Who saw that coming?
Kentucky was rolling, up at least 30-13 at one point in the first half. They finished the game with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, the front line was firing on all cylinders at the start of the game and there was some impressive balance.
In spite of losing some flow in the second half and getting literally almost nothing from the bench, Kentucky played well enough to win offensively. They weren't perfect. Alex Poythress had an uncharacteristic four turnovers. The second half flow was less impressive. Fouls contributed to that throughout the game but the point is the offense was good enough to win the game.
Tennessee does average 77+ points per game but they topped that tonight. The defense was atrocious. Tennessee's overall field goal percentage for the game won't tell that story entirely but make no mistake about it: The defense was bad.
Kentucky was good at defending the deep ball for most of the season until recently. Since the Missouri game the Cats' opponents (Vanderbilt, Kansas and now Tennessee) have filled it up from outside. Some of that's hitting shots. Some is not guarding well enough.
Most disappointing was that the Cats lost the battle of the boards. That's shocking against a team with a lack of height like Tennessee. Willis and Briscoe were really the only two good rebounders tonight. Tennessee's offensive rebounds didn't really kill Kentucky because they didn't convert a lot of second chance points. But Kentucky should have had more offensive rebounds than they did and they should have beaten this team by double-digits on the glass.
Furthermore, Kentucky didn't have the kind of advantage in paint scoring that I expected they would.
Tennessee shot 28-32 from the free throw line so credit them there. Kentucky shot very well from the charity stripe as well but the Vols clearly helped their cause at the line. Furthermore, fouls continued to be an issue -- once again after the Cats did a good job of not racking up high foul totals early.
Majorly disappointing loss for these Wildcats. I'm going to chalk it up to just being a wildly inconsistent team and totally unpredictable on the road. It's disappointing because it looked like they had turned the corner, even playing well in the loss to Kansas, and doubling disappointing because Kentucky should have run Tennessee out of the gym in the first half. Their inability to build or keep that lead as the first half clock ticked down was the reason Tennessee won the game.
Tennessee completely outclassed Kentucky in the second half tonight. The second half has not been good to Kentucky this year in some key cases. With the exception of Jamal Murray's amazing second half against Ohio State and a precious few others the Cats have been a first half team for the most part. They rank No. 30 in points allowed in the first half and in the 140's in the second half. Call it inconsistency, foul trouble and going deep on the bench, not having a deep bench themselves, whatever.
Kentucky was rolling, up at least 30-13 at one point in the first half. They finished the game with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, the front line was firing on all cylinders at the start of the game and there was some impressive balance.
In spite of losing some flow in the second half and getting literally almost nothing from the bench, Kentucky played well enough to win offensively. They weren't perfect. Alex Poythress had an uncharacteristic four turnovers. The second half flow was less impressive. Fouls contributed to that throughout the game but the point is the offense was good enough to win the game.
Tennessee does average 77+ points per game but they topped that tonight. The defense was atrocious. Tennessee's overall field goal percentage for the game won't tell that story entirely but make no mistake about it: The defense was bad.
Kentucky was good at defending the deep ball for most of the season until recently. Since the Missouri game the Cats' opponents (Vanderbilt, Kansas and now Tennessee) have filled it up from outside. Some of that's hitting shots. Some is not guarding well enough.
Most disappointing was that the Cats lost the battle of the boards. That's shocking against a team with a lack of height like Tennessee. Willis and Briscoe were really the only two good rebounders tonight. Tennessee's offensive rebounds didn't really kill Kentucky because they didn't convert a lot of second chance points. But Kentucky should have had more offensive rebounds than they did and they should have beaten this team by double-digits on the glass.
Furthermore, Kentucky didn't have the kind of advantage in paint scoring that I expected they would.
Tennessee shot 28-32 from the free throw line so credit them there. Kentucky shot very well from the charity stripe as well but the Vols clearly helped their cause at the line. Furthermore, fouls continued to be an issue -- once again after the Cats did a good job of not racking up high foul totals early.
Majorly disappointing loss for these Wildcats. I'm going to chalk it up to just being a wildly inconsistent team and totally unpredictable on the road. It's disappointing because it looked like they had turned the corner, even playing well in the loss to Kansas, and doubling disappointing because Kentucky should have run Tennessee out of the gym in the first half. Their inability to build or keep that lead as the first half clock ticked down was the reason Tennessee won the game.
Tennessee completely outclassed Kentucky in the second half tonight. The second half has not been good to Kentucky this year in some key cases. With the exception of Jamal Murray's amazing second half against Ohio State and a precious few others the Cats have been a first half team for the most part. They rank No. 30 in points allowed in the first half and in the 140's in the second half. Call it inconsistency, foul trouble and going deep on the bench, not having a deep bench themselves, whatever.
