BTO’s South Carolina Postgame Report

#26
#26
I wonder if Mashack got away with an over and back after nearly being stripped. Plus 2 fouls. That is why freshmen usually get limited minutes in close games.
 
#27
#27
JJJ charged with a bogus turnover. Gets an offensive rebound, spins to get his balance, and steps on the baseline. Except he didn’t actually step on the baseline. Refs missed the call. But it’s officially a TO on JJJ.
 
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#28
#28
Since this is the in-game of the SEC Network replay and nobody is here, I feel that I should mention that Barnes’s salary is $5 million. And he’s either being mean to his players or taking a nap during the game as he’s coasting toward retirement. He’s trying to figure out which player(s) to throw under the bus and come up with bizarre floor combinations to upset VN posters.
 
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#31
#31
TN settles into an interesting rotation. 5 starters. 3 guards (VBj, ZZZ, JP) plus Uros are the 4 primary subs. Then 5 really good freshmen not grabbing a ton of (or any) minutes (JM, QD, BHH, JA, and Tamba). JM’s minutes rising while BHH isn’t making strides forward.
 
#32
#32
Chandler isn’t used to not having the ball in his hands on the offensive end. Even when ZZZ sits, KC stays on the wing with Vescovi initiating the half court offense. He’ll get more comfortable with it and be a much bigger threat and offensive contributor by March.

TN hanging on the the double digit lead. With the high level defense they shouldn’t have trouble closing out this USC team.
 
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#33
#33
Nice discipline by TN with the big lead coming out of the last media break. Working the clock instead of attempting to pad individual stats. ZZ is the only non-upper class man on the floor.
 
#34
#34
Nice win before heading to Rupp. Still a lot of things to clean up. But TN has an extra day to prepare with the Tuesday instead of Wednesday midweek game.
 
#35
#35
I didnt really glean much from this game to be honest. Always good to get a 20 point win against an inferior opponent, but we still struggled somewhat offensively and shooting wasn't anything to write home about. The FT situation is alarming though. You will lose every close game if you continue to leave that many points at the line. Let's see how we look at Rupp.
 
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#36
#36
The love for Powell vs hate for Bailey that has been going on this year is confusing. I get that Bailey has been on a bad slump but Powell seems to be living off the fact he shot well for Auburn last year. 3 points in his last 51 minutes of play. Bailey has twice as many points in 9 minutes last night as Powell has had in 3 games/51 minutes. He CANNOT get open, and no it is not because other teams are focused so much on his 3 point shooting from a few games as a freshmen at Auburn. He cannot, or will not drive to the basket. He also has had some ugly, ugly turnovers. I don't dislike the kid but it seems strange that Bailey gets so much visceral hate from this fanbase but Powel seems to be living off an as of yet unearned reputation.
 
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#37
#37
Special Ed said:
Coming into this season, I figured our men's team would have a much better record than our women's team at this point.
Boy, was I wrong!!!
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I think it's going to be a slug it out kind of year. We'll lose some we're not supposed to and win a few, and finish in top 4 in league I think. Potential is obviously there to finish higher, but at some point, we'll need a couple guys to consistently carry the load on offense if we're to challenge Auburn and others for top spot.
 
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#38
#38
cncchris33 said:
Agree with most everything except the idea that Nkamhoua played well in his 10 minutes. He only played 10 minutes for a reason, and it wasn't solely foul trouble. Sure, he had 6 pts and 4 rebs, but he also had 3 TOs and continued to display a terrible set of hands.

We need him to play well because we are hopelessly inconsistent in the post. Tonight wasn't his best effort, IMO.
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I cringe every time someone throws a pass towards him. He’s also woefully “unaware” of his surroundings. He literally takes the ball low to the floor or doesn’t protect the ball resulting in turnovers. Between that, poor hands, and his average motor, it’s frustrating to me. I imagine Tshiebwe will absolutely dominate against him Saturday.
 
