KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee men’s basketball got off to a rocky start with an 86-70 loss to Xavier in its first exhibition game. While it was not what many expected to see, one thing was clear: Coach Rick Barnes’ concern with defense and rebounding quickly came to the forefront of the night. Tennessee never really had the chance to shoot its way to a victory. The Vols shot a cold 15% from three and 39% from the field. Terrence Hill Jr. led Tennessee with 22 points, Juke Harris added 15 and Jalen Haralson had 10.
However, there were too many turnovers, defensive breakdowns, bad shots and rebounding issues to keep pace with the Musketeers. Xavier turned Tennessee’s mistakes into 18 points off turnovers and added 17 second chance points.
“Bad habits,” Barnes said. “Guys are switching to switch because it’s too hard to fight through and do the things that we talk about. Even on offense, too much one on one stuff, guys just coming off looking to shoot the ball and shoot yourself into a bad night. Like I told them, go look at some numbers. Some guys have some good numbers, but we were a bad basketball team tonight, and when you have a bad basketball team, somebody’s gonna score some points.
“So you look at the point total, that’s not what’s indicative of how you impacted the game. We just had no fight at all when they got back in the game, and we weren’t making shots, we just didn’t guard. Just simply didn’t. The baskets we gave up, I think anybody’s gonna make those baskets.”
That was the message Barnes said his staff had been preaching all summer. This roster arrived with a reputation for scoring, but he has made it clear that there will be nights when the shots don’t fall. A good team finds a way to win those nights on the defensive end. Thursday was one of those nights, and the Vols didn’t have an answer.
After Tennessee played a strong last 10 minutes or so of the first half, it took an eight-point lead into halftime. That is where the Vols felt a bit too comfortable. As a result, they came out flat against a poised Xavier team. Xavier outscored Tennessee 59-35 after the break. The Musketeers shot 70% in the second half, went 8 of 14 from three and outrebounded Tennessee 24-10 over the final 20 minutes.
Hill honestly summed up the mentality coming out of the half after the game. That is a lesson best learned at this point. It’s a 40-minute game, not 20, which they all know.
“I think we just kind of relaxed when we was up,” Hill said. “We felt like we had the game and kind of came out with a lackluster type of mentality. And then shout out to them. They went on a run and they just built on it.”
Barnes saw it the same way, saying the first half lead may have been “a little bit of false confidence.” Once Xavier made its push, he said the team took bad shots. In addition, they gave up too much at the rim and came out of timeouts allowing the very things the staff had just talked about taking away.
Now, Tennessee has to go back to the film room and practice to get these things addressed before its next exhibition game against Duke. Barnes badly wants the team to guard somebody, and Duke will surely give the Vols an even stouter test than Xavier. It’s also worth noting that Barnes intentionally gave his team only a limited scouting report for Xavier. He wanted to see how it would handle things on the fly. After Thursday, he said the team clearly needs one.
A couple of things that I feel are a hindrance on the defensive side and in the paint are size and discipline.
The discipline piece is something Barnes made clear. He pointed to players switching out of convenience instead of fighting through screens, failing to chase Xavier’s best shooter and gambling for steals. Haralson came up with a strong steal, then went for another on the next trip down, and Xavier made him pay with a three.
“Those are momentum changers,” Barnes said. “Just undisciplined. And that goes back to coaching, it goes back to all that. We’ve just got to continue to coach them up.”
Size is a different conversation. Barnes admitted it is a concern but pushed back on it being the root of the problem. He said he has seen five guards guard and that wanting to defend is a mindset the team has to develop. Still, the lack of size depth makes the margin for error thin.
With Jalen Washington still unable to play, the Vols are relying heavily on DeWayne Brown around the rim. Brown did a good job with 10 rebounds against Xavier, but he had his ups and downs when it came to free throws and miscues. With the lack of size depth, guys have to stay out of foul trouble. Miles Rubin got on the wrong end of that Thursday night. Rubin played 14 minutes due to early foul trouble, and within five seconds of the second half he picked up his third.
He managed to finish without picking up another, but at that point you could see it took away some of his ability to be aggressive. Barnes said he didn’t think Rubin, who turned in just one rebound, was physically ready early. Aside from Brown’s 10 rebounds, the frontcourt accounted for five additional rebounds. Christian Fermin turned in three with 10 minutes played.
Tennessee’s guards combined for 12 rebounds with three offensive boards. Haralson had half of those with six. Barnes has made it clear before that guards are not there to just shoot. They will rebound and defend.
“We’ve got to rebound as a group, and we didn’t do that,” Barnes said. We got just annihilated on the glass.”
That has to get better fast. Barnes said he would rather get exposed now than in a week or two. He believes the film will finally show this group what he has been harping on since it arrived.
“The good thing about tonight is, once we break this film down with them, they will now know what goes into losing,” Barnes said. “And sometimes you’ve got to figure out what goes into losing before you can figure out what goes into winning.”
Tennessee will travel to Durham, North Carolina, to take on Duke in its final exhibition Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. ET.
