BTO’s Vanderbilt Postgame Report

[VOLED]

1. Be a shorter one tonight with the late finish…another solid win, Vanderbilt seems to play us tough and they did once again. Second half was much better for Tennessee and defense much more what we are used to seeing. The offense was pretty decent, it was the defense that struggled a bit against Vandys sets and a bit too much fouling, but again pulled out the victory.

2. Vescovi and Phillips with great games, thought Zeigler once again really controlled the offense and flow of the game, had 9 assists tonight, 8 & 10 the 2 games prior, that’s some really strong PG play from him. Tonight was a Plav game, 15mins 11pts 6rbd, it’s what’s I’ve mentioned recently, don’t have 1 elite big man but do have great big men. Different players and styles we can throw out there and tonight Plav played a really good game.

3. Kind of a funky game, final score most people will scratch their heads but we were good offensively and solid defensively, Vanderbilt went to the line 20 times and made 90% of them, that is why this was a ball game. We didn’t turn it over much, neither did they, they just kept things close by getting to the line.

4. Our offense actually rose on KenPom after tonight’s game, up from #31 nationally to #27, the overall defensive rating slipped but still holding strong as the #1 defense in the nation, overall keeping Tennessee at #2 behind Houston in KenPom’s rankings. Not worried much about the defense, but nice to see the offense continue to climb the rankings, remember Top 20 in both tends to be the sweep spot.

5. We are now 4 games into the SEC state and Tennessee has started 4-0 as I said they ideally needed to do to start the year. They got the benefit of a soft schedule start and taking advantage was paramount, they did just that. A struggling Kentucky team comes to town Saturday and if it was any other team I would say no reason we shouldn’t be 5-0, but can’t ever dismiss Kentucky. It’s Lofton jersey day and hoping the good mojo is in the air for the Vols and they honor him by beating the Cats, 5-0 start to league play sure would feel nice.

GBO!!!

Good to see Plav play with fire, but not lose his cool. He seems to relish playing against other 7 footers.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I continue to be encouraged by the offense. That is three straight games with 77+ points. Sure, they aren’t great teams. But, you have to hope this builds momentum and confidence for the tougher part of our schedule.

We need to come locked in on Saturday. I know some fans are going to take Kentucky lightly based on recent performance, but the Kentucky game is always tough and they still have a lot of talent on that team. 5-0 would be an awesome start to SEC play. Let’s make it happen.

 

[scottchatt]

Biggest difference in the two halves was Vescovi sitting for 13 mins in the first after a more than questionable call for his 2nd foul. Vandy him most of their 3s during that time. They only hit one in the 2nd half with Vescovi on the floor. His defense is absolutely essential. Key just doesn’t play that high level D.

As James makes his way back and Phillips improves we might be able to handle him on the bench, but for now, we can’t effectively defend the arc without him.

 

[livefaith]

Like a wounded animal

UK had a massive loss yesterday at home to the team we obliterated on the road by 40+! The natives are restless and Cal is circling the wagons. Wounded animal is right. Those players will bleed and die before handing us Saturdays game. We'd better bring the hardhat for this one.

 

[livefaith]

Biggest difference in the two halves was Vescovi sitting for 13 mins in the first after a more than questionable call for his 2nd foul. Vandy him most of their 3s during that time. They only hit one in the 2nd half with Vescovi on the floor. His defense is absolutely essential. Key just doesn’t play that high level D.

As James makes his way back and Phillips improves we might be able to handle him on the bench, but for now, we can’t effectively defend the arc without him.

I noticed #12 had about 15 3s in the 1st half. He has a nice shooting stroke from anywhere. Barnes put Phillips on him primarily in the 2ndH, and he disappeared. Good to see. Phillips had a big game scoring, rebounding and defending.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I continue to be encouraged by the offense. That is three straight games with 77+ points. Sure, they aren’t great teams. But, you have to hope this builds momentum and confidence for the tougher part of our schedule.

We need to come locked in on Saturday. I know some fans are going to take Kentucky lightly based on recent performance, but the Kentucky game is always tough and they still have a lot of talent on that team. 5-0 would be an awesome start to SEC play. Let’s make it happen.

