Brandon Reed visiting Tennessee June 5th

#51
#51
Unimane said:
2007 - Sweet 16 - One point loss in the last possession
2010 - Sweet 16 - Three point win in the last possession
(And the Ohio State team in 2007 was significantly better than the 2010 version)

People see the result and think there is some major difference because of the style of play. Really, the difference was minimal, if any at all. It was more likely just a break here that went our way or a play made. So, yes, the two styles have relatively similar success. It's just that in 2007, the one possession went against us, this year it didn't.

In any event, to point to style of play making any difference, other than it fit the personnel, is a falsehood pushed by posters complaining for years about the open nature of play and trying to manipulate this year's result to fit their position. It's a load of crap.

There's more than one way to skin a cat and you use a style and strategy that fits your personnel. That's what a successful coach does.
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No, the difference was clear. We couldn't get a stop in the second half. Winning in the postseason starts and stops with a team's ability to guard in the half-court...period. Pearl will win nothing of significance by going back to the 1-2-1-1.
 
#52
#52
LawVol13 said:
No, the difference was clear. We couldn't get a stop in the second half. Winning in the postseason starts and stops with a team's ability to guard in the half-court...period. Pearl will win nothing of significance by going back to the 1-2-1-1.
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You can still guard by playing a faster pace. I'm still wondering how one possession demonstrates anything. Getting beat off the dribble by a PG months away from an NBA lottery pick and losing by one to the National Runners-Up doesn't make anything "clear".

Kentucky and Kansas win their tournament games this year, too, if they extend their defense and pressure full court, so running a press in the NCAA Tournament isn't foolish, either. The reason the NCAA Tournament typically becomes of a half court game is because coaches micromanage more and it's not always necessary.
 
#53
#53
Unimane said:
You can still guard by playing a faster pace. I'm still wondering how one possession demonstrates anything. Getting beat off the dribble by a PG months away from an NBA lottery pick and losing by one to the National Runners-Up doesn't make anything "clear".

Kentucky and Kansas win their tournament games this year, too, if they extend their defense and pressure full court, so running a press in the NCAA Tournament isn't foolish, either. The reason the NCAA Tournament typically becomes of a half court game is because coaches micromanage more and it's not always necessary.
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You must have missed the second half where Ohio State shot layups the entire time. The only reason that was a close game is because Ohio State played like garbage in the first half and we shot absolutely lights out (even Childress hit 3 or 4 threes).
 
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#54
#54
LawVol13 said:
You must have missed the second half where Ohio State shot layups the entire time. The only reason that was a close game is because Ohio State played like garbage in the first half and we shot absolutely lights out (even Childress hit 3 or 4 threes).
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Or, because we couldn't hit free throws. Or, because our PG's and posts couldn't handle Conley on the pick and roll. Or, because the Buckeyes shot a ton of free throws in the second half as well. There were a lot of parts to that game and to pick out the style of play as the reason we lost fails to properly analyze what happened.

So, yeah, I watched the game. Rewatched it, too. If you think that we would've had more success playing a half court game with Oden and Hunter in the middle, you're nuts. Our weak inside game would have been eaten for dinner and beaten soundly. We played to our strengths and nearly beat a team we were clearly less talented than. It wasn't exactly unusual for that team to hit a bunch of threes, you know. Even Childress, or did you forget the Virginia game in the second round?

Plus, the Sweet 16 game wasn't nearly as fluky as you suggest. Don't forget the game in Columbus two months earlier when we got, pretty much, the same type of game that was decided at the buzzer.
 
#55
#55
Unimane said:
Or, because we couldn't hit free throws. Or, because our PG's and posts couldn't handle Conley on the pick and roll. Or, because the Buckeyes shot a ton of free throws in the second half as well. There were a lot of parts to that game and to pick out the style of play as the reason we lost fails to properly analyze what happened.

So, yeah, I watched the game. Rewatched it, too. If you think that we would've had more success playing a half court game with Oden and Hunter in the middle, you're nuts. Our weak inside game would have been eaten for dinner and beaten soundly. We played to our strengths and nearly beat a team we were clearly less talented than. It wasn't exactly unusual for that team to hit a bunch of threes, you know. Even Childress, or did you forget the Virginia game in the second round?

Plus, the Sweet 16 game wasn't nearly as fluky as you suggest. Don't forget the game in Columbus two months earlier when we got, pretty much, the same type of game that was decided at the buzzer.
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Both of these are a result of us not being able to play half-court defense.

I'm not saying you can't play at a high pace and win. What I'm saying is that when we have gone to the "Controlled Chaos", we play little to no half-court defense. If half-court defense is not the main priority next season, we will grossly underachieve.
 
#56
#56
Unimane, UT was more prone to sloppy play and more turnovers in the run and gun-true or false?
 
#58
#58
LawVol13 said:
Both of these are a result of us not being able to play half-court defense.

I'm not saying you can't play at a high pace and win. What I'm saying is that when we have gone to the "Controlled Chaos", we play little to no half-court defense. If half-court defense is not the main priority next season, we will grossly underachieve.
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I think it's pretty obvious you have to play defense in any situation. I just don't think that a slower style of play equals more success. The 2007 team could have easily played their style and properly defended the pick and roll to win that game. They are not mutually exclusive, in my opinion. Thus, I don't think the different styles in play mean that this past season's success was more likely, other than that's what fit the personnel.
 
