GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tennessee coach Rick Barnes walked into the locker room and delivered a brief message to his downtrodden team: “This is good for us.”
At least in the long run.
The top-ranked Volunteers became the last Division I team to lose this season, getting thumped 73-43 at No. 8 Florida on Tuesday night. This one was over shortly after it tipped.
Tennessee (14-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) missed its first nine shots, trailed by double digits a few minutes later and never recovered. The Volunteers got bullied in the paint, outmuscled on the boards and beaten up and down the court.
The result was the most lopsided victory against a No. 1 team since UCLA and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, beat Houston 101-69 in the 1968 Final Four.
“I have no idea some of the things I was looking out there watching,” Barnes said. “I don’t think it was our guys not trying to play hard. I just didn’t think we played very smart.”
Barnes believes his players started pressing amid the sluggish start and “lost our poise.”
“I thought we had the wrong guys shooting the ball at the wrong time,” he said.
Tennessee made just four shots in the first half and trailed by 19 at the break. And none of the adjustments Barnes made at halftime worked. The Gators (14-1, 1-1) extended their lead early in the second half and really started to pull away late.
Florida, which led by as many as 36 in the second half, ended up with a 55-37 rebounding advantage and outscored the Vols 40-14 in the pain and 22-3 on fast breaks.
“We’re going to learn what we got to do to get better,” Barnes said. “And we got to get better play, obviously, out of our front line. They’ve got to do a better job. I thought they had their way in there on the front line, which I thought was really the difference in the game.”
Florida’s Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu dominated down low against Tennessee’s Igor Milicic and Felix Okpara. Condon had 12 points and 12 rebounds for his second double-double, and Chinyelu finished with a career-high 15 boards.
More surprising: the Vols’ leading scorer, Chaz Lanier, looked ordinary. Lanier, who spent the last four years playing at nearby North Florida before signing a name, image and likeness deal reportedly worth nearly $1 million to transfer to Tennessee, scored 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting.
“We didn’t want to give him no breathing room,” said Alijah Martin, who led Florida with 18 points. “We know he’s an unbelievable talent, unbelievable shooter. And that was the game plan, just don’t give him no space. Don’t give nothing easy.”
The point total was Tennessee’s lowest during Barnes’ 10 seasons in Knoxville.
Florida, meanwhile, looked much more like the team that started 13-0 than the one that lost 106-100 at Kentucky last weekend. The Gators were one of four unbeatens a week ago — along with Oklahoma and Drake — but Tennessee was the last one standing.
And the Gators were hellbent on ending UT’s run in Gainesville. Florida topped a No. 1 team at home for the first time in six tries and extended its home winning streak to 16 games.
The key? After giving up 14 3-pointers at Rupp Arena in Lexington, the Gators held the Vols to 4-of-29 shooting from behind the arc.
“I’m incredibly proud,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “But now our biggest thing is this can’t be the highlight of our season. It’s awesome in the moment, and we’re going to enjoy it. But it certainly won’t feel as good if we don’t go and find a way to win (at Arkansas) on Saturday.”
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