KNOXVILLE – The Tennessee men’s basketball team didn’t fare well in its first challenge against an American Athletic Conference opponent this season.
The second opportunity comes Wednesday night.
The 21st-ranked Volunteers visit the Cincinnati Bearcats (6-4) in a televised (ESPN2) 7 p.m. game, four days removed from a disappointing 51-47 loss to Memphis, which is ranked 11th in the latest Associated Press poll.
The loss snapped the Vols’ 31-game home-court win streak, which led the nation.
The Vols (7-2) are a mixture of career role players taking on bigger roles and younger players trying to gain experience. It was OK that players such as John Fulkerson and Yves Pons didn’t contribute much on the offensive end of the floor last year; that can’t be the case this season, and it’s been a process that each player has been learning from.
Last season, Tennessee’s four-player freshman class could have redshirted. This year that’s not possible; for the team to reach its potential, those players and some newcomers must find ways to contribute consistently.
The Vols also need consistently better performances from senior guards Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner, who were a combined 3-for-21 from the field in the loss to Memphis. In the 60-57 loss to Florida State on Nov. 29, the two were 7-for-24.
“Those guys are veterans. They haven’t played perfect in every game they’ve played in, and they’ve had bad games before,” freshman guard Josiah-Jordan James said Saturday. “I know they’re going to bounce back. Just knowing the guys that they are, they’re going to come in the gym and work even harder, and we’re going to feed off that as younger guys.
“You have to make a loss a lesson. They already told us in the locker room that they’re going to be better, and we have to be better as a group.”
The key for Tennessee is letting the loss to Memphis be just one loss. For a young team, the challenge is not letting the hangover from a highly publicized in-state battle against the Tigers linger and lead to another disappointing performance.
“We can’t let this bog us down or hang our heads on this. We have to learn from it,” Fulkerson said. “We have to watch film from it and see what we did right and what we did wrong. We really have to get back together as a team and individually to be better and ready for Cincinnati.”
Said coach Rick Barnes: “I think both teams (Tennessee and Memphis) have a chance to really get a lot better. I think we’re both young, and I think that as the season goes on, I like to think that we’re going to get a lot better from this.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.