2022-2023 OOC Schedule

#51
#51
TheMookieMonster said:
Yeah, I’m not a fan of the influx of neutral site games we’re seeing in college basketball. I get the theory behind why you do it, but the environment is NEVER the same as a true home crowd and it just ends up feeling sterile.
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Same. I’m just a firm believer that college sports belongs on campuses during the regular season in all sports
 
#52
#52
TrumpedUpVol said:
It's starting to feel like that. Battle 4 Atlantis, neutral vs. Colorado and Maryland, at Arizona... is there some kind of eleventh hour effort to put together a home-and-home in the works?

I know a large number of fans disagree, but I would be over the moon if the non-conference slate was rounded out with an extension of the Memphis series.
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#59
#59
TheMookieMonster said:
Yeah, I’m not a fan of the influx of neutral site games we’re seeing in college basketball. I get the theory behind why you do it, but the environment is NEVER the same as a true home crowd and it just ends up feeling sterile.
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I don't think this is always true. Atlantis is definitely rough as a crowd draw and environment, but the NYC games are great in my opinion. I went to UT v Kansas when it was in Brooklyn, and that environment was awesome. I'm going back for UT v Maryland, and I expect it to be pretty rowdy. We get to see the Vols in Knoxville all through the SEC season. It's nice seeing them hit some cool venues early in the season.
 
#61
#61
Tennessee opens Battle 4 Atlantis against Butler and then plays winner/loser of BYU/Southern Cal…other side of bracket is Dayton, Kansas, NC State & Wisconsin. Barttorviks current preseason ranking for the field:
#3 Tennessee
#8 Kansas
#35 Dayton
#40 Southern Cal
#64 Wisconsin
#82 BYU
#88 North Carolina State
#101 Butler
 
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#62
#62
bleedingTNorange said:
Tennessee opens Battle 4 Atlantis against BYU and then plays winner/loser of BYU/Southern Cal…other side of bracket is Dayton, Kansas, NC State & Wisconsin. Barttorviks current preseason ranking for the field:
#3 Tennessee
#8 Kansas
#35 Dayton
#40 Southern Cal
#64 Wisconsin
#82 BYU
#88 North Carolina State
#101 Butler
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Butler, not BYU.
 
#63
#63
bleedingTNorange said:
Tennessee opens Battle 4 Atlantis against BYU and then plays winner/loser of BYU/Southern Cal…other side of bracket is Dayton, Kansas, NC State & Wisconsin. Barttorviks current preseason ranking for the field:
#3 Tennessee
#8 Kansas
#35 Dayton
#40 Southern Cal
#64 Wisconsin
#82 BYU
#88 North Carolina State
#101 Butler
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Sidenote: what does Battorvik know that we don't to have Tennessee ranked #3? 🤔 😳
 
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#69
#69
bleedingTNorange said:
I would bet Nkahmoua starts at the 5 and gets the most minutes of those guys
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I have great respect for your insights ... and you may be right, .... but ON did not beat out Fulky at the 5 last year for even backup minutes. It just seems like his game was a better fit out away from the basket.
He started every game at the 4 (or 3) last year. Not once did he start at the 5.
Uros is back and Aidoo has finally put his illness behind him.
Could he have changed his game in the off season, sure. But he is the smallest and lightest of the 3 and he did not have great springs before his ankle injury.
That does not bode well for greater ability in the fall.
And on a final note: We could play small ball and put him at the 5, but small ball is not a recipe for success over the long haul. It is a great opportunity for success and scoring under the right circumstances.....so I am not saying he will never ever play the 5. Just saying that unless there is an injury to one of the big men .... I just do not see him starting at the 5.

