Vols preparing as if UK’s Patterson will play

KNOXVILLE — University of Tennessee basketball men’s basketball players stopped short of calling it a conspiracy.

But for some reason, the Volunteers didn’t sound 100 percent convinced that Kentucky freshman forward Patrick Patterson won’t play in Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday.

Never mind that UK announced in a Friday news conference that Patterson was out for the season with a stress fracture in his left ankle. Never mind that Patterson spent Friday in a cast and will reportedly need eight weeks to recover.

Never mind that Patterson and Wildcats coach Billy Gillispie confirmed the news, which UK senior guard Joe Crawford initially thought was a joke.

“I started crying when I found out I couldn’t play the rest of the season,” Patterson said. “Because I couldn’t play anymore, I felt I let down my teammates ... but the doctors said if I continue to play, it’ll tear on through. It’d be 20 times worse.

“If I play, the likelihood of playing next year would not be good.”

For some reason, though — and from the top — the Vols seemed skeptical.

“We’re going to prepare like he’s going to play,” UT coach Bruce Pearl said. “If not, they’ll just be a little smaller ... and present different kinds of challenges.”

Vols sophomore forward Duke Crews, who didn’t play in UT’s upset loss at Kentucky last month while undergoing treatment for an unspecified heart condition, went even further.

“Patterson is a great player and a tough guy,” Crews said. “Until the game starts Sunday and I see him on the bench in street clothes, I’m expecting him to play.

“Remember when I was supposed to miss the rest of the season? I’m back, right?”

Added UT senior guard Chris Lofton: “You always have to prepare to see a team’s best, and if things change you adjust.”

Realistically, the Vols probably know Patterson won’t play. That would leave a 16.4-point, 7.7-rebound void in a team that already lacked depth inside.

“It’s unfortunate, because he was right there for (SEC) player of the year, as far as newcomers,” Pearl said. “He’s a terrific player.”

Gillispie could give 7-foot-2 center Jared Carter more minutes, or he could go with a more perimeter-oriented lineup that Pearl said “would look a lot like us.” Or he could do both.

“With or without Patrick Patterson, we’re playing a great Kentucky team on Sunday,” Crews said. “Without Patterson, they’d just be a little shorter.”

Patterson’s absence should be exploited by the Vols, who have outrebounded every opponent since Crews returned 10 games ago.

UT sophomore forward Wayne Chism said he wasn’t assuming anything, though, adding that “we lost our last game, and we lost the last time we played Kentucky.

“I think we’ve proven you can still do a lot of damage with four guards running around out there,” Chism said. “It’s not the end of the world for them.”

Maybe not, but even Gillispie called it “a devastating blow.”

“It’s going to get a lot tougher,” Gillispie said. “But it’s not impossible. ... We’ll just have to play a little more special.

“I have not been around a freshman who was asked to do more or done more for a team.”

Off day?

A reporter asked Lofton if he felt “refreshed” after Wednesday’s day off.

“Not really,” Lofton said with a smile. “It wasn’t really a day off.”

Icy roads on the Cumberland Plateau kept the Vols in Nashville on Tuesday night after they were upset by Vanderbilt. Their bus then got a flat tire around Cookeville on Wednesday morning, delaying their arrival to the afternoon.

“I think I’m more tired now,” Lofton joked. “But I think we’ll feel a lot better if we get this win.”

“My man Ernie”

When asked what he thought about UT retiring Ernie Grunfeld’s No. 22 jersey on Sunday, Crews laughed and said he hoped the team would play well in front of “my man Ernie.”

The Vols beat Kentucky at home last season on the day UT retired Bernard King’s No. 53 jersey.

“We got one for Bernie last year,” Crews said. “Now we owe Ernie one.”