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#39
#39
cardvolfan said:
I cringe every time someone throws a pass towards him. He’s also woefully “unaware” of his surroundings. He literally takes the ball low to the floor or doesn’t protect the ball resulting in turnovers. Between that, poor hands, and his average motor, it’s frustrating to me. I imagine Tshiebwe will absolutely dominate against him Saturday.
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I haven’t watched a ky game this year, but from only reading the box scores it appears Tshiebwe is “absolutely dominating” most everyone he faces. You are correct IMO that ON is too sloppy with the ball when he receives it in the post. He is still vastly improved from last year so there’s hope for him
 
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#41
#41
cardvolfan said:
I cringe every time someone throws a pass towards him. He’s also woefully “unaware” of his surroundings. He literally takes the ball low to the floor or doesn’t protect the ball resulting in turnovers. Between that, poor hands, and his average motor, it’s frustrating to me. I imagine Tshiebwe will absolutely dominate against him Saturday.
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Oscar Tshiebwe is about to take Nkamhoua's lunch money and put on a clinic. I really want to be wrong about that and see ON have some level of motivation to best him, but IMO, that dude is easily the SEC POY.

In the SEC, he is currently 3rd in PPG, 1st in RPG by a country mile, 1st in FG%, and 5th in blocks. Getting into advanced statistics, he 1st in total Win Shares, 1st in Off. Win Shares, 1st in Def. Win Shares, 1st in Win Shares per 40 mins., and 2nd in Box Score +/-. He has just dominated all season.

As good as Jabari Smith has been, I'd give it Tshiebwe. There is a reason I said I'd give my left nut for him when he entered the portal a year ago. He is exactly what our team is missing, and exactly what Nkamhoua could be (at some level) if he gave the same kind of effort, consistently. You watch those two guys play, and come away thinking one guy just wants it more and now we're going to get to see them face to face. It will be very interesting to see if Tshiebwe lights a fire under Nkamhoua, or if ON just wilts in the moment.
 
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#43
#43
cncchris33 said:
Oscar Tshiebwe is about to take Nkamhoua's lunch money and put on a clinic. I really want to be wrong about that and see ON have some level of motivation to best him, but IMO, that dude is easily the SEC POY.

In the SEC, he is currently 3rd in PPG, 1st in RPG by a country mile, 1st in FG%, and 5th in blocks. Getting into advanced statistics, he 1st in total Win Shares, 1st in Off. Win Shares, 1st in Def. Win Shares, 1st in Win Shares per 40 mins., and 2nd in Box Score +/-. He has just dominated all season.

As good as Jabari Smith has been, I'd give it Tshiebwe. There is a reason I said I'd give my left nut for him when he entered the portal a year ago. He is exactly what our team is missing, and exactly what Nkamhoua could be (at some level) if he gave the same kind of effort, consistently. You watch those two guys play, and come away thinking one guy just wants it more and now we're going to get to see them face to face. It will be very interesting to see if Tshiebwe lights a fire under Nkamhoua, or if ON just wilts in the moment.
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I think Tshiebwe wins National POY. How could anyone see these numbers and not be “wowed.” I have little faith concerning Saturday, but maybe I will be wrong.
 
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#44
#44
cncchris33 said:
Oscar Tshiebwe is about to take Nkamhoua's lunch money and put on a clinic. I really want to be wrong about that and see ON have some level of motivation to best him, but IMO, that dude is easily the SEC POY.

In the SEC, he is currently 3rd in PPG, 1st in RPG by a country mile, 1st in FG%, and 5th in blocks. Getting into advanced statistics, he 1st in total Win Shares, 1st in Off. Win Shares, 1st in Def. Win Shares, 1st in Win Shares per 40 mins., and 2nd in Box Score +/-. He has just dominated all season.

