Tennessee basketball gets early wake-up call in scrimmage loss to Xavier

The hype train has been off and running since the spring — the roster is there on paper — yet Tennessee went out on got smoked in their exhibition opener by Xavier on Thursday night. Tennessee held an early lead, but Xavier pulled back even midway through the second half. The Musketeers would go on to absolutely run away with it in the final ten minutes.

Xavier got hot from three-point range late, which powered them to a 59-point second half. They hit 10-14 shots from deep in the second, while Tennessee was just 1-12.

Most concerning though were the rebounding numbers. Tennessee typically makes a living on the glass, but that wasn’t the case with new-look roster on Thursday. Xavier won the battle on the boards 45-31, which is going to keep Rick Barnes up at night.

“We knew with this team coming in tonight that we were going to have to rebound,” Barnes said. “I like the fact they had some size and we knew they were going to get at it on the glass. Our guards, let’s see how many rebounds our guards had tonight? Actually, where are the rebounds here? DeWayne had 10. Miles Rubin had one.

“He’s got to do more than that. Juke Harris had two. No offensive rebounds. Dai Dai had two. Terrence Hill had two. So Jalen Harrelson had eight, but he played inside some and our guards have got to do a better job.”

Barnes was also, predictably and understandably, upset with the defensive effort. Particularly in the second half, that sure didn’t look like Tennessee culture, which is understandable after turning over nearly an entire roster.

“I want to be able to guard somebody,” Barnes said. “I want to have a different mindset. And, again, we’ve talked about it, talked about it, talked about it. But maybe now. These guys they talk about this is what they do in terms of scoring. Well, they didn’t do it tonight. And look what happened. There are going to be games like that. I’ve talked about it every year. When you want to get to an NCAA Tournament and be an NCAA Tournament team in single elimination, if you don’t shoot the ball well, you better find a way to win.”

For Barnes, it’s the perfect ammunition in October to get his team’s mindset right.

“I mean, it was good for us,” Barnes said. “And I told the coaches, if we’re going to get beat, I hope they really beat us so maybe we can really get their attention.”

Terrence Hill Jr. led the way for Tennessee with 22 points on 9-17 shooting. Juke Harris scored 15 in 22 minutes. Collectively, Tennessee shot just 4-26 from three point range. One important note there — Tyler Lundblade didn’t play and is still working back from shoulder surgery.

So it was a night where Tennessee didn’t defense, didn’t make shots and lost the rebounding battle by 14. That’s a losing recipe, but the good news is that it’s just October. Tennessee has taken preseason losses just like this one before and come out on the better end of it down the road. Knowing Barnes’ track record, I wouldn’t bet against that happening again.

Tennessee’s next scrimmage comes against Duke on Tuesday night.