The Tennessee men's basketball program's season ended with a bitter March Madness defeat once again, this time at the hands of the upstart Florida Atlantic Owls. After the game, Volunteers star and senior guard Josiah-Jordan James didn't sugarcoat the loss. James summed it up painfully well by bluntly admitting that Florida Atlantic “wanted it more”, per Gentry Estes of The Nashville Tennessean.
“They wanted it more. That’s tough to say.”
James admitted it was “tough to say.” Unfortunately for Tennessee basketball fans, James has a point.
The Volunteers' offense was stagnant for much of the game, as they shot just 33.3 percent from the field, including abysmal 26.1 percent shooting from three-point range and 58.3 percent shooting from the charity stripe.
There's just no way Tennessee basketball could have expected to win when they were shooting the ball like that.
Making matters worse was the fact that the Volunteers took exceptional care of the ball, only committing six turnovers.
It simply came down to effort, as James alluded to.
And shockingly, a Tennessee basketball team that thrived because of its effort and desire- especially after the season-ending injury to star Zakai Zeigler- had very little of that to show for on Thursday night.
Now, the Volunteers, who have been bounced in the Sweet Sixteen or earlier in each of their last five March Madness appearances, will once again be wondering where they went wrong.
They should look to one of the team's leaders for the answer to that question.
And unfortunately, it's an answer that will be tough to accept.
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