On 33 occasions throughout the past four months, the Tennessee Volunteers have competed on various basketball courts without any significant ramifications regarding the outcome.
That changes now.
Tennessee was eliminated Friday afternoon in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals with a 75-68 loss to No. 22 Vanderbilt inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. The next game for the No. 25 Vols will be in the NCAA tournament, where teams either advance or turn in their uniforms.
“For the seniors on this team, if we lose another one, we’re done,” Tennessee senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie told reporters following Friday’s loss. “That’s enough for us to play as hard as we can. We’ve shown that we can beat anybody.
“If we can stop turning the ball over and bailing people out with fouls, we’re really hard to beat.”