KNOXVILLE – Talk about changing a mood in an instant.
Tennessee backup point guard Zakai Zeigler had 16 points, five assists and zero turnovers during Saturday night’s 73-64 downing of Vanderbilt inside Thompson-Boling Arena and had been discussing the victory when he was asked to revisit last month’s trip to Kentucky’s Rupp Arena.
“It was the worst feeling I’ve had in basketball,” Zeigler said. “We just know that we don’t want to have that feeling again.”
When Kentucky invades Knoxville on Tuesday night, it will mark the one-month anniversary of the 107-79 pummelling of the Volunteers by the Wildcats that equaled Tennessee’s 78-50 defeat at Alabama in 2018 as the most lopsided loss of the Rick Barnes era. Kentucky shot an astounding 67.9% from the floor, 61.1% from 3-point range and 95.2% from the free-throw line in scoring its most points in 233 series meetings with the Vols.
Wildcats guards TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler combined for 49 points on 18-of-23 shooting, while inside presence Oscar Tshiebwe was hardly invisible with nine points, 12 rebounds and three steals.
“Kentucky played great. I said it, and I’ll say it again – they would have beaten anybody in the country,” Barnes said. “They were just phenomenal. That’s as good of a basketball game that we’ve coached against since I’ve been here. They came out and hit us early, and we gave them room to get out and run.
“Their basket had a magnet to it, and you can’t take anything away from them. They did anything and everything they wanted to do, and they’ve improved since then, too. There are a lot of mistakes we made in that game that we certainly can’t make again, or we’ll get the same results.”
Tennessee committed 20 turnovers in Lexington and had just 24 rebounds – the Vols grabbed 41 boards Saturday night – due to Kentucky’s obvious lack of missed shots.
Both the Vols and Wildcats are 7-1 since their last meeting, with Tennessee losing 52-51 at Texas in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and Kentucky falling 80-71 at Auburn in a game Washington played just nine minutes due to an ankle injury. Kentucky will arrive with a 21-4 overall record that includes a 10-2 mark in Southeastern Conference play, while Tennessee is 18-6 overall and 9-3 within the league.
“Everybody is trying to buy into a role and really do what Coach says,” Vols sixth-year senior forward John Fulkerson said when asked about the team’s success since the Lexington debacle. “I think Coach is asking a lot from all of our guys, and I think we’re doing a great job of taking that coaching and trying to implement it every day in practice.
“We’re just trying to get better from each game, so we’ve got to take the good things from this game and the bad things from this game and do what we can do to get better and be ready for Tuesday.”
Of course, the most pertinent statistic regarding Tuesday’s showdown is that Tennessee is 13-0 inside Thompson-Boling Arena this season and has won 14 straight dating to last year.
Winning typically leads to bigger games down the road, and that’s no different from where the Vols currently stand. Defeating Kentucky on Tuesday would enhance a Feb. 26 visit by Auburn, which is 23-2 and leads the SEC with an 11-1 mark.
“We’re just knowing what’s working and sticking with that,” Zeigler said. “This is not a revenge game or anything. We’ve got to look at it as continuing what we’re doing and keep doing what’s working.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.