Could another coach...

#51
#51
StepCross said:
True. In hindsight it's obvious we should have played Maymon and Hall and probably McRae a lot more minutes this year. They might be ready to help us now if we had.

But at the time, when we were sitting 7-0? It looked different then. At that point, the trade is "Maymon might make us better in the long run, but we'll lose this game if he plays."

That's a trade we'd make now, cause we lost a bunch of games anyway. But tougher call on the spot.

And again, you don't have to look that far to find the failures. The staff didn't get the potential from the starters, and that's what has screwed this season over.
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It's a trade I would always make, and said so at the time (though for me it was Hall, not Maymon; Maymon was not yet eligible and was an unknown quantity). Hall at his worst is barely below Steven Pearl at his best (and that's giving Steven the benefit of the doubt -- I really believe that Hall at his worst is still better than Steven). But, if Hall were playing Steven's minutes, he would most likely play barely worse than Steven once and WAY better than Steven the next game. He might, as he DID last year, grab 11 or 12 rebounds in only 20 minutes or so. Steven never will. The chance of that kind of thing happening increases exponentially when the guy knows he's going to get those minutes, gets them consistently, and isn't afraid he's going to be yanked out for any mistake. Two minutes here or there just doesn't do it. What comes with time is consistency; which is to say that the 11 or 12 rebound games would be coming more frequently.
 
#53
#53
BigPapaVol said:
Of course he had to press with that first team. He was starting 4 guards, had no post play, could trot bodies at you, passed exceptionally well and had a PG who could handle the pace. Since the loss of any respectable PGs, we've had to absolutely abandon it. The lack of JSmith style defenders hurt too.

As to the Ohio State debacle, changing spots in a big game at that point was senseless and we paid for it. He'd do that differently today. Trying to slow down wasn't in our DNA at all.
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He didn't press out of necessity; he pressed because that's what he has always done. When hired, he declared that's what he was bringing. And that first year he used essentially a 7 man rotation. Only 7 played more than 8 minutes a game, and all 7 played at least 19.

He abandoned pressing when Ramar was point, even though pressing and open court were what Ramar was good at; and Bobby Maze was certainly better in the open court than the half court. Not to mention, one of the main points of having someone like Chism isn't so he can crank 3s, but because he's mobile and can get out on the break and defend well enough in the open court.

"The lack of JSmith style defenders" hurts any team and any style. A JuJuan Smith would be worth 5 wins THIS year.

(I appreciate the bone on the Ohio State game. Thanks.)
 
#54
#54
We pressed with Ramar.

Maze couldn't defend anyone ad wasn't enough passer to be open court. He didnt turn it over, but created nearly nothing. He was a respectable shooter, limited badly by unmentionable D and inability to go left.

It was his style, but that team could not have won in any other style.
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#55
#55
BigPapaVol said:
We pressed with Ramar.

Maze couldn't defend anyone ad wasn't enough passer to be open court. He didnt turn it over, but created nearly nothing. He was a respectable shooter, limited badly by unmentionable D and inability to go left.

It was his style, but that team could not have won in any other style.
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He abandoned the press toward the end of Ramar's last (sophomore) season, then benched Ramar for being too inconsistent in the half court sets.

Disagree (surprised?) on Maze. He was a lousy shooter, but a good (not great) defender and as I said, was MUCH better in open court than in half court. You're right that he didn't create, but this was simply because Pearl stuck him in a half-court set where he was essentially useless.
 
#57
#57
StepCross said:
It's not the rotation IMO. It's the starters not producing to the level they're capable.
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I know. That's why I said "at the very least."

You know we are more often confused and/or concerned about the rotation....just one highlight.
 
#58
#58
papatomany said:
Nope. Pearl's style (the one he now says is "who I am") is as much about attitude as skills. There's no way anyone looked at the team Pearl took over and said, "'We've got a perfect team to press with." Pearl instilled the attitude, and it worked. When Pearl first abandoned it, it wasn't because it had stopped working, it was, according to quotes from him, because he thought it MIGHT stop working. Game 2 against that Oden Ohio State team: a) didn't press, b) came out on fire and built a big lead, c) let them back in the game because of a) didn't press. When we did turn the press back on, it worked. Pearl said, "We didn't press because they had seen it before." It had forced 20+ turnovers the first time. Ohio State was SCARED of it. Pearl was wrong.

ANY approach only works if you decide it's what you do and then DO IT.

As for this team: Goins, Scotty, and Tatum are all much, much better players in the open court. Turning the team into a half-court team does not play to their strengths.
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that first team also had a higher basketball IQ than this group
 
#59
#59
papatomany said:
He abandoned the press toward the end of Ramar's last (sophomore) season, then benched Ramar for being too inconsistent in the half court sets.

Disagree (surprised?) on Maze. He was a lousy shooter, but a good (not great) defender and as I said, was MUCH better in open court than in half court. You're right that he didn't create, but this was simply because Pearl stuck him in a half-court set where he was essentially useless.
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Maze wasn't a lousy shooter. He seemed to hit shots when we needed them, especially last season. He is also the best alley-oop passer we've had in the Pearl era
 
#62
#62
shortgameVol said:
Maze wasn't a lousy shooter. He seemed to hit shots when we needed them, especially last season. He is also the best alley-oop passer we've had in the Pearl era
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Oops. Sorry. I was going by shooting percentage and that clanging noise his shots made.
 
