Tennessee basketball’s road woes continued in a major way Saturday afternoon as the Vols suffered a 91-67 blowout loss at Florida. The Vols are now 0-3 in true road games and 1-2 in SEC play after laying an egg in the loss.
Here’s three quick takeaways on a poor showing from Tennessee at Florida.
A Disastrous Turnover Performance
Tennessee shot 1% worse from the field than Florida did in the first half. They made two more free throws. Yet the Vols trailed by 13 points at halftime. How? Because the Gators took 14 more shots. Rebounding had something to do with it, but turnovers were the main story.
The Vols turned it over an extraordinary 12 times in the first half, accounting for 36.4% of their possessions. In fact, Tennessee turned the ball over on as many possessions as they scored in the first half.
It was a disaster all afternoon for Tennessee. The Vols turned it over 18 times over the course of the game. Even for a team that’s had turnover issues this season, this was by far the worst showing. Tennessee ended the game turning the ball over on 25% of its possessions— its worst since turning it over on 27.1% of possessions in the season opener against Mercer.
Nearly every aspect of the game contributed to the issues. Starting back court mates Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Bishop Boswell turned it over four and six times, respectively. The Vols struggled to inbound the ball. Florida guards took the ball from Tennessee’s guards and turned it into points. Over the course of the game, the Gators scored 30 points off turnovers.
There were other storylines and factors in the game, but no one is going to win on the road against a good team while turning it over 18 times.
The Game Got Away From Tennessee Late In The First Half
The turnovers were most prevalent late in the first half. A DeWayne Brown baby hook tied the game at 26-26 with 3:51 to play int he first half. Despite much of the turnover issues, Tennessee was right in the game.
That’s when the Gators used a 15-2 run to put Tennessee in a major hole they were never able to recover from.
Tennessee had eight offensive possessions in the first half following the Brown hook shot. Four of them ended in turnovers, one with two made free throws and three with made shots. The turnover issues were consistent but at their worst when the game got away from Tennessee late in the first half.
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Tennessee Never Made A Legit Run
While assessing Tennessee’s road struggles, the Vols inability to fight back against Florida was discouraging. The 13-point halftime lead was always going to be incredibly difficult for Tennessee to overcome. But the Vols never fought back.
Florida quickly pushed its lead to 15 points. Then 20 points and finally as much as 25 points. Tennessee never got the deficit to single digits once Florida took a 39-28 lead late in the first half. It’s been a re-ocurring issue for Tennessee on the road.
When opponents have gone on runs, Tennessee has struggled to stop them and at times been unable to fight back. That hasn’t always been the case. In some games there has been fight back but there wasn’t a Florida.
A pure opinion here but it felt like freshmen DeWayne Brown and Amari Evans were the two Vols playing the hardest in the second half. That’s a credit to both player, but that simply can not be the case. More veteran players needed to show up.
One positive from the game was Nate Ament. Facing off against Thomas Haugh, Ament had one of the toughest assignments. He held his own and turned in one of his best games of the season, totaling a team-high 17 points and four rebounds.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee returns home on Tuesday night when they face Texas A&M at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. ET.
