Normally, John Calipari has a postgame routine on road-trip flights back to Memphis.

It usually goes something like this:

Pop in the tape, take a few notes, check out the plusses and minuses and relish another victory for the 16th-ranked Memphis.

That wasn't happening late Wednesday night for the Tigers' coach.

"I don't even know if I'll watch this tape for a while," Calipari said after suffering a 76-58 setback at Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena. "Normally I would watch it right after the game. This one I may let go for a while."

There's a reason for that.

Calipari credited Tennessee for playing "inspired" in front of a crowd of 19,714, but he was more ticked off about his team's apparent lethargy.

Memphis hit 9-of-40 first-half shots (22.5 percent) on its way to a 43-22 deficit in front of a national TV audience on ESPN2.

His Tigers ignored his orders on how to guard UT junior Chris Lofton and watched the Vols' junior torch his team for 34 points.

"He was unbelievable," Calipari said of Lofton. "Their whole team played well. They played inspired.

"We didn't shoot particularly well, but you've got to give them credit. We were driving sideways and we're a team that prides itself on getting to the rim. Guess what? The first half, they got to the rim."

Calipari said the Memphis game plan for guarding Lofton was fairly simple.

"Our whole thing was you make him put it on the floor," he said. "So we're giving him jumpers and our guys are saying, 'But I was on him.'

"You don't understand. You make him put it on the floor. Do not let him catch and shoot."

But Lofton was in catch-and-shoot bliss all night.

"You get up by 20 with a kid like him and now that rim is like this (Calipari's arms spread wide)," he said. "It doubles in size and all the sudden he's shooting 40 footers and they're going down."

Willie Kemp found out first hand what his coach was talking about.

Memphis' freshman guard from Bolivar - former teammate of Vols' freshman Wayne Chism - was on the receiving end of a few Lofton bombs.

"Chris is a great player and he made shots all over the court," Kemp said after going 1-for-11 from the floor and scoring three points.

"We knew he was a great shooter and we had a hand in his face, but he still made them."

That's why Calipari won't be watching this game tape anytime soon.

He watched his Tigers rally to a 12-point deficit early in the second half, but Lofton and company slammed the door on any brewing Memphis momentum.

"Give them credit," Calipari said. "Dane Bradshaw did some things to hurt us again. Every time they missed, he got the rebound.

"One of the biggest plays was Lofton's offensive rebound (with 12:10 remaining) and getting Joey (Dorsey) his fourth foul. That was basically the game."

It was a game Memphis never really found its rhythm.

But Calipari didn't seem too concerned about any long-range recruiting implications to losing to an in-state rival like UT.

"I concede the rest of the state," he said. "In Memphis, we get who we want. The rest of the state, I don't really recruit.

"We're a national team that recruits nationally. This game, if it's on TV, is a good game for us. If it's not on TV, it's not a good game for us."

This one was on TV. And it's one the Memphis coach doesn't want to see again anytime soon.