Punter made 46 percent of his shots from the field and 36.9 percent from the 3-point line. He got to the foul line 202 times in 26 games too.
He was the heart and soul of the Tennessee men's basketball team, both the emotional leader and leader in nearly every scoring category.
But the knockout punch over the four-game losing streak to close the regular season, all without Punter, was a loss of confidence.
"Do I think things would be totally different with Kevin Punter? I do," first-year Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after the Vols fell 83-60 on senior day Saturday against Ole Miss.
"It's amazing how losing one player can change your whole team confidence wise, swagger wise."
With Punter, Tennessee (13-18, 6-12 SEC) was a .500 basketball team, unable to string together multiple wins but also avoiding soul-searching losing streaks.
Since upsetting LSU 81-65 on Feb. 20, the first game without Punter, the Vols have lost all four games by double-digits. The average margin of defeat has been 19 points.
Tennessee trailed at South Carolina by 30, at Vanderbilt by 25 and lost by 23 against Ole Miss, the biggest home loss in 11 seasons.
"The last couple of weeks have been very, very hard," Barnes said. "Maybe we are who we are right now, there's not anything left to get there. As a coach, you can never think that way.
"That's when you get frustrated and your patience wears a little bit thin. It's not fun at all. It's not fun at all to be in the position we are in right now, where you're wondering what you're playing for."
What Tennessee is playing for is next to nothing.
What the Vols are offensively is an engine without ignition. The up-tempo offense Barnes installed when he got to Knoxville has stalled without Punter, the gas pedal at point guard.
The Vols averaged 7.6 fast-break points per game in 26 games with Punter, including a season-high 20 against Gonzaga on Dec. 19.
In the current four-game losing streak, Tennessee has totaled eight, with two in each loss.
"We have had to improvise," Barnes said. "You can't ask a guy to do something he isn't capable of doing. We have spent a lot of time working on certain things.
"So much of that was driven by KP, and when he went down, we had to change some things. We just aren't very fluid right now."
Senior forward Armani Moore has averaged 14 points and 6.6 rebounds per game without Punter in the lineup, picking up the slack as much as he can.
He said there's no lost confidence without Punter. The loss instead is role players not playing their role while the team struggles to climb out of its current rut.
"I think we just have to find our groove and make sure everyone understands what we need from them on the court," Moore said. "Once we get that down, I feel like we could be a whole lot more effective on the court.
"I think we're going to come out and play with a whole lot more fire here in the next game."
That next game is Wednesday (TV: SEC Network, 8 p.m.) when the 12th-seeded Vols play No. 13 seed Auburn (11-9, 5-13) to open the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
The Vols and Tigers split their two meetings this season, with each team winning at home. Auburn lost 11 of its last 13 games to be saddled with the bracket's lowest seed.
Barnes said on Saturday not to expect his team's play to change with the do-or-die postseason mentality.
"At this time of the year, you know who you are," Barnes said.
Right now that's a team searching for confidence.
"We just have to get the job done," freshman forward Admiral Schofield said. "We haven't gotten to go on a run yet this season. We're on the brink of getting on one.
"(Saturday's) outcome wasn't the best, but I think if we just play together and play with energy for 40 minutes, we can beat anybody. For some reason, we just can't get that down."
Link : http://www.knoxnews.com/sports/vols/mens-basketball/vols-lost-more-than-kevin-punters-stats-after-injury-2d67ad35-1954-158a-e053-0100007ff9be-371215521.html
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