Turnovers plague Volunteers in two-game slide

Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee sophomore guard Santiago Vescovi (25) injured a hip in last Tuesday's 75-49 loss at Florida and was not at full strength again during Saturday night's 73-64 setback against Missouri, Volunteers coach Rick Barnes said.
Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee sophomore guard Santiago Vescovi (25) injured a hip in last Tuesday's 75-49 loss at Florida and was not at full strength again during Saturday night's 73-64 setback against Missouri, Volunteers coach Rick Barnes said.

When Tennessee raced out to a 10-1 start this basketball season, the Volunteers had a turnover margin of plus-7.4 per game that ranked third nationally.

That suddenly seems like a long time ago.

"I'm shocked we've handled the ball the way we have in the last two games," Vols coach Rick Barnes said after Saturday night's 73-64 loss to Missouri inside Thompson-Boling Arena. "We've turned the ball over 36 times over the last two games, and it puts so much pressure on you. We normally don't do that. We are normally very, very good.

"Players might be struggling with their confidence right now, so we have to deal with that. You have to have everyone involved and in sync."

The wire-to-wire loss to the No. 19 Tigers (10-2, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) followed last Tuesday's 75-49 shellacking at the hands of Florida in Gainesville, a 1-2 punch that is certain to cause a significant Tennessee tumble in this week's Associated Press poll. The Vols were No. 6 this past week, their high-water mark of the season, and they dropped Sunday from No. 6 to No. 12 in the NET rankings used by the NCAA tournament's selection committee.

Tennessee committed three turnovers in the first 75 seconds against Mizzou and had 10 in the first 8:07 of play, with senior forward John Fulkerson responsible for five of them.

"When people are pressuring you that hard, you've got to be able to drive the ball to get them off of you," Barnes said. "We don't have enough guys right now who are willing to go make that kind of play. We've got guys with the ability to do it, but they're going to have to go and not predetermine when they're driving the ball and what they're going to do with it. They've got to until they're stopped."

Said sophomore guard Davonte Gaines: "We let ourselves get sped up on offense going against their defense. We had some sloppy plays and got out of control - we just got sped up, really."

Fulkerson, incidentally, sat on the bench for the final 11 minutes and 10 seconds of the first half.

Tennessee, now 4-3 in league play, will look to combat its unwanted gift giving this week with home contests against Mississippi State on Tuesday and Kansas on Saturday, with the latter matchup the headliner of this season's Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Vols hope to be healthier after freshman guard Jaden Springer missed the past two games with an ankle injury he suffered during the 81-61 win over Vanderbilt on Jan. 16, and with sophomore guard Santiago Vescovi nursing a sore hip he sustained early in the Florida game.

Vescovi leads Tennessee with 44 assists this season, while Springer is the team's top perimeter shooter, averaging 53.3% from the floor (40-of-75) and 56.3% from the 3-point line (9-of-16).

"Jaden brings a lot to the floor when he's out there, whether it's on offense, being efficient, getting to the basket, getting to his spots, knocking down the 3-ball and things like that," Gaines said. "He can guard on the perimeter as well at the other end, so Jaden is a great player at both ends of the floor. He impacts the game both offensively and defensively."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.

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