Per barttorvik since December 20th (last 5 games) we have the #2 offense in the country in that timeframe

 

[cardvolfan]

Awaka only played two minutes and I didn’t notice when he was inserted. I didn’t hear Barnes say why, but the sound system at the TBA is garbage - so maybe he did explain it. Zeros across his stat line other than 2 minutes played.

The reason Awaka came in was because ON loafed after getting a defensive rebound. ON rebounds, fires an outlet to Key, and 4 players proceed to bust it downcourt for a chance at a fastbreak score. After Nkamhoua made the pass, he loafed downcourt. Often, IF the trailer gets downcourt he gets the easy bucket as the defense moves out to cover the wings. ON nowhere in sight only 2 minutes into the game. Barnes jumps up, sends Awaka to report in and Olivier comes out.

Barnes was furious, and this is just par for the course with ON. I was hoping he would keep his butt on the bench longer, but Awaka only plays 2 minutes.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

The refs seemed to be affected by the late start. Like they were in a hurry to get the game over with. Glad TN had Uros to hit back since fouls weren’t called very often.

The calls on the post play inside were not one sided, but weighted to Vandy. Very few contests by us did not end in a foul, lots of theirs did. THE worst call was a first half call on Aidoo when their big guy was being pinned to the baseline, went up and cleared our guy with his off hand and got two shots for it. Horrible call.

The absolute worst call indicating some level of bias was when the Vandy ball handler out front, being contested by Key, dribbled the ball off his foot into the backcourt and the ref signaled a tipped ball. Not even close. Hate those.

 

[VolFreakJosh]

The calls on the post play inside were not one sided, but weighted to Vandy. Very few contests by us did not end in a foul, lots of theirs did. THE worst call was a first half call on Aidoo when their big guy was being pinned to the baseline, went up and cleared our guy with his off hand and got two shots for it. Horrible call.

The absolute worst call indicating some level of bias was when the Vandy ball handler out front, being contested by Key, dribbled the ball off his foot into the backcourt and the ref signaled a tipped ball. Not even close. Hate those.

The “foul” on SV where the Vandy shooter imitated the contact was terrible too.

 

[cardvolfan]

Another observation which goes unnoticed unless you’re able to be physically at the game: Santi absolutely plays the best off-ball defense I think I’ve ever seen. He is pure hades on the wing denying passes, harassing defenders, etc. The energy he expends on every possession is near unbelievable. Never stops, never takes a possession off, and is the most blue collar player I’ve ever seen. Kudos to Santi.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

The reason Awaka came in was because ON loafed after getting a defensive rebound. ON rebounds, fires an outlet to Key, and 4 players proceed to bust it downcourt for a chance at a fastbreak score. After Nkamhoua made the pass, he loafed downcourt. Often, IF the trailer gets downcourt he gets the easy bucket as the defense moves out to cover the wings. ON nowhere in sight only 2 minutes into the game. Barnes jumps up, sends Awaka to report in and Olivier comes out.

Barnes was furious, and this is just par for the course with ON. I was hoping he would keep his butt on the bench longer, but Awaka only plays 2 minutes.

I just watched the replay of that in the pinned post. ORN had an absolutely horrible foul after a push in the Vandy defenders back with inside position at 17:34 and Awaka subbed in. Then Awaka was pulled at the under 16:00 TO. Barnes reaction wasn’t shown on tge video. He might have also wanted to keep ORN from getting the quick second foul.

Odd that Awaka was put in that early and was then done for the night. Maybe CRB planned to play mostly upperclassman since Vandy has a roster full of smart fellers and it wasn’t the type of game that young players that are still learning the game are necessarily going to have their best performances. JP being an exception - his athleticism was showing up last night.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

The calls on the post play inside were not one sided, but weighted to Vandy. Very few contests by us did not end in a foul, lots of theirs did. THE worst call was a first half call on Aidoo when their big guy was being pinned to the baseline, went up and cleared our guy with his off hand and got two shots for it. Horrible call.

The absolute worst call indicating some level of bias was when the Vandy ball handler out front, being contested by Key, dribbled the ball off his foot into the backcourt and the ref signaled a tipped ball. Not even close. Hate those.

