ESPN's Jay Bilas details his one concern for Tennessee basketball

Jay Bilas saw it up close. ESPN’s college basketball analyst was on the broadcast at Thompson-Boling Arena two weeks ago, when No. 4 Tennessee was frustrated in a 63-56 loss to unranked Kentucky in front of a capacity crowd.

The Vols got outrebounded 43-23. They had to play through early foul trouble, sending the rival Wildcats to the foul line time and time again, while hardly getting to the line themselves. They shot just 3-for-21 from the 3-point line. 

If there’s one concern for Rick Barnes and this team, at least in the eyes of Bilas who saw it firsthand, it’s shot-making.

“I think the issue that Tennessee and a lot of teams have is are they going to be consistent game to game in making shots,” Bilas said this week. 

Defensive-minded Vols looking to establish offensive consistency

No. 4 Tennessee (17-3) hosts No. 10 Texas (17-3) on Saturday (6 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN) inside a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. Bilas will be on hand Saturday morning for ESPN’s College GameDay, broadcasting live from Knoxville from 11 a.m.-Noon ET.

“Against Kentucky, they just couldn’t make any shots,” Bilas said. “Their defense was good. They held Kentucky to 30-some percent from the field and down in the sixties (scoring). I mean, it was a slug fest of a game, and incredibly physical. 

Tennessee’s strength is an elite defense, ranked No. 1 in the country by KenPom.com, giving up just 82.7 points per 100 possession. In the 20-year history of the KenPom site, a defense has never been that efficient. But the Vols are just 40th in adjusted offensive efficiency, scoring 112.3 points per 100 possessions.

Since the loss to Kentucky, Tennessee has bounced back with road wins at Mississippi State and LSU before throttling Georgia 70-41 Wednesday in Knoxville.

The Vols have already set a single-season program record with 11 wins by 20 or more points. Georgia became the 10th opponent to be held under 50 points by this Tennessee defense. Fifteen of the 17 wins have included the opposition scoring 60 or less.

Kentucky shot 36.6 percent from the field and just 30.0 percent from the 3-point line in the win at Tennessee, but it was enough to outscore the cold-shooting Vols who suffered from ill-timed turnovers and missed free throws in the loss. 

“There were issues,” Bilas said, “that he had where they didn’t defend a particular way on certain possessions, but overall they defended well enough to win the game. Their offense didn’t match their defense. They had some turnovers that led to some run outs and some easy baskets the other way, but not enough that their offense couldn’t overcome it.”

Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 10 Texas, Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tennessee, at No. 40, has the lowest adjusted offensive efficiency ranking of any team in KenPom’s top 10 overall rating. No. 13 TCU, with the No. 49 offense, and No. 14 Iowa State (No. 57 offense) are the only teams in the top 15 with worse offensive numbers than the Vols.

“I actually spoke to Rick about this,” Bilas said. “We talked about it the day before the (Kentucky) game that for most coaches right now their biggest concern and game to game is, ‘are we going to be able to make shots in these games?’ These games are incredibly physical. And it requires making shots through contact more than I can remember in the past. But that’s really sort of the issue.” 

It’s not enough of an issue, Bilas added, that will keep Tennessee from contending in March. 

“There’s nothing,” he said, “no weakness you can point to, and say, ‘Oh, this is going to be an an impediment to Tennessee winning the National Championship.’ The only thing I would say is game to game. 

“You know some games they knock shots down to really high rate. Other games, it’s more difficult, and they have to fight through offensive droughts, but that’s not horribly unusual for teams, but that’s really the thing that I would say would be of concern. But it’s of concern to a number of different teams.”