NASHVILLE - Robert Hubbs III barely could hide his emotions when he realized his Tennessee basketball career was over in the immediate aftermath of Thursday afternoon's Southeastern Conference tournament loss to Georgia.
It had to be more painful for Hubbs that he couldn't make an impact down the stretch of a tight game.
Hubbs finished his finale with the Volunteers with just six points on 3-of-11 shooting, and though he played 29 minutes he didn't play in the final four minutes and 40 seconds of the 59-57 defeat.
"You guys watched him. He was struggling," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "As I've said before, the last three weeks, four weeks, he's had to nurse the knee. He didn't have it.
"We felt like that's what we needed to go with, but Robert's meant a lot to our program. Believe me, he's been as selfless as any player that I've coached. Believe me, he's had a tough month to end the season, but he's stayed with it for us."
The only senior on a roster mostly of freshmen and sophomores, Hubbs has battled a troublesome knee injury during the closing stretch of the season. He's had to have it drained twice, and it's clearly impacted him, whether it's slowed him in games or limited him in practice. Never once, though, has he used it as an excuse.
"It's really not that," he said. "I just really didn't have my rhythm tonight. A lot of easy shots that I make routinely with my eyes closed, they just weren't falling, and that's part of the game. I understand that, but we had guys that made plays today."
In the regular-season finale against Alabama, Hubbs sat out a three-minute stretch in crunch time and actually declined to go into the game because his teammates were playing well, which prompted Barnes to call him "unselfish" after the win.
Hubbs understood why he was in a similar situation Thursday.
"Our guys just had a rhythm, so you don't want to mess that up," he said. "They were playing hard on the both sides of the ball. I really wasn't doing anything, so we went with a new five and they did all they could."
Hubbs was unsure if he will undergo surgery on his knee after the season.
"It's been tough," sophomore forward Admiral Schofield said. "Any guy that's getting (his knee) drained more than once in a season, it's pretty tough. That just speaks to the type of person he is. He really wanted to compete for us.
"He really wanted to win and go out on a high note, and we just couldn't do that today."
During his Tennessee career, Hubbs played for three different head coaches and battled injury after injury, but publicly he handled each high point and low point with class.
The emotions of the end of his career still fresh, Hubbs firmly declared himself proud of his career and where he's leaving Tennessee's program.
"They're on the rise," he said. "They're getting great players, and they've got to be ready for next year. They've got to up it up a notch and be ready and remember this feeling and just try to do more."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.