KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee never was going to be an offensive juggernaut on the basketball court this season.
That's what happens when a team loses more than 75 percent of its scoring from the previous season and has to patch together a roster in late spring, as first-year coach Donnie Tyndall had to do when he took the job with the Volunteers last April.
The start of Southeastern Conference play produced one win and one loss for the Vols last week, but some of their biggest warts became rather glaring heading into tonight's meeting with 19th-ranked Arkansas, winner of seven straight games.
"Defensively, I think we've done a pretty good job," Tyndall said. "It's offensively that we've struggled, and I just don't see that changing. I think we'll get better at the offensive end, but with the makeup of our team, there's going to be some nights where, for lack of a better term, it's going to be ugly."
It's never been uglier for Tennessee at home inside Thompson-Boling Arena than it was Saturday afternoon when the Vols went scoreless for 13 minutes and two seconds in the second half of the 56-38 loss to Alabama.
The 38 points were the fewest Tennessee ever has scored in Thompson-Boling, but the long drought was not the first one the team experienced last week.
"You don't want to dwell on it too much," guard Josh Richardson said after the loss. "Just watch the film tomorrow and figure out what you did wrong. Stay in the gym, and it'll start falling next game."
At Mississippi State on Wednesday night, Tennessee scored the first 12 points of the game and didn't score again for another nine minutes.
Of course, Devon Baulkman scored 10 first-half points and Kevin Punter finished with 15 points to lead the Vols to a 61-47 win in Starkville, but those two combined to miss all eight of their shots and score two total points against the Crimson Tide.
Richardson, the senior who leads Tennessee in scoring, shots made and attempted, 3-pointers, free throws made and attempted, assists, steals and minutes played, can do so only much offensively for Tennessee, but the limitations of his supporting cast showed up in a big way Saturday.
The Vols have 16 SEC games remaining.
"The problem is outside of Josh -- and other teams know this -- we really don't have a playmaker," Tyndall said.
"(Detrick) Mostella's athletic, but he's a catch-and-shoot guy. Baulkman, I think in time could be that, but right now he gets most of his points from behind the arc. Kevin Punter is a shot-fake, one- or two-dribble guy. He's not a create, get-all-the-way-to-the-rim (guy) that can break you down and make a teammate better. That's just the team that we have.
"That's why the ball is in Josh's hands so often, and Josh is as unselfish as anyone in college basketball, but he doesn't have that natural feel, when he drives it and collapses the defense, to kick it out and make teammates better. He's done it at times, but it's just not necessarily part of his fabric.
"That's why it's tough in the halfcourt, because when you can't throw it inside and get a cheap bucket or draw a foul and you don't really have a lot of playmakers on the perimeter, it makes it tough, especially when teams extend their defense and get to your shooters."
What compounds the offensive struggles and the tendency for the Vols, whose season low before Saturday was a healthy 59 points, is that they can't get into their full-court press when they don't score.
"With the makeup of our team this season, we need to create some of our offense from our defense, and when you go long stretches that you don't score, you're not able to set your press and create some turnovers," Tyndall said.
"It's kind of one of those avalanching effects, and that's what happened to us the other night. We went through a similar drought at Mississippi State, but we were fortunate enough to guard them and keep them from scoring to keep the game close, and in the second half we got a little better offensively and made our run. That never happened against Alabama."
He again may tweak the starting lineup to try to find an answer. He suggested he'd replace Punter and foul-prone freshman forward Willie Carmichael with Robert Hubbs and Derek Reese against Arkansas.
"We've had some different guys step up as this year has went along, and I think we'll continue to do that," Tyndall said.
"It's just simply a matter of who will it be."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.