BTO’s Alabama Postgame Report

[bleedingTNorange]

1. If you had asked pregame after finding out we’d have no Chandler or Fulk and that JJJ & Powell would also be battling some sickness if you’d believe we’d have a lead with 4 minutes remaining and have led most of the way nobody would’ve believed it and everyone would’ve gladly taken it…yet this result still feels disappointing. Our short handed guys played their a$$e$ off and really competed, hate it for them, and as a program it was an opportunity to pick up a win that even with a full roster wasn’t all that probable.

2. Overall it’s gonna be hard to try and make too many definitive statements about the game given what we were missing, but the positive is that even without some of our better defenders we held our 9th straight opponent to less than 1ppp, that’s really impressive especially against what is a good offensive team/system. The defense is really elite, it will give us chances on most nights and travels on the road, the offense just needs to get a bit more efficient.

3. I won’t say too much on Bailey, I think most have the same stance on him vs. Powell, if Powell was indeed sick and not able to give much there just wasn’t a ton of other options to go with. With that said, if we are at full strength Bailey needs to go back to Arizona type minutes, or less…JJJ on the other hand has got to find some shooting, he’s too good everywhere else for us to not play and we need him, but he’s not even an offensive threat at this point and it’s really hurting. He was forced to play more 3 last night than he had been and maybe that had an impact as he seemingly was playing better as a 4 recently, hopefully we can get him back to that spot and he can find his stroke.

4. I know a lot of people were down on Nkamhoua and saying he shot too much, but I actually wasn’t too upset…nobody was hitting outside shots and he was playing aggressive on both ends, he defended well and had 9 rebounds, while many of the shots didn’t fall it was nice to not see him disappear in a game we really needed someone to step up. Speaking of bigs, for the 2nd game in a row I thought Plavsic played well, wish he had more meanness/aggression to his game, cause he’s got the size, but 9 rebounds in 20 minutes was great to see from him.

5. This may sound overly simplistic, but it’s a big enough sample size now that’s it’s worth mentioning imo…in our 3 losses it’s also our 3 worst games from 3, combining to go 18/97 for 18.5%, in our 9 wins we are 93/241 for 38.5%. We’ve got to find a way to win when we aren’t hitting shots, not having Fulk last night hurt as against Arizona we didn’t shoot great but had that post option, wasn’t there last night…with that said our guys have to start shooting better, whether that’s more time in the gym or redistributing shot selection a bit, gotta be better.

6. I didn’t write down exact details, so may be off a smidge, and hindsight is 20/20 but I felt we stayed in the zone too long. I know that our guards had foul trouble and it had been effective, but under 3 minutes you gotta play to win, and I felt more like Tennessee played it safe than to win. We had TO’s and could’ve subbed offense for defense if we needed to going man to man, Mashack could’ve spelled Santi or ZZ. Bama wasn’t going away from 3’s and they were able to get the shots they wanted very easily against that zone, and they had the guys they wanted shooting them too…would’ve rather we make them beat us rather than just hoping their better shooters missed wide open looks from 3. Again, hindsight is 20/20 but given we had nothing to really lose last night I would’ve preferred playing as the aggressor in those closing minutes rather than playing it safe which is how we played it imo.

7. Big picture, that loss doesn’t hurt at all, it was an expected loss by all analytics and in reality if we can beat Bama full strength at home that game last night may actually be a bit ignored considering who we were missing. It’s a Q1 loss which all of our losses currently are, and that isn’t going to hurt you at all on selection Sunday. We’ve got a week in between games when Ole Miss comes to Knoxville next Wednesday, hopefully we are at full strength and that’s a game we really should win and really need to win. Remember I said after Zona that 2-3 was expected record through first 5 SEC games, obviously missed an opportunity last night but we sit at 0-1 with a very winnable game coming up against Ole Miss, and then travel to LSU for what looks a bit more winnable after their game last night.



GBO!!!

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Big picture, that loss doesn’t hurt at all, it was an expected loss by all analytics and in reality if we can beat Bama full strength at home that game last night may actually be a bit ignored considering who we were missing.

