bleedingTNorange
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1. That is how you hoped Tennessee would respond after dropping a disappointing midweek game at home. Losing on the road to Kentucky wouldn’t have shocked anyone but it would’ve definitely felt like a setback dropping back to back games and leaving yourself with an uphill climb. Kentucky was coming off a loss as well so both teams were hungry and it was a great game, the Vols were simply the better team.
2. I won’t put a bunch of stock into one game and run with the talk about a players meeting and say everything is suddenly great and that JJJ will be that guy every night. I still want to see as a team what they do against physicality which Kentucky did not provide and has caused those players some trouble, but JJJ obviously was phenomenal and iirc it’s also the first time in recent memory he’s been without the wrap on his hand, maybe that was bothering him to a certain degree. Again, you can’t expect that level of play from ZZ & JJJ every night, but you need those guys to come out with that aggression and shoot open shots, as Barnes said not just pass to Dalton and watch him work. At times ISO is fine and a design play call late, but majority of the games guys have to be aggressive and even use the attention Dalton gets to their advantage.
3. I thought Tobe really played well, again outside of the fouls, even for him 4 fouls in just 10 minutes is impressive lol. But his physicality was needed, guys fed off him and he had some nice buckets as well. Luckily we don’t need huge minutes from him or the fouls would be a bigger concern but it would be nice if he could get those a bit more under control, first half especially so we wouldn’t have to go to JP out of necessity (team worst +/- against UK).
4. I said it a lot earlier in the year and I think it’s still very true, this team is much different than expected even to an extent probably what they as players and coaches expected. They are still figuring things out and how the puzzle pieces fit together, guys are finding and adjusting to new and unfamiliar roles, as I said as well before I don’t know if it all totally every clicks but you can see flashes and Saturday against Kentucky was probably the longest sustained flash we’ve seen. Again UK isn’t a physical team and frankly is bad defensively, but you also don’t put up 100+ at Rupp just days after not breaking 60 at home and not take some confidence and lessons hopefully. We have to continue to push the pace imo, I think our guys are much better and confident in that setting, and guys need to continue to take their shots and be confident when they do, trust themselves and each other.
5. Big picture in many ways that win makes up for the loss to South Carolina, it stings more because if you win that one you’re likely on the 1 seed line as of today so it was a missed opportunity in that regard, but as far as being detrimental to your season and where we were it’s pretty much right back to where we were. We had set a goal of 7-2 to open SEC play, they’re now 6-2 with a home game against LSU upcoming, protect home court and you’ve hit that 7-2 mark. Let’s dive a little further into things though, that 7-2 mark we set was for the first half of the year, setting a goal of 23-7(13-5) which I said would likely have us as a 2 seed imo, so would mean a goal of 6-3 to close out the final 9 of league play. We currently sit at 16-5(6-2) with 10 games remaining, projections have shifted slightly and suggest that 24-7(14-4) is now the most likely outcome for the Vols, which would certainly have them on the 2 seed line and very much in contention for their first ever 1 seed in program history. So how do we get to 24-7(14-4) when we are at 16-5(6-2), simple math says that’s going 8-2 over our final 10 games, if you look at the schedule it’s definitely doable, but likely requires us taking advantage of this upcoming slate of games. Looking at the upcoming 6 games Barttorvik projects us as a double digit favorite in 5/6, with Saturday’s road game at A&M being the only one not with us currently projected as 5 point favorites. Finding a way to go 6-0 over these next 6 would be massive, as the final 4 games of the year will be a brutal stretch, and include some very tough road games. It all starts this week though and hoping our new found offensive confidence continues, LSU & A&M play much better defense and physical than UK, find a way to go 2-0 this week and that 7 game winning streak looks much more plausible.
GBO!!!
2. I won’t put a bunch of stock into one game and run with the talk about a players meeting and say everything is suddenly great and that JJJ will be that guy every night. I still want to see as a team what they do against physicality which Kentucky did not provide and has caused those players some trouble, but JJJ obviously was phenomenal and iirc it’s also the first time in recent memory he’s been without the wrap on his hand, maybe that was bothering him to a certain degree. Again, you can’t expect that level of play from ZZ & JJJ every night, but you need those guys to come out with that aggression and shoot open shots, as Barnes said not just pass to Dalton and watch him work. At times ISO is fine and a design play call late, but majority of the games guys have to be aggressive and even use the attention Dalton gets to their advantage.
3. I thought Tobe really played well, again outside of the fouls, even for him 4 fouls in just 10 minutes is impressive lol. But his physicality was needed, guys fed off him and he had some nice buckets as well. Luckily we don’t need huge minutes from him or the fouls would be a bigger concern but it would be nice if he could get those a bit more under control, first half especially so we wouldn’t have to go to JP out of necessity (team worst +/- against UK).
4. I said it a lot earlier in the year and I think it’s still very true, this team is much different than expected even to an extent probably what they as players and coaches expected. They are still figuring things out and how the puzzle pieces fit together, guys are finding and adjusting to new and unfamiliar roles, as I said as well before I don’t know if it all totally every clicks but you can see flashes and Saturday against Kentucky was probably the longest sustained flash we’ve seen. Again UK isn’t a physical team and frankly is bad defensively, but you also don’t put up 100+ at Rupp just days after not breaking 60 at home and not take some confidence and lessons hopefully. We have to continue to push the pace imo, I think our guys are much better and confident in that setting, and guys need to continue to take their shots and be confident when they do, trust themselves and each other.
5. Big picture in many ways that win makes up for the loss to South Carolina, it stings more because if you win that one you’re likely on the 1 seed line as of today so it was a missed opportunity in that regard, but as far as being detrimental to your season and where we were it’s pretty much right back to where we were. We had set a goal of 7-2 to open SEC play, they’re now 6-2 with a home game against LSU upcoming, protect home court and you’ve hit that 7-2 mark. Let’s dive a little further into things though, that 7-2 mark we set was for the first half of the year, setting a goal of 23-7(13-5) which I said would likely have us as a 2 seed imo, so would mean a goal of 6-3 to close out the final 9 of league play. We currently sit at 16-5(6-2) with 10 games remaining, projections have shifted slightly and suggest that 24-7(14-4) is now the most likely outcome for the Vols, which would certainly have them on the 2 seed line and very much in contention for their first ever 1 seed in program history. So how do we get to 24-7(14-4) when we are at 16-5(6-2), simple math says that’s going 8-2 over our final 10 games, if you look at the schedule it’s definitely doable, but likely requires us taking advantage of this upcoming slate of games. Looking at the upcoming 6 games Barttorvik projects us as a double digit favorite in 5/6, with Saturday’s road game at A&M being the only one not with us currently projected as 5 point favorites. Finding a way to go 6-0 over these next 6 would be massive, as the final 4 games of the year will be a brutal stretch, and include some very tough road games. It all starts this week though and hoping our new found offensive confidence continues, LSU & A&M play much better defense and physical than UK, find a way to go 2-0 this week and that 7 game winning streak looks much more plausible.
GBO!!!
