{"id":590806,"date":"2026-02-08T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/590806\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:28:12","slug":"they-work-too-hard-why-tennessee-basketball-is-confident-it-will-bounce-back-from-kentucky-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/590806\/","title":{"rendered":"‘They Work Too Hard’: Why Tennessee Basketball Is Confident It Will Bounce Back From Kentucky Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletics<\/p>\n

Tennessee basketball\u2019s seventh loss of the season was its most frustrating to date, blowing a 14-point halftime lead in a 74-71 loss at Kentucky on Saturday night. The Vols entered the game having won four straight games before taking a step back with a terrible second half against Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Amidst plenty of frustration and anger postgame, Tennessee players and coaches expressed optimism that the Vols will respond the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys will bounce back,\u201d Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said.<\/a> \u201cThey\u2019ve got too much pride. They work too hard. Their work ethic is too good. We have not reached the ceiling with this team, and that\u2019s a good thing right now that we can keep growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee has flashed at times as of late due in large part to Nate Ament\u2019s emergence as a star and one of the SEC\u2019s best players. But consistency has eluded Tennessee. The Vols struggled offensively in the first half of wins at Georgia and Ole Miss. They collapsed offensively<\/a> in the second half against Kentucky.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s cause for concern with the lack of consistency in February, but Tennessee hopes that means that they\u2019ll peak at the right time and play its best basketball in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never want to peak too early and we have a long way to go,\u201d sophomore guard Bishop Boswell said<\/a>. \u201cIt can be bad if you don\u2019t have the right mindset but I know this team and I know my guys. We\u2019re going to have the right mindset. I know how hard that we work. We\u2019re just going to get back in the lab and fix the things we need to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Why Tennessee\u2019s Loss At Kentucky Doesn\u2019t Bother Rick Barnes As Much As The Loss In Knoxville<\/a><\/p>\n

The Vols also draw confidence from their ability to respond to failure earlier this season. Tennessee lost three straight games in non conference play and responded with a blowout victory over Louisville. After blowing a lead in its first loss at Kentucky to start 2-3 in SEC play, Tennessee won four straight games for perhaps its best stretch of basketball all season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us confidence for sure,\u201d Ament said.<\/a> \u201cThe one thing about our coaches and Coach Rick Barnes is he\u2019s going to find an answer for it. He did that when we went on a losing streak earlier this season and he\u2019s going to find an answer for it now. But a lot of it is we just have to make shots at the rim and make free throws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done it before,\u201d Boswell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone on a three-game losing streak and bounced back from that. We know how good we are. We know how much work we put in. We just got to carry it on. We can\u2019t dwell on this and let it affect the rest of our season. There\u2019s a lot of basketball left so just learn from it and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s schedule is favorable for a strong response. The Vols go on the road to face a bad Mississippi State team Wednesday night before returning home for back-to-back games against LSU and Oklahoma. Tennessee\u2019s toughest remaining game comes after that with a road contest at Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletics Tennessee basketball\u2019s seventh loss of the season was its most frustrating to date,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,63041,18339,7926,1919],"class_list":{"0":"post-590806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bishop-boswell","10":"tag-nate-ament","11":"tag-rick-barnes","12":"tag-tennessee-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116035958792672233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}