DAVID SISK:

It wasn’t even a tale of two halves. It was the tale of the first 28 minutes against the last twelve. All of Kentucky’s goodwill that was established with a 58-48 lead dissolved with a 34-13 Volunteer close. The first half was marked with strong efficiency. UK lived on the foul line and only had two turnovers. They had eleven in the second half and just shot 38.5% for the game. Talent was exposed as well in the loss. Keion Brooks had the best game of his career was 23 points and 11 boards. He has the body to play against their physical frames. The projected freshmen first-round picks were no-shows while Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer combined for 50 points. Now the bottom line is that Kentucky has to win all seven remaining games to finish 12-12 in the regular season. Time to restock.

TRAVIS GRAF:

One of these days, this team will give me something positive to write about, but not tonight. The ‘Cats choked away yet another lead. Once again, this is due to roster construction and I’ll reiterate that the problems will not get fixed. There’s no point guard on the roster. There’s no one capable of running the show and getting the offense in a position to succeed for 40 minutes. The entire team melts when adversity hits. The mental toughness of this roster is probably the weakest of the entire Calipari era. That’s not the players’ fault. That’s on Calipari for putting the roster together that way. Rick Barnes really out-coached Kentucky’s lead man in the second half.

JUSTIN ROWLAND:

Kentucky tightened up in the second half and Tennessee gradually gained confidence and then all the momentum. We've seen this team go through stretches in many games when they just can't do anything right. Tonight started out so well. Getting to the line, more freedom of movement on offense because of the whistle, and the halftime lead. But they just can't avoid the 5-6 minute stretch (or more, as tonight) where they dig a huge hole.

JEFF DRUMMOND:

That was a collapse for the ages. In my time covering UK basketball, I can't recall a game where the Cats went from up 10 points to down 10 points quicker than they did tonight against Tennessee. It took only eight minutes and two seconds to swing the game that hard in the Volunteers' favor. I had wondered how UK would respond if UT made it close down the stretch. The answer was staggering. This is a mentally fragile basketball team right now, and it showed in the worst way tonight. Give Tennessee credit for dropping the hammer, though. The Vols' freshmen were really impressive, while UK got six points from BJ Boston and Terrence Clarke sat out yet another game with a sprained ankle. Their counterparts -- Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer, both of whom were ranked lower than them as prospects -- combined for 50 points.