#59
#59
Unimane said:
I think it's pretty obvious you have to play defense in any situation. I just don't think that a slower style of play equals more success. The 2007 team could have easily played their style and properly defended the pick and roll to win that game. They are not mutually exclusive, in my opinion. Thus, I don't think the different styles in play mean that this past season's success was more likely, other than that's what fit the personnel.
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Pearl's philosophy with the "Controlled Chaos" has been complete reliance on it. If we failed to produce turnovers, we lost. We will have to be able to play half-court defense, or we will not win anything.
 
#61
#61
lylsmorr said:
Unimane, UT was more prone to sloppy play and more turnovers in the run and gun-true or false?
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Of course.....for both teams. It's simply a matter if your team benefits from playing that loosely. In 2007, it did. In 2010, it did not. Getting the best player in 2007, Chris Lofton, looks in the half court was much more difficult than in the open style we played. It also did a number of other things such as put the opponent in uncomfortable positions, forcing quick, poor decisions from their perimeter players and tiring out the opposition as the game wor on. Remember, we did win a lot of close games in 2007 and 2008.
 
#63
#63
LawVol13 said:
Pearl's philosophy with the "Controlled Chaos" has been complete reliance on it. If we failed to produce turnovers, we lost. We will have to be able to play half-court defense, or we will not win anything.
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I disagree completely that we haven't focused on playing half court defense under the faster pace, although I do agree that the hedging for pick and roll defense has generally sucked.

And, again, I think it's a no-brainer that you have to play defense in the half-court. We didn't go to consecutive Sweet 16s by failing to play half-court defense.
 
#64
#64
Did anybody see where this Reed guy is from? Atlanta, GA.
I like the way Pearl thinks...who know, maybe our Atlanta kids wanted Brandon to come to the school. Just because a kid is interested in a school, doesn't mean the coach is going to offer....but I like our Atlanta connection.
 
#65
#65
Unimane said:
I disagree completely that we haven't focused on playing half court defense under the faster pace, although I do agree that the hedging for pick and roll defense has generally sucked.

And, again, I think it's a no-brainer that you have to play defense in the half-court. We didn't go to consecutive Sweet 16s by failing to play half-court defense.
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Half-court defense has been a huge issue since Pearl has started here. I don't think we've focused on it until this year. Last year was a complete joke; the previous years if Tennessee was forced to guard in the half-court, we lost. I've always said, prior to this year, that if a team is patient in the half-court against us, they can get any shot they want.

And yes, the pick and roll defense has been an issue. I like Pearl's philosophy this year of switching guard-to-guard ball screens and hedging post-to-guard ball screens.
 
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#66
#66
LawVol13 said:
Half-court defense has been a huge issue since Pearl has started here. I don't think we've focused on it until this year. Last year was a complete joke; the previous years if Tennessee was forced to guard in the half-court, we lost. I've always said, prior to this year, that if a team is patient in the half-court against us, they can get any shot they want.

And yes, the pick and roll defense has been an issue. I like Pearl's philosophy this year of switching guard-to-guard ball screens and hedging post-to-post ball screens.
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Most teams who are patient in the half-court get good shots as it is. Teams have nearly always tried to play against Pearl in the half court and we still win at a 70%+ rate. We have lost generally to teams that can beat us up in the post, a la Louisville in 2008.

Had we gotten DeJuan Blair or JJ Hickson, then i'm sure we would've played more half-court, again, to our personnel. Since we didn't, we played to those teams strengths in the backcourt.

Otherwise, that 2008 team that won 31 games wasn't drop dead amazingly talented and a number of teams would've beaten us if it was simply a matter of slowing us down to (not) play half court defense. We certainly were able to play half court then and beat those teams until we ran into a more talented team in Louisville.
 
#67
#67
Unimane said:
Most teams who are patient in the half-court get good shots as it is. Teams have nearly always tried to play against Pearl in the half court and we still win at a 70%+ rate. We have lost generally to teams that can beat us up in the post, a la Louisville in 2008.

Had we gotten DeJuan Blair or JJ Hickson, then i'm sure we would've played more half-court, again, to our personnel. Since we didn't, we played to those teams strengths in the backcourt.

Otherwise, that 2008 team that won 31 games wasn't drop dead amazingly talented and a number of teams would've beaten us if it was simply a matter of slowing us down to (not) play half court defense. We certainly were able to play half court then and beat those teams until we ran into a more talented team in Louisville.
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I don't think this year's team was any more talented than the '08 team, but we played a style that wins in the tourney. I'd rather have Jajuan Smith, Chris Lofton, Ramar Smith over any of our guards that we had this year.

We were capable of playing the type of defense we played this year in '08, but we didn't. In my opinion, that was because of the over-reliance on the 1-2-1-1 while not putting enough focus on improving our half-court defense.
 
#69
#69
LawVol13 said:
I don't think this year's team was any more talented than the '08 team, but we played a style that wins in the tourney. I'd rather have Jajuan Smith, Chris Lofton, Ramar Smith over any of our guards that we had this year.

We were capable of playing the type of defense we played this year in '08, but we didn't. In my opinion, that was because of the over-reliance on the 1-2-1-1 while not putting enough focus on improving our half-court defense.
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You are absolutely correct. We didn't focus on half-court until this past season. It proved to be very good for us, especially in the NCAA.
 
#73
#73
getyopopcornready said:
You think Hopson and Tatum are elite athletes?
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Comparing to the rest of the NCAA I'd say Hopson is elite status. Crazy vertical and good speed running the court. He's about the only person on our squad that I would say could match up athletically with any team.
 
#74
#74
lylsmorr said:
Comparing to the rest of the NCAA I'd say Hopson is elite status. Crazy vertical and good speed running the court. He's about the only person on our squad that I would say could match up athletically with any team.
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There's a ton of guys in NCAA that can run and jump.
 
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