BTO’s UT-Martin Postgame Report

#51
#51
Shaky first half, but we responded. The post defense will improve when Fulkerson returns. With improved shooting we don’t have to be as elite on defense, just good.

I am encouraged after watching Kentucky as well. Glaring weaknesses there that may not be fixable. Tshiebwe looks good, and they look like they have improved their shooting as well, but other than Wheeler they don’t look like they have a lot of athletes that can take it off the bounce. Wheeler has his limitations as well, both with size and shooting ability.

Arkansas also looks like they might take a little step back after losing their top four scorers from last year. LSU looks good. Alabama looks good, and Auburn will be very dangerous…..crickets, Florida.👎🏻
 
#52
#52
zjcvols said:
I like that we are shooting more 3’s. I’ll worry about the defense in January. The lack of ball screens concern me. Uros isn’t an SEC player. BHH needs to play more. Kennedy Chandler makes me believe in love again. Justin Powell has a gorgeous jump shot. Zeigler will be good but needs a year. I thought Vescovi really competed on defense. We still don’t defend the 3 well enough but it’s early.

This postgame report is brought to you by Appleton Estate and Michelob Ultra.
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NIL deal or regular sponsors of the program? Just curious, I may have to talk to the Captain Morgan people :D
 
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#53
#53
My less respected take on last night;
1. KC is everything and a box of chocolates on O. We’re going to score a lot this season.
2. ZZZ has a long way to go, could really use a rs. Didn’t perform up to his billing so maybe there’s more to come
3. SV continues to have unjustified detractors as he’s clearly one of our better players. I could see improvement from last year with his quickness and on ball D. He’s always been a solid catch and shoot guy so KC is going to make him look good.
4. JP far exceeded my expectations. Needs 25+ minutes a game. Him and SV along with KC should really spread the court.
5. VB looked the same. The ball stops with him as he’s going to shoot and when there not falling he looks really bad. Don’t see how CRB will be able to find many minutes for him with Powell on the roster.
6. JJJ looks the same. Shot wasn’t falling last night. Would love to see him driving to the basket as option 1. Does everything else really well

6. Mashack impressed me. We’re going to enjoy watching his progress over the next few seasons. Love how he goes after rebounds!

7. ON is improved and 11/14 is solid but it seemed like he could have easily doubled that output with some more passion to his game? Wish he would play like his life depended on it.

8. BHH clearly has the talent with the highest ceiling of any post player during the Barns era. We’re going to be good if he can be coached up

9. UP was disappointing after some solid play to end last season. Most are complaining about his lack of speed but it’s his lack of intelligence that disappoints me. Your 7’-1” and choosing to dribble when receiving a pass on the block? That should have been learned in middle school. He should play like a bull and get 5 fouls in 10 minutes of pt or find his way back to cheerleader status
 
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#55
#55
Thunder Good-Oil said:
This year Barnes has moved away from 4/5 nearly interchangeable 6’7” +/- wing types on the floor together to two pretty clear sets of perimeter and post players.

Any combo of Vescovi, Chandler, ZZ, Powell, and Bailey are on the perimeter and any combination of Uros, Fulk, BHH, and ORN are filling the post spots. Mashack and JJJ are the holdover interchangeable tweener (3/small forward) types. 2 more posts (Aidoo/Tampa) and a third interchangeable type (QD (Pons Lite)) didn’t play. More 4s and PG/combo guards and far fewer 3s. Seems like 75% of the recent players were best suited as 3s. Now the 3s are JJJ and 2 freshmen that won’t be thrown into the rotation (although Powell can slide to a 3, but he’s going to be a really good combo/shooting guard).

I like having so many combinations available. If ANYBODY gets into foul trouble we’ll have a lot of options. Recently it was a huge problem whenever key players had to sit. Kyle Alexander’s injury lead directly to that Nun team from Chicago taking our Elite 8/Final Four spot. Bad officiating seemed to really disrupt things with quick, cheap fouls on guys like Grant. In the past seemed like we only had a couple of clear perimeter players and a couple of posts with half the roster or more being the mid-sized wing types that weren’t necessarily high quality rebounders or dangerous shooting threats.

More evidence that the Barnes is stubborn to a fault narrative was off target.
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Yeah, I’m a Barnes guy for a number of reasons. I have to admit I didn’t think I’d ever see this barrage of 3’s, especially by design. Kudos for the willingness to open it up.
 
#57
#57
If this team continues to shoot and make 3’s at the clip they are, Fulky, BHH and maybe ON, will be double digit scorers. Teams will focus on the outside shooting and that should really open up the middle for our bigs to work 1 on 1.
GBO!!
 
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#59
#59
rdk4121 said:
I don't know what's holding back JJJ offensively, but I wish he could figure it out. Defensively though, he was elite tonight. Honestly most of our run in the second half came from his defense. He had 5 steals and 4 blocks. That just doesn't happen.

I'm not even remotely sold on Zeigler. He needs to learn his limitations, and fast. Right now, he can't shoot and he's a poor finisher. He's going to have to learn one of those things or there's no way he can be effective at this level. I like his effort, but that's about it.

