3 takeaways from Colorado's blowout loss to #13 Tennessee

BOULDER — Back-to-back losses.

The Colorado Buffaloes lost a second-consecutive game on Friday, this time to the No. 13 Tennessee Volunteers at the CU Events Center in Boulder. Colorado is now 6-3 on the season, with four non-conference games left on the schedule.

Here’s what we learned on Friday.

Keeshawn is ice cold

After opening the season by hitting five of his first seven 3-point attempts, CU point guard Keeshawn Barthelemy has now gone four games in a row without making one.

What was once seen as the strength of the sophomore’s game has turned into a major concern.

Early in the year, Barthelemy was the Buffs’ most dangerous offensive threat, but he’s faded in recent weeks. A three-game stretch against weaker opponents at home could be what he needs to get back on track.

Freshman point guard Julian Hammond III has received minutes in each of the last two games, hinting at the fact that he could be a bigger part of the rotation at point guard going forward, especially if Barthelemy continues to struggle.

To be fair to Barthelemy, everybody was cold on Friday.

The Buffs made less than 35% of their shots from the field and less than 25% of their shots from behind the 3-point line. Nobody was efficient shooting the ball while putting up a significant volume of shots, save for forward Tristan Jabari who made four of his seven attempts from the field.

The Buffs can’t guard the pick and roll

Kennedy Chandler destroyed the Buffs on Friday.

The freshman guard was a five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American before arriving at Tennessee, and he showed why. Chandler dropped 27 points on 13-of-20 shooting, but most of those misses came after the game had been decided. It was an electric performance, and easily the story of the game.

Colorado couldn’t find an answer.

Much of Chandler’s damage came out of the pick and roll. Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said that CU tried all three of its coverages but the players couldn’t execute any of them. Chandler’s speed created issues, but the lack of attention to detail defensively was the bigger problem.

As Boyle pointed out, the Buffs weren’t trying to go over the screens in the high post. They wanted to give Chandler deep shots while stopping him from getting to the rim. (He was 1-of-6 from deep.) They wanted the guard and the big defending the play to key in on protecting the paint.

But it didn’t matter.

The Buffs’ defense, as we’ve seen often this season, was torched by the pick and roll and defenders were cooked by Chandler over and over.

Early on Chandler made some tough shots but too many of the looks he got were uncontested.

He’s a good player, no doubt, but the Buffs need to find a way to guard the pick and roll before conference play rolls around.

Jabari struggles with fouls

Colorado’s bigs all have a history of foul trouble.

Last time out, against UCLA, it was Evan Battey who picked up three fouls in the first half and saw his playing time essentially cut in half.

Against Tennessee, it was Jabari Walker’s turn.

Walker only played six minutes in the first half, thanks primarily to his two early fouls. He finished with 24.

In a game where the Buffs faced a length disadvantage, not having Walker on the court turned out to be catastrophic. It’s not that Walker was an imposing force when he was on the court—he finished 3-of-9 with 10 points and six boards—it’s that CU is struggling to find bench players who can eat minutes, and they had to eat 10 more on Friday because Walker couldn’t stay out of foul trouble.

Between Walker and forward Evan Battey, just about every night one of CU’s bigs has been forced to the bench. Backup big Lawson Lovering has struggled with foul trouble, too.

As Colorado gears up to play Eastern Washington, Milwaukee and CSU Bakersfield, it may be able to get away with having a big stuck on the bench. But this three-game stretch will be the last easy stretch of the season, before wrapping up non-conference play against Kansas and then getting into league play.

Starting in two weeks, the Buffs won’t be able to afford much more foul trouble.