This has been a good year

#1
J

JACK8254

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#1
Despite some considerable lack of play in the post, this team has played well enough to have been favored in every game. We are getting spoiled - how many other teams have stayed in the top 25 for the whole year? I can not remember another UT team, can you?? It is frustrating bc they have real power and sometimes theylook silly what with the turnovers and missing bunnies. We are not Ky, so stop feeling its the end of the world when we lose. Thank God for Barnes! These are young kids playing in a crazy world- give them a break. The Grant Williams team - that is one ( I forgot)
 
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#4
#4
JACK8254 said:
Despite some considerable lack of play in the post, this team has played well enough to have been favored in every game. We are getting spoiled - how many other teams have stayed in the top 25 for the whole year? I can not remember another UT team, can you?? It is frustrating bc they have real power and sometimes theylook silly what with the turnovers and missing bunnies. We are not Ky, so stop feeling its the end of the world when we lose. Thank God for Barnes! These are young kids playing in a crazy world- give them a break.
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I wasn’t on the edge of my seat watching closely, but did TN miss any bunnies last night? TOs though. That was a mess still needing to be cleaned up, but even those seemed to be more like stupid mistakes than being pressured in the backcourt and unable to easily advance across mid court.
 
#5
#5
Credit to Barnes to elevating our program to be included in the top 25 most years. He brought stability and respect to the program, especially after the NCAA brushes with Pearl and Tyndal (sp?). He has brought some good recruits to UT, but has fell short on recruiting posts and point guards. However, this team's performance is disappointing regardless how you look at it. Most of that is on him. Hopefully they will catch fire in the tourney.
 
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#6
#6
VolFreakJosh said:
It’s not been a great year but far from a horrible one.

This team is very capable of making a deep tournament run.
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That will determine the year. The way they are playing they won’t go deep in either tourney. Here’s hoping the light comes on.
 
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#7
#7
I'm alone on this one, but this team has overachieved. The top ten ranking was stupid and not justifable. Based on what? No one knew what the freshmen would bring to the table and were the "experts" basing this on a Pons and Faulky led team? I love both and both play way above their ability, in my opinion.....which is a testament to them and the staff, but neither have shown anything that would lead any rational person to think they could carry a top team in the country.

I hope the Vols can get back to working the ball in the post with Pons and Faulky, had success the first 3rd of the season with that and it's been abandoned. I understand running the show with the freshmen, but doing both and sticking with whichever is working could be a fit for any opponent. This is where I think Barnes has some weakness.
 
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#8
#8
Just a bummer really because we have the talent to be on of those top 4 teams without many loses. But it is a weird year and outside those top 3 everyone else has been losing games they shouldn't. I'd be perfectly content with where we were if we didn't give up the Ole Miss and recent Kentucky games.
 
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#9
#9
Orangeblooded615 said:
Just a bummer really because we have the talent to be on of those top 4 teams without many loses. But it is a weird year and outside those top 3 everyone else has been losing games they shouldn't. I'd be perfectly content with where we were if we didn't give up the Ole Miss and recent Kentucky games.
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List your opinion of top talent outside of the 2 freshmen, who are freshmen......
 
#11
#11
Orangeblooded615 said:
Just a bummer really because we have the talent to be on of those top 4 teams without many loses. But it is a weird year and outside those top 3 everyone else has been losing games they shouldn't. I'd be perfectly content with where we were if we didn't give up the Ole Miss and recent Kentucky games.
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Ole Miss is a bubble team and in a lot mock brackets, just saying
 
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#13
#13
I think fold are concerned and feel like this team has been disappointing b/c there is so much talent.

One lottery pick and one first rounder.
Add Fulky and Pons into the equation as they played better last year snd first part of this season.

But it beats not being in the dance!
 
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#17
#17
Catbone said:
If we didn't have 3 5 stars and a few veterans on the team I would agree.

But this is an underachieving year. Period.
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It has been a very frustrating year. We agree on that. But my expectations for the team, and I would assume most other Tennessee fans, were built upon the returning of a dominant Fulky and adding in the talented freshman. But we aren’t getting anything close to what Fulky gave us last year. Like not even on the same planet. And I really have a hard time blaming that on the staff. Something isn’t right with him physically. So with Fulky being essentially a non factor and Pons being banged up all year, I’d say we’re having a pretty decent year. With the Fulky from the second half of last season, this team is probably 19-3. Maybe better. It’s fine to have expectations going into a season, but sometimes it’s ok to adjust them as the season goes. As soon as I saw Fulky struggling to simply run and jump, I knew this season was going to go differently than I had originally hoped.
 
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#18
#18
JACK8254 said:
Despite some considerable lack of play in the post, this team has played well enough to have been favored in every game. We are getting spoiled - how many other teams have stayed in the top 25 for the whole year? I can not remember another UT team, can you?? It is frustrating bc they have real power and sometimes theylook silly what with the turnovers and missing bunnies. We are not Ky, so stop feeling its the end of the world when we lose. Thank God for Barnes! These are young kids playing in a crazy world- give them a break. The Grant Williams team - that is one ( I forgot)
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Do you remember the Bruce Pearl era? Tennessee was pretty much in the top 25 from the 2nd half of his 1st year until his last...
 
#21
#21
jarnol32 said:
Do you remember the Bruce Pearl era? Tennessee was pretty much in the top 25 from the 2nd half of his 1st year until his last...
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Not really accurate.

* We were in the Top 25 60.5% of Bruce Pearl's time here during that time.
* We benefitted from preseason rankings as we finished below our preseason ranking each of Pearl's last 3 years here, including falling out of the Top 25 in 2 of his last 3 years.

* The second half of his first year, we lost 6 of our last 9 games, but somehow still were ranked 18.
* 2009, his 4th year, we were unranked. In fact, we were in the second group of bubble teams to not make the NCAA Tournament except we had a surprise run making the SEC finals, but then lost in the first round of the NCAAT.
* His final season we finished the season 4-8 and unranked. Weirdly, the first half of this season was probably my favorite ever as a Vol basketball fan given some of the big wins we had early in the year), but we finished awful, and we were not ranked. We ended on the same sour note with the largest blowout in the history of the NCAA Tournament for a 8 vs 9 seed game when we lost by 30 points.
 
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#22
#22
We have been ok but a little underwhelming. I would say if we win a couple of games or at least play well in a couple of NCAA Tournament games then the year could be considered good. Like a lot of programs we have good teams and bad teams. If the stars align and your set up to win like it appeared we were this year, it's a huge lost opportunity. If a blue blood has a lost opportunity it immediately comes back around the next year. Not true with most programs like ours.
 
#24
#24
JACK8254 said:
Despite some considerable lack of play in the post, this team has played well enough to have been favored in every game. We are getting spoiled - how many other teams have stayed in the top 25 for the whole year? I can not remember another UT team, can you?? It is frustrating bc they have real power and sometimes theylook silly what with the turnovers and missing bunnies. We are not Ky, so stop feeling its the end of the world when we lose. Thank God for Barnes! These are young kids playing in a crazy world- give them a break. The Grant Williams team - that is one ( I forgot)
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Considering the roster deficiencies due to recruiting mistakes, I agree. It's about as good as this years team could have done. If KJ returns to team with Chandler and Barnes will clean out the deadwood on this roster and fill our needs with decent players who can contribute NEXT YEAR instead of a 3 year development project, we might have the makings of a special team that can go deep into march. Do I expect Barnes to do that? Nope. Hope springs eternal as they say.
 
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