Tennessee Men's Basketball
The second half wasn't three minutes old when Georgia coach Mark Fox stomped a foot in disgust and called a timeout.
Never mind that the Bulldogs still had the lead. Fox didn't like what he saw.
"I didn't like our determination at the defensive end," Fox said.
The timeout didn't help. Neither did a change of defenses nor a change of lineups.
The momentum went first, then the lead, as Tennessee outscored the Bulldogs by 14 points in the second half en route to a 69-60 SEC victory at Thompson-Boling Arena on Wednesday night.
The contrasting halves reflected the Bulldogs season. The same team that was good enough to defeat both UT and Vanderbilt in Athens has invariably found itself lacking on the road, where it is 0-6 in SEC play.
"We're still a little immature," Fox said. "And we're not a complete enough team to overcome that.
"We need to have a second scorer."
A first scorer wasn't an issue. Forward Trey Thompkins looked like an NBA player in scoring with relative ease for the first two-thirds of the game.
Thompkins finished with a game-high 25 points on 9-for-15 shooting and also had a team-high 10 rebounds. His numbers were similarly impressive in Georgia's 78-63 victory over UT last month when he had 21 points and eight rebounds.
There was nothing familiar about the numbers of Georgia guard Travis Leslie, who had 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists against UT in Athens.
Leslie was often missing in action Wednesday night. He had four fouls and four turnovers, compared to just four points.
Georgia's defense was as absent as Leslie's offense in the second half.
"We never corrected out defense," Fox said.
Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.
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Comments » 9
VolInIndy writes:
no comment
bspurlingcac#225603 writes:
It is nignt and day on the road and at home in the SEC. Go Vols!!!
CoverOrange writes:
I guess JA fell asleep before he finished the article.
Appears that Mark Fox will elevate Georgia out of cellar status in the next few years.
lomas98 writes:
They may be a little "immature", but Thompkins is one of the best players in this conference. He has a complete game and is one of the best NBA prospects in the SEC. If they had a couple more scorers this would be a pretty good GA team. Hopefully Thompkins leaves this year.
armyvol22 writes:
Isn't "no comment" a comment? lol
TommyJack writes:
Looks like GA finally got a real Corch.
asleep#212036 writes:
Yeah, and I'm not real happy about it. : ) That's all we need in the already stacked SEC East - Georgia to drop off the mark-it-down win column. The SEC is slowly but surely climbing back to national significance and I don't mean just Kentucky. The rest of us are getting better and better. I think in a couple more years, the SEC will be right back in the thick of contention for national titles again. Go Vols!!!
schymtz writes:
I agree that the SEC is growing stronger in basketball. All of that is a very good thing. Once upon a time, Big Blue fans could rightly see the SEC at "their" conference, not in the sense that they belonged to the conference, but that, in basketball, the conference belonged to UK. UK held three invitational tournys a year: one in Lexington, the regular SEC season, and both the pre-war and the "modern era" Conference Championships. Occasionally, Ole Miss, LSU and Vanderbilt would make some noise. With greater consistency than most, Tennessee seemed a perpetual bride's maid, especially under Mears. UK fans correctly saw that Tennessee's games with Kentucky were Tennessee's "big game of the year." Even when Tennessee won it was UT's big game. UK fans seldom saw a game outside the NCAA championship as their "game of the year." This year may be the first time in a long time Kentucky even has a shot at a "game of the year." The whole point of this reply is not to contradict but to encourage what you are saying. Kentucky still thinks on a national stage. I want Tennessee, Florida, and the rest of the SEC to grow in that attitude. Beating Kansas in Knoxville when they are ranked #1 in a real accomplishment. I'd rather beat them in the last college game of the season. I believe that a strong conference is more likely to produce National Championships than a weak conference. Duke can't be Duke without North Carolina. Go Vols! Go SEC!
schymtz writes:
Case on point: With Vandy leading over Ole Miss at the half, an ESPN guy commented "Vandy needs to win this game just so the SEC can be known as something other than 'Kentucky and the eleven dwarfs!'"
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