Box Score
Tennessee Men's Basketball
LEXINGTON, Ky. - It wasn't about Jodie Meeks this time. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the first time, either.
When Jodie Meeks played like Superman last month, Kentucky beat Tennessee by 18 comfortable points.
Jodie Meeks played like Everyman on Saturday. The Vols didn't close the gap one bit. Kentucky won by 19 comfortable points.
Irrefutable conclusion: Whether Meeks scores 54 or 14, Tennessee couldn't get within arm's reach of the Wildcats.
The two historic rivals may be neck-and-neck in the SEC Eastern Division race, but you couldn't prove it head-to-head.
Two years ago, after a 76-57 loss to Kentucky in Rupp Arena, I wrote that Tennessee would win in Rupp before it lost here again by 19 points. That was my testimony for Bruce Pearl.
Kentucky's 77-58 win here Saturday made a liar out of me.
It made Pearl feel like crawling in a hole, judging from his postgame comments.
He talked about this team's lack of purpose and passion. But the Vols did get one thing right Saturday: They may have gotten embarrassed but they didn't let Meeks embarrass them.
It was five weeks ago in Knoxville that Kentucky's junior guard lit up the Vols for 54 points, a Kentucky record and a Thompson-Boling Arena record.
He made 15 of 22 shots, 10 of 15 3-point tries, 14 of 14 free throws. The Vols looked like the Washington Generals, playing patsy for a Harlem Globetrotter.
Tennessee was determined that wouldn't happen again Saturday.
"They had a smart game plan in store for us,'' said Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie.
The Vols dogged Meeks everywhere, primarily rotating Josh Tabb and Bobby Maze.
Meeks made 4 of 14 shots, zero of his seven 3-point tries and needed a perfect 6-of-6 at the free-throw line to account for 14 points.
Mission accomplished. So what went wrong?
"Defensively,'' said Pearl, "you have to make the other guys beat you. We did and they did.''
The other guys were Darius Miller and Michael Porter.
Patrick Patterson did his part, dominating in the paint with 19 points. But that was almost to be expected.
Miller and Porter weren't.
Miller picked an appropriate moment for his coming-out party. With Mason County High School's most famous alumnus, Chris Lofton, in the house, the freshman from Mason County notched a career-high 17 points.
Miller was perfect: 6-of-6 overall, 3-of-3 from 3-point range, 2-of-2 at the foul line.
Porter, a sophomore point guard, pitched in nine points. He made three big 3-point shots, two in the second half to help stem any notion of a Tennessee rally.
"That's what they have to do,'' said Gillispie. "Jodie's really getting knocked around a lot."
Miller had been averaging 4.3 points, Porter 3.8. So if they give you 26, it makes up for holding Meeks 12 points under his average - not to mention 40 under his game in Knoxville.
"That's the Darius Miller we recruited,'' said Gillispie. "I really thought he'd be our third-leading scorer over the course of the season.''
Miller just took what was there.
"Half the time my man and Mike's man was looking at Jodie, too,'' said Miller. "So we had a lot of open shots and a lot of open driving lanes.''
But, as Pearl pointed out, spotting Kentucky a 13-0 lead, made the basket look bigger for the so-called other guys.
"It's one thing,'' said Pearl, "to take and make those shots in a close game. It's another when they've got it all going their way.
"And they got it going their way right from the very beginning.''
Meeks, meanwhile, cut and slashed, weaved and bobbed for 37 minutes. He never stopped moving. It's probably no coincidence that on the offensive end, Maze was 1-of-7 shooting and had zero assists. Or that Tabb had neither a field goal nor an assist.
"Jodie,'' said Gillispie, "had another tremendous game today, even though the numbers won't look like it.
"He helps everybody. We haven't made teams pay for it really enough over the course of the season.''
They made the Vols pay dearly for it on this day.
Maybe it really was about Meeks.
Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strangem@knoxnews.com.
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Comments » 11
jhayes0926#638474 writes:
Great, so we should be happy that we controlled Meeks? You still have to score points. We were lucky to have double digit points by half. We are the slowest (mentally and physically) that I have ever seen a UT team in 10 years.
I don't know if I can watch another UT game on TV this year. Makes me cringe embarrassingly.
tnmantravel#531151 writes:
10 YEARS? HOW LONG AGO WAS IT THAT UK DEFEATED KNOXVILLE'S VOLS 100-40 IN THOMPSON BOILING ARENA??
THAT WAS THE WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN UT.
CoverOrange writes:
That was the Kevin ONeill era. More than 10 years. Although same result, no offense no defense.
bmaples writes:
The site guidance says that we agree not to post comments that are "off-topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive ..."
Where is the agreement that the team will not play a game that is all those things?
newtonrail writes:
No. Wade Houston's last season when most of the people on this board were apparently still in diapers. The team played lousy. Coach said they played lousy, and where are all the people up till two months ago saying: "in Bruce we Trust"? Do we need a Chris Lofton? You betcha, but he's probably not available this late. Although Chris was signed by Buzz in the Spring period, and all the posters said he had no stars, Ky and Lou. didn't want him so he couldn't be any good. The negativity on this board is sickening. Go get em Bruce.
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
Like Bruce says, you have to win some to have a rivalry.
IMHO, our NCAA hopes are gone. I hope Bruce turns d0wn the NIT. The extra practice and games won't help this bunch.
------------------
Bruce, have you ever thought of this: put Nededu in with this instruction: go get the ball. don't care where, or how, just go get it. Negedu is a MAN, not soft, and he'll bang with the best of them.
Here's to having guards...remember what those are??
jhayes0926#638474 writes:
Sounds like everyone agrees there is no energy, hustle, desire, focus, etc. Anyone agree maybe we should start these 5? Just a hunch.
Tyler
Negedu
Childress
Maze
Chism/Tabb
These guys exhibit the most hustle and energy.
(please don't throw out the benchwarmers names, that is like throwing the dogs out to the wolves, they would be humiliated worse than we are now)
DisorientedVol writes:
As an aside, in the stadium challenge, we are losing to LSU. We can't seem to win anything right now. Go vote vols.
http://www.prepticket.com/battle/mark...
johnlg00#206211 writes:
If the Vols had used yesterday's defensive game plan when we played them in K'ville, we might have won that game. Marginal role players like Miller and Porter don't usually step up like that on the road. Even with the way they shot yesterday, the offense--again--was our downfall. One problem is that most of OUR role players played poorly; same case as above with UK's. There may be something to the idea that our guards wore themselves out chasing Meeks to the point that they couldn't perform on offense. UK just had too many weapons for us yesterday, while most of ours seemed not to be loaded. Pretty good offense from Hopson and one of BW's better performances, but not much else.
CoverOrange writes:
You're right Newt, that was the 1993 game uhnder Houston. I was remembering the 1996 game under ONeill, which was 90-50.
murrayvol writes:
I'd actually forgotten that game Turbo.....and many others of that era. Thanks for reminding me. :)
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