BTO’s Alabama Postgame Report

[ColinS]

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.

Are you saying the game doesn't matter? That is the strangest of all strange takes if that is truly what you mean. I think what you are saying is the game doesn't define who we are under the circumstances. I would agree that if that's what you mean. The jury is still out on our team and the sample size is still small. We are basically 3-3 against legit competition at this point.

 

[ColinS]

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.

Bottom line is the game was winnable and we didn't get it done. There is gonna be a lot of games throughout the season with missing starters by one or both teams. Nobody will remember who did or didn't play at the end of the season. You are what your record says you are.

 

[i2amavol]

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

I didn't think Plav was playing better than BHH, because BHH scored a lot of points in the first half; however, I think he may have played his best game yet. A lot things he did, do not show up on the stat sheet. Hopefully, he builds off of this performance.

 

[Creeker]

I was a little hard on ON during the game but I do agree he played pretty well. I do still think he took some shots that weren’t great and quickly into the possession when we could of got a better look, but they weren’t the worst.

 

[orbs son]

Are you saying the game doesn't matter? That is the strangest of all strange takes if that is truly what you mean. I think what you are saying is the game doesn't define who we are under the circumstances. I would agree that if that's what you mean. The jury is still out on our team and the sample size is still small. We are basically 3-3 against legit competition at this point.

What I am saying is this is 1 of 30 of these. This game is not going to make or break our season. We have a lot of young guys that are gonna get better and we are going to get our best players back. We will finish around 20 wins, win 1 or 2 in the SEC and NCAA tournaments, barring big injuries. It'll be a fun season. Don't get so worked up about a road loss without our best 2 players in December.

 

[Special Ed]

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.

At this point, i can't help but wonder how much Covid is going to affect our starting 5 going forward.
It's hard to be optimistic.

 

[Big Orange Rob]

Unless Barnes can suddenly adapt and/or learn how to develop a consistent offense with his teams, this will continue to be the norm. Yes, the score was close against a top 20 team where two of our starters were out. But, victory is ours if we had simply executed better offensively when the game was on the line. There is definitely a recurring problem with offensive development and performance most years, barring a few games where everything is clicking and the team is having a hot shooting night. Sure, we will continue to win a good majority of our games, including a few big ones during the year. However, we don't win enough of the games where tournaments and titles are on the line. Barnes has a a lot of cons: good morale man that coaches with integrity, has brought stability and respect to our program, gonna win more than he loses, coaches great defense. However, he has yet to prove that he can consistently compete for conference titles and deep runs in the tournament. I'm not saying he should be fired, but I have come to accept that we will have good teams, not great teams, as long as he coaches. Hopefully we can upgrade with a coach that can recruit needs consistently better and take us to a higher level of consistent play when Barnes retires. Until then, just enjoy the wins and don't get too upset with the losses. It is what it is.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I doubt that very many posters realize that even when losing in the round of 32, only 16 teams had a deeper run. Or that when Barnes made the Sweet 16 in 2019 that it was only the 8th time in the history of TN basketball that they advanced that far. Or that TN has only been to the Elite Eight once but Barnes has been there 3 times.

 

[VolArmy74]

I doubt that very many posters realize that even when losing in the round of 32, only 16 teams had a deeper run. Or that when Barnes made the Sweet 16 in 2019 that it was only the 8th time in the history of TN basketball that they advanced that far. Or that TN has only been to the Elite Eight once but Barnes has been there 3 times.

I'm sure every fan knows this. Every fan is desperate for success. We are very near the top of all teams as far as number of NCAA tournaments made with no Final Fours. It's ridiculous that we have never made it and we all would love to see that change and we make it at least once before we die. Barnes, we realize, probably isn't ever going to pull that one off. In my case I'm hoping he sets the table for someone to do it when he retires, as I doubt we are his 2nd FF team in 35-40 years of coaching.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I'm sure every fan knows this. Every fan is desperate for success. We are very near the top of all teams as far as number of NCAA tournaments made with no Final Fours. It's ridiculous that we have never made it and we all would love to see that change and we make it at least once before we die. Barnes, we realize, probably isn't ever going to pull that one off. In my case I'm hoping he sets the table for someone to do it when he retires, as I doubt we are his 2nd FF team in 35-40 years of coaching.

Your first sentence is very wrong.

Barnes had TN well positioned for two TN Final Fours. Really in only 3 opportunities.

 

[Voltopia]

I don't understand the mentality that this loss doesn't matter. It would have been a durable quadrant 1 win against a potential SEC championship team. This loss absolutely matters. It was one of the most important games Tennessee could have won this year, both for seeding and for prestige, and they didn't win. Who Tennessee had or didn't have isn't relevant to the game's value as a win.

 

[Volunteer08]

I don't understand the mentality that this loss doesn't matter. It would have been a durable quadrant 1 win against a potential SEC championship team. This loss absolutely matters. It was one of the most important games Tennessee could have won this year, both for seeding and for prestige, and they didn't win. Who Tennessee had or didn't have isn't relevant to the game's value as a win.

Agree, but you have to take the result with some context considering we were without two of our best players. It doesn't make sense otherwise.

 

[Vol49er]

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.

We are really missing someone like Grant, Admiral, or even Lamonte Turner who are really unafraid to have the ball in their hands with the game on the line. We did beat Arizona close but that was by getting a huge lead and holding on for dear life. Kennedy could be that guy but he’s definitely not there yet, in fact he probably traveled against Zona then almost turned it over but it fortunately bounced right to Fulk for the and 1. Fulk doesn’t have the consistency to be that guy it seems and a bad Covid bout isn’t going to help. So I don’t know what the solution is

 

[ReggieJohnsonFan]

I‘m very upset UT lost last night but I also realize that game was probably at or near the top of the list of most likely losses this year, even with Fulkerson & Chandler.

