CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Tennessee’s men’s basketball team nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season so far.
Rick Barnes made it clear he doesn’t want his Volunteers to feel satisfied by coming close.
In their first road game this season, they led No. 7 North Carolina for more than 29 minutes, but the Vols couldn’t close the deal and Tony Bradley’s block of Lamonte Turner’s shot in the final seconds preserved a 73-71 win for the Tar Heels in front of 18,745 at the Dean E. Smith Center on Sunday evening.
“It’s easy to go into the locker room and say we did this or we did that,” Barnes said, “but the fact is we came to win and we didn’t, and I don’t want them to feel good about being close in games. We’ve got to figure out a way to get over the hump. We’ve got to break through. That’s what they haven’t done yet against an opponent we’re probably not supposed to beat.”
Tennessee (4-4) certainly wasn’t supposed to beat North Carolina (10-1) – the Vols were 20-point underdogs – but jumped out to a stunning 15-point lead and shot 65 percent in the first half.