bleedingTNorange
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Didn’t have the time to get one up after Nova so figured instead of doing 2 threads I would basically just do 1 report covering both games…
1. I’m not sure anyone expected those 2 results, 1-1 isn’t surprisingly in the least and was really the expectation, but to lose in the fashion we did I never saw coming and on the flip side I didn’t see a win like that coming against any of those teams this weekend…a very strange weekend that maybe has us actually asking more questions than we went into the week with, and thinking we’d have answers for.
2. I think Nova is a great team, I also think that our strength is our guards and that their guards at this stage are just better, we don’t have a dominate post game to make them pay there. I think that first game also showed how important Chandler is, that first play of the game in retrospect was massive…what should’ve been a block, a likely 3-0 Tennessee lead and a Nova starter with a foul immediately flips to a 0-0 game and foul on Chandler, it wasn’t much later he picked up his 2nd and was done. We weren’t flawless in the 2nd half with him by any means but definitely thought we looked much better against them with Chandler than without, no way we were keeping it close without him and Barnes probably should’ve rolled the dice and played him with 2 fouls.
3. On the flip side of that you have today, Tennessee beats a ranked team just about as badly as we got whipped yesterday…our guard play was absolutely dominant and we were missing arguably our best defensive piece and versatile offensive piece in JJJ. Credit to the staff and the team for bouncing back, would’ve been real easy to pack it up and head home 0-2, instead you leave with a loss to a Top 5 team and a win against a Top 20 team, all in all that’s probably a net positive big picture.
4. Some advanced analytic numbers…against Nova offensively we put up a 79.1 rating and defensively a 106.0 rating…today offensively was a 125.3 and defensively 101.4…our defense really wasn’t that bad against Nova considering how good they are offensively, we were just absolutely abysmal offensively…today’s offensive numbers looked like our first 2 games, so was Nova an outlier? They exposed something? What happens without Chandler? Not sure, but that needs to be addressed for sure cause it was fugly.
5. Santiago Vescovi is my player of the tournament for Tennessee, he’s the only guy to show up both games, so pretty easy choice…averaged 20ppg and shot right at about 40% from 3, also averaged 7.5rpg in the 2 games, he’s played really good defense and his improved quickness was very easy to see I thought. He can handle PG if needed but definitely not ideal, however he’s a really good 2 guard imo and quite possibly will lead the team in scoring this year and get some accolades.
6. This one may get long and be quite a run on, but just a few different thoughts getting compiled together…I just don’t see a way you play Plavsic going forward unless it’s a team with a bruising big man that we are unable to push the tempo against, option 1 against such a player should still be Fulky and trying to push the pace and spread the floor. Going off that, Zeigler showed in this game that he deserves plenty more opportunities, he’s tough as nails, can score inside, be a pest defensively, and looks like he’s finding his 3pt shot. James, even though not a huge sample size, is 1/15 from 3…that’s not gonna stretch the floor from the 3 position, he continues to look better suited for the 4, but that would require Barnes committing to small ball and pretty much removing Uros. To me the strength of this team is the guards, the quickness, and the 3pt shooting. We played a lot of small ball today and had 50+ paint points, only took 20 3pt attempts, had 28 assists on 38 made fg, I say that to say that just cause we are small doesn’t mean the ball can’t go inside. I like…
Chandler/Zeigler
Vescovi/Bailey
Powell
James
Fulk/ORN/BHH
ORN getting some minutes at the 4, but for the most part James would be your 4…I feel those are our best players and best plays to our strengths.
7. We sit at 3-1, have a good neutral site win and a neutral site loss to what looks like a Top 5 team, no harm done this weekend at all, but do need to use it as a learning experience and to improve on. Take a look at our next 6 games per BartTorvik, next 2 our home for what should be 20+ point favorites, then @ Colorado and N Texas Tech, both of which we are slightly favored in, 1-1 should be the minimum but 2-0 definitely possible, then 2 more H cupcakes that should probably be 20+ point favorites in. So 5-1 at worst should be the expectation over the next 6, get us to 8-2 or 9-1 and we are in a pretty good spot through our first 10 games.