Sadly, this was our only shot at Alabama unless we meet in the tournament. No game in Knoxville this year.

I think my thoughts are known from the other threads, so I won’t say much. I’ll just re-iterate that I am disappointed in the offense this year. It’s almost like Barnes has been cursed to only be a good defensive coach. We have a ton of weapons, but we are just flat out way too inconsistent on that side of the court to do any real damage in March unless we figure things out.

There is still plenty of time left to get right and become what we all think this team can be, but….we also said similar things about the offense last year and our hopes never came to fruition and we all saw how that turned out. I guess we’ll see, but it’s 12 games into the season now and we’re still trying to find a reliable scoring threat. We haven’t had a Grant or Admiral since 2018, someone that you just KNEW would score if they touched the ball. We need that alpha. Whose it going to be?

 

[TartanTurff]

Barnes is going to have to figure out a half court offense, the effort was there last night on offense but Bailey couldn't get anywhere near a smooth jump shot, the plays coming out of a time out were shakey at best, on the road Barnes is going to have to step in more regularly with offensive sets to get a basket, stop runs and avoid those long, painful scoreless stretches that have haunted his tenure at Tennessee, sadly, last night was a winnable game with talent sidelined, Tennessee just couldn't hold the lead when up 4 or 5 points

 

[therealitytheory]

There is still plenty of time left to get right and become what we all think this team can be, but….we also said similar things about the offense last year and our hopes never came to fruition and we all saw how that turned out. I guess we’ll see, but it’s 12 games into the season now and we’re still trying to find a reliable scoring threat. We haven’t had a Grant or Admiral since 2018, someone that you just KNEW would score if they touched the ball. We need that alpha. Whose it going to be?

I would argue Fulky at the end of 2020 was that guy, and sure looked the part again versus AZ. Would've loved to see him build on that game last night.... but alas..

 

[ndubvols]

I think in our losses (Alabama and TTU at least) one thing that has hurt us is the short rotation at the end of games. I realize you want your best players out there the last 3-4 minutes, but in both games it felt like barnes really shortened the rotation under 10 minutes or so.

Generally, one of our strengths is our depth. While plavsic had a solid game, we barely saw any BHH out there in the second half and very little Powell. That’s asking a lot of some of these less experienced guys like Plavsic, ZZ, even ORN to be out there for longs stretches like that without a drop off. Think we saw it bite us a bit when Bama made their run towards the end.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I would argue Fulky at the end of 2020 was that guy, and sure looked the part again versus AZ. Would've loved to see him build on that game last night.... but alas..

I think Fulky certainly CAN be that guy. But, I’m talking about consistency, something we haven’t seen in a long time from anyone. You always knew Admiral or Grant would hunt their shot and find it. You never doubted those guys would get what they wanted or die trying. It’s the missing piece to this team.

 

[PandamoniumReigns]

@bleedingTNorange - Always enjoy this write ups BTO. Thanks for your time in doing these.

And I am sitting squarely on the Powell > Bailey bandwagon. Bailey has offered us nothing lately on either end of the floor.

 

[lostsheep]

Barnes is going to have to figure out a half court offense, the effort was there last night on offense but Bailey couldn't get anywhere near a smooth jump shot, the plays coming out of a time out were shakey at best, on the road Barnes is going to have to step in more regularly with offensive sets to get a basket, stop runs and avoid those long, painful scoreless stretches that have haunted his tenure at Tennessee, sadly, last night was a winnable game with talent sidelined, Tennessee just couldn't hold the lead when up 4 or 5 points

IMO our offensive sets weren’t the issue. I saw several guys miss wide open looks. JMO, so that and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee.

 

[BreatheUT]

Sadly, this was our only shot at Alabama unless we meet in the tournament. No game in Knoxville this year.

I think my thoughts are known from the other threads, so I won’t say much. I’ll just re-iterate that I am disappointed in the offense this year. It’s almost like Barnes has been cursed to only be a good defensive coach. We have a ton of weapons, but we are just flat out way too inconsistent on that side of the court to do any real damage in March unless we figure things out.

