Vols frustrated by late-season fall

KNOXVILLE — On any day, inside any gym, against any college basketball opponent, these University of Tennessee Volunteers probably could have left the court with a win.

Tennessee beat one-quarter of this season’s Sweet 16 field — Memphis, Xavier, Western Kentucky and West Virginia — and none of those victories came inside Thompson-Boling Arena.

At times, these Vols were dazzling. But Bruce Pearl’s third UT team was supposed to be more consistent.

Until Feb. 23, it was. Then-No. 2 Tennessee beat Memphis that night, taking the Tigers’ No. 1 ranking on their home floor in front of a national television audience. Pearl’s band of misfits had combined with newly injected star power and taking the UT program to its first week ever atop the national polls.

That was the peak.

Thursday was the end of the free-fall.

A 79-60 loss to Louisville at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena capped a mysterious late-season fade for the Vols, who lost three of their last nine games after upsetting Memphis.

“It wasn’t supposed to end like this,” UT guard JaJuan Smith said while leaning back into his locker after the Louisville loss. “I don’t feel like we ever played our best basketball this season, and somehow we started playing worse late in the season. That’s the most frustrating part.

“We seniors wanted to go out with a national championship, or at least get to the Final Four, and we’ll always know we had a team capable of doing that. It’s so frustrating.”

The same team that rained 3-pointers all season rained tears after failing to make the 99-year program’s first Elite Eight appearance. The team that fiercely full-court-pressed its way to UT’s first outright Southeastern Conference regular-season championship in 41 seasons was run out of the SEC and NCAA tournaments by Arkansas and Louisville.

Unlike the previous two seasons, these Vols didn’t always have to shoot well to win. Their half-court defense was vastly improved, and their half-court offense was sporadic but occasionally spectacular. They almost always outrebounded the opposition.

And they always played hard. Not always smart, but always hard.

“I’m not going to say we had it all, but we had enough,” said forward Tyler Smith, one of two 6-foot-7 sophomore transfers whose versatility vaulted the Vols into national-title contenders. “I’ll always believe this team had enough to go all the way.”

Added J.P. Prince, the other 6-7 newcomer: “I’m shocked. We’re all shocked. I know we’re still the same great team, but we just picked a bad time to play bad in some spots.”

Most teams have warts, and the Vols were no exception.

The most obvious issues were poor free-throw shooting and wildly inconsistent point-guard play that took a bizarre late-season turn. Senior Jordan Howell’s perimeter shooting nosedived down the stretch, and Ramar Smith regressed after a fantastic freshman-season finish.

“There’s not too much to say other than we should have played better,” Ramar Smith said. “You can’t just play hard. You’ve got to take care of the ball.”

Pearl grew so worried that he moved Prince — the SEC’s sixth man of the year as a wing — to starting point guard in the NCAA tournament. That go-big-or-go-home move had a lackluster finish, as Prince committed 10 turnovers in UT’s last two games. Ramar Smith had six points and three turnovers against the Cardinals, shooting 2-for-7 from the free-throw line while the rest of the team was 15-for-18.

Ramar Smith finished the season 58.6 percent on free throws and 22.7 percent from 3-point range. Prince was even less efficient at 55.7 percent and 15.4 percent.

Howell hovered around 40 percent from behind the arc until February. He went 3-for-33 in 13 games before not attempting a trey in UT’s past two games and never leaving the bench against Louisville.

“I feel so bad for the seniors,” Prince said. “I feel like I let the team down, especially those seniors. Coach put the ball in my hands, and I couldn’t deliver for us.”

Senior guard Chris Lofton admitted the point-guard rotation was “tough” on the team.

“But I’m not going to blame the point guards,” Lofton quickly added. “None of us played good. I was bad (against Louisville). We won all those games as a team, and we lost this one as a team.”

And the program lost Lofton and JaJuan Smith, who combined to sink 684 career 3-pointers, with Lofton’s 431 third on the NCAA’s all-time list.

“Those guys deserved to go out champions,” Ramar Smith said. “They’re the reason we’ve come so far in such a short time. ... They’ll be remembered as champions.”

UT’s offseason losses might not stop there, though — and that’s assuming Pearl returns, which he will likely will do (and with a large salary bump).

Tyler Smith’s future is much less certain. Some analysts have projected him as a possible first-round selection if he declares for this summer’s NBA draft.

“I’m not sure until I get evaluated,” he said Friday. “Coach Pearl is going to help me out as far as where I’m being looked at, things I need to work on, things like that. For me, personally, I want to be a first-rounder. If I’m not a first-rounder, it’s not even a look for me.

“But at the same time, I’m sure my family could use the money.”

Plenty of talent should return regardless, and sophomore Wayne Chism’s late-season surge might have given fans a glimpse of UT’s next All-American. A solid signing class (that might not be finished) and gifted 6-6 guard Cameron Tatum will be in the fold, too.

“Oh, we’re going to be talented, and we’re going to be hungry,” sophomore forward Duke Crews said. “We could have been a great team, but we had holes, and great teams don’t have holes.

“Hopefully we’ll to fix those holes and come back and break through in this thing.”