HoopNotes: Bad Medicine

[orange+white=heaven]

Bono sings, "It's a bitter pill, I swallow here..."

The Vols didn't even get a tasty drink to wash it down yesterday.

For the first time, the tone of the quotes reveals the weight of the load these kids are currently bearing.

TheNotes...

Tennessean:Climer Commentary

With Lofton as a spectator, UT is easy pickings in games like this. Kentucky exploited the Vols' limited offensive options and cranked out a 76-57 victory.
"It's hard to watch," Lofton said with a shrug. "That's my team out there. I want to go to battle with them."

UT could put up only token opposition in the second half, getting outscored by 20 points and having no answer when the Big Blue went on a decisive 15-0 run.
"There were some situations where I'm thinking, 'I'd like to have that shot,' but it doesn't matter because I'm not on the court," Lofton said.

Too, Lofton allows the Vols to play with a certain swagger, especially on hostile turf. Last season at Rupp Arena, he seemed to answer every Kentucky outburst with a timely 3-pointer.
"Chris is so good on the road. He can take games over," teammate Dane Bradshaw said. "We're a much better team with him, but we've got to step up and make plays while he's not out there."

only JaJuan Smith answered. He had 15 of his 25 points after intermission.
The rest of the team managed 10 second-half points.
"We've got different roles without Chris now," said Smith, who was 5-of-11 on 3-pointers while the rest of the Vols were 3-of-16. "I just think a lot of people haven't found their roles yet. They're going to have to find them real quick if we don't get Chris back."

tfp's Mark Weidmer is abit of a UK boy, but there is no denying what he is writing.
tfpOnline:Wiedmer Commentary

UT may stand for Utter Toast as long as Lofton remains on the sidelines, but at least Pearl has an excuse for the jam he’s in.

"You can see that my team was trying to do the best it could without Chris," said UT coach Bruce Pearl, forcing a smile. "But when you lose your All-American on the offensive end, obviously you’re not going to score much. Once they started shooting it, we were in trouble."

Apparently Chris Lofton knew his University of Tennessee basketball teammates were headed for a funeral against Kentucky on Sunday afternoon.

Unable to take the Rupp Arena court due to a severe ankle sprain, Lofton arrived at the visitors’ bench wearing a black shirt, black tie, dark gray suit and black shoes.

Then he watched the Wildcats bury the Big Orange over the game’s final 10 minutes, turning a skinny 47-46 lead with 10:05 to go into a 76-57 final victory margin.

In truth, Tennessee is going to go nowhere fast until Lofton returns. Since he turned his ankle early in the second half of the South Carolina game, the Vols have shot 33 percent the final 20 minutes against the Gamecocks, 42 percent during last Wednesday’s 83-69 loss at Ole Miss and 38 percent against UK after hitting above 46 percent with Lofton in the lineup.

Without Lofton, the inexperience of the Vols’ freshman class becomes a focus rather than a fringe concern. Without Lofton, Dane Bradshaw is forced to play both the point guard and strong forward positions, which may be the strangest double duty in all of college basketball.

Without Lofton, well, "We’re a much better team with him," noted Bradshaw.

Random quotes...

"This is a tough league," said Bradshaw. "The teams that are 5-2 and the teams that are 2-5 could easily be reversed in a few weeks."

calmly scanning a sheet of statistics with his back fittingly pressed to a wall, UT coach Bruce Pearl didn’t kick his Lofton-less team when it was down.

"I’m not upset with my team because I think they’re giving a great effort," Pearl said. "We obviously are facing some challenges with our roster. ... We’re most challenged to score. Where do we miss Chris the most? We missed 21 points a game, and that obviously showed in the second half."

To blame all the problems on Lofton’s sprained ankle would be "too easy," senior Dane Bradshaw insisted. With their top player wearing a suit and tie on the bench, the Vols (14-7, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) still led the favored Wildcats (16-5, 5-2) by one point at halftime.

Kentucky came out of intermission sloppy, posting seven turnovers before logging seven shot attempts. But mired in a 30 percent (9-of-30 ) second half shooting slump, Tennessee couldn’t capitalize.

