Bishop Boswell lost Merrick Thomas at the three-point line, and a foot of space was all the Arkansas freshman guard needed to get his shot off.
Boswell desperately tried to make a three-pointer, and his arm touched Thomas. Thomas had no room to land, causing a foul. Suddenly, the Vols’ four-point lead — and the momentum they had built after halftime — was gone.
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Every time No. 20 Tennessee basketball (10-4, 0-1 SEC) had a chance to create some disparity in the conference opener, they squandered the opportunity. Missed free throws, missed layups and 14 turnovers kept the team from winning on the road.
Eventually, No. 18 Arkansas (11-3, 1-0) went on offense, scoring 11 straight points with six minutes remaining to put the game away, and Walton fell 86-75 on Jan. 3 at Bud Walton Stadium.
“They made layups at the rim and we didn’t. They made free throws and we didn’t,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “They won because they did what was necessary to win and we didn’t.”
The Rolls didn’t get enough from the post players
Barnes was very disappointed with the Vols not getting what they needed from three of their four post players. He believes Felix Okpara, who hasn’t practiced the past two days because of a hip bruise, is better prepared than the other big men.
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“You can’t. You can’t, you can’t win. I mean, this league is too good,” Barnes said of winning without the interior players performing. “We’re good enough to beat anybody in this country, and we are, but if we don’t pay attention to detail, we’re not going to beat anybody in this country.”
The Vols’ guards led the team with 51 points, including freshman Amari Evans who scored 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting. JP Estrella led the forwards with nine points on 3-of-3 shooting, but freshmen DeWayne Brown II and Jaylen Carey scored 12 points on 6-of-15 shooting, both of which had multiple blocked shots. Tennessee missed 14 of 25 layup attempts.
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Barnes said most of the defensive errors are due to defensive mistakes by post players.
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The underperforming veteran forwards were part of the reason three of Tennessee’s five freshmen saw significant playing time, something Barnes didn’t expect. He said forward Nate Ament, who scored 13 points, played the 4 instead of the 3 because other post players “weren’t getting the job done.”
Evans getting more playing time in smaller lineups was one of the lone bright spots for Tennessee.
“He’s not afraid of competition,” Barnes said of Evans. “We still think those older guys are going to play more than these guys. But the fact is, the freshmen have earned their playing time and (Evans) is one of them.”
Free throws hurt Tennessee again
Tennessee has suffered poor free throw shooting in three of its four losses. It made just three free throw attempts against Arkansas and missed both free throw attempts in the first half.
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Ament made 5 of 11 free throws and Tennessee made 12 of 23 free throws (Arkansas made 29 of 33 free throws).
The Vols have never shot better than 67 percent from the line in their past six games, but they’ve shot above 60 percent twice. Missing a free throw isn’t just a loss of points. It also adds weight to everything else.
“You want to run some stuff, but then you start thinking, OK, if they get fouled or they don’t take free throws — you want aggressive players, they’re going to foul and not take free throws,” Barnes said. “That does continue to put pressure on other parts of the game.”
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Blue Sky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel: What went wrong for Tennessee basketball in SEC opening loss to Arkansas