However, if you are right ... I will come back and bump you! :^) [I think your 'bet' is metaphorical, but in the case it is not ... I am, literally, not a gambling man. :^) Looking forward to your rationale on why ON plays the 5. ]
 
#70
#70
SN-A-C Orange said:
I have great respect for your insights ... and you may be right, .... but ON did not beat out Fulky at the 5 last year for even backup minutes. It just seems like his game was a better fit out away from the basket.
He started every game at the 4 (or 3) last year. Not once did he start at the 5.
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Not quite sure what you were watching, but Nkahmoua NEVER played the 3 for Tennessee last year, literally not a single second. He did however play quite a bit of 5, and yes, started every single game while healthy at the 4 spot. He played more minutes up to the point of his injury than any other big guy on our roster, and again a large bulk of that was coming at the 5 spot…there was actually tons of dicusssion about this as our best lineups per advanced metrics were routinely with Nkahmoua at the 5.

Uros is back and Aidoo has finally put his illness behind him.
Could he have changed his game in the off season, sure. But he is the smallest and lightest of the 3 and he did not have great springs before his ankle injury.
That does not bode well for greater ability in the fall.
And on a final note: We could play small ball and put him at the 5, but small ball is not a recipe for success over the long haul. It is a great opportunity for success and scoring under the right circumstances.....so I am not saying he will never ever play the 5. Just saying that unless there is an injury to one of the big men .... I just do not see him starting at the 5.

However, if you are right ... I will come back and bump you! :^) [I think your 'bet' is metaphorical, but in the case it is not ... I am, literally, not a gambling man. :^) Looking forward to your rationale on why ON plays the 5. ]
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“Small ball” is the most successful style almost exclusively in college basketball, you rarely find many successful teams playing twin towers in the post. Yes there are some, but your mindset seems to be stuck in the style of 5+ years ago, that is no longer the case. Again, there was tons of discussions about this last year, when we were hitting our stride it was when we started playing more small ball and Nkahmoua was playing a bulk of his minutes at the 5.

Like you I’m not saying he won’t ever play the 4, he will, but if last year is any sort of sign and if Phillips & Key are both as good as expected to be then we will once again be playing a lot of small ball and Nkahmoua will almost certainly once again be our leading big man in MPG.
 
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#71
#71
I thought that ON was taking big strides forward up until his season ending injury. I like him at the 5 with JJJ at the 4. Ideally Aidoo will become a formidable 5. We all know that BHH wasn’t much interested in mixing it up under the rim.
 
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#72
#72
Thunder Good-Oil said:
I thought that ON was taking big strides forward up until his season ending injury. I like him at the 5 with JJJ at the 4. Ideally Aidoo will become a formidable 5. We all know that BHH wasn’t much interested in mixing it up under the rim.
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Correct, Nkahmoua was playing more and more 5 up until the point of his injury
 
#73
#73
bleedingTNorange said:
Correct, Nkahmoua was playing more and more 5 up until the point of his injury
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He was starting to give me flashbacks of Weezy with his outside/inside offense. He’ll be one of our most experienced players. I expect to see him log lots of minutes. JJJ, SV, ON, and even Uros are a solid group of veterans.
 
#74
#74
Thunder Good-Oil said:
He was starting to give me flashbacks of Weezy with his outside/inside offense. He’ll be one of our most experienced players. I expect to see him log lots of minutes. JJJ, SV, ON, and even Uros are a solid group of veterans.
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Yea, he was becoming perfect modern day 5 man, had to respect him to the perimeter which helps with spacing. He will absolutely play some 4, but he was playing a bunch of 5 prior to his injury last year.
 
