BTO’s Lenoir-Rhyne Postgame Report

[bleedingTNorange]

1. Never want to overreact to 1 exhibition game, but are we seeing an offensive transformation taking place? Tennessee attempted 46 threes, it’s most since attempting 50 under Bruce Pearl in a game back in 2007. Rick Barnes when asked postgame said that Tennessee attempted more than 40 in their 2 intrasquad scrimmages and also in the closed door scrimmage against Davidson. I doubt those numbers stay that high, but Alabama led the country in 31 attempts per game, to give a bit of a comparison as to how many that was.

2. Continuing off point 1, a common point made about Barnes offense at Tennessee has been the number of non-rim 2’s his teams have taken, and how inefficient that shot is which has led us to some struggling teams offensively. Of their 78 shot attempts on Saturday 26 were layups/dunks, 46 were 3pt attempts, and just 6 were non-rim 2’s. Tennessee has been around 35% on attempts being considered mid-range in previous years under Barnes, it was just 7% of their offensive shot selection on Saturday. Again, I doubt we see numbers that drastic all season, but it sure looks like there’s at least some what of a change that’s going to take place on the offensive end.

3. Again, don’t want to overreact, but man do Chandler & BHH look like the real deal for freshman. Having Chandler is going to make it hard to screw up this offense considering the shooters we have and while it’s unknown to what extent but at least something of a post game. You can see BHH and understand why Barnes is taking the tough coaching/motivational angle with him, he casually went out there and puts up 15/12 in 20 minutes without seemingly even trying…obviously have to account for level of competition but if he locks in and totally buys in he’s gonna have a great year.

4. I thought Vescovi, James, ON and Plav all looked better than last year…Vescovi I thought ran the point well when Chandler/Zeigler were out, and that will be an asset to have him and that ability. He got a ton of open looks, just weren’t falling, but he shots 44% on open look 3’s last year so I’m not real worried there. He also appears to have improved his defense and conditioning and seemingly is a guy Barnes loves, I wouldn’t be shocked if he is right there with Chandler for MPG. I thought ON showed some nice confident post moves and clearly his trail 3 is something he’s been working on and willing to let fly. James looked good, his shot looks better, he came out aggressive which was nice to see but then faded…I’m curious if that’s just cause of how the game went or is that a sign that he’s again going to disappear at times?

5. Loved what Powell gave us, being able to bring someone like that off the bench, maybe he moves into starting lineup, along with Bailey is a lot of offensive firepower sitting there…after seemingly scratching our heads wondering why we don’t have shooters it now looks like we may have shooters all over the damn place and be firing them up like the Warriors.

6. I have no clue what this looks like with Fulky in the mix, hard to think it’s not at least slightly better, but that’s also hard to imagine this could’ve been a better offensive showing. Defense was a little shaky early but LR hit some tough shots too, with so many new faces it may take awhile for them to get where Barnes wants them on that end. Our schedule is ridiculously tough and we will find out early a lot about this team, after seeing them Saturday I’m more excited than I was before though!



GBO

 

[Vol49er]

Just basing this off the scrimmage, but Fulks return honestly might be most felt on defense rather than offense. I hope that we don’t try and run the offense through Fulk as much this year so he doesn’t get so beat up and lose energy, and also I just don’t think it will be as effective as orienting our offense around other players. Hopefully with a true point guard that will be the case

 

[Vols330]

1. Never want to overreact to 1 exhibition game, but are we seeing an offensive transformation taking place? Tennessee attempted 46 threes, it’s most since attempting 50 under Bruce Pearl in a game back in 2007. Rick Barnes when asked postgame said that Tennessee attempted more than 40 in their 2 intrasquad scrimmages and also in the closed door scrimmage against Davidson. I doubt those numbers stay that high, but Alabama led the country in 31 attempts per game, to give a bit of a comparison as to how many that was.