There were only 15 fouls called on each team all night. The refs had a plane to catch or were going to miss their bedtimes.

It’s really odd how so few fouls are called, yet our best player gets into early foul trouble.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

There were only 15 fouls called on each team all night. The refs had a plane to catch or were going to miss their bedtimes.

It’s really odd how so few fouls are called, yet our best player gets into early foul trouble.

To be fair, unless there is some kind of safety protection rule in place, the other really bad NO CALL was when ORN I think it was hung on the rim after posturing for a block on a breakaway. He was off before there was any shot, but......

 

[wtmvol]

50% inside isn’t considered good, also held them to 22% from 3 which is very good…to their credit they got to the line and made 90% of them.

I guess "solid" is a relative term. Going by ppp, it was the highest number against us all season, and only Arizona was close. Having said that, we've been so fantastic all year defensively that anything resembling the norm across the college bball landscape feels like a bad performance. Like you mentioned, free throws and turnovers were the reason for the "high" ppp. Vandy had a 12.5 TO%, by far the lowest against us all year (like, it's not even remotely close), and much lower than they had in their previous 2 SEC games. We ramped up the intensity the 1st 10 minutes of the 2nd half when we made our run. If not for that, the numbers look worse. I think it was just a case of a sleepy Tuesday night game against an inferior opponent.

Given how things went across the league last night, I'm just satisfied with a win. Now we should be going into the next game knowing we didn't play as well as we are capable, and I think that's a good thing.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

To be fair, unless there is some kind of safety protection rule in place, the other really bad NO CALL was when ORN I think it was hung on the rim after posturing for a block on a breakaway. He was off before there was any shot, but......

I thought that it should have been a basket interference/goal tending when it happened. But I haven’t watched the replay - just the live action from inside the TBA. It was at the Vandy end so I guess it was second half.

 

[Sea Ray]

“Solid defensively” is a stretch. We allowed them over 50% inside and over 1.0 ppp. 2nd half much better, but still…

I really don't think our defense was all that bad in the 1st half. Vandy was just shooting lights out at times. Gotta give them credit. I comforted myself by saying "no way they'll continue that in the second half" and luckily I was right. Their FT shooting was outstanding the whole game. Of course ours was even better. They will upset some good teams this year

 

[cncchris33]

I really don't think our defense was all that bad in the 1st half. Vandy was just shooting lights out at times. Gotta give them credit. I comforted myself by saying "no way they'll continue that in the second half" and luckily I was right. Their FT shooting was outstanding the whole game. Of course ours was even better. They will upset some good teams this year

I agree. Vandy hit some contested shots that we couldn't have defended much better. In the 2nd half, we began to limit their shot opportunities up to the last 4 minutes, where we gave up 4 layups and 6 FTs and saw our 17 pt lead finish as a 9 pt victory.

 

[tennrich1]

I noticed tonight on many of our possessions we went very deep in the shot clock(IIRC we had 3 or 4 violations). Not sure if we were running sets that required it or if Vandy defense contributed to it. CLEARLY Vandy was hyper focused tonight which is a good thing for them and caused us some issues. Cats coming to town wounded and actually completely demoralized is a cause for extra concern. Rick however seems to be acutely aware of those things so we should be ready on Saturday. I gotta say…For Vol fans of every sport…the last couple of years have been fun! One last thing…Did I hear correctly Barnes said the last play of first half by Vandy was the worst defensive efforts he’s seen since being the Vols head coach or did I just imagine that?

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

I thought that it should have been a basket interference/goal tending when it happened. But I haven’t watched the replay - just the live action from inside the TBA. It was at the Vandy end so I guess it was second half.

I don't know the rule, but can it be basket interference with the contact well before any attempt to make a basket is made? With the other guys proximity to him, using the rim to avoid being undercut may have been a factor in no T being called. That would of course made the ball dead before the shot. Anybody got some rulebook clarity?

 

[wtmvol]

I don't know the rule, but can it be basket interference with the contact well before any attempt to make a basket is made? With the other guys proximity to him, using the rim to avoid being undercut may have been a factor in no T being called. That would of course made the ball dead before the shot. Anybody got some rulebook clarity?

