Tennessee basketball was uncompetitive for the first time all season on Saturday night as they never led in an 85-69 loss at Texas A&M.
The poor perimeter shooting Aggies built an early lead by coming out on fire from deep. Texas A&M made eight of its first 12 three-point attempts as they built an early 14-point lead. The Aggies predictably cooled off from deep but their dynamic backcourt duo of Wade Taylor IV and Tyrese Radford continued to put pressure on Tennessee’s defense by getting downhill.
“It still got back to one-on-one,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “And we talked about how hard we’re going to work to keep them from us getting too spread out and letting them get downhill with it. And they, again, they were willful drivers and they did a good job finishing around the rim.”
But it was the Aggies defense that made it difficult for Tennessee to ever make the game competitive. Texas A&M took away Tennessee’s ability to drive to the basket and the Vols struggled to shoot from the perimeter.
Following the game, RTI’s Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert discussed the game over Zoom. Breaking down the Vols’ shortcomings, Buzz Williams mid court technical and much more in the RTI Instant Reaction.