2. Continuing off point 1, a common point made about Barnes offense at Tennessee has been the number of non-rim 2’s his teams have taken, and how inefficient that shot is which has led us to some struggling teams offensively. Of their 78 shot attempts on Saturday 26 were layups/dunks, 46 were 3pt attempts, and just 6 were non-rim 2’s. Tennessee has been around 35% on attempts being considered mid-range in previous years under Barnes, it was just 7% of their offensive shot selection on Saturday. Again, I doubt we see numbers that drastic all season, but it sure looks like there’s at least some what of a change that’s going to take place on the offensive end.

3. Again, don’t want to overreact, but man do Chandler & BHH look like the real deal for freshman. Having Chandler is going to make it hard to screw up this offense considering the shooters we have and while it’s unknown to what extent but at least something of a post game. You can see BHH and understand why Barnes is taking the tough coaching/motivational angle with him, he casually went out there and puts up 15/12 in 20 minutes without seemingly even trying…obviously have to account for level of competition but if he locks in and totally buys in he’s gonna have a great year.

4. I thought Vescovi, James, ON and Plav all looked better than last year…Vescovi I thought ran the point well when Chandler/Zeigler were out, and that will be an asset to have him and that ability. He got a ton of open looks, just weren’t falling, but he shots 44% on open look 3’s last year so I’m not real worried there. He also appears to have improved his defense and conditioning and seemingly is a guy Barnes loves, I wouldn’t be shocked if he is right there with Chandler for MPG. I thought ON showed some nice confident post moves and clearly his trail 3 is something he’s been working on and willing to let fly. James looked good, his shot looks better, he came out aggressive which was nice to see but then faded…I’m curious if that’s just cause of how the game went or is that a sign that he’s again going to disappear at times?

5. Loved what Powell gave us, being able to bring someone like that off the bench, maybe he moves into starting lineup, along with Bailey is a lot of offensive firepower sitting there…after seemingly scratching our heads wondering why we don’t have shooters it now looks like we may have shooters all over the damn place and be firing them up like the Warriors.

6. I have no clue what this looks like with Fulky in the mix, hard to think it’s not at least slightly better, but that’s also hard to imagine this could’ve been a better offensive showing. Defense was a little shaky early but LR hit some tough shots too, with so many new faces it may take awhile for them to get where Barnes wants them on that end. Our schedule is ridiculously tough and we will find out early a lot about this team, after seeing them Saturday I’m more excited than I was before though!



GBO

Thank you for doing these. I read every one and appreciate your thoughts.

 

[TheBigOne10]

Good stuff. Only about a week away, can’t wait!

 

[DuckInAPen]

Having recently emerged from years of lurking here (since Martin's final season), I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you, BTO, for your tremendous contributions to this forum. I've greatly enjoyed reading your post-game reports over the past several years. They've given me a much better understanding of our teams, and I've been able to follow them with a much greater level of appreciation. Thanks for all you do here.

 

[rgcvols98]

Thanks BTO.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Appreciate the kind words guys, thank you.

 

[TMvol10]

I am not against firing up a substantial amount of 3s, and like BTO said this number will likely go down once the season gets going, but I just don’t want to see it causing us pass up open lanes to the basket. There were a number of times where we’d catch the ball off a swing pass or a guy would come off a down screen and there would be an open lane to the basket but we shot the 3 instead. Again, open 3s are great and need to be taken but I don’t want to see it happen at the expense of getting layups or drawing fouls in the lane. Creating fouls on the opposing team is a huge asset. I’m sure it will balance out more but this is just my observation after one game.

 

[bigorangepoppa]

Could be Barnes has evolved in his approach to the game. It seems like there are a lot of weapons on this team, and he has changed his offensive mindset to take advantage of it. Seems like this team is going to be fun to watch, and a very serious threat to be reckoned with.

 

[Jack Burton]

Could be Barnes has evolved in his approach to the game. It seems like there are a lot of weapons on this team, and he has changed his offensive mindset to take advantage of it. Seems like this team is going to be fun to watch, and a very serious threat to be reckoned with.

We certainly looked like a team that can fire 3s if we want. That one shot from ZZZ was NBA+++ range. I love those.

 

[scottchatt]

I agree with BTO on all 6 points, which doesn’t surprise me at all.

