JUSTIN ROWLAND:

This was a really bad loss for Kentucky. It could well hurt the seed line. All season long this team has lived on the edge but ordinarily they manage to make enough plays to pull it out. Tonight they just did not look like a unit. There seemed to be some discord. Some guys were out of sync with one another. This was a total breakdown and it's a bad sign because of the body language and the fact that Tennessee's run lasted for so long.

DAVID SISK:

Tonight’s second-half performance was embarrassing by Kentucky. Not being able to put teams away has been an issue throughout the SEC slate, but sooner or later the reoccurrence will lead to a damaging loss. One could see the energy drop around the 10-minute mark and they looked like a totally different team. A loose, confident offense turned into one as tight as a banjo string. On the other end they could not get a stop, John Fulkerson looked like the second coming of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they got outworked for every loose ball. This is a concern going forward this season, and now they drop back to four or five seed status is a reality.

TRAVIS GRAF:

What an absolutely embarrassing loss. The second half was a complete and total debacle. John Fulkerson absolutely dominated start to finish and the Cats had no answer for him in the paint. Ashton Hagans has hit the same wall that he hit last season, and the team doesn’t run quite as well when he’s on the court, to be quite frank. Kentucky got complacent with their 17-point lead in the second half and took their foot off of the gas. The Cats stopped running certain looks within their offense in the second half, focusing mainly on iso ball. Kentucky tallied just four assists in the second half due to that and shot just 33% from the field. The 2-seed talk was fun, but it was short-lived after this collapse.

JEFF DRUMMOND:

Kentucky has been playing with fire all season long in terms of building modest leads and failing to turn them into big leads. In fairness, one can argue that the 17-point lead tonight was a "big" lead. It certainly felt like one. What happened from 51-34 to the end of the game is almost inexplicable. Give the Vols some credit. They played a great second half, and John Fulkerson was unstoppable. But from my seat on the floor next to the UK bench, I could not believe the meltdown that occurred. John Calipari was unhinged at times, micromanaging much more than he has in other games this season. The result was confused players, finger-pointing, pouting... nothing that resembled the strong late-game rep that the Cats have established this season. I just don't know what to make of it. This likely cost UK at least one seed line and probably two when the dust settles, especially if the Cats can't win at Florida on Saturday. They were looking at a good chance to be a 2, and now it's much more likely to be a 4. The path through the bracket may have just gotten exponentially more difficult.