Tennessee senior point guard Zakai Zeigler wasn’t just lamenting on what could have been following Saturday night’s 53-51 loss at top-ranked Auburn.
The 5-foot-9, 171-pounder was also pondering what could still be.
“I don’t feel like we’ve had a game this year where every person played to their best ability yet,” Zeigler told reporters inside Neville Arena. “Whenever that happens, and whenever we all click, it’s going to be scary for the whole country.”
When informed seconds later that ESPN basketball analyst Jimmy Dykes had posted on social media that the country “may have just watched a preview of the national title game,” Zeigler responded: “Facts. Simple as that.”
The No. 6 Volunteers showed how scary they can be defensively despite slipping to 17-3 overall and 4-3 in Southeastern Conference play. They held the Tigers (18-1, 6-0) to 13 points below their previous season low, which occurred in Auburn’s 66-63 escape of South Carolina on Jan. 11.
Tennessee has the nation’s top-rated defense, according to the KenPom.com metrics, while Auburn is still tops offensively even after Saturday’s struggles, when experienced perimeter players Miles Kelly, Denver Jones and Chad Baker-Mazara were a combined 2-of-21 from the floor.
“We showed a lot of who we are,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network. “I loved the grit. I loved the toughness. When you come into the No. 1 team in the country on their court and take them right down to the last possession — I’m just proud of the way we battled, because both teams played as hard as you could possibly play in a basketball game.
“There were not many easy baskets to be had. It was just a high-level game, which is what you would expect. We always want to win, but I can’t say enough about how hard our team played.”
In his postgame news conference, Barnes was asked how his team could develop more offensive consistency in road games, and his response was not a surprise. Tennessee’s primary contingent of players who are 6-foot-5 or smaller — Zeigler, Chaz Lanier, Jordan Gainey and Jahmai Mashack — combined for 39 points, while the 6-6 and taller quartet of Felix Okpara, Igor Milicic Jr., Cade Phillips and Darlinstone Dubar combined for 12.
The Vols are averaging 75.1 points per game overall but only 56.3 in their three road losses to Florida, Vanderbilt and Auburn.
“We need it from our front line, because people are going to push us out there,” Barnes said. “I think Felix has worked his butt off and does so many good things for us, but we need to get more point production out of the front line. I thought Cade handled himself well. Igor and D-Stone are guys who are important to us, and I think this was an experience for them that they’ll learn from.
“We’ve got a chance to be so much better. We’ve come to the end of January, and there is a lot of basketball left.”
Tennessee’s season resumes in a big way Tuesday, when longtime rival Kentucky visits the Food City Center (7 p.m. on ESPN). The No. 9 Wildcats (14-5, 3-3) are also coming off a loss, falling 74-69 Saturday afternoon at Vanderbilt.
The Vols had won 46 consecutive games when leading in regulation with two minutes remaining, but Auburn scored the final six points after falling behind 51-47. It was the fifth top-six showdown in Tennessee history, and only time will tell if it will be remembered as a predecessor to something even bigger or just another marquee matchup in a loaded SEC.
“We knew going into the game that there were going to be a lot of ups and downs,” Zeigler said. “We didn’t let the downs get us down. When times got down, the crowd got into it and all the odds were against us, we didn’t fold or crumble.”
Said Lanier: “We competed and fought our behinds off the whole 40 minutes, and we know that we can still get better. That’s something we can look forward to.”
Odds and ends
There have been nearly 4,000 Division I basketball games so far this season, and Auburn-Tennessee was the 28th that was played entirely within a 10-point window, with Auburn’s biggest lead at 16-10 and Tennessee’s at 51-47. … Barnes on Gainey, who has been battling the flu: “He hasn’t done anything the last couple of days, so to go out and do what he did is something we appreciate.” … Auburn has seven wins over ranked teams this season, breaking the school mark set by the 2018-19 Final Four team. … The Vols have gone without a made 3-pointer in the first half of losses at Florida and Auburn. … Tennessee is now 6-16 all-time against No. 1 teams, which includes a 5-5 mark against top-ranked programs not named Kentucky.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.