Two years ago, Tennessee traveled to Florida with a No. 6 ranking in men's basketball and was promptly thumped 75-49.
Sound a bit familiar?
The No. 2 Volunteers find themselves in regrouping mode after Wednesday night's surprising 67-54 setback in Gainesville. They are hoping to avoid a dangerous parallel, as the Tennessee team of two seasons ago had an abysmal NCAA tournament first-round showing in a 70-56 upset loss to Oregon State.
Offensive woes have a way of plaguing everyone, and especially the Vols, who since February 2021 are 1-8 in games when they fail to score 60 points.
"You've got to make shots, and if you don't, you absolutely can't give up offensive rebounds, and you certainly can't give up some of the breakdowns we had on the defensive end," Vols coach Rick Barnes said following Wednesday's largest loss of an otherwise stout 18-4 season that includes a 7-2 mark in Southeastern Conference play. "It's February now, and I don't expect us to play perfect every night, but we're too good a team to turn the ball over and force things the way we did early in the game.
"We had some open looks throughout the game that we're going to have to make to be the team that we want to be."
Tennessee, which next hosts No. 25 Auburn (17-5, 7-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN, entered Thursday ranked No. 1 nationally in defensive field-goal percentage (34.9%) but No. 225 in field-goal percentage (43.8%).
Zakai Zeigler's 15 points led the Vols against Florida, with Santiago Vescovi and Olivier Nkamhoua adding 11 apiece, but that trio combined on 12-of-44 shooting for a 27.3% clip. Tennessee's 27.9% success rate overall was its lowest in conference play.
"Teams are game-planning hard for Santi and Zakai, and we know that, but we need to get a consistent scorer from our post guys down there," Barnes said. "Olivier was 4-of-13, but we need Julian (Phillips). We need Tyreke Key. Jonas (Aidoo) had a couple good plays, and Uros (Plavsic) did some good things before getting too anxious and taking himself out of position. We just need consistent play from our post guys.
"Their game plan was no different than everybody else that we play. They were going to work hard at trying to take away the perimeter and force us into the mid-range game with certain players to see if we could make those shots. We've just got to get better offensively, and we've got to be connected at that end of the floor."
Tennessee has also entered February continuing to adjust to its smaller starting lineup used in recent games. The Vols have been victimized inside during their past three losses, with Florida's Colin Castleton amassing 20 points and nine rebounds Wednesday, Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe tallying 15 and 13 on Jan. 14, and Arizona's tandem of Azuoalas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo combining for 37 and 17 back on Dec. 17.
"We've got to figure out how to play bigger guys," Nkamhoua said. "Sometimes when we play with that smaller lineup, we've got to figure out how to still guard their bigs, and when we play with a bigger lineup, we can't let any drop-off happen with our defense."
Lots of teams, of course, have the potential to struggle against the likes of Castleton, Tshiebwe, Tubelis and Ballo, and lots of teams experience rough shooting performances. Even Alabama, which now owns a two-game SEC lead as a result of Tennessee's tumble, was shellacked 93-69 in last Saturday's Big 12/SEC Challenge by an Oklahoma team that got thumped Wednesday 71-61 by visiting Oklahoma State.
Perhaps Tennessee's fate this March will be determined by how the Vols handle any "here we go again" vibes should the shots not be falling, which Barnes was asked about Wednesday.
"You do have a vibe as far as confidence, especially when they have wide-open shots, and they had wide-open shots," Barnes said. "We did take some that weren't good shots, and I think that's from pressing, but you have to continue to take your shots. There are nights where they won't go in, but we believe enough in our offensive rebounding that we think we can go get some.
"They were chasing Santi and game-planning for Zakai. Players this time of year have to make adjustments. We'll figure it out. We have to."
Heupel promotes from within
Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel has made a third staff promotion with the Vols, promoting offensive analyst Alec Abeln to tight ends coach on Thursday.
Abeln was a Missouri offensive lineman during the 2016-17 seasons, when Heupel was offensive coordinator and current Vols offensive line coach Glen Elarbee had that same role with the Tigers. Abeln replaces the position responsibility of Alex Golesh, who is South Florida's new head coach.
Heupel recently promoted quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle to offensive coordinator and last year promoted analyst Kelsey Pope to receivers coach, replacing Kodi Burns, who left to be the receivers coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.