I will add a couple of things. First, it was good to see returning players that appeared to actually improve their game. We saw that in Barnes first couple of seasons, was absent for the most part last year. I think there were a few more players than we realize playing at less than 100% last year, and hopefully that explains it, but regardless, nice to see the improvement. Also nice to see first year players that appear more fit than when they arrived.

The lack of a PG caused huge problems last year. The biggest one being points off turnovers. We routinely handed 10+ points to the other team last year from the PG position alone. That’s a lot of Ws turned into Ls. It does not appear we will have that issue this year.

We’re still a bit shallow at the 4/5. If we are going to run the type offense we ran against LR it’s not a problem on the first shot, but I think we could have some rebounding struggles. Hopefully it’s a case of we’re good enough at the other positions that our depth there doesn’t matter, but it’s something to watch. Barnes seems to prefer running the post offense through a wing rather than a center anyway, but it is nice to get a few second chance shots.

It was nice to see the defensive effort back to a very high level. I don’t care about the score against LR, but it was nice to see not just every shot challenged, but every pass as well. That’s the kind of defense that wins championships.

Overall, this is probably going to be the deepest Vols team of The Barnes era at Tennessee. I’m very excited to see how they play against the tough OOC schedule we have lined up. Should easily be a tournament team, beyond that….should know quite a bit more well before SEC play starts.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I agree with BTO on all 6 points, which doesn’t surprise me at all.

I will add a couple of things. First, it was good to see returning players that appeared to actually improve their game. We saw that in Barnes first couple of seasons, was absent for the most part last year. I think there were a few more players than we realize playing at less than 100% last year, and hopefully that explains it, but regardless, nice to see the improvement. Also nice to see first year players that appear more fit than when they arrived.

The lack of a PG caused huge problems last year. The biggest one being points off turnovers. We routinely handed 10+ points to the other team last year from the PG position alone. That’s a lot of Ws turned into Ls. It does not appear we will have that issue this year.

We’re still a bit shallow at the 4/5. If we are going to run the type offense we ran against LR it’s not a problem on the first shot, but I think we could have some rebounding struggles. Hopefully it’s a case of we’re good enough at the other positions that our depth there doesn’t matter, but it’s something to watch. Barnes seems to prefer running the post offense through a wing rather than a center anyway, but it is nice to get a few second chance shots.

It was nice to see the defensive effort back to a very high level. I don’t care about the score against LR, but it was nice to see not just every shot challenged, but every pass as well. That’s the kind of defense that wins championships.

Overall, this is probably going to be the deepest Vols team of The Barnes era at Tennessee. I’m very excited to see how they play against the tough OOC schedule we have lined up. Should easily be a tournament team, beyond that….should know quite a bit more well before SEC play starts.

Agree with almost everything. Disagree a little about defense. LR got too many wide open looks at the three line on kick-outs when we didn't play good help/off-ball defense and left them uncovered. Other than that, I saw a lot of good things on defense. Vescovi and Bailey were both improved on-ball, for example.

Agree with shallowness at the post. I don't think from what I saw ORN is the answer to shoring that up. Hope I'm wrong, but I don't see him as a hard nosed defender or rebounder. Hopefully, UP and Aidoo can come to the rescue. And from what I saw, we are gonna like it if BHH gets more minutes.

 

[scottchatt]

Agree with almost everything. Disagree a little about defense. LR got too many wide open looks at the three line on kick-outs when we didn't play good help/off-ball defense and left them uncovered. Other than that, I saw a lot of good things on defense. Vescovi and Bailey were both improved on-ball, for example.

Agree with shallowness at the post. I don't think from what I saw ORN is the answer to shoring that up. Hope I'm wrong, but I don't see him as a hard nosed defender or rebounder. Hopefully, UP and Aidoo can come to the rescue. And from what I saw, we are gonna like it if BHH gets more minutes.

I think the wide open looks had as much to do with who we had on the floor at the time. It’s a pretty different team on both ends with KC on the court. I don’t think we’ll see him on the bench quite as often in a real game, especially a close one.

Uros seems to have improved, ON for sure, he doesn’t seem lost out there. BHH looks like he could be the real deal. You know what you have with Fulky. Aidoo I’m still not sure about. It could be enough, especially if first shots are falling.

