Rick Barnes addresses Tennessee's final shot, foul call on Grant Williams
The Tennessee Volunteers went into Baton Rouge on Saturday afternoon, but couldn’t take care of business against an LSU squad playing without star PG Tremont Waters.
The game went into overtime, where a late foul on Grant Williams gave the Tigers the winning free throws, courtesy of red-hot Javonte Smart.
After the game, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes addressed the end of the game. First of all, he wasn’t happy with the way the last possession went for the Vols, with Lamonte Turner pulling up for a contested three with four seconds left. Then, he said, he couldn’t see whether the foul called on Williams was legitimate or not:
Rick Barnes said (obviously) Tennessee didn't execute on the final offensive possession, when the long three went up with 4.3 seconds left.
"You want the last shot of the game."
— @GrantRamey (@GrantRamey) February 23, 2019
Barnes: "I think Lamonte had made up his mind that he was going to stop and pull up for a three … then Grant gets called for a foul going for the rebound … I didn't really see it."
— @GrantRamey (@GrantRamey) February 23, 2019
Whatever the case, the Vols have now lost road games in back-to-back weekends. They have a home game coming up against Kentucky next Saturday, so they’ll need to regroup quickly.
The Vols, Tigers and Wildcats are all 12-2 in conference play, so the next couple of weeks will be very interesting to watch.