What went wrong for Tennessee basketball vs. South Carolina? These three things
Jonas Aidoo missed the layup. He had another chance, tipping the ball toward the rim. He missed that, too.
It was early in the second half and Tennessee basketball couldn't make a layup. It couldn't make them early or late either, missing layups and becoming a layup for a chip-on-the-shoulder South Carolina team at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Tuesday.
"You can’t miss 10 point-blank layups and do what we did on the free-throw line and expect to win," Vols coach Rick Barnes said.
No. 5 Tennessee didn't win. It took its worst loss of the season, falling 63-59 to the Gamecocks (18-3, 6-2).
“We are not going to beat them being that pathetic on offense as a team," Barnes said.
Tennessee had a miserable time with layups
Aidoo got in a pick-and-roll with Zakai Zeigler on the first possession of the game. Zeigler hit him with a bounce pass and Aidoo went for the layup. He didn't even hit the rim, hitting the shot off the backboard too hard.
It was the start of UT's woes. The Vols (15-5, 5-2 SEC) were 8-for-21 on either dunks or layups and that didn't include Aidoo's first shot, which was counted as a jumper statistically.
"You can’t miss layups," Barnes said. "You can’t. The game is too hard. When you’ve got a chance to dunk the ball and finish, we can’t."
Aidoo was 1-for-4 on layups. So was Tobe Awaka. Dalton Knecht, who had a game-high 31 points, was 3-for-7. Santiago Vescovi was the only other Vol to make multiple layups. He was 2-for-3.
“I really think that anyone who watched the game would know we missed shots that we shouldn’t have," Vescovi said. "Free-throw line, same thing. We know we are better than that. If we do those and you do the math, it is a completely different game.
"We aren’t not having this talk right now. We are talking about how good we played."
The Vols weren't much better at the free-throw line
As Vescovi said, the Vols were also poor at the free-throw line. Tennessee shot 12-for-20, hitting a season-low 60%.
Tuesday marked the fifth time the Vols have shot less than 70% and the third in a row. Saturday's win at Vanderbilt was another as UT shot 63.6%. UT's win against Alabama on Jan. 20 was another when Tennessee hit 68% of its free throws.
"Two games in a row we have done a really poor job on the free-throw line," Barnes said.
Tennessee was shooting 75.6% as a team from the line entering Tuesday. Knecht, a 77.6% career free-throw shooter, is 9-for-17 in the past two games. He was 24-for-26 in the three games prior to that stretch.
Tennessee did not get enough from Zakai Zeigler and Jonas Aidoo
Aidoo has been Tennessee's second most-productive player this season, averaging 11.9 points and upping that figure in SEC play. He had six against the Gamecocks.
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“I can’t answer that," Barnes said when asked what went wrong for Aidoo. "I really can’t. I wish I could.”
Zeigler is averaging 10.2 points, but had two Tuesday and did not make a field goal. He missed all four 3-point attempts and missed his six field goals. Barnes felt that Zeigler got out of his rhythm and started pressing, which caused him to lose discipline on both ends of the court.
Those two have been Knecht's co-leaders for UT during its best performance. They didn't give enough Tuesday, combining for eight points when they average a combined 22.1 and the Vols count on that production
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Free throws, layups doom Tennessee basketball vs South Carolina
