The Tennessee Volunteers have won twice as many basketball games as they have lost this winter in Southeastern Conference play.
When they do lose, Vols 11th-year coach Rick Barnes quickly cites turnovers as the issue. Tennessee had 15 of them during Tuesday’s 73-69 setback against Missouri in Columbia.
“That’s been our problem all year, and it’s probably kept us from really being a contender for the (SEC) regular-season championship,” Barnes said late Tuesday night during his postgame press conference. “There was a time we were averaging 14 or 15 a game. It was ridiculous, and that’s what it looked like tonight.
“This is what we looked like a month and a half ago, and it’s frustrating. Every guard in this game had a turnover, and that’s a problem. Some of those passes that we made on those turnovers you just can’t make.”
The No. 22 Vols hoped they had turned a corner on the turnover front after committing just seven in an 89-66 triumph at Oklahoma the previous Wednesday and nine in Saturday’s 69-65 victory at Vanderbilt.