There is still plenty of time left to get right and become what we all think this team can be, but….we also said similar things about the offense last year and our hopes never came to fruition and we all saw how that turned out. I guess we’ll see, but it’s 12 games into the season now and we’re still trying to find a reliable scoring threat. We haven’t had a Grant or Admiral since 2018, someone that you just KNEW would score if they touched the ball. We need that alpha. Whose it going to be?

When JJJ takes a 3-pt shot the other team is ecstatic. It's like point shaving. The dude should create open looks 12-15 feet with some consistency, though I'm not sure he'd make a high % of those right now. At least it would be an identity and scarier for the opponent.

 

[ColinS]

1. If you had asked pregame after finding out we’d have no Chandler or Fulk and that JJJ & Powell would also be battling some sickness if you’d believe we’d have a lead with 4 minutes remaining and have led most of the way nobody would’ve believed it and everyone would’ve gladly taken it…yet this result still feels disappointing. Our short handed guys played their a$$e$ off and really competed, hate it for them, and as a program it was an opportunity to pick up a win that even with a full roster wasn’t all that probable.

2. Overall it’s gonna be hard to try and make too many definitive statements about the game given what we were missing, but the positive is that even without some of our better defenders we held our 9th straight opponent to less than 1ppp, that’s really impressive especially against what is a good offensive team/system. The defense is really elite, it will give us chances on most nights and travels on the road, the offense just needs to get a bit more efficient.

3. I won’t say too much on Bailey, I think most have the same stance on him vs. Powell, if Powell was indeed sick and not able to give much there just wasn’t a ton of other options to go with. With that said, if we are at full strength Bailey needs to go back to Arizona type minutes, or less…JJJ on the other hand has got to find some shooting, he’s too good everywhere else for us to not play and we need him, but he’s not even an offensive threat at this point and it’s really hurting. He was forced to play more 3 last night than he had been and maybe that had an impact as he seemingly was playing better as a 4 recently, hopefully we can get him back to that spot and he can find his stroke.

4. I know a lot of people were down on Nkamhoua and saying he shot too much, but I actually wasn’t too upset…nobody was hitting outside shots and he was playing aggressive on both ends, he defended well and had 9 rebounds, while many of the shots didn’t fall it was nice to not see him disappear in a game we really needed someone to step up. Speaking of bigs, for the 2nd game in a row I thought Plavsic played well, wish he had more meanness/aggression to his game, cause he’s got the size, but 9 rebounds in 20 minutes was great to see from him.

5. This may sound overly simplistic, but it’s a big enough sample size now that’s it’s worth mentioning imo…in our 3 losses it’s also our 3 worst games from 3, combining to go 18/97 for 18.5%, in our 9 wins we are 93/241 for 38.5%. We’ve got to find a way to win when we aren’t hitting shots, not having Fulk last night hurt as against Arizona we didn’t shoot great but had that post option, wasn’t there last night…with that said our guys have to start shooting better, whether that’s more time in the gym or redistributing shot selection a bit, gotta be better.

6. I didn’t write down exact details, so may be off a smidge, and hindsight is 20/20 but I felt we stayed in the zone too long. I know that our guards had foul trouble and it had been effective, but under 3 minutes you gotta play to win, and I felt more like Tennessee played it safe than to win. We had TO’s and could’ve subbed offense for defense if we needed to going man to man, Mashack could’ve spelled Santi or ZZ. Bama wasn’t going away from 3’s and they were able to get the shots they wanted very easily against that zone, and they had the guys they wanted shooting them too…would’ve rather we make them beat us rather than just hoping their better shooters missed wide open looks from 3. Again, hindsight is 20/20 but given we had nothing to really lose last night I would’ve preferred playing as the aggressor in those closing minutes rather than playing it safe which is how we played it imo.

