LI's Harris a one-man show in Vols' loss

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For a half, Tobias Harris put on a show. His Tennessee teammates, however, were among the spectators.

Harris, a freshman forward from Half Hollow Hills West High School, made all six of his field-goal attempts and all seven of his free throws in the course of a 19-point first half in the Volunteers' NCAA Tournament opener Friday.

But the rest of the Volunteers made a total of only three shots in the first half. Making matters worse, ninth-seeded Tennessee couldn't even muster 19 points as a team in the second half. The Volunteers managed only 16 in suffering a 75-45 demolition at the hands of eighth-seeded Michigan in the second round of the West Regional.

"At halftime we felt fine, like we had the game," said Harris, who didn't score in the second half, missing all five of his shots. "I felt comfortable, but then in the second half, everything got rattled."

Harris couldn't be stopped in the first half. The 6-8 forward scored the first eight points for Tennessee (19-15), and when he converted a three-point play with 8:36 left in the half to give the Volunteers a 20-15 lead, he matched Michigan's point total.

But the Wolverines (21-13), who missed nine of their first 10 shots from three-point range, made two treys in a row to key a 10-0 spurt for a 27-23 lead. Michigan led 33-29 at halftime and then ambushed Tennessee early in the second half, scoring 16 unanswered points while holding Tennessee scoreless for nearly six minutes to take a 52-31 lead.

Harris wasn't pleased with his team's effort.

"We just didn't play with no heart out there," Harris said. "Michigan came out, made shots, and we just did a terrible job of trying to cover them. On the offensive end, we rushed too many shots and, you know, basically just quit."

Tennessee later went nearly eight minutes without a point as the deficit ballooned to 33 points. Harris rarely touched the ball in the second half, especially not in a position to score. His attempts to put his teammates in position to score when Michigan double-teamed him failed, as the Volunteers shot 26.1 percent after halftime.

"Tobias has been carrying the load for us, doing a lot of good things," Tennessee guard Scotty Hopson said. "Teams have been keying in on me, so I've been trying to get him the ball a lot more. He's been doing good things for us.

"The second half was tough on him because they keyed in on him a lot more. He made some good passes, but guys didn't really make shots. That was our trouble."

While this was the final college game for Tennessee big man Brian Williams, a senior from the Bronx, Harris' next step isn't as clear. He could be a first-round pick in the NBA draft in June. "It's going to be something that I'm going to think about," Harris said, "but I don't know right now."

Harris' college career started well, along with the rest of his team. He scored 100 points in his first six games. The Volunteers capped a 7-0 start with a win over Pitt, one of four victories to start the season over teams that went on to make the NCAA Tournament.

Harris continued his strong season throughout, finishing second to Hopson with 15.3 points per game and second to Williams with 7.3 rebounds per game.

It wasn't smooth sailing for the team, however. The Volunteers struggled to find consistency, with embattled coach Bruce Pearl sitting out the first eight conference games thanks to an SEC suspension stemming from an ongoing investigation into the program.

"I thought I grew as a player," Harris said. "I really learned to stay positive and fight through things."