As Florida's 75-49 surprise scorching of No. 6 Tennessee was getting out of hand Tuesday night at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, ESPN television analyst Dick Vitale discussed how this year's team was inferior to the Volunteers of two seasons ago.
Perhaps the comparisons to that 31-6 squad headed by Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield should cease for the time being, or at least until Tennessee sixth-year coach Rick Barnes starts to see more from John Fulkerson and Yves Pons. The senior duo combined for just eight rebounds and zero motivation during the 26-point embarrassment against the depleted Gators.
"Fulky and Yves cannot hide behind anybody," Barnes said afterward. "There are a lot of teams that we beat up on with that last group a couple of years ago, but when we're in a situation like this, those young guys are waiting on these guys to lead them. All we have asked Yves to do is to play and defensive rebound, and he has not done that. At some point in time, we've got to make some shots, too, obviously. We just did not get the leadership, and we do not have the leadership that we need.
"It makes me sick to watch a group of guys not play hard. As a coach, it's probably the hardest thing you can stomach when you know that the other team is playing harder in every facet of the game and beating you in every which way, and you don't respond."
The Vols are hardly a hot mess with a 10-2 record, and they only tumbled from fourth to sixth in the NET rankings as a result of Tuesday's shellacking. Yet the preseason Southeastern Conference favorites are on the verge of bidding farewell to Alabama, which is now 12-3 overall and a shiny 7-0 in league play after Tuesday night's 105-75 bombardment of LSU in Baton Rouge. Tennessee's SEC record is 4-2.
More important than any record or league standing, however, is whether Tennessee has the chemistry for a memorable March run. The absence of freshman guard Jaden Springer due to a nagging ankle injury was obvious at Florida (7-4, 4-3), but the lack of leadership in difficult times needs immediate addressing.
"It starts with myself being a better leader," Fulkerson said. "I've never really had to be in this position before, so it's new and it's different for me. I have to do a better job. I take full responsibility for what happened tonight. I know that that's not who we are."
Said sophomore guard Josiah-Jordan James: "We don't necessarily need one person leading. We need help and input from everyone. That's what this team needs, and that's what we're going to do."
Regardless of how that leadership is channeled, the Vols must move forward without any more listless performances. The 2018-19 Vols lost the SEC championship game to Auburn 84-64, but that was a Tigers team on its way to the NCAA tournament's Final Four and a Tennessee team that was emotionally drained after a 82-78 comeback triumph over Kentucky less than 24 hours earlier in the semifinals.
There were no excuses for Tuesday's result, especially with Florida playing without Keyontae Johnson, Scottie Lewis and Colin Castleton, and Barnes knows it.
"Fulky and Yves need to touch the ball, but it's up to them to get involved, and they were allowing themselves to be pushed around," Barnes said. "The scouting report is easy right now on John Fulkerson: You push him off the lane and go double him. All we've asked him to do is not stand there and to move. We can roll him in there and we can run him in there, but he has to do it, and Yves right now is just not doing the things that we need him to do.
"I took Fulky out early because the guys were looking at him. I am not putting it all on him because it's not, but he is an important cog to this wheel. The fact of the matter is we kept acting like we are going to get this going and never did."
Tennessee has an interesting test Saturday night inside Thompson-Boling Arena against No. 19 Missouri. The Vols displayed their top performance of the season inside Mizzou Arena on Dec. 30, racing to a 23-4 lead in an eventual 73-53 whipping of the Tigers.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.