7. Big picture, that loss doesn’t hurt at all, it was an expected loss by all analytics and in reality if we can beat Bama full strength at home that game last night may actually be a bit ignored considering who we were missing. It’s a Q1 loss which all of our losses currently are, and that isn’t going to hurt you at all on selection Sunday. We’ve got a week in between games when Ole Miss comes to Knoxville next Wednesday, hopefully we are at full strength and that’s a game we really should win and really need to win. Remember I said after Zona that 2-3 was expected record through first 5 SEC games, obviously missed an opportunity last night but we sit at 0-1 with a very winnable game coming up against Ole Miss, and then travel to LSU for what looks a bit more winnable after their game last night.



GBO!!!

On number 1. I wasn't really surprised that we were in the game. We have good players even without Chandler and Fulky, plus Alabama has not been playing well lately. I thought missing Chandler hurt us most late when our guards were worn down and in foul trouble. Just the extra body alone would have really helped. Fulky was missed around the rim all night. Alabama got several easy baskets in the first half especially that just wouldn't have been there if Fulky is playing.

 

[BreatheUT]

I think Fulky certainly CAN be that guy. But, I’m talking about consistency, something we haven’t seen in a long time from anyone. You always knew Admiral or Grant would hunt their shot and find it. You never doubted those guys would get what they wanted or die trying. It’s the missing piece to this team.

Both those guys were menaces. Two different types of players but if Admiral wasn't hitting outside he would take it inside. If Grant shot wasn't falling, he'd try to get fouled.

Even Bone would test the "he's on fire" option like NBA2K.

I'm not sure it’s fair to compare, but the point is we got guys that settle for the same missed shot the entire game.

 

[Vol49er]

It’s really not a bad loss at all considering the circumstances, but that’s what makes it sting for me even more is that we really missed a chance to steal one.

Agree with everything except really ON. Aggression is one thing but 17 shots is just too much. Doesn’t need to be taking so many 15 foot turnarounds early in the shot clock, and still needs to rebound with some more intensity. He’s been better in that area this year but improvement can still be made. Uros rebounded with a lot of intensity last night

 

[orbs son]

First SEC game of the year, on the road, without our best 2 players and we are a good decision or two away from beating the number 19 team in the country. We had a lot of inexperienced players, playing vital roles in a rough environment. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe some players can use this game to figure out what they are good at and not so good at. Hopefully VB, ON, and JJJ figure out they aren't the best shooters and need to slash more. Maybe ZZ figures out that he needs to be a little more in control. We still have a long way to go and this loss shouldn't be an issue going forward.

 

[golfballs]

I said before the game was over, win/lose I’m pleased w how the team played without 2 of their best players. My biggest concern is JJJ. If he can hit just a couple shots we win that game and he should be expected to win a game like that for us. He’s got to get it going if we want to be a challenger in March

 

[Volunteer08]

I was very impressed with the team's effort last night. We were missing two of our best and put up an incredible fight. I don't mind the W or L, our team proved it's next man up and I thought everyone delivered. We just came up a little short against a good team at full strength.

 

[Special Ed]

Barnes is going to have to figure out a half court offense, the effort was there last night on offense but Bailey couldn't get anywhere near a smooth jump shot, the plays coming out of a time out were shakey at best, on the road Barnes is going to have to step in more regularly with offensive sets to get a basket, stop runs and avoid those long, painful scoreless stretches that have haunted his tenure at Tennessee, sadly, last night was a winnable game with talent sidelined, Tennessee just couldn't hold the lead when up 4 or 5 points

He's going to have to figure out a lot of things.
We know he'll never beat Auburn as long as Bruce Pearl is their coach and I believe we play them twice this year.
If our starting 5 is not intact by then, it's going to be a really ugly season.

 

[ColinS]

First SEC game of the year, on the road, without our best 2 players and we are a good decision or two away from beating the number 19 team in the country. We had a lot of inexperienced players, playing vital roles in a rough environment. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe some players can use this game to figure out what they are good at and not so good at. Hopefully VB, ON, and JJJ figure out they aren't the best shooters and need to slash more. Maybe ZZ figures out that he needs to be a little more in control. We still have a long way to go and this loss shouldn't be an issue going forward.

It may or may not be an issue moving forward. Losing close games can be chronic with some teams and we already came up short in another close game against Texas Tech.. Obviously, it's not decided yet, but the door was cracked open despite the difficult circumstances and we failed to go ahead and kick it in. Good teams find a way. We didn't last night.

