Rick Barnes explains frustration with Felix Okpara travel call vs. Auburn

Tennessee was unable to leave Auburn with a victory over the No. 1 team in the country over the weekend, losing 53-51 to the Tigers on the road after failing to score in the final two minutes of the game.

A key moment during that stretch saw junior forward Felix Okpara get called for a travel. The Vols were leading 51-49 with the ball with 1:32 remaining. Instead, the ball was given back to Auburn where they’d go on to win the game in the final minute.

In the heat of the moment, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes threw his bottle of water onto the floor when the officials made the call. After the game, Barnes said that he believed the officials let Auburn get away with some extra physicality before the travel was call.

“I thought he was held,” Barnes explained. “I mean, it’s a physical game and I just don’t think from what I saw, I thought he had two hands on his shoulders and can’t— I don’t know what we can do and I thought we should have did a better job getting it in, but they do a really good job in those situations too.

“But I think he traveled. I don’t think you can put two hands on somebody’s shoulders. That’s what my (assistant) coaches told me was they saw, when they looked at it well before the game was over and maybe it didn’t, it didn’t happen. He traveled. He definitely traveled. Whether he had help doing it, you have to look at it. I haven’t seen it yet.” 

While the turnover by Okpara didn’t lead to an immediate basket by Tennessee, and the Vols even had a chance to go up two scores with under a minute left in regulation. After Vols guard Zakai Zeigler missed the potential go-ahead layup, Auburn’s next possession saw Miles Kelly drain a 3-pointer to give Auburn the lead and never relinquished it.

Okpara logged six point and nine rebounds during 36 minutes on the floor for Tennessee. Zeigler was the team’s leading scorer with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Saturday was also Auburn’s first game back with their Wooden Award hopeful, Johni Broome, after suffering an ankle injury against South Carolina earlier in the month. He came off the bench but played 33 minutes while scoring 16 points and hauling in 13 rebounds off the glass.

The Vols, who have now lost two of their last three games, will turn their attention toward a banged up Kentucky team coming off a road loss to Vanderbilt. Tip-off is set for Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN.