Tennessee bows out of SEC Tournament after no-show against Mississippi State

Tennessee’s offense, for most of the season, was a breath of fresh air. A year after a lumbering, laboring unit that ranked 64th in adjusted offensive efficiency (per KenPom), Tennessee added Dalton Knecht to the fold and started to play a much more appealing brand of offensive basketball.

Until Friday. It came crashing down Friday.

The Volunteers’ run at the SEC Tournament never got started. The top-ranked seed bowed out of the competition in its first game thanks to a 73-56 bludgeoning from 9-seed Mississippi State. The Vols had 18 points in the first 20 minutes of the game — a season-low. When the final buzzer sounded, they’d officially produced their worst shooting performance (30.6%) of the year.

Welcome back to the postseason.

It’s the second consecutive year Tennessee has fallen in the quarterfinal round of the SEC tourney. With hopes for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, Friday’s showing was worrisome.

Tennessee missed 11 of its first 13 shots from the field. Six of those were from beyond the 3-point line — all misses. Mississippi State, more than willing to let teams jack 3s, made life miserable on that end of the floor. The Bulldogs were ferocious with their defensive intensity and stymied the Vols with their switching.

“You have to take care of the details offensively,” coach Rick Barnes said after the game. “We didn’t do a very good job of doing that. … We allowed our lack of defensive alertness, intensity, sticking to the game plan to roll over into what I thought went on on the offensive end.”

Dalton Knecht, the SEC’s leading scorer, went 2-for-8 from the field in the first half and struggled to assert himself. At the other end, the Bulldogs’ offensive evolution continued.

Cameron Matthews has been turned loose of late and the Bulldogs are running offense through him. In the first half, he had 12 points and didn’t miss a shot. He finished the game with 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists without missing a shot from the field.

Seven different Mississippi State players scored as the offense shot at a 61.5% clip. Twenty-eight of MSU’s 38 first-half points came from the paint. Five more came from the free throw line.

Mississippi State turned the game into a boxing match and Tennessee never looked interested in punching back.

“Really the first 20 minutes, I haven’t seen that team all year, even including practice,” Barnes said. “I’m sitting there watching it like, ‘Man, maybe it might be good to get this out of our system.’ We haven’t had one like this where we didn’t respond better.”

Through the first 30 minutes of the game, Tennessee’s shooters were a net negative. Knecht, Zakai Zeigler, and Santiago Vescovi were a combined 8-for-29 from the field and 2-for-17 from 3-point range. Zeigler hit the side of the backboard on a corner 3. Vescovi missed a wing triple that cleared the basket and hit the bottom of the backboard on the other side.

A 3 ball from Josh Hubbard with 9:49 remaining in the game gave Mississippi State its largest lead of the afternoon — a 58-35 edge. Tennessee looked cooked.

Then Zeigler came down the floor on the next possession and hit a huge 3. After a pair of MSU free throws, Tennessee mounted a 10-0 run to cut the margin to 12 with 5:03 to play. Zeigler hit 2 more 3s during the run.

Knecht missed a good look at a 3 with 4:15 to play and Mississippi State made UT pay at the other end. DJ Jeffries caught a wing pass in rhythm and splashed a 3 of his own. After a Zeigler miss at the other end, Matthews corraled the rebound and threw it ahead to a streaking Jeffries for a fast break bucket.

The Vols’ momentum was dashed. UT never got closer than 14 the rest of the way, missing 6 of its last 7 shots from the field.

Zeigler’s surge midway through the second half helped him to finish with a game-high 20 points. Knecht had 14 on 4-of-17 shooting and 2-of-9 from 3. Jahmai Mashack was the only other Volunteer to score more than 5 points.

Hubbard had 18 for Mississippi State. In stark contrast, the Bulldogs had 6 players each with at least 7 points. They outscored Tennessee in the paint 42-14 and made more free throws (17) than Tennessee attempted (12).

“I thought we got impatient, lost our poise, fouling with six seconds on the shot clock, trying to steal the ball when giving up position,” Barnes said. “We have won games where we haven’t been good on offense but our defense has kept it in it. Our defense did not help us at all today.”

Mississippi State has likely played its way to safety in the NCAA Tournament.

On the other side, Tennessee was hoping a handful of wins in Nashville could secure a No. 1 seed. Nevertheless, the Volunteers are still one of the betting favorites to make the Final Four at most Tennessee sportsbooks. The Vols are +340 to make the Final Four at DraftKings. They’re +1200 to win the national title at BetMGM.

But Friday’s performance will give fans reason for pause.

Barnes is looking to use the aftermath as motivation.

“Let’s just sit here and think about how we feel right now,” he told his team. “Let’s just talk about it, sit here and marinate in how you feel right now. If you feel like this again, it’s over.

“You have to understand how hard it is to win this time of year. If you want to be a team that can play through three days and win a conference tournament, through six days and win a national championship, there’s got to be somewhat of a desperate mindset that every possession matters. We didn’t play with that type of mentality today.”