Tennessee went east to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night and got absolutely dismantled by the Duke Blue Devils. In their final exhibition matchup of the preseason, Tennessee flat out didn’t show up against the No. 2 ranked Blue Devils, falling behind early and eventually losing by 39 points.
It may have not even been that close.
“Really disappointed, and I told Jon (Scheyer), I’m sorry we didn’t give him a better challenge tonight,” Rick Barnes said after the game. “We know we’ve got a lot going on with our program in terms of having so many young guys starting from scratch, but we’re still looking to see what we can find in terms of a group of guys that are going to compete.”
Duke came out firing and connecting, putting the pressure on Tennessee early. The Volunteers were coming off of a loss to Xavier last week in Knoxville, trying to put a game that got away from them late behind them. No such thing was done though, as Duke ran out to a staggering 27-4 lead early on. The Volunteers couldn’t hit an open shot, and certainly couldn’t defend Duke’s ball movement.
Open look after open look went down for the Blue Devils as the lead continued to swell. Making matters worse in that opening stretch was Tennessee guard Terrence Hill Jr. going down with an ankle injury. He would not return, and was later seen with crutches on the bench.
Competitively, the game was over before halftime. Duke took a 24 point lead into the break and would go on to win the second half, 49-34. Dai Dai Ames lead the way scoring for Tennessee with 19 points. Juke Harris scored just ten points on 2-10 shooting from the field. Jalen Haralson was only able to add six points and three rebounds.
Obviously Hill was dealing with an injury, but outside of Ames, Tennessee’s big ticket transfer portal additions simply didn’t deliver in Durham.
“Honestly, I think some players just don’t know what it takes yet to get it done,” Barnes said. “That’s why it’s been great to play a really good team like Xavier, and obviously Jon’s team is terrific. Sometimes you got to go through this. I’ve always been a big proponent of playing five of these because I think it really helps you get exposed. I think it gives you a chance — and I’m glad we got this one.”
Tennessee ended up giving up 103 points on the night, and that was with Duke emptying their bench in the final three minutes. They were able to shoot 54 percent from the field and 36 percent from three-point range. Duke assisted on 16 of their makes against just seven from Tennessee.
Most alarming — once again — was the rebounding disparity. Duke won on the boards 44 to 29, making Tennessee’s lack of rebounding a trend in the preseason. The same thing happened against Xavier last week. Braeden Lue led the way with eight, but Tennessee is going to need more from Miles Rubin (5), DeWayne Brown (5) and Jalen Haralson (3) going forward.
They very clearly need an eventual favorable ruling on Vanderbilt transfer Jalen Washington as well.
“Got to rebound,” Barnes continued. “We’ve gotten killed on the glass, and that’s something that I mean, last year — we’ve always been a good rebounding team, and that’s a mindset. It’s a competitive mindset. You just refuse not to compete. I don’t care what size you are. You just got to rebound the ball, take care of the ball better. We got to obviously do a better job of that, but I like our guys. We knew coming in, or I knew, and our staff did, that we would have to maybe get beat to get some attention. We’ll see if we do get their attention.”
Tennessee has a not-so-secret scrimmage planned with Davidson this weekend before all attention focuses on the season opener. The Volunteers still are waiting on a ruling on Jalen Washington, which would certainly help the rebounding situation. They’re also inching closer to getting sharpshooting guard Tyler Lundblade back from minor back surgery. He’s resumed basketball activities and appears to be close.
However, none of that matters if Juke Harris, Jalen Haralson, Dai Dai Ames and those guys you brought in to lead the program aren’t producing. The Hill injury just adds another layer to things as Barnes tries to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
The good news is this — Tennessee opens with Wofford, Radford and Tennessee State. Those buy games have never been more important as Barnes tries to work out all of these early kinks. A showdown with Michigan State looms on November 17th, ahead of a trip out to Vegas to take part in the Players Era Tournament.