuesday’s game against Vanderbilt, along with the two conference tilts to follow, carry much more importance for his squad in the grand scheme of things.
Pearl said Sunday’s meeting with the Wildcats is as big as it gets because of the animosity between the two programs and, and more importantly, what’s at stake for the winner of the game.
“The greatest concern is that Kentucky is still in the running for the SEC championship,” said Pearl. “If Kentucky wins (Sunday at Thompson-Boling Arena at noon), they can take the lead in the SEC.
“In many ways Sunday’s’ game will be for the SEC Championship,” Pearl continued. “But how could there be a better way than by going up against your rival, the Kentucky Wildcats?”
The Wildcats dealt Tennessee its first conference loss, 72-66, on January 22 in Lexington. The Vols stomped Florida, 105-82, in an emotionally-charged meeting in Knoxville on Feb. 5. UT defeated South Carolina, 80-56, in Columbia on Jan. 12.