OXFORD, Miss. — Rick Barnes raced from point-to-point quickly following Tennessee basketball’s 78-76 loss at Ole Miss before landing on the right description.
“We play like we were — that’s soft, honestly,” Barnes said. “That’s being soft.”
Tennessee’s 10th-year head coach was specifically discussing the six and-one opportunities Ole Miss had against the Vols on Wednesday night, but it accurately summed up how he felt about his team’s performance in their penultimate game of the regular season.
Two other ways Barnes described the game?
“I thought (Ole Miss) wanted the game more, which is always disappointing. And we didn’t have the focus that we had.”
“We didn’t deserve to win this basketball game. … They did what they had to do to win the game and we didn’t.”
Barnes was calm and collected after Tennessee lost a nail biter at Auburn earlier in SEC play and hot and bothered following the loss at Ole Miss.
Tennessee controlled much of the game but the Rebels found a way in the second half largely on the offensive glass. Ole Miss entered the game as the SEC’s worst offensive rebounding team. They grabbed 15 on Wednesday night including 11 in the second half.
The Rebels’ go-ahead basket in the game’s final 10 seconds perfectly encapsulated how they won in the second half. Jaemyn Brakefield grabbed the offensive rebound on a missed Sean Pedulla three-point attempt before laying it in for his 19th second half point.
More From RTI: Everything Tennessee HC Rick Barnes Said Following Late Game Loss At Ole Miss
Tennessee, who has been a solid rebounding team all season, couldn’t finish possessions with rebounds in the second half and couldn’t stack stops because of it. The Vols pride themselves on playing great defense but Ole Miss scored 42 second half points on 1.313 points per possession.
“We consider ourselves one of the toughest teams in the country. Today we didn’t show that,” senior guard Jordan Gainey said postgame. “We’re a tough group of guys and whenever we get out toughed it’s personal. It felt more personal than anything because they did the things we usually do.”
After starting red-hot from three-point range, Ole Miss did the bulk of its damage at the rim. The Rebels didn’t make a three-pointer in the second half but finished the game making 17 shots at the rim and scoring 46 points in the paint.
It was a forgettable night for Tennessee’s front line. Felix Okpara by no means was awful but Brakefield got going in the second half when Okpara made a pair of mental errors defending him on the perimeter.
“I didn’t think Felix had one of his better games,” Barnes said. “He is a guy that normally really protects the rim in there for us, but they went at him. They did. Give them credit. They had their way with him.”
Backup Cade Phillips was no better, playing just six minutes. Barnes said the sophomore “wasn’t locked in” after picking up a pair of bad first half fouls.
The game bucked a number of season trends for the Vols. Tennessee previously hadn’t lost a game when Jahmai Mashack made a three-pointer. They hadn’t lost when Jordan Gainey scored nine-plus points and had lost just once when they shot better than 30% from three-point range.
But Tennessee was unable to capitalize on a big Gainey performance and a 12-for-31 (39%) three-point shooting performance. That made the loss uncharacteristic for Tennessee as it was defense and intensity that let them down. Those are the toughest for Barnes to swallow.