"I knew we had to continue to make shots, and we didn’t," Pearl said. "And let’s face it, they made a lot of 3-balls in there that made a big, big difference."

"Sometimes we panic," UT forward Duke Crews said, "and that’s one thing we can’t do."

"We’re all just going to have to get together and throw a team meeting without the coaches," said Smith, a former McMinn County High standout who has scored 47 points the past two games without Lofton. "It’s not the coach’s fault. He’s there. He’s doing something right, because we wouldn’t be in the ball game in the first half (if he wasn’t). It’s just something we have to do to get over this hump."

Lofton will test his ankle with a workout to judge his status for Wednesday night’s visit from Georgia.

"That’s kind of the game that we’ve been pointing towards," Pearl said. "We’re going to push it a little bit (today), just to see, and then let him rest Tuesday and see how he feels on Wednesday. That’s the gameplan."

"Losses hurt a lot worse when you feel like you didn't contribute," Bradshaw said. "I'm very disappointed in myself, and I apologized to the team. It was just one of those nights. But when we're an All-American short, one person can't have one of those nights. We've all got to pick it up, and I didn't pick it up on my end."

"We're not losing confidence in what got us here," Bradshaw said. "We're going to continue to play the way we play and just try to be more consistent throughout the game."

Bradshaw,
"After a few losses, I was saying that hopefully we'll peak later on. But we've got to get a hold on this, and it starts with Georgia."

"We needed to shoot better," Pearl said. "We said before the game, 'We're going to get (Randolph Morris) in foul trouble,' and we did. We wanted to limit his touches, and we did. But we had to make shots, and we didn't make enough."
Where are the rebounds? Kentucky outrebounded Tennessee 42-27. The Vols had nobody with more than four rebounds, as Jordan Howell, Josh Tabb and Bradshaw led the way.

Lofton was asked after Sunday's game what it felt like to be home.
The Maysville, Ky., product deadpanned, "It was great to be here. But home's Maysville. This is not home."

Lofton is aiming to return to the court on Wednesday against Georgia, but the Southeastern Conference's leading scorer isn't guaranteeing it.
"I really can't say how realistic it is right now," said Lofton, who missed his second straight game with a sprained right ankle against Kentucky. "There's still a little bit of swelling, and we're just trying to work it out.

"You talk about the pressure being on the home team and holding home-court advantage," senior forward Dane Bradshaw said. "It's, without question, never been more that way. You treat every game like a must-win game. I don't want it to sound like we're panicking, but we all realize that we have to get a win.

And my pick for most appropriate quote after the game comes from the soul of the team. Mr. Bradshaw...

"It's too easy to blame it on the fact that we don't have Chris," Bradshaw said. "That's a cop-out. Not to devalue the importance of Chris Lofton, but we've had the same issues for the past seven games, with or without Chris, in the second half."

Patience. Even bitter medicine helps you get better in time...

Have a great week VolNationals....

 

[Bennett4UT]

How about we need to make free throws and not run down the court throwing up desperation shots when the game is still close!

 

[volhoopsfan001]

I like the quote from Lofton :

Lofton was asked after Sunday's game what it felt like to be home.

The Maysville, Ky., product deadpanned, "It was great to be here. But home's Maysville. This is not home."

 

[volhoopsfan001]

And, thanks for the Basketball news & notes,
orange+white=heaven.

 

[orange+white=heaven]

:hi:

It's much more fun when they are winning...

 

[volhoopsfan001]

True dat!

 

[DowntownVol]

Props to Bradshaw for manning up and taking responsibility for a sub-par game, and not blaming all of UT's recent woes on Lofton's absence.

Either Bradshaw will be a coach someday, or he'll eventually take over for Bert Bertlekamp as color analyst on the Vol Network.

 

[ukvols]

I'm not sure if Bradshaw can adequately replace the sounds of "Money!"

 

[MphsBlues]

Thanks, OWH! I always enjoy these when you post them.