 

[ColinS]

He's going to have to figure out a lot of things.
We know he'll never beat Auburn as long as Bruce Pearl is their coach and I believe we play them twice this year.
If our starting 5 is not intact by then, it's going to be a really ugly season.

I don't think it's gonna be a really ugly season. We are a tournament team worst case scenario. Like you though, I have my concerns.

 

[UneducatedGuess]

When JJJ takes a 3-pt shot the other team is ecstatic. It's like point shaving. The dude should create open looks 12-15 feet with some consistency, though I'm not sure he'd make a high % of those right now. At least it would be an identity and scarier for the opponent.

12-15 ft looks…this isn’t the 1995 Bulls. Mid range isn’t our game.

We take the right shots, we aren’t making them. They are open looks. And I agree, it’s odd, our open shots are misses against better teams but they are still OPEN.

I’d like to see us drive more

Seeing Vescovi back down a Guard last night twice got us buckets…I never thought I’d see that.

 

[ColinS]

I said before the game was over, win/lose I’m pleased w how the team played without 2 of their best players. My biggest concern is JJJ. If he can hit just a couple shots we win that game and he should be expected to win a game like that for us. He’s got to get it going if we want to be a challenger in March

JJJ continues to be an enigma. At times he seems to essential to our success. Other times it seems like he shouldn't even be out there. I like him playing the 4 in the small lineup. That's when he is at his best.

 

[orangemadam]

Very pleased with Plav the last couple of games.

If BHH doesn't improve his defense, we will need to get Plav more playing time and hope he develops for a March run.
Plav seems to be very slowly getting more aggressive, as shown in his rebound improvement.

Powell has got to take more minutes from Bailey. Would have preferred Powell taking that corner three at the end of the game, rather than Bailey or JJJ

 

[BreatheUT]

12-15 ft looks…this isn’t the 1995 Bulls. Mid range isn’t our game.

We take the right shots, we aren’t making them. They are open looks. And I agree, it’s odd, our open shots are misses against better teams but they are still OPEN.

I’d like to see us drive more

Seeing Vescovi back down a Guard last night twice got us buckets…I never thought I’d see that.

You take what you can make and get. Period. You don't keep bombs away shooting bricks.

 

[orbs son]

It may or may not be an issue moving forward. Losing close games can be chronic with some teams and we already came up short in another close game against Texas Tech.. Obviously, it's not decided yet, but the door was cracked open despite the difficult circumstances and we failed to go ahead and kick it in. Good teams find a way. We didn't last night.

We also beat Arizona when we were at full strength in a close game. That’s why this game doesn’t matter. We were not even close to full strength. When good teams find ways to win, it’s usually one of their best players that does it. We didn’t have ours last night.

 

[UneducatedGuess]

You take what you can make and get. Period. You don't keep bombs away shooting bricks.

I said drive the ball. Jumpers are a losing game.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

We also beat Arizona when we were at full strength in a close game. That’s why this game doesn’t matter. We were not even close to full strength. When good teams find ways to win, it’s usually one of their best players that does it. We didn’t have ours last night.

I wouldn’t say this game doesn’t matter. It VERY much matters. It was our only game against Alabama this year. They now own the tiebreaker against us in league play. If the SEC proves to be as close at the top as we all think it will be, this game WILL matter down the stretch. Without a doubt.

I also am finding it hard to excuse the loss and hand waive it away when we led the game or were tied for 39 minutes. It’s a close game we should have won, and we seem to lose these close games more often than not over the past two seasons. Somewhere along the way, we have to find an extra gear to close out close games against good opponents on a consistent basis. And, yes, we closed out Arizona, before anyone suggests I’m ignoring that. But, like I said this is not about one game, it’s about consistency. You’re not going to win the SEC or make a final four run if you’re letting close games escape you more often than not.

TL;DR This game was honestly the one we should have won when you reflect on it. We have to do better. Get this team right, figure out our weaknesses, and move on though. A lot of basketball left to be played.