During the minutes that followed Tennessee’s 76-68 upset loss to Michigan in Saturday night’s second round of the NCAA tournament South Regional in Indianapolis, there were the expected quotes from Volunteers participants after a season containing plenty of successes yielded quite the harsh conclusion.
The Vols, after all, entered NCAA play coming off their first Southeastern Conference tournament title since 1979, ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll and with the objective of a first Final Four in program history.
“Everybody in that locker room deserves to put their head high for what we were able to do this season,” junior guard Josiah-Jordan James said. “It definitely hurts, and it’s not a good feeling right now, but you’ve just got to grow from it. It’s how you respond to losses, and I’m going to miss being around this group of guys for sure.”
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes offered similar words: “This group of guys we’ve had has been a special group of guys, starting the year with seven freshmen and how they’ve meshed together. This has been a really special group for us.”
Going 27-8 with two wins over rival Kentucky and triumphs over Arizona, Arkansas, Auburn and North Carolina would certainly qualify as special, but there was a moment later in the news conference when Barnes turned back the clock. It was after last season’s 18-9 team limped out of the NCAA field with a 70-56 loss to Oregon State when he said, “We’ve got to have an inside presence. We’ve never not had some kind of inside presence. We’ve got to change.”
A year later, he sent the same message.
“In college, you’ve got to have somebody regardless of size that you can go into when you have days like this and can’t seem to find the bottom of the bucket,” Barnes said. “You’ve got to be able to throw it in there and get fouled and put pressure on people.”
Michigan had that element Saturday night with 7-foot-1, 260-pound sophomore Hunter Dickinson, who tormented the Vols with a 27-point performance that included a 3-of-5 showing from 3-point range and an 8-of-10 effort at the foul line. Dickinson also hauled down 11 rebounds.
The Vols began this season with the inside tandem of 6-9 senior John Fulkerson and 6-8 junior Olivier Nkamhoua, but Fulkerson was replaced in the starting lineup after struggling in early January following his return from COVID-19, and Nkamhoua was lost for the season in early February with an ankle injury. Tennessee played down the stretch with 7-1 junior Uros Plavsic and 6-10 freshman Brandon Huntley-Hatfield as the starters and with Fulkerson and 6-11 freshman Jonas Aidoo coming off the bench.
Neither Plavsic, Huntley-Hatfield nor Aidoo averaged 15 minutes per game, but each showed improvement from the start of the year, with Plavsic collecting nine points and nine rebounds Saturday. Their continued improvement plus the return of Nkamhoua should result in Tennessee being better inside next season, and the perimeter play should be stout again if James, junior Santiago Vescovi and freshman Zakai Zeigler come back.
Starting point guard Kennedy Chandler is expected to enter the NBA draft, but the Vols could have another tandem at that position with four-star signee BJ Edwards out of Knoxville Catholic joining Zeigler. The 6-3 Edwards is Tennessee’s only 2022 signee.
Whether reserve guards Victor Bailey and Justin Powell return is not known, but much is uncertain these days, as Barnes was quick to point out.
“Every guy on the team is going to have a choice to make if he wants to,” Barnes said. “With the transfer portal being what it is and having the option to go overseas to play, I could come up with a lot of different things.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.