Tennessee loses a heartbreaker in Nashville
The Tennessee Basketball Volunteers suffered a heartbreaking loss on Saturday. Memorial Gym is historically a tough venue for a top-10-ranked Tennessee team to play in, but that is no excuse for all the mental mistakes and poor play they displayed against the upstart Commodores. The most maddening thing of all is that Chaz Lanier missed a free throw with 3 seconds to play, which sealed the win for Vandy. A make there would’ve tied the game and left Vandy with very little chance to prevent the game from going to overtime. However, a court storm ensued seconds after the shot bounced off and Tennessee left Nashville with a brutal one-point loss.
Obviously, the bulk of the instant reaction was directed toward Chaz Lanier and his missed free throw. Chaz had the chance to complete a valiant 10-point comeback in the final 3 minutes, and he couldn’t put through the easiest shot in basketball. That deserves criticism for sure, but criticism doesn’t include going online and saying “He sucks”, “F**K Chaz Lanier”, and “Get this dude off the team”. I know as well as anybody that this fanbase can get overly emotional sometimes immediately following a loss, and no matter what anyone says there will always be the 1% of people that take it too far. However, I know right now that no one feels worse than Chaz Lanier does. He knows he has to make that shot and putting him down in one of the toughest moments of his life will not change the outcome or help him bounce back from this result. Chaz chose to come back to his home state and play for the flagship University and in this moment I know as a fanbase it would be 1000x more beneficial to lift him back up than to put him down.
Tennessee never should have been in that situation to begin with either. The Vols got outworked in the paint, gave up way too many wide-open threes, and turned the ball over 11 times. Furthermore, Rick Barnes left Zakai Ziegler on the bench for the last 7 minutes of the first half with 2 fouls. Vandy started to control the game from that point on until Tennessee’s comeback effort in the final 3 minutes. I understand the philosophy behind sitting a player with 2 fouls before halftime, but at some point, you have to trust your senior point guard to not pick up a 3rd foul. However, on the same token, Ziegler’s 2nd foul was a bonehead play in which he fouled a 3-point shooter. Jahmai Mashack then fouled a 3-point shooter in the final seconds of the first half which resulted in a 4-point play. 7 points for Vanderbilt stemming directly from terrible mistakes by your 2 senior leaders.
The Vols are nowhere near playing their best basketball to start conference play. Rick Barnes has no time to coddle them after this loss either as a 4 game stretch of ranked opponents is about to start. The good news for Tennessee is that 3 of the 4 games are in Knoxville. This stretch will define Tennessee’s season in my eyes. Go 3-1 and you are still firmly in play for a high seed in March. Go 2-2 or worse and you will be lucky to hold on to a 7 seed with the surprises this conference can give you against any given opponent.