As good as Jabari Smith has been, I'd give it Tshiebwe. There is a reason I said I'd give my left nut for him when he entered the portal a year ago. He is exactly what our team is missing, and exactly what Nkamhoua could be (at some level) if he gave the same kind of effort, consistently. You watch those two guys play, and come away thinking one guy just wants it more and now we're going to get to see them face to face. It will be very interesting to see if Tshiebwe lights a fire under Nkamhoua, or if ON just wilts in the moment.
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From the highlights it strikes me that Tshiebwe is a heavier and a bit taller than ON? T seems like a true center and ON a true forward. I assume we’re going to have to rotate Fulky, ON, Uros, and possibly BHH against T. Maybe that could slow him down a little bit and at least we have 20 fouls to send his direction. Hopefully he’s not a great ft shooter also
 
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#45
#45
walkenvol said:
From the highlights it strikes me that Tshiebwe is a heavier and a bit taller than ON? T seems like a true center and ON a true forward. I assume we’re going to have to rotate Fulky, ON, Uros, and possibly BHH against T. Maybe that could slow him down a little bit and at least we have 20 fouls to send his direction. Hopefully he’s not a great ft shooter also
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ON is 6-8 230.
OT is 6-9 260.

So, yeah, Tshiebwe has him by an inch and 30 lbs. And his game is definitely more of a true Center where ON is more of a finesse PF.
 
#46
#46
bleedingTNorange said:
The issue is that we don’t exactly have known “shooters” on the bench, outside of Powell…Mashack and Diboundje it’s been said shooting is both guys weaknesses right now.
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In particular Bailey. If as a team we have consecutive games shooting sub 30% from 3, I don’t see anything wrong giving him a handful of minutes just to see if maybe a light goes off for him.
 
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#47
#47
Honestly, Powell hasn’t been doing much with the increased minutes that Bailey was playing earlier in the season. Might as well swap those 2 in & out and maybe one of the 2 will eventually find their shot again. Bailey used to be a shot a minute type guy but he’s toned that back somewhat. I’m not seeing where either of those guy’s play is clearly better than the other in league play. JMO
 
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#48
#48
bleedingTNorange said:
Was said postgame that Powell said he’s not hunting his shot, he’s focusing on defense because that’s what he needed to do to earn minutes….kudos to him for buying in but he’s also gonna have to realize he’s got to hunt his shot too, Barnes has said they want him shooting, so it’s just a matter of them all getting on same page. He’s not super quick so he’s pretty easy to defend as well, guys stay on his hip and don’t help off him, we have to scheme up some stuff for him.
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This staff, and last years, seems to struggle with scheme on the offensive side of the ball. Most of the game I can’t tell what we’re trying to do. And it even looks like the players aren’t sure either. We ran a couple sets last night that I hadn’t seen since the Admiral and Grant days and they were very effective. We need to run more sets. Definitely some to get Powell open shots. Our inability to get good looks falls on the shoulders of the coaches. Gotta find a way to put these guys in situations for success. The 3 ball isn’t falling. There’s gotta be something else we can fall back on. Shoot just run the flex offense if you have no other ideas.
 
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#49
#49
bleedingTNorange said:
1. A 20 point win over a conference opponent is not something you take for granted, so while there are plenty of things to work on still you feel good about the result. The defense played at an elite level and the offense struggled yet again, although it looked a little bit better, is that a good sign or just an outlier? Only time will tell.

2. On the defense, they were elite, that’s South Carolina’s worst offensive showing in 2 years and 4th worst in last 20 years…they did some self inflicted damage but majority of that credit goes to the defense. We do a really good job of turning teams over, and that’s a direct correlation to the on ball defense of Chandler, Zeigler and Vescovi and James ability to switch and guard multiple positions. The defense is likely to be this teams calling card, a defense like this can take you a long ways and will have you in games most nights, but still need to improve offensively.

