BTO’s Arkansas Postgame Report

#26
#26
Woodlawn VOL said:
Amen, Santi and ZZ have not had a lot of turnover problems. I love KC but his lack of focus and shooting free throws has been a consistent, especially late in games. He gets to the line and seems to worry about where everyone is and pointing all around instead of concentrating on the free throw line. Do the same thing everytime at the line. Breathe dribble bend them knees and stroke it. Foot on the nail repeat. Free throw shooting is very important especially as you get in the tournament. Good passing, good movement, good shooting, good rebounding and great defense. GBO!
Click to expand...

Again it’s mental and it’s been talked about ad-naseum. Are they a big deal yes but KC gets dogged more than every player on this team and the ****** part is he is one of the biggest reasons we are winning these games. He is his own worst enemy and he will correct them, so continuing to talk about it is getting old when there are so many other positives to talk about and quite a few obvious negatives from other players that effected the game way more egregiously than 3 missed free throw attempts..
 
  • Like
Reactions: NighthawkVol
#27
#27
I hope we gain some confidence in the conference tourney. If we play our game and the defense shows up like it has been and offense.. please god if our offense plays at 80 percent of what it’s capable of we will make some moves at the big dance this year. GBO!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: gainesvol82 and NighthawkVol
#29
#29
Tale of two halves.
Good: Played a near perfect 1st half.
Won. Box checked.
Bad: That was a ugly 2nd half. Credit to Ark played in beast mode with nothing to lose!
We played not to lose.

We play better when we play fast and move the ball. Credit Ark, they made adjustments.
More good news:
That card has been payed, we will be ready for it next time. We have learned how NOT to play when we are in the lead.
We also know how good and poorly we can play when we are focused and when we lose focus.
Hopefully, RB brings in a hypnotist or a sports psychologist for KC.
 
#30
#30
I want to put a stopwatch on some of that end of game time. Seems like 1:30 to 0:20 lasted about 15 minutes. The game nearly came to a complete stop around 8:00. 5 minute stoppages for the reviews are out of control. Instead of reviews, when there were plays too close to figure out, refs would just call a jump ball/alternate possession. That seemed to work much better than the endless reviews.

Refs have too much effect on every single game. Chandler, James, and Fulk all with 4 fouls down the home stretch. Arkansas had a similar situation. Basketball shouldn’t be about putting up 60 free throws. The rules interpretation is as annoying as the flopping in football. But maybe half of rosters do need to be fouled out to do something about the they won’t call every foul strategy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lankykong, DowntownVol, gainesvol82 and 2 others
#33
#33
Can we schedule an exorcism to get the demons out of Chandler? For real though, he needs to see a sports psychologist.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Coddlecreek1
#37
#37
Coddlecreek1 said:
Vescovi holds the ball too long, ZZ dribbling into lane /baseline..then p/u his dribble..make the easy pass..jmho
Click to expand...
9/10 times if Vescovi dribbles inside the 3pt line bad things happen. Zakai just seems like he is trying to do too much dribbling into traffic. His issues pretty much coincide with that fire, which is understandable. Hopefully all the donations ease his stress some and he can go back to making great decisions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gainesvol82 and Coddlecreek1
#38
#38
VolPack22 said:
9/10 times if Vescovi dribbles inside the 3pt line bad things happen. Zakai just seems like he is trying to do too much dribbling into traffic. His issues pretty much coincide with that fire, which is understandable. Hopefully all the donations ease his stress some and he can go back to making great decisions.
Click to expand...

love the kid, one tough son of a gun
 
  • Like
Reactions: volfan__18, gainesvol82 and VolPack22
#42
#42
bleedingTNorange said:
1. That was about what I expected, a sweater, but definitely wasn’t the route I thought we would take in getting there. Came out playing arguably our best half of basketball and had a huge lead, allowed Arkansas to climb back in and found a way to hang on for dear life for the win. I was anticipating a close back and forth game for 40 minutes, definitely wasn’t the case, but turned into a nail bite me late for sure and we found a way to pull out the W.

2. I thought JJJ was huge down the stretch, when Arkansas made a run he his some big shots and made some key defensive plays, he seems to be finding a new gear a little bit of late and that it bug for this teams success…at our best he’s giving us 35+mpg and being aggressive, you know what you’re going to get from him defensively.

3. The defense was really good I thought, we turned it over too much and got out worked on the boards by a wide margin especially in the 2nd half which made it a ball game for sure…we have to take care of the ball, we typically do a good job of it but in games we’ve struggled in it’s typically a common theme. The rebounding is effort, we whipped Auburn of the boards and can do it, Arkansas was desperate the 2nd half and so it’s not a huge shock but disappointing we didn’t match it.

4. A negative we are starting to hear more and more about, our 2pt% is really bad, and really keeping our offense from being really good in all actuality. 11/32 today from 2, 34%, that is REAAALLLY bad…fact is BHH & Aidoo don’t need to be making post moves, Fulky if the matchup is there ok, Plav if he’s got position ok, Aidoo if he’s open on an 17 footer ok, but we are trying to get post looks for guys that is such a lower percentage play…add in the mid range attempts from Chandler, JJJ, Vescovi and Zeigler and it’s just not great basketball…especially considering how well we have been shooting the ball from outside. Yea we may live and die by the 3, but imo that’s clearly our best offense.

