Tennessee had an issue with making and taking 3-point shots during Tuesday night’s 78-73 loss to Kentucky inside the Food City Center.
With the No. 12 Wildcats giving the No. 8 Volunteers green light after green light to open fire from beyond the arc, Tennessee launched 45 attempts from 3-point range and connected on only 11 for a 24.4% success rate. When asked in his postgame news conference whether he has a good enough team from long range to produce 45 tries, Tennessee 10th-year coach Rick Barnes didn’t hesitate.
“No. Absolutely not,” Barnes said. “It’s hard to get the ball inside when you’re not making 3s, so teams like that will keep backing up, because they’ve got good length. You could tell they wanted to take away the lob.”
Tennessee’s 45 attempts from 3-point range were the most in program history against a fellow Southeastern Conference opponent and the second most ever by the Vols. On Nov. 27, 2007, Bruce Pearl’s Vols had 50 heaves from behind the line and made 14 during a 93-59 demolishing of North Carolina A&T.
Senior forward and Charlotte transfer Igor Milicic Jr. went 4-of-8 from 3-point range in producing a game-high 19 points for the Vols (17-4, 4-4 SEC), but the trio of Jordan Gainey, Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler were a combined 6-of-28 for a 21.4% clip.