Tennessee's message to Chaz Lanier after missed free throw: 'That's not what lost us the game'
Tennessee had battled back, somehow. From down 16 points with just under 11 minutes left to not allowing a point for nearly all of the final four minutes to down just two points with 2.8 seconds left and Chaz Lanier at the foul line.
It was a dream scenario for the Nashville native playing in his hometown for the first time with his home-state school.
Lanier made the first free throw look easy enough. But the second one missed and Vanderbilt held on for the 76-75 upset at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville Saturday.
“I know he was probably hurt about it,” Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey said Monday morning before practice at Food City Center. “Not even just being in front of his home crowd, he had opportunity to tie the game up and send it to overtime.”
Chaz Lanier scored 17 points on 4-6 3FG at Vanderbilt
Lanier broke out of a recent shooting slump to score a team-high 17 points in the loss, going 4-for-6 from the 3-point line. But the missed foul shot — his only missed free throw of the game — was the lasting image.
The message from his coaches and teammates after the game, though, didn’t focus on the foul line.
“The message was clear,” Gainey said, “that’s not what lost the game for us, by no means. There were plays throughout the entire game that we could have been better, that played as big of a part as that did. So we were clear to make sure he understood that, that his teammates understood that. And they did.”
Tennessee led by as many as eight points in the first eight minutes of the game, but trailed by six at halftime after Zakai Zeigler picked up two fouls and sat for the final seven minutes of the first half.
Vanderbilt caught fire early in the second half, making four 3-pointers in less than two minutes and starting the half 5-for-6 from the 3-point line while extending the lead to 68-52 with 10:57 left.
Tennessee shut Vandy out for the final 3:48, closing the game on a 9-0 run before coming up one point short of forcing overtime.
“This is a group that’s been in a lot of high-level games,” Gainey said, “and that understand that one, two possessions in the first half can determine the outcome of a game.”
Top 10
- 1
Miss Terry
Nick Saban shares powerful message
- 2
Kirk Herbstreit
Reveals wife's cancer diagnosis
- 3
Final AP Poll
Ohio State tops final Top 25
- 4Hot
Klatt rips CFP brass
'The mismanagement has been egregious'
- 5Trending
Way-Too-Early Top 25
Can Arch lead Texas to top?
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
“Obviously it was a tough situation that (Lanier) was in,” Zeigler added on Monday. “… He’s going to be in plenty of those situations.”
Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 14 Mississippi State, Tuesday
That next situation could come Tuesday, when No. 6 Tennessee (16-2, 3-2 SEC) looks to move on from the loss with No. 14 Mississippi State coming to Knoxville for a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN2.
“We got to move on to the next situation,” Zeigler said. “We can’t dwell on what happened in the last game. Now we got to move on to us playing Mississippi State.”
Lanier, the North Florida transfer, has made Tennessee better this season. He’s the team’s leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, shooting 42.7% from the 3-point line and 41.2% from the floor.
He broke out of a shooting slump at Vanderbilt, going 5-for-11 from the field after going 8-for-43 over his previous three games, including just 4-for-24 from the 3-point line.
Those numbers are why Gainey doesn’t expect Lanier to be unable to shake the missed foul shot.
“I think Chaz is a resilient guy,” Gainey said. “He’s tough. He understands it. He probably wishes he could have that moment back, but it is what it is and we move on and let it make us all better.”