5. Time to do a regular season finale reset..23-7(14-4), that’s a better finish than anyone realistically expected, you throw in an expected Memphis W and that’s 24-7…in polls next week we are probably around #10, that’s a great season. However even more importantly, we are playing our best ball at the right time and that’s not something that we have done much heading into March. The win today absolutely locks up a 4 seed as the floor imo, and quite possibly a 3, we should be flirting with a 2 seed in the next update. Our opening SECT should absolutely be a very winnable game and win that and definitely would increase chances of a 2 and again seemingly cement a 3 as the floor. We still have yet to see 40 minutes of the best Tennessee basketball they have to offer, and that is exciting, the hope is that we see it at the right time!!!


GBO!!!
Click to expand...

For the postseason, I would LOVE to see Chandler’s FT shooting improve and the two freshman bigs just learn how to catch, hold onto the ball, and make a simple layup/dunk/bunny.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#43
#43
VolSkeet83 said:
Our guards were aggressive driving the lane, but a lot of the results were contested shots that landed high off the backboard, and when our guards decided to dump it off in traffic to our bigs, they couldn't handle the passes and ended in turnovers or awkward point blank shots that rimmed out. Chandler did this a lot earlier in the season. In the NBA, the bigs are ready to catch those passes and can consistently finish those opportunities in traffic, but not on this squad.

BHH, Aidoo, and Plavy might be better at catching those passes next year, but they all seem to have stone hands when getting tight passes around the hoop. Some of those plays aren't their fault, but Santi and Chandler have made some great passes at the rim when the defense collapses on them and too many of the passes get fumbled or dropped. Maybe a product of expecting the guards (our best scorers) to take the shot and they get stuck "watching" the play instead of anticipating a pass. Anyone else notice this?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Made my last post before reading this.

BHH acts like the basketball is on fire. He not only has a hard time catching passes, but he loses it for seemingly no reason after he does catch a pass. Aidoo doesn’t lose it as often, but catching is a problem. I hope they spend every day between now and Friday working on their hands. I’ve never seen hands that bad.
 
#44
#44
esarmstrong said:
Chandler's FT issues are most unfortunate. Late in games, you see a concerted effort by Tennessee to keep the ball out of his hands when nursing a small lead when the opponent is in an obvious foul situation. How is it that a kid who shot nearly 90% free throws in HS goes below 60% in college?
Click to expand...

I went through the same thing in HS. All things running through your head like "I can hit 3's just shoot it quick like a live ball" , "I can't let down my teammates", "Maybe if I dribble 3 times instead of 2", it's definitely mental he's too good of a player for it not to be.
 
#45
#45
GregAmsler said:
Absolutely. Made my last post before reading this.

BHH acts like the basketball is on fire. He not only has a hard time catching passes, but he loses it for seemingly no reason after he does catch a pass. Aidoo doesn’t lose it as often, but catching is a problem. I hope they spend every day between now and Friday working on their hands. I’ve never seen hands that bad.
Click to expand...
1646572639733.gif
 
#46
#46
GregAmsler said:
Absolutely. Made my last post before reading this.

BHH acts like the basketball is on fire. He not only has a hard time catching passes, but he loses it for seemingly no reason after he does catch a pass. Aidoo doesn’t lose it as often, but catching is a problem. I hope they spend every day between now and Friday working on their hands. I’ve never seen hands that bad.
Click to expand...
The irony in your post is that both have really good hands, especially compared to many freshman big men. Yesterday was tough with all the slapping and reaching Arkansas does. I think it’s more related in trying to not force the ball into very tight spaces when you’re surrounded by three pigs desperate for a basketball.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kptvol1452 and gainesvol82
#47
#47
sechamp2012 said:
I went through the same thing in HS. All things running through your head like "I can hit 3's just shoot it quick like a live ball" , "I can't let down my teammates", "Maybe if I dribble 3 times instead of 2", it's definitely mental he's too good of a player for it not to be.
Click to expand...
There shouldn’t be any thinking going on while shooting free throws. Just see the basket and shoot the ball.
 
#49
#49
Volfan1000 said:
Chandler went 0-3 from the free throw line today and shot 2 airballs.

He will get fouled a lot in crunch time and needs to develop ice veins at the stripe when the game is on the line.

Tennessee is dead last in the conference in two point field goal percentage and ranks second in three point field goal percentage in the conference.

Solid momentum headed to Tampa and the conference tournament next Friday.
Click to expand...
Chandler’s woes at the FT line have nothing to do with ice veins or his “coolness” in pressure situations. He’s clanking them with the game not on the line as well. It’s a free throw shooter’s version of the YIPS. It’s mental, period. It’s much more difficult than “extra practice, new routine, ice veins, more knee flex, etc etc.” It really is excruciating to watch when he knows he’s a very good FT shooter. He will figure it out at some point, but these funks often take lots of time to figure out. The more pressing question is will he get it straightened out before tournament time? I think that’s very much in doubt, but I hope he does.
 
  • Like
Reactions: walkenvol and gainesvol82
#50
#50
I’m glad we had a game like this now. We had a lot of games like this in the grant era where we would go off like gangbusters only to let up and let other teams get back in. They had to figure out how to deal with it. So an opportunity to continue to get better but the type of game we played in the first half is just another glimpse of where our ceiling is. Encouraging. I think things are still coming together for us and at the right time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: volfan__18, Lankykong, Willy14 and 4 others
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top