Tennessee’s toughness nowhere to be found in Wednesday night loss to Georgia

Located in downtown Athens, Ga., “The Grill” is a restaurant known for burgers, fries, and a dip made primarily of feta cheese. Late Wednesday night, I ended up

Located in downtown Athens, Ga., “The Grill” is a restaurant known for burgers, fries, and a dip made primarily of feta cheese. Late Wednesday night, I ended up there with a friend, who could only use one word to describe Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum: “Dinky.” Not exactly what I would’ve said. Then again, she’s never been one to mince words, and Tennessee coach Rick Barnes is the same. Barnes says what he means, and he means what he says. That much has been certain since he was named Tennessee’s coach in 2015. So after his team’s matchup against the Bulldogs, Barnes’ use of the word “soft”- thrice in one statement, mind you - wouldn’t merely be taken as opinion..Instead, it would be interpreted as fact, and not just because of Barnes’ experience at the Division I level. If you happened to tune into any number of plays during the Vols’ 80-63 loss to Georgia- Tennessee’s second SEC loss of the season- then you would plainly see that his statement is exactly right. Georgia out-hustled, out-rebounded, out-shot and out-defended Tennessee in a game that was never even as close as the final score showed, making a cramped arena and weak attendance appear as powerful as Madison Square Garden during a prized heavyweight bout. Except in this fight, Tennessee came out swinging at itself— even before the game reached tip-off. During the Vols’ pre-game dunk routine known affectionately as “One Fly, We All Fly,” Olivier Nkamhoua approached the basket twice to attempt the final dunk, with the ball clanging off the rim each time. Finally, a sigh of relief fell over the Tennessee fans in the arena, as the ball fell through the third trip around. But embarrassment had already been achieved, and the Vols’ game- and stamina- spiraled. Georgia jumped out to an 8-3 lead, but Tennessee responded with a nine-point run to go up 12-8. Only then did Anthony Edwards take over, as the freshman from Atlanta launched a three-pointer to bring his team within one before Georgia retook the lead for good. Edwards finished with 26 points on the night, 20 of which came in the first half. Together, he and Rayshaun Hammonds combined for 47 on the night. That matched the number of points the Bulldogs had at halftime, as Tom Crean’s team led by 19. From there, things only worsened for Tennessee. With just under 15 minutes left, Hammonds knocked down a three to put Georgia at a 20-point lead, one of several such occasions on the night. At the eight-minute mark, fans fromboth sides began filing out. And from the body language on the Tennessee sideline, the fat lady had already started to sing. Besides marking Tennessee’s second conference loss, this game was also Uros Plavsic’s first night of action this season after being cleared by the NCAA on Tuesday afternoon. The Vols desperately needed more help in the middle coming into this game, and on VR2’s basketball podcast, “The Final Buzzer,” Brandon Martin and I discussed what we thought Tennessee’s offense would look like with Plavsic thrown into the mix. In reality, it was so much uglier than anticipated. Plavsic looked completely lost on both ends of the floor, finishing with five points and three rebounds in 17 minutes. At least twice, the seven-footer had the ball ripped away from him, lost to a more opportunistic Georgia defender. Granted, the Arizona State transfer will need to get used to Tennessee’s offense and the flow of American basketball as a whole. But when comparing the debuts of Plavsic- who has been with the team this entire season in practice- with that of point guard Santiago Vescovi, who literally moved in a week before starting against LSU, the differences in impact are staggering. Still, Plavsic will learn. He’ll grow, and Barnes will mold him. What Barnes can’t mold is Tennessee’s shooting. That must be fixed all on its own, and, by the look of UT’s performance against Georgia (with matchups against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kansas looming), it needs to be fixed fast. The Vols went 24-for-59 from field-goal range, and while Jordan Bowden led the way with 12 points, it’s obvious that the senior is still very much in the slump that’s plagued him through the middle portion of this season. Meanwhile, Josiah-Jordan James added 11. They were the only two orange-clad players to reach double figures, a stark contrast to a Missouri contest that saw six Tennessee players reach 10 or more points. But that was then, and this is now. And now means fixing a defense that allowed Georgia to shoot 47 percent from the floor. It also means making easy jumpers, especially ones that go uncontested. Yet Tennessee missed those, too. In total, focusing on the “now” for the Vols means going back to the drawing board, finding ways to get Plavsic more involved going forward, and tinkering with this offense until Barnes can find a way to dig around the abysmal shooting performances that this team seemsto turn in every night, even with a roster stretched to its absolute potential like on Wednesday. Granted, poor shooting will slide when it comes against a team like South Carolina, at least if the Vols have the toughness to match. That night, Tennessee did. But on Wednesday in Georgia, it didn’t. And that’s a lot tougher to swallow than feta dip.