Igor Milicic

#51
#51
Anti-shunshinepumper said:
Yeah, you're right. Technically he replaced JJJ at the 4. Awaka was poised to play a lot more minutes this year, tho. I can almost guarantee coach Barnes was counting on Igor's height, rebounding, and rim play to help make up for losing Awaka.
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When you say poised, do you have a fix for his foul trouble to make available for the rest of us?
 
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#53
#53
His shot looks over-finessed and unnatural which makes him so inconsistent. But his inside game is even worse...dude misses everything inside 4 feet. Someone remind him he's darn near 7 feet tall!
 
#54
#54
Anti-shunshinepumper said:
I'll start with saying I really like the guy, and I think he is an upgrade from Awaka. He is getting a ton of rebounds and seems to have really bought into what we've come to expect from a Tennessee defensive player.

Having said that, what's up with missing all the 3 point shots?

When I watched his highlights I was excited to have another 3- point threat. Last night he was just atrocious from beyond the arc.
Hopefully he's just in a shooters slump and dials it in by the time we get into SEC play. Definitely needs to be putting in some extra time in the gym in regards.
Any thoughts as to what could be going on with him? Playing hard on D making him tired? Is it a confidence thing?
Is he the type of guy that needs to see his first one or two go in?
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Anyone who has ever played basketball knows some nights you hit everything, others nights it’s the polar opposite and you couldn’t hit water if you fell out of a boat. He just had a bad shooting night, before the seasons over he will have a game where he hits every three he takes.
 
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#58
#58
Anti-shunshinepumper said:
I never said he was necessarily a great or terrible player. I was posing some questions about his 3 point shooting after a pretty awful performance in respect.
Also, my concerns aren't just from one game. He's had 7 games now where he has either made only 1 or no 3 pointers at all.
IMO, if we are going to win a championship that's not going to cut it. Going to need him to find his stroke from behind the arc.
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Anti-shunshinepumper said:
I never said he was necessarily a great or terrible player. I was posing some questions about his 3 point shooting after a pretty awful performance in respect.
Also, my concerns aren't just from one game. He's had 7 games now where he has either made only 1 or no 3 pointers at all.
IMO, if we are going to win a championship that's not going to cut it. Going to need him to find his stroke from behind the arc.
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You did not say he was a terrible player.Malicic leads the team in rebounds, is the second leading scorer and is number two in assists. Every player on the team has areas where they can improve to help make the Vols more of a championship caliber team. I'm more concerned about our low post play than I am about Milicic.
 
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#59
#59
UT97Vol said:
I’m good with that but the point I was making in the other thread is have some self awareness on a night you clearly don’t have it.

He was great otherwise. Huge rebounds. The steal on the out of bounds play and dunk pretty much was the difference in the game. And kudos to him for not letting a bad shooting night affect his game. That was a mammoth play he made at that moment. That said, had he drove and got fouled or drove and dished on some of those 3-pt attempts it might not have been close in the last minute. So that’s the thing I see. A 35% shooter shouldn’t have an unlimited green light. When you’re struggling on any given night, mix it up and find another way to score or get others who a hotter the touch.
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I'm good with him still being aggressive on an off-night. There have been teams in the past where we have lacked an alpha scorer and we had guys that were either unwilling or unable to step into that role, so I'm appreciative of him still hunting his shot.

I can tell that he has the potential to reach another level, but we just have to hope that he can unlock it during this season. It feels like he is capable of much more than he has shown thus far and is still getting adjusted to this team, its expectations and his role.
 
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#60
#60
What you are saying is, "Look at all these wonderful things I have to be thankful for, but this one little incidental thing is really bothering me."

It's absolutely absurd to expect every player to be completely perfect every night. They are still impacting the game. We are friggin' 10-0! Mercy.
 