IMO, at their ceiling, UT is a top 15-20 team ( not top 5) which means a few more losses are likely this year. It’s going to happen so the anti-Barnes folks will have plenty more to gripe about this year. I actually enjoy reading the rants after games- I’m sure there are some anti-UT trolls stirring the pot but most are super passionate UT fans. My take - Barnes is far from perfect but I’m SO glad he is the UT coach. Under CRB’s leadership, the UT hoops brand is higher than it has ever been on the national stage. Go Big Orange!

 

[ColinS]

Yeah, but this problem is not gonna be unique to us. It's all over college basketball. It's a valid excuse in a one game scenario but it should even out over time.

 

[ColinS]

Your first sentence is very wrong.

Barnes had TN well positioned for two TN Final Fours. Really in only 3 opportunities.

I think it's fair to say Barnes could get us to a Final Four. He has done it before. I am a Braves fan and I just witnessed a perfect storm of everything coming together at once. That's kind of what has to happen in college basketball unless you are that blue blood with NBA guys all up and down your roster. Even then you still have to bring your A game or you will get upset.

 

[Volfan1000]

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!!!

To add to point 4........... Huntley-Hatfield played terrifically in the first half along with Plavsic and we should see Alabama again in the SEC Tournament with Fulkerson and Chandler added to the mix.

 

[djohnnyg]

We didn't make the shots we needed to at the end. You could say we choked...but that last possession was ridiculously bad. What in the holy hell was that? Dumbass dribbling like we were playing for the last shot down by one. Was that coaching? Did they even know the score? That was truly pathetic. I know it was a long shot at best to pull it off but for gawds sake our guys were completely clueless.

 

[cardvolfan]

We didn't make the shots we needed to at the end. You could say we choked...but that last possession was ridiculously bad. What in the holy hell was that? Dumbass dribbling like we were playing for the last shot down by one. Was that coaching? Did they even know the score? That was truly pathetic. I know it was a long shot at best to pull it off but for gawds sake our guys were completely clueless.

Barnes chewed Ziegler’s butt right after that. Sometimes players don‘t execute and if you’ve played ball from grade school thru high school and into college, you as a player have to know that situation. That was all on Ziegler.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

This loss hurts about 10x worse after the bowl game screw job. Awful week. Why can’t we have nice things?

 

[VolFreakJosh]

This loss hurts about 10x worse after the bowl game screw job. Awful week. Why can’t we have nice things?

Because of greed and corruption.

The ref who signaled the play was dead AFTER the ball crossed the goal line, just wanted to be seen.

 

[walkenvol]

Because of greed and corruption.

The ref who signaled the play was dead AFTER the ball crossed the goal line, just wanted to be seen.

Your second sentence doesn’t support your first sentence.

I think it’s due to complete stupidity. They review almost every close play yet choose to make rules that won’t allow a review of a game deciding call where a human standing 50’+ away has to make a split second judgement call. Pure stupidity on the same level as not addressing all the fake injuries.

 

[Vol49er]

Your second sentence doesn’t support your first sentence.

I think it’s due to complete stupidity. They review almost every close play yet choose to make rules that won’t allow a review of a game deciding call where a human standing 50’+ away has to make a split second judgement call. Pure stupidity on the same level as not addressing all the fake injuries.

I understand making forward progress unreviewable. Once the play is dead, some players will stop playing so counting anything after would be unfair. What I don’t understand is the play being dead not when the whistle was blown, but when the ref recalls it being dead. That’s idiotic. If Purdue wrapped up Hooker in the backfield but he escaped and ran for a 35 yard TD and then the whistle blew, but then the refs said the play was actually dead when Purdue had Hooker in the grasp, that’d be completely allowed by language of the rule and the ball would be spotted in the backfield. Which is asinine
Also Wrights forward progress was clearly not stopped at all, they allow plays to go on far beyond that with regularity

That being said, the defense was bad, but I honestly can’t be too mad bc the players just aren’t SEC caliber rn. I’m more mad about how poor in game coaching decisions and poor discipline with penalties cost us both of our non-conference losses this year in football

 

[cncchris33]

I understand making forward progress unreviewable. Once the play is dead, some players will stop playing so counting anything after would be unfair. What I don’t understand is the play being dead not when the whistle was blown, but when the ref recalls it being dead. That’s idiotic. If Purdue wrapped up Hooker in the backfield but he escaped and ran for a 35 yard TD and then the whistle blew, but then the refs said the play was actually dead when Purdue had Hooker in the grasp, that’d be completely allowed by language of the rule and the ball would be spotted in the backfield. Which is asinine
Also Wrights forward progress was clearly not stopped at all, they allow plays to go on far beyond that with regularity

That being said, the defense was bad, but I honestly can’t be too mad bc the players just aren’t SEC caliber rn. I’m more mad about how poor in game coaching decisions and poor discipline with penalties cost us both of our non-conference losses this year in football

Yup...Wright's forward progress was certainly not anymore stopped than the Purdue TE's progress on their second to last TD when we had him wrapped up and he takes off 50 yards down the sideline for a TD.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Yup...Wright's forward progress was certainly not anymore stopped than the Purdue TE's progress on their second to last TD when we had him wrapped up and he takes off 50 yards down the sideline for a TD.