What happened last night wasn't "well before". The entire basket was shaking when the Vandy player shot it. That absolutely HAD to be goal tending.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Did I hear correctly Barnes said the last play of first half by Vandy was the worst defensive efforts he’s seen since being the Vols head coach or did I just imagine that?

Yes. He said that. I don’t know if it is truly the worst play, but it was a pathetic and lazy defensive effort. We literally just let the guy drive the lane with no contest at the basket.

 

[cardvolfan]

I really don't think our defense was all that bad in the 1st half. Vandy was just shooting lights out at times. Gotta give them credit. I comforted myself by saying "no way they'll continue that in the second half" and luckily I was right. Their FT shooting was outstanding the whole game. Of course ours was even better. They will upset some good teams this year

The irony about their FT percentage last night was that they were hitting 67.7% coming into this game.

 

[SN-A-C Orange]

1. 2.
3. Kind of a funky game, final score most people will scratch their heads but we were good offensively and solid defensively, Vanderbilt went to the line 20 times and made 90% of them, that is why this was a ball game. We didn’t turn it over much, neither did they, they just kept things close by getting to the line.

4. 5. We are now 4 games into the SEC state and Tennessee has started 4-0 as I said they ideally needed to do to start the year. They got the benefit of a soft schedule start and taking advantage was paramount, they did just that. A struggling Kentucky team comes to town Saturday and if it was any other team I would say no reason we shouldn’t be 5-0, but can’t ever dismiss Kentucky. It’s Lofton jersey day and hoping the good mojo is in the air for the Vols and they honor him by beating the Cats, 5-0 start to league play sure would feel nice.

GBO!!!

Great writeup!!!!

3) Vanderbilt from the FT line was stellar 18-20, but we were better with 14-15 %wise .. there is a small disparity in number (5), but not a significant number.
I do not think that is why this was a closer game than expected.
Consider these tidbits ...
Vandy has been playing better ... they almost beat Missouri at their place, dropped the game 82-85 and Missouri is a decent defensive team.
The starting 5 for Vandy only scored 13 points!!!
I would say that our scouting of the Vandy starting 5 was fantastic and the bench players we might have overlooked in our preparation ... based on our overconfidence from the SC game.
Or perhaps their bench just had a stellar night. Bottom line we held them under their season averages.
This was a big game for Vandy, they were hungry. I thought this was the most physical team we have played in the SEC.
Robbins got away with a ton of stuff ... that went uncalled.... jumping into Aidoo, and setting nasty screens. [ I might be biased. :^) ]
5) Kentucky IS having a tough time ... they were down TWO starting players in their loss to South Carolina. Cason had back spasms - he has had them in the past.
They are struggling on the defensive end of the court, but rest assured that they are extremely talented - they have not put it together as a team.
However, they held SC to 29 points in the 2nd half ... that was a step in the right direction.
We should expect them to be on a mission on Saturday ... trying to prove that a 1-3 is not something that talented players and Calipari are going to accept.

Second game in a row Santi sat for 2 quick fouls .... and we still won.

Great game report ... keep up the excellent work!

 

[walkenvol]

The reason Awaka came in was because ON loafed after getting a defensive rebound. ON rebounds, fires an outlet to Key, and 4 players proceed to bust it downcourt for a chance at a fastbreak score. After Nkamhoua made the pass, he loafed downcourt. Often, IF the trailer gets downcourt he gets the easy bucket as the defense moves out to cover the wings. ON nowhere in sight only 2 minutes into the game. Barnes jumps up, sends Awaka to report in and Olivier comes out.

Barnes was furious, and this is just par for the course with ON. I was hoping he would keep his butt on the bench longer, but Awaka only plays 2 minutes.

Sometimes I wonder if ON has some type of endurance issue as he’s very often the last guy up the court and many times he’s walking?

 

[BACKDOC]

Plav has come a million miles over the past couple of years; good game tonight. We still have some things to clean up; too many entry passes are fumbled or misguided. In other words, too many turnovers. Z definitely needs to work on the alley opp pass, not to mention, we sometimes pass up good shots just to throw up a hail mary at the end of the shot clock. But luckily we have plenty of time to clean those things up before March. GBO