Tennessee
travels over Jellico Mountain to take on Kentucky in Rupp on Saturday. GameDay will be on hand. So will a pair of packed houses. The first will watch a studio TV show that morning on the floor of Rupp. The second will watch UK and Tennessee fight it out on the Rupp floor that night. But Tennessee tuned up for the trip by being the embarrassing end of a 90-71 whipping at the hands of Vanderbilt last night at Memorial Gym. Sort of a Memorial Gym massacre. IN white-out. (Read Stuart Hines’ hilarious tweet here.) Kentucky, in the Billy G. Error, was all too familiar with that term.
So what happened to the Vols?
Here’s what happened:
- Vanderbilt shot 43 free throws. That’s four more than any team has shot in an SEC game this year. Kentucky held the previous high of 39 in its win over Vanderbilt back on Jan. 30. Vandy made 37 of its 43 free throws last night for 86 percent. That’s pretty darn good. Behind early, no doubt Tennessee was fouling in hopes of catching up. Vandy kept making free throws.
- Tennessee’s offense has dipped a bit. The Vols have been under a point per possession in three of their last four games. They posted an 0.96 last night. Vanderbilt averaged 1.21 points per possession.
- Vandy is apparently just a bad matchup for the Vols. The Commodores posted a 1.18 points per possession average in their win in Knoxville on Jan. 27. That was followed by the 1.21 last night. Only one other SEC team has averaged over a point per possession against the Vols. Georgia averaged 1.175 in its win over Tennessee in Athens. The Vols held Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss and South Carolina all under a point per possession.
- After scoring 30 points in beatdown of South Carolina on Saturday, Vols center Wayne Chism was held to 16 points last night. Chism made five of 12 shots, as opposed to his 11-of-17 night against the Gamecocks. In the two games against Vanderbilt, Chism scored just 24 points.
- Billy Hall grabbed 11 rebounds in just 18 minutes against South Carolina. He notched three rebounds in 20 minutes last night.
- Scotty Hopson made just four of 14 shots last night. Through Tennessee’s first four SEC games, Hopson was averaging 13.8 points per game. Now he’s down to 12 a game.