#64
#64
papatomany said:
Oops. Sorry. I was going by shooting percentage and that clanging noise his shots made.
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Shooting was by far the strength of his game. I understand that makes it extensions measure, but the rest of his game was suspect, especially the D.
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#65
#65
BasketVolKid said:
OrangeInKy :machgun: OrangeHammer

:bow2:
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this is pretty funny. so you're basing your speculation on something you read in a magazine? you realize there are 100 different magazines out there with 100 different speculations on how things will work out. I'm not big on believing any pre season hype, or basing how our season should go on what someone else says. Bottom line is I knew that Scotty wouldn't turn out the player I thought he could be (even though I wish he had) and that Tobias could make an impact, but is STILL a freshman.

Couple all that together with a team that SHOULD be running and pressing the whole game, and is now trying to run a half court offense (which is embarrassing to watch) and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Machine gun me all you want, but I'm only let down because I'm a TN fan that hates to see my team lose. Not some guy who's mad because he read somewhere that we'd be better. Back to reality please. V, B.
 
#66
#66
OrangeHammer said:
this is pretty funny. so you're basing your speculation on something you read in a magazine? you realize there are 100 different magazines out there with 100 different speculations on how things will work out. I'm not big on believing any pre season hype, or basing how our season should go on what someone else says. Bottom line is I knew that Scotty wouldn't turn out the player I thought he could be (even though I wish he had) and that Tobias could make an impact, but is STILL a freshman.

Couple all that together with a team that SHOULD be running and pressing the whole game, and is now trying to run a half court offense (which is embarrassing to watch) and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Machine gun me all you want, but I'm only let down because I'm a TN fan that hates to see my team lose. Not some guy who's mad because he read somewhere that we'd be better. Back to reality please. V, B.
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Is this serious?
 
#67
#67
OrangeHammer said:
this is pretty funny. so you're basing your speculation on something you read in a magazine? you realize there are 100 different magazines out there with 100 different speculations on how things will work out. I'm not big on believing any pre season hype, or basing how our season should go on what someone else says. Bottom line is I knew that Scotty wouldn't turn out the player I thought he could be (even though I wish he had) and that Tobias could make an impact, but is STILL a freshman.

Couple all that together with a team that SHOULD be running and pressing the whole game, and is now trying to run a half court offense (which is embarrassing to watch) and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Machine gun me all you want, but I'm only let down because I'm a TN fan that hates to see my team lose. Not some guy who's mad because he read somewhere that we'd be better. Back to reality please. V, B.
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Wow, may wanna read my post. I said expectations were up because the coach told us how much talent he had and how dangerous a shooter McBee was and how he bragged about recruiting classes and I assumed that a healthy array of heralded recruits would produce more than an 8-8 record. Io haven't picked up one single magazine so looks like your argument is shot down again. Guess I also expected a better season because of all the people who brag on us having an elite coach that IS UT bball, a coach that gives a ton of $ to win. Guess I assumed that a coach who produced 5 20 win seasons with limited talent could do the same or better considwring it is his most talented team. Guess I expected more considering UT hasn't had lingering major injuries and the coach talked and gloated about how deep the team was and how other teams would be exhausted late in games. Is that enough? I guess I love seeing UT lose and you are a real fan.
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#68
#68
OrangeHammer said:
this is pretty funny. so you're basing your speculation on something you read in a magazine? you realize there are 100 different magazines out there with 100 different speculations on how things will work out. I'm not big on believing any pre season hype, or basing how our season should go on what someone else says. Bottom line is I knew that Scotty wouldn't turn out the player I thought he could be (even though I wish he had) and that Tobias could make an impact, but is STILL a freshman.

Couple all that together with a team that SHOULD be running and pressing the whole game, and is now trying to run a half court offense (which is embarrassing to watch) and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Machine gun me all you want, but I'm only let down because I'm a TN fan that hates to see my team lose. Not some guy who's mad because he read somewhere that we'd be better. Back to reality please. V, B.
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Hats off to you for being the only person I know of that expected this kind of year. As a tribute, I will find your posts from September predicting these things and telling everyone they have too high of expectations and post it, as a peace offering. Many people have thought Hopson was overrated. My search starts now. Come on man, I am not trying to be a jerk but there's no way you can blame fans for expecting much more from this team. We were encouraged to by coaches. I.E. Tony Jones told a fan the Vols were gonna shock the world. A few days later they laid an egg to KY, and that is just an example of what I mean. You don't think cocky coaches are gonna get fans' expectations up? Also, a certain asst coach was mouthing off about being under rated and over looked at one point this year, so while you may say this is the season you expected and expectations were too high, at least one coach thought they werent high enough
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#71
#71
I will say that OrangeHammer has been consistent about Hopson and Harris most of the year though
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#72
#72
LawVol13 said:
The point was, when you're resorting to touting a player's alley-ooping ability, the player's simply not very good.
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What??? The ability to throw a nice alley-oop pass is worth AT LEAST one point every third game.
 
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