 

[Stoked]

I was pleasantly surprised at how well KC can shoot the 3. I know he was hot, but WOW! I wouldn't be mad if Powell took majority of Bailey's minutes.

Bailey is a high volume streaky shooter.

When he's hot he gives you 7-10...29 point games like vs South Carolina.

When he's cold he'll give you 1-9...9 point games like he did vs Oregon State in the tourney.

 

[cncchris33]

One thing that I noticed that hasn’t been mentioned is despite his shot not falling, how much more comfortable did Vescovi look creating offense for others off the ball from the wing? He shot 1-9 (that’ll change) but he also created 7 assts and had 0 TOs and the second-highest +/- ratio on the team despite the poor shooting night.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I was pleasantly surprised at how well KC can shoot the 3. I know he was hot, but WOW! I wouldn't be mad if Powell took majority of Bailey's minutes.

Bailey is a high volume streaky shooter.

When he's hot he gives you 7-10...29 point games like vs South Carolina.

When he's cold he'll give you 1-9...9 point games like he did vs Oregon State in the tourney.

Justin Powell played in 10 games last year…
5 games 16/23 for 70%
5 games 3/20 for 15%


But you want him taking Bailey’s minutes because Bailey is streaky? Not saying Powell shouldn’t play more but that reasoning doesn’t seem valid given the evidence.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

One thing that I noticed that hasn’t been mentioned is despite his shot not falling, how much more comfortable did Vescovi look creating offense for others off the ball from the wing? He shot 1-9 (that’ll change) but he also created 7 assts and had 0 TOs and the second-highest +/- ratio on the team despite the poor shooting night.

Vescovi looked great, which matches the early reports we’ve heard, and the though myself (and many had) that he would excel off the ball and probably more than anyone for Chandler being on the team. He will be able to backup Chandler if/when needed and his experience playing PG will be big for us when that happens or late in games when we need ball handlers and FT shooters.

 

[cncchris33]

Justin Powell played in 10 games last year…
5 games 16/23 for 70%
5 games 3/20 for 15%


But you want him taking Bailey’s minutes because Bailey is streaky? Not saying Powell shouldn’t play more but that reasoning doesn’t seem valid given the evidence.

Heck, Powell was streaky in this game. He started 1-5, I think, and then finished 4-4 to finish 5-9, overall. To me, Powell is a another version of Victor Bailey with maybe a little more upside. They have a lot of similarities in their games, but Powell has a little more ability with the ball in his hands.

 

[Stoked]

Justin Powell played in 10 games last year…
5 games 16/23 for 70%
5 games 3/20 for 15%


But you want him taking Bailey’s minutes because Bailey is streaky? Not saying Powell shouldn’t play more but that reasoning doesn’t seem valid given the evidence.

My bad I guess I should have also added the fact that not only is he a better shooter... he's a better rebounder, and better at distributing the ball.

Powell is better than Bailey and has much more upside.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Heck, Powell was streaky in this game. He started 1-5, I think, and then finished 4-4 to finish 5-9, overall. To me, Powell is a another version of Victor Bailey with maybe a little more upside. They have a lot of similarities in their games, but Powell has a little more ability with the ball in his hands.

Yes, that is all pretty true…which of those 2 defends better might be who sees more PT.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

My bad I guess I should have also added the fact that not only is he a better shooter... he's a better rebounder, and better at distributing the ball.

Powell is better than Bailey and has much more upside.

Yes, as I said not saying he shouldn’t play more than Bailey or that that’s some crazy take, just don’t think the reasoning should be because Bailey is a streaky shooter.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

Nice write up. Thanks BTO!

 

[keenobserver]

Nice Analysis......

My real general prediction is we'll be substantially less effecient defensively, but a much better shooting team, thus better offensively and probably overall.

Good shooting teams bode well for the NCAA tournament.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Kesling was consistent. He called them Lenoir “Ryan” the entire broadcast.

 

[walkenvol]

Kesling was consistent. He called them Lenoir “Ryan” the entire broadcast.

That’s how I’ve always heard it pronounced by everyone?