bleedingTNorange
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1. What a showing from our Vols, I mentioned after the first round game that this matchup intrigued me in a lot of ways. Tennessee is a very physical team and experienced where as Duke tries to be physical but is young and not played a team close to our size and physicality all season long. We also seem to really get up for the games against the big name teams and that was once again the case. The Barnes “haters” and criticizers will hopefully recognize the job Barnes has done with this team and give credit where it due, the postseason lack of success was really the only thing they could point to and that is now gone, and hopefully even more wins will be added to his NCAAT record in the coming days as well.
2. As frustrating as Olivier Nkamhoua can be it’s games like Texas and then last night that answers why so many have question why Barnes continued time and time again to go to him and start him. He has that type of ceiling, obviously percentages won’t always be that high but he can get his shot anytime he wants with that high release and his athletic ability. It would be great to be able to get a couple more of those games from him in this tournament, it really opens things up for us to have a post scoring threat. He’s a legit threat from 3 and just needs to be confident, that’s a shot we will be able to get him multiple times a game and when we are struggling to get a look offensively having him get open looks from top of the key area is something we and he need to take advantage of.
3. Our defense which had struggled of late after being great most of the year has returned in great fashion these opening 2 games. We have held both Louisiana and Duke to season low point totals and really set the tone early defensively. A huge part of it has been avoiding foul trouble, which is also a credit to refs allowing us to play physical a bit, and then our guys too really being locked into the scouts. The matchups have also been pretty good for us as well, neither of those teams were Top 40 offenses so they are susceptible to being locked up, neither had a super quick scoring threat PG either that has caused some issues without Zeigler.
4. While Nkamhoua obviously was great, Vescovi continued his hot shooting as well, but offensively it was a cold game from Key, JJJ & Phillips. I mentioned it before that these guys can obviously have a hot game, and we have been able to advance without it happening, they definitely have the potential to go off and carry us to a victory at some point. JJJ & Key especially will hopefully find it from 3, both of them have been cold to start the NCAAT, if they can find their stroke that will continue to open things up for us.
5. We did a much better job limiting turnovers, along with that points off turnovers and then shooting our free throws us well. Only 9 turnovers all game, which led to just 7 points off those turnovers, much better than the previous game. As I said after that one our defense is so good in the half court that you really don’t want to give opponents turnovers and easy baskets, making them have to work for any points in the half court is very taxing against our defense. Shot 77% from the line going 10/13, that’s pretty solid, Mashack missed a couple late but hitting the front end of those 2 late was huge even though he missed the 2nd of those it was 2 big points.
6. Looking ahead, obviously an opportunity is there, likely will be FAU, but obviously a chance FDU pulls another upset. I mentioned the matchups to this point and not facing small quick guards or very good offenses, well FAU definitely possesses both. They will pretty much exclusively 4 very small guards all 6’-6’4”, and then will rotate 2 post guys, a 7’1” 240lbs Russian (Plav twin?) and then a 6’8” 239lb as well. They shoot and make a bunch of 3’s and they are 1 of the better defensive rebounding teams in the country which isn’t great for us considering we typically get a lot of offensive rebounds which helps give us an edge. Will be watching their game closesly tonight but on paper they definitely have some similarities to Missouri who we obviously struggled with twice this year defensively. I also worry a bit because it’s obviously not a big name touted team and lots of times we’ve struggled with those types where as we’ve gotten up for the biggest named teams for the most part. Not trying to be doom or gloom and say we can’t win, more so just trying to slow down any looking ahead and remember that any team can win and that we’ve struggled with similar type teams, it will take a great effort once again but these guys can absolutely do it.
GBO!!!
2. As frustrating as Olivier Nkamhoua can be it’s games like Texas and then last night that answers why so many have question why Barnes continued time and time again to go to him and start him. He has that type of ceiling, obviously percentages won’t always be that high but he can get his shot anytime he wants with that high release and his athletic ability. It would be great to be able to get a couple more of those games from him in this tournament, it really opens things up for us to have a post scoring threat. He’s a legit threat from 3 and just needs to be confident, that’s a shot we will be able to get him multiple times a game and when we are struggling to get a look offensively having him get open looks from top of the key area is something we and he need to take advantage of.
3. Our defense which had struggled of late after being great most of the year has returned in great fashion these opening 2 games. We have held both Louisiana and Duke to season low point totals and really set the tone early defensively. A huge part of it has been avoiding foul trouble, which is also a credit to refs allowing us to play physical a bit, and then our guys too really being locked into the scouts. The matchups have also been pretty good for us as well, neither of those teams were Top 40 offenses so they are susceptible to being locked up, neither had a super quick scoring threat PG either that has caused some issues without Zeigler.
4. While Nkamhoua obviously was great, Vescovi continued his hot shooting as well, but offensively it was a cold game from Key, JJJ & Phillips. I mentioned it before that these guys can obviously have a hot game, and we have been able to advance without it happening, they definitely have the potential to go off and carry us to a victory at some point. JJJ & Key especially will hopefully find it from 3, both of them have been cold to start the NCAAT, if they can find their stroke that will continue to open things up for us.
5. We did a much better job limiting turnovers, along with that points off turnovers and then shooting our free throws us well. Only 9 turnovers all game, which led to just 7 points off those turnovers, much better than the previous game. As I said after that one our defense is so good in the half court that you really don’t want to give opponents turnovers and easy baskets, making them have to work for any points in the half court is very taxing against our defense. Shot 77% from the line going 10/13, that’s pretty solid, Mashack missed a couple late but hitting the front end of those 2 late was huge even though he missed the 2nd of those it was 2 big points.
6. Looking ahead, obviously an opportunity is there, likely will be FAU, but obviously a chance FDU pulls another upset. I mentioned the matchups to this point and not facing small quick guards or very good offenses, well FAU definitely possesses both. They will pretty much exclusively 4 very small guards all 6’-6’4”, and then will rotate 2 post guys, a 7’1” 240lbs Russian (Plav twin?) and then a 6’8” 239lb as well. They shoot and make a bunch of 3’s and they are 1 of the better defensive rebounding teams in the country which isn’t great for us considering we typically get a lot of offensive rebounds which helps give us an edge. Will be watching their game closesly tonight but on paper they definitely have some similarities to Missouri who we obviously struggled with twice this year defensively. I also worry a bit because it’s obviously not a big name touted team and lots of times we’ve struggled with those types where as we’ve gotten up for the biggest named teams for the most part. Not trying to be doom or gloom and say we can’t win, more so just trying to slow down any looking ahead and remember that any team can win and that we’ve struggled with similar type teams, it will take a great effort once again but these guys can absolutely do it.
GBO!!!