GBO!
1. I’m not sure anyone expected those 2 results, 1-1 isn’t surprisingly in the least and was really the expectation, but to lose in the fashion we did I never saw coming and on the flip side I didn’t see a win like that coming against any of those teams this weekend…a very strange weekend that maybe has us actually asking more questions than we went into the week with, and thinking we’d have answers for.
2. I think Nova is a great team, I also think that our strength is our guards and that their guards at this stage are just better, we don’t have a dominate post game to make them pay there. I think that first game also showed how important Chandler is, that first play of the game in retrospect was massive…what should’ve been a block, a likely 3-0 Tennessee lead and a Nova starter with a foul immediately flips to a 0-0 game and foul on Chandler, it wasn’t much later he picked up his 2nd and was done. We weren’t flawless in the 2nd half with him by any means but definitely thought we looked much better against them with Chandler than without, no way we were keeping it close without him and Barnes probably should’ve rolled the dice and played him with 2 fouls.
3. On the flip side of that you have today, Tennessee beats a ranked team just about as badly as we got whipped yesterday…our guard play was absolutely dominant and we were missing arguably our best defensive piece and versatile offensive piece in JJJ. Credit to the staff and the team for bouncing back, would’ve been real easy to pack it up and head home 0-2, instead you leave with a loss to a Top 5 team and a win against a Top 20 team, all in all that’s probably a net positive big picture.
4. Some advanced analytic numbers…against Nova offensively we put up a 79.1 rating and defensively a 106.0 rating…today offensively was a 125.3 and defensively 101.4…our defense really wasn’t that bad against Nova considering how good they are offensively, we were just absolutely abysmal offensively…today’s offensive numbers looked like our first 2 games, so was Nova an outlier? They exposed something? What happens without Chandler? Not sure, but that needs to be addressed for sure cause it was fugly.
5. Santiago Vescovi is my player of the tournament for Tennessee, he’s the only guy to show up both games, so pretty easy choice…averaged 20ppg and shot right at about 40% from 3, also averaged 7.5rpg in the 2 games, he’s played really good defense and his improved quickness was very easy to see I thought. He can handle PG if needed but definitely not ideal, however he’s a really good 2 guard imo and quite possibly will lead the team in scoring this year and get some accolades.
6. This one may get long and be quite a run on, but just a few different thoughts getting compiled together…I just don’t see a way you play Plavsic going forward unless it’s a team with a bruising big man that we are unable to push the tempo against, option 1 against such a player should still be Fulky and trying to push the pace and spread the floor. Going off that, Zeigler showed in this game that he deserves plenty more opportunities, he’s tough as nails, can score inside, be a pest defensively, and looks like he’s finding his 3pt shot. James, even though not a huge sample size, is 1/15 from 3…that’s not gonna stretch the floor from the 3 position, he continues to look better suited for the 4, but that would require Barnes committing to small ball and pretty much removing Uros. To me the strength of this team is the guards, the quickness, and the 3pt shooting. We played a lot of small ball today and had 50+ paint points, only took 20 3pt attempts, had 28 assists on 38 made fg, I say that to say that just cause we are small doesn’t mean the ball can’t go inside. I like…
Chandler/Zeigler
Vescovi/Bailey
Powell
James
Fulk/ORN/BHH
ORN getting some minutes at the 4, but for the most part James would be your 4…I feel those are our best players and best plays to our strengths.
7. We sit at 3-1, have a good neutral site win and a neutral site loss to what looks like a Top 5 team, no harm done this weekend at all, but do need to use it as a learning experience and to improve on. Take a look at our next 6 games per BartTorvik, next 2 our home for what should be 20+ point favorites, then @ Colorado and N Texas Tech, both of which we are slightly favored in, 1-1 should be the minimum but 2-0 definitely possible, then 2 more H cupcakes that should probably be 20+ point favorites in. So 5-1 at worst should be the expectation over the next 6, get us to 8-2 or 9-1 and we are in a pretty good spot through our first 10 games.
GBO!
