A Tennessee basketball season containing decisive victories over Alabama, Duke, Kansas and Texas ended late Thursday night with a 62-55 loss to Florida Atlantic in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 in New York City.
The Volunteers used their five seniors to wear down down the freshman-filled Blue Devils last Saturday, but that same veteran quintet combined to shoot 14-of-50 against the Owls. As soon as something started to make sense for this season’s Tennessee team, it didn’t, which will leave plenty of Vols pondering what could have been in the days, weeks and months ahead.
“I’m certainly proud of the effort these guys have given all year through some tough times with injuries,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said in a news conference following the defeat inside Madison Square Garden. “When it ends like this, it’s always disappointing, because we want it all but came up short.”
There were times Tennessee looked like a team that could win it all, as an 82-71 thumping of Texas in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Jan. 28 lifted the Vols to an 18-3 record and to a No. 2 ranking. The Vols would go just 7-8 the rest of the way, dealing with an ankle injury that sidelined senior guard Josiah-Jordan James most of February and the season-ending ACL tear sophomore point guard Zakai Zeigler sustained on Feb. 28.