Jay Bilas: Tennessee is still a Final Four caliber team despite loss vs. Florida

Tennessee got off to a 14-0 start to the season, but the Vols first loss of the year was an ugly one. Florida pounded Tennessee 73-43 last Tuesday in Gainesville as UT scored its fewest points ever under head coach Rick Barnes.

Tennessee was the last remaining unbeaten Division I team in the country, before getting pummeled by Florida. Despite the performance against the Gators, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas is still a big believer in the Vols.

Bilas feels that the result of the SEC showdown was more about how good Florida is than anything that is wrong with Tennessee.

“I was shocked at the way Tennessee was made to look by Florida. It was an amazing performance,” Jay Bilas said. “But I think rather than kind of harp on what Tennessee didn’t do, to me, I was just as impressed, if not more so, with what Florida did. It was ridiculously physical, and Florida was the one that was dishing out all the blows.”

The Vols shot 21.4 percent from the field and 13.8 percent from 3-point range in the loss. Barnes’ club also had 12 turnovers and only six assists.

“I thought they smacked Tennessee and they never really recovered, and it just kept getting worse for the Vols,” Bilas said.

The goods news for UT is that it bounced back from the loss in impressive fashion, winning at Texas on Saturday. Tennessee is now 15-1 (2-1) on the year, and Bilas believes the Vols have all of the pieces needed to reach the Final 4.

Reaching the Final 4 is a huge goal for this team as the program has never made it there.

“I’m not worried about Tennessee. I think they’ll be fine. They’re a Final 4 caliber team,” Bilas said. “I think they’re just as good as they were last year. But they saw their own blood, and there was a lot of blood of the floor in Gainesville. And it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to that.”

So far, so good. Up next, Tennessee will play another ranked SEC team as the Vols will host No. 23 Georgia on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The Bulldogs have been a big surprise in the SEC thus far and are 14-2 on the year.

Georgia is coming off of back-to-back ranked wins over Kentucky and Oklahoma.