VJ didn't have a great game, but he did have 3 assists. For our frontline, I think we just need to rock with Fulky, ON, and BHH (and James at the 4 with any of those guys). I don't really think we can rely on Uros this year. He's not awful, but he's going to get exposed by quicker guards or posts. He can be used situationally, but he's also just not a good rebounder.

I think this team can be a really fun team and can make a deep run. Chandler is the difference, and the 3 ball. I worry about defense a little bit, but Fulky should help with that too.
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Zeigler is a tremendous shooter.
 
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#60
#60
Count me as a guy who thought Barnes would be too stubborn to change his offensive philosophy like he clearly has. Couldn’t be more happy to be wrong about that.

Frustrating it seems like we’re just a competent good rebounding/defensive big away from being a really excellent team, and instead of trying hard to get a grad transfer to fill the spot they opted for a very developmental big like Tamba when they already had a similar guy like that in Aidoo. Seeing Uros continue to struggle so much really makes me question that decision.
 
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#61
#61
therickbol said:
Zeigler is a tremendous shooter.
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Haven't seen anything of the sort so far in the two games he's played (including exhibition). He's 1-7 from deep in those 2 games, and he doesn't honestly look strong enough to make it from the college line. It's not an effortless stroke like Vescovi or Chandler.

Granted it's only been 2 games, but not encouraged so far. I know the talk of camp was he was a good shooter, but that has not manifested itself in games yet.
 
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#64
#64
therickbol said:
Observations:

1) Powell is so much better than VJ, as just an all-around basketball player. Especially the little things. Decision making is top notch. Ballhandling is better. Vision is much better. Better shooter. I hope Powell ends up on the larger end of the minutes in that part of the rotation.

2) ON played very different in 2nd half. If that 2nd half can be what he brings consistently then he will be a contributor.

3) BHH has lots more to give and you can see where Barnes gets frustrated. It's not like he is a total slacker but he has potential to dominate inside of 10ft if he would just commit to it and keep it simple. Defensively he loses focus too much.

4) Uros still Uros.

5) Vescovi going to feast offensively playing off the ball along with both Chandler and Powell. And he is a solid on defense.

6) James is very comfortable allowing his teammates to "do things" on offense while he just does all the small things and fits in.

7) We going to win lots and we are going to be a headache trying to defend us.
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That is exactly my thoughts. It looked as though he was not interested in playing and going at 50%. If he ever shows any "urgency" or "fire", he will be what makes this team a "sweet 16" vs. "final 4". Hopefully when JF gets out there, he will be able to motivate BHH to give more effort.
And his wingspan has to be 10ft as several times it looked as if a ball was going over his head and he snatched it with ease.

Go Vols!!!
 
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#65
#65
rdk4121 said:
Haven't seen anything of the sort so far in the two games he's played (including exhibition). He's 1-7 from deep in those 2 games, and he doesn't honestly look strong enough to make it from the college line. It's not an effortless stroke like Vescovi or Chandler.

Granted it's only been 2 games, but not encouraged so far. I know the talk of camp was he was a good shooter, but that has not manifested itself in games yet.
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You have to keep in mind he graduated a year early. So he’s not even really a freshman. He’s essentially a high school senior playing in college. He’s nowhere near a finished product yet.
 
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#67
#67
rdk4121 said:
Haven't seen anything of the sort so far in the two games he's played (including exhibition). He's 1-7 from deep in those 2 games, and he doesn't honestly look strong enough to make it from the college line. It's not an effortless stroke like Vescovi or Chandler.

Granted it's only been 2 games, but not encouraged so far. I know the talk of camp was he was a good shooter, but that has not manifested itself in games yet.
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Well if 7 shots doesn't tell you what kind of shooter a player is than I just don't know what would. <insert eye roll emoji>

His shooting in high school and during practice/warmups shows that he is a very good 3pt shooter. But yeah we can just use that 7 shot sample size. That makes sense.
 
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#68
#68
UT-M kept it close for the first 15 minutes, but part of that was that there was ZERO video of them or much of anything else to utilize while preparing for them. New coach. No returning players. Bethune-Cookman didn’t even play a game last year to look at for scouting Coach Ridder. Numbers 0 and 2 were really good one-on-one offensive players. I don’t know if easily handling UT-M the final 25 minutes had more to do with wearing them down or figuring them out. Both I suppose.

Sunday Barnes will know what he’ll be facing with Desmond Oliver running the show.
 
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#69
#69
Hard to believe our field goal percentage for the game was 42.9% while our 3 pt percentage was 42.5%. That’s crazy to think about. And scary that we could be better than that from 3.
 
#70
#70
Orange Raid said:
Hard to believe our field goal percentage for the game was 42.9% while our 3 pt percentage was 42.5%. That’s crazy to think about. And scary that we could be better than that from 3.
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I don’t know that we will be better than that from 3…maybe a game or two here and there but Chandler isn’t going 4-4 from 3…as a team if we have the guys shooting from 3 we want to I would say we can average around 37-38%, which is still really good.
 
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#71
#71
I expect teams to try and slow Tennessee down. Make them work in the half court on offense. Probably only a couple teams will run with the Vols. Auburn and Alabama come to mind. Maybe Kentucky.
 
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