Four minutes can alter a season.
Well, 3 minutes and 51 seconds, to be exact. In that span, Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes began to question his team’s resolve.
Unranked Florida (11-5, 2-1 SEC), the defending conference and national champion, got everything it wanted and more against No. 22 Tennessee (11-5, 1-2) in a 91-67 romp at Stephen O’Connell Center on Jan. 10.
In the final 3:51 of the first half, the Vols committed four turnovers and could not convert a single field goal. Overall, they turned the ball over 18 times (12 in the first half), resulting in 30 points for the Gators.
“Thirty points off turnovers, you don’t have a chance,” Barnes said after the game. “Last four minutes of the first half, just really poor basketball. I’ll take the blame for it because I don’t know if I’ve had a team play that bad, doing the things and making the decisions they made. It was just really poor basketball.”
Tennessee associate coach Justin Gainey tried to warn his team about the physicality in the matchup. The Vols matched Florida’s tempo until those final four minutes of the half, then continued to unravel in the second.
Although several of the guards on Florida’s championship team moved on to the NBA, the Gators retained their top big men. Barnes knew winning the frontcourt battle would go a long way in securing the Vols’ first road victory this season.
“Our whole deal was, we wanted a front line that could help us, but we’re not there yet,” Barnes said. “Can we get there? It’s a long way to go. I hope this game is a game we’ll look back on and think, ‘OK, these guys showed us what it takes to win at the highest level.’ “
Florida’s front court of Rueben Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon combined for 41 points and 26 rebounds, a jarring contrast to Tennessee’s 30 team rebounds. Chinyelu alone had 16 rebounds, plus 17 points.
“If he didn’t catch it where he wanted it, he caught it and got to where he wanted it,” Barnes said about Chinyelu. “He dominated the game from an inside perspective. I thought today, if nothing else, we’re going to find out if we’re going to get out of the comfort zone our guys are in to compete against a team like that, especially on the front line.”
Ament has some ideas
Tennessee fought fires on two sides. While the Vols had trouble dealing with Florida’s frontcourt, guard Boogie Fland torched them all over the floor. Fland, who hadn’t made a 3-pointer since Dec. 21, finished with 23 points and knocked down 3-of-6 from long distance. He also added five assists, four steals and three rebounds and was key to extending Florida’s lead early in the second half.
Although Barnes couldn’t figure out what was wrong with his squad, Nate Ament, who led the Vols with 17 points, tried to diagnose the illness.
“You’ve seen that when we get uncomfortable, we lay down a little bit,” he said. “Knowing teams prior, that’s just never been the team Tennessee has been. I’m sure Coach Barnes is going to make sure we fix that. For us, we have to be more competitive. You could chalk up all our mistakes to them being more competitive than us. Props to them for playing harder than us, turning us over and rebounding every loose ball.”
Tennessee welcomes Texas A&M (13-3, 3-0) at Food City Center at 7 p.m. ET on Jan. 13 (SEC Network). The Aggies just earned their sixth straight victory after beating Oklahoma 83-76 on Jan. 10.
Barnes is eager to see how his players bounce back.
“I think it’s great to see how we’re going to respond,” he said. “If we’ve got the kind of players that we think we have, we’ll learn from this.”
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
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