There's no way to sugarcoat what's going on at Tennessee.
AP Photo/Wade Payne
Tennessee had no answer for Jodie Meeks as the Vols dropped their second straight game at home.
"We're struggling," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said Wednesday morning after the Vols lost their second straight home game, this time 90-72 to Kentucky. Worse than that, the Vols made a superstar out of Kentucky's
Jodie Meeks, who went for 54 points on them.
Gonzaga snapped Tennessee's 37-game home-court winning streak Jan. 7. During that game, Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin tied a career high with 26 points.
Just prior to that, Tennessee suffered a road loss to Kansas in which guard Sherron Collins scored 26 points.
Tennessee held off Georgia and won in Athens on Saturday, but guard Terrance Woodbury scored 18 points and got to the line 10 times, hitting eight free throws.
Notice a trend here?
That all set the stage for Meeks' mastery Tuesday night. He scored his 54 points in part by making 10 3s and going 14-for-14 from the line.
"He was great," Pearl said. "Look, we tried to deny his touches, but any time we trapped him, they would get a ball screen or we would be called for a couple of fouls. He got it in transition and we tried to extend, but he made contested shots. It was an unbelievable effort."
Pearl said not just one player was responsible for the poor defense, but rather the whole team. Why is this happening?
"We're going to have to do a better job of help defense and rotate faster, and we're not pressuring the basketball," Pearl said. "Our interior defense is good, but we had four or five guards have career games against us."
The reason, Pearl said, is inexperience.
"We've got a brand-new backcourt -- it's [junior college transfer] Bobby Maze and three freshmen," Pearl said.
Suddenly, Tennessee (10-5 overall, 1-1 in conference) is not the hot team in the SEC, nor perhaps are the Vols the favorites to win the Eastern Division, with Kentucky storming, Florida untested but formidable and South Carolina surging. The Gamecocks visit Knoxville on Saturday.
"Obviously when you lose, your confidence gets shaken," Pearl said. "Obviously we've got young players."
• Meeks had his lowest point total of the season against Miami on Dec. 6, when he scored a mortal 10 points, going 4-of-17 (2-of-12 on 3s) in a 73-67 loss to the Canes.
"We were fortunate that he had an off night against us," Miami coach Frank Haith said. The Hurricanes switched defenses against Kentucky that night in an attempt to keep Meeks out of sync.
"Jodie has done a great job developing into being a well-rounded player," Haith said. "He's not only a shooter, he can score off the dribble, a good defender and they've got a great inside-out combination. [Forward] Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks are pros. That Kentucky win we had was a good win. Some people said Kentucky was subpar or that this wasn't a normal Kentucky team. They've got two pros. They're good."
• One thing to keep in mind if the NCAA adopts an ACC proposal to shorten the time period in which an underclassman can declare for the NBA draft: The NCAA doesn't make the rules on this one. Sure, the NCAA can pass legislation on the matter, but it won't change the NBA timetable. NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed that the dates for declaring for the NBA draft (late April) and withdrawing from the draft (mid-June) are part of the collective bargaining agreement. So they won't be automatically changed in 2010 if this legislation passes.
You could have a scenario in which Player X decides he's going to return to college within 10 days after the Final Four but still is able to declare for the draft until the end of the month under the NBA rules (the only ones that matter here). So anxiety still might exist. Also, keep in mind that if this 10-day rule had been in existence last spring, there's a good chance North Carolina's Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green would have stayed in the draft. At that point last year, they were gone. The same is true of Arizona's Chase Budinger and UAB's Robert Vaden.
• The Mountain West and Missouri Valley conferences announced the pairings for their 2009 MVC/MWC Challenge for next season. This is a great idea between two conferences that can and have sent multiple teams to the NCAA tournament. More than anything, this nearly ensures at least one quality nonconference game next season. The matchups are Bradley at BYU, Colorado State at Indiana State, Southern Illinois at UNLV, Air Force at Missouri State, TCU at Wichita State, Creighton at New Mexico, Illinois State at Utah, San Diego State at Drake and Wyoming at Northern Iowa.
• Miami coach Frank Haith and North Carolina coach Roy Williams talked about how they would handle bringing attention to IUPUI coach Ron Hunter's barefoot coaching weekend to raise shoes and awareness for Samaritan's Feet. According to Haith, the two decided they would wear flip-flops out to warmups to draw attention to the cause.
Andy Katz
