INDIANAPOLIS – Tennessee basketball’s season ended Sunday just shy of what would’ve been the program’s first Final Four. Instead, a disappointing performance and 69-50 defeat to No. 1 seed Houston made it the second season in a row the No.
2 seeded Vols were knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the Elite Eight.A few rapid takeaways from Lucas Oil Stadium:Just a nightmare start for Tennessee basketball Were you to envision the worst start possible for Tennessee in a huge game, this might have been even worse. For the entire first half, the Vols got outplayed in about every way.
They were ice-cold shooting against a tremendous defense and started pressing. They had trouble preventing Houston from getting good looks. And they were getting beat handily on the boards.
Tennessee missed its first 14 shots from 3-point range before Zakai Zeigler finally made one with about 38 seconds until intermission. Those were Zeigler’s first points, and they cut the deficit from 22 points down to 34-15 at halftime. No one on Tennessee’s team had more than four points at the time.
These Vols’ kryptonite – as much as they’d hidden it better of late – has always been perimeter shooting. It let them down from the jump Sunday, causing them to press offensively, making it worse. Tennessee shot 21.
4% in the opening half (6-of-28) on Sunday, falling way behind quickly against the type of opponent (and defense) that you really don’t want to do that.Credit Houston, for sure. The Couga.
