KNOXVILLE – The Tennessee-Kentucky men’s basketball series this season could be described as a play in two acts.
Tennessee was much, much happier with the second one.
Everything that Kentucky dominated in the season’s first matchup between the programs on Feb. 16 in Lexington – a 17-point win by the Wildcats – the Volunteers turned the tide on in a 19-point win Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
It wasn’t as though the Vols’ offense was much different. They scored 71 points this time after netting 69 in the first meeting. They shot 43.5 percent from the field as opposed to 40 percent at Kentucky. Most of their production came from Jordan Bone, Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams, who had 58 combined points Saturday after accounting for 52 two weeks earlier.
But the Vols feel different, and that matters.
“We felt like we really didn’t compete,” Williams said Saturday of the loss at Kentucky. “I feel like for them, they really tried to be aggressive. Maybe they have a little bit of doubt because some shots didn’t go in, but I think they really competed. For us, we were playing selfishly.
“I wouldn’t say they played that way (today).”
The differences were in the pace at which the Vols played and the intensity with which they played, especially on the defensive end of the court. Kentucky, playing without injured senior forward Reid Travis, shot a season-worst 32 percent from the field. Only sophomore forward P.J. Washington scored in double figures for the Wildcats, pacing them with 13 points. Guards Keldon Johnson, Tyler Herro and Ashton Hagans combined for 18 points in Knoxville after scoring 19, 18 and nine against the Vols earlier this season.
Asking someone to describe the reason for the 36-point turnaround between meetings drew no easy answer.
“I don’t know if I have seen that; I would have to really think about it,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought both atmospheres were just electric. You look at it, again, from our standpoint. We play better here, and I’m sure John Calipari would say the same thing: They play better there.
“They will go back, and it will make them better. They will get better, because we have gotten better defensively since the Kentucky game in Rupp Arena. We came back and realized that we had to get better defensively. I thought we came up with our best defensive game against Ole Miss (last Wednesday). Today, I thought we were really good defensively”
Tennessee had 15 assists in the second meeting; Kentucky made 14 baskets. The Wildcats missed 12 consecutive shots in the first half and carried a 3-for-21 stretch into the second half. When they did finally get on a little roll, with four consecutive made shots, Tennessee’s lead shrank from only 20 to 14 before climbing back to 20 late in the game.
“They have not lost here in two years,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “For us to win without Reid, we were going to have to play one of our best games in the past 10 years. As soon as I saw how it started and when P.J. got his second foul, I was like, ‘OK, how do I make this close?’ I was angry because it was a 14-point game and we had three possessions. We had a chance to get the lead down to seven or eight. There was only one guy thinking we could get it down to seven or eight: me. I asked them why they would think that way. Turnovers – P.J. threw one in the seats.
“Tennessee deserves this. It was a good win on national television. It’s amazing, now they will saw that we aren’t that good. When we beat them, they said they weren’t that good. When they beat us on their court where they haven’t lost in two years, now we aren’t that good. This is college basketball. When you are playing freshmen and sophomores, you have games like this. These kids are not machines. They are not robots. Sometimes they play bad and sometimes the other team is more inspired to play and they beat you.”
The Vols (26-3, 14-2) host Mississippi State (21-8, 9-7) for a 9 p.m. EST tipoff Tuesday before traveling to Auburn (20-9, 9-7) for Saturday’s regular-season finale.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.