#75
#75
bleedingTNorange said:
Not quite sure what you were watching, but Nkahmoua NEVER played the 3 for Tennessee last year, literally not a single second. He did however play quite a bit of 5, and yes, started every single game while healthy at the 4 spot. He played more minutes up to the point of his injury than any other big guy on our roster, and again a large bulk of that was coming at the 5 spot…there was actually tons of dicusssion about this as our best lineups per advanced metrics were routinely with Nkahmoua at the 5.
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Point taken! I put in the 3 part because I did not remember which position on the floor ON had when JJJ was out and did not bother to look it up.
You are right, he is definitely not a 3 - he is just not a threat as he gets further from the basket. I did not intend to imply that he played the 3, sorry.
As regards, him playing the 5, specifically in small ball situations.... I felt that was more to do with Fulky and Uros inadequacies rather than specifically to do with Olivier's skills. However, I will absolutely acknowledge that ON was the BEST fit for small ball as he appears to be 'faster' than Uros and his endurance was far superior to Fulky.
And yes there was a ton of discussion about small ball ... but that small ball success was always after substitutions and backup players hit the floor. Our small ball was better than the other teams 2nd team and backups.
However, I do not remember one single instance of us coming out and starting the game in small ball. We just did not do it!
Note: Respectfully, you are mistaken on 'played more minutes up to the point of his injury than any other big guy on our roster' - Fulky averaged 22.4 going into the SC game and Olivier averaged 21.7.
I know that it felt like Olivier was playing more minutes, I was curious about this so I took the time to look it up .... but it is contrary to the the actual facts.
I think that we were so happy with the results of the small ball (and I am including me here) ... that some thought it would work for the whole game .... and thus those people on the floor during small ball were our 'better' players. And I believe that is also why is seemed like Olivier played more minutes. What I think we actually did was substitute him out to rest him and then brought him back in for the small ball runs.
I am more of a systems kind of guy, where you look at the big picture. I thought our strategy was to 'tire the other team out.' We did that by pushing the tempo the entire game. That resulted in our small ball being more effective against 'tired' 1st string players and fresh 2nd stringers. That is my guess as an outsider - because I have no connections to anyone on UT's coaching staff. I think the success of our small ball was a by-product of success at doing other things. I reached this conclusion because we did not choose to start games in small ball.

“Small ball” is the most successful style almost exclusively in college basketball, you rarely find many successful teams playing twin towers in the post. Yes there are some, but your mindset seems to be stuck in the style of 5+ years ago, that is no longer the case. Again, there was tons of discussions about this last year, when we were hitting our stride it was when we started playing more small ball and Nkahmoua was playing a bulk of his minutes at the 5.
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You are right about the small ball discussion. I remember it well. However, you are wrong about me - I am not a twin towers guy.
I am more of a John Wooden kind of guy. Or a Coach K kind of guy. I absolutely do believe you need an effective big man on the floor and for me 6'8" is a little bit small for an effective big man.
I think you can win a lot of games playing small ball. Auburn did it really well a couple of years ago. But to go deep and win in tournaments, specifically the NCAA, I look at the kind of team that won a lot of championships like Coach K or Coach W put on the floor. They were able to run up and down the floor and push the tempo and they had a big man (6'10"+) as well. So, they could play multiple styles to beat a variety of teams.
In my opinion, the reason that there is so much small ball in college is because the vast majority of college teams do not have an effective 6'10"+ big man on their roster.
According to me, we did not have an effective nor dominant big man on the floor last season. I was hoping that Fulky (at 6'9" not really a big man in my book - does not have the big springs, he out-quicked the defender in his prime) would return to form, but he never got back to his peak (Ky game) after his injury.

Like you I’m not saying he won’t ever play the 4, he will, but if last year is any sort of sign and if Phillips & Key are both as good as expected to be then we will once again be playing a lot of small ball and Nkahmoua will almost certainly once again be our leading big man in MPG.
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In this regard, we agree!!! I am absolutely hoping that Phillips & Key are as good as their hype. But regardless, we will again play a lot of small ball and ON will get a ton of minutes at the 5 ( hoping for an injury free year for him). I am betting that SV and JJJ actually lead the team in MPG. Who has the most MPG from the 4/5 group will depend a lot on Phillips, in my opinion. Does he back up ON at the 4 or does he back up JJJ at the 3 or does he play some of both? I've seen that he compares his game to Jason Tatum and Paul George. I've seen the video and he can shoot from 3, but he likes to drive to the basket. He does not look to score from 3.
Note: I am still of the opinion that ON starts at the 4 ..... so I am guessing that Phillips starts out backing up ON at the 4, but he will extremely effective in the small ball game at either the 3 or the 4. The open question for me is how much effort coaches put into developing his shot from 3 so that he can also play the 3 behind JJJ. My take: Barnes likes to get as much height as he can get at the 3.
 
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