3. On the offensive end, I thought after the first 10 minutes we played much better on that end, definitely started slow again though. The shooting was a bit bitter and given we shot 33% from deep with Vescovi going 2/9 I will take that, he’s typically going to shoot better than that, and maybe it helps get the others on track. We only took 21 3’s tonight which was nice to see we found other ways to get looks, we got to the rim a lot and Fulkerson looked more assertive tonight as well and brought some post scoring to the offense. Now the obvious issue was we got to the free throw line and proceeded to shoot 44% from there on 11/25 overall, that’s horrible and can’t happen. For an offense that struggles anyways we aren’t doing ourselves any favors by doing that, whether it’s a lack of focus/practice or whatever, that has to change.

4. If you could clone a game for JJJ and say I don’t need you to be a star, this is all I need, today is that…33m 11p 12r 2a 1blk 1stl 3-6fg 2-4 from deep. His defense is so good, his passing as well, and the vocal leadership as an extension of the coach out there is valuable, he just has to be a threat offensively and bring something like he did tonight and we are SOOO much better that way.

5. Similarly, I would probably take that from John Fulkerson on a nightly basis as well, 28m 10p 7r 2b on 5-8 shooting, he gave us an inside presence, did a pretty good job of making quicker moves rather than ball sticking on him and leading to a 20 second post up and back down. He did a better job playing with some space/separation rather than trying to out muscle a guy bigger than he is, and according to Rick Barnes he went hard and pulled himself out when he felt tired, if he can continue to give us that it would be nice. Nkahmoua played well in his 10mins but couldn’t stay out there, if those post guys can bring that each night and that aggression and we go small ball and just rotate those guys we will be better offensively than we have been imo.

6. I get that Barnes likes his depth, but we are now half way through the year and getting to the point we need to be settling on something and working towards developing that for March. Playing 11 guys is too many, maybe it was just trying to steal some minutes in the 1st half, but BHH/Mashack/Bailey all played 2-8 minutes, outside of foul trouble I am rolling with the other 8 guys. This team is at its best playing small ball anyways, which we did a fair amount tonight, with JJJ at the 4 there’s just not many minutes for BHH available. Zeigler has been tremendous and at times has looked better than Chandler, he’s warranting big minutes which limits anything for Bailey obviously…Mashack would be my 9th guy if someone in that group is needed. Going forward I would like to see…

Zeigler 25/Chandler 15
Chandler 15/Vescovi 25
Vescovi 10/Powell 20/James 10
James 25/ON 15
Fulk 25/Plav 10/ON 5

7. This was a game Tennessee needed to win and they got it, I said weeks ago this could be a 2-3 start to SEC state and that all things considered that wouldn’t be a bad start if that’s how it played out, well we are guaranteed at least that and with a chance Saturday to kind of “steal one” or turn the direction a bit…right now we are trending right along the expected line of the season and probably 5-6 seed territory, a win at Rupp would go a long way towards a potentially better seed come selection Sunday.


GBO!!!
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As to your comment on post play:
I have posted along this line before. I sure wish the "big U' would start to play like the biggin he is. There were times last night where he could have dunk/slammed the ball through the basket, but pussy-footed toward a lay-up. Some were rejected, some he made. But let the other team know to keep the hell out of my way or pay the price and slam it down. This does more than score 2 pts. it will always get the crowd cranked up, which is never bad.
 
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#50
#50
bleedingTNorange said:
I should’ve added it to my report, but man, how good of a find was Zeigler and how fun is he gonna be to have. Obviously no risk of NBA departure with his size, he’s gonna be a guard that opposing teams absolutely hate for the next 3.5 years…and will allow us to play Vescovi/Edwards off the ball next year.
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I mentioned to Elder Son&Heir last night that if Al McGuire were still around he'd put young Mr. Zeigler on his "All-Blur" team.

If I'm not mistaken, Tony White was also one of those.

I know you graybeards out there are nodding.

For you young whipper-snappers go look up Coach McGuire.
 
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