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#61
#61
A-RodWiLks said:
His shot looks over-finessed and unnatural which makes him so inconsistent. But his inside game is even worse...dude misses everything inside 4 feet. Someone remind him he's darn near 7 feet tall!
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First real ounce of pressure any of them have seen so far too tho. Not excusing your inside pt. I agree, to the extent of dropping the shoulder and risking another foul. He contributes too much to be forced to sit. Imo
 
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#62
#62
To me this is real simple. Before this year, Milicic shot threes at about a 36-37% clip. You can either let him continue to shoot, hopefully improve his shot percentage, and go into the NCAA tournament with a 6'-10" forward who is willing and confident to step up and hit some big threes when defenses leave him on the perimeter, or you can roll into the NCAA tournament having iced Milicic's three point shooting by teaching him to hesitate or defer when he's given those open looks.

Now me, personally? I would greatly, greatly prefer the former.
 
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#63
#63
orangemadam said:
I know this is a Milicic thread and I think he has been a tremendous player.
My question as a side note is that I don't think we did so well in replacing Aidoo so far.
FO has not had good back to back games that I can recall. He has not been a step
up from Aidoo or Awaka in my eyes.
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Felix is averaging 6/6 on 58 percent shooting this year. Aidoo is averaging 5/3 this year on 53 percent shooting. But both those guys being gone are on them. It's not like we told them to leave so we could sign Okpara. We got Okpara because they decided the grass was greener elsewhere.

Aidoo is looking like a potential bust at Arkansas and Awaka is still fouling so much he can't stay on the floor.

Meanwhile, we're 10-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. We beat Illinois and Arkansas got beat by 13 by them. Aidoo had 2 points and 2 boards against them.
 
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#64
#64
Lefteye said:
When you say poised, do you have a fix for his foul trouble to make available for the rest of us?
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Poised as in he was assured to get the potential minutes. Whether he could stay out of foul trouble long enough to take advantage of them is a different story. From the looks of him in Arizona he still has to work on his fouling.
He is getting more minutes this year, tho. I think he had like 13 mins pg here last year, and he's getting about 17 mins pg this year at Arizona.
 
#65
#65
VolArmy74 said:
Felix is averaging 6/6 on 58 percent shooting this year. Aidoo is averaging 5/3 this year on 53 percent shooting. But both those guys being gone are on them. It's not like we told them to leave so we could sign Okpara. We got Okpara because they decided the grass was greener elsewhere.

Aidoo is looking like a potential bust at Arkansas and Awaka is still fouling so much he can't stay on the floor.

Meanwhile, we're 10-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. We beat Illinois and Arkansas got beat by 13 by them. Aidoo had 2 points and 2 boards against them.
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I don’t think many know that Aidoo is coming back from a foot injury that happened in the offseason… his minutes over the last 2 gms have doubled and has ended up in double-figures scoring-wise in both games.

Even with the 2-game stretch where Okpara has struggled, I think he’s a solid defensive upgrade. I think he just needs to give us the energy/effort Cade has given us off the bench. I think that’ll also translate offensively.

I think CRB and coaching staff will get him going in the right direction, hopefully through the next 3-game stretch.
 
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#66
#66
iVolSoHard said:
I'm good with him still being aggressive on an off-night. There have been teams in the past where we have lacked an alpha scorer and we had guys that were either unwilling or unable to step into that role, so I'm appreciative of him still hunting his shot.

I can tell that he has the potential to reach another level, but we just have to hope that he can unlock it during this season. It feels like he is capable of much more than he has shown thus far and is still getting adjusted to this team, its expectations and his role.
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Igor has shown flashes of being able to drive to the basket that I hope he can do more of as the season progresses.

He definitely took a lot more threes than I expected him to, wish he would’ve just tried to drive the ball more, especially given the way the refs were calling the game.
 
#70
#70
Igor's shooting will come around, Tennessee had 42 rebounds as a team vs Illinois and Igor had 33% of those boards. Igor also got the steal to put Tennessee up by 2 nearing the end of regulation. With Igor last season that Tennessee team would've won National Championship..
 
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#71
#71
VolArmy74 said:
Felix is averaging 6/6 on 58 percent shooting this year. Aidoo is averaging 5/3 this year on 53 percent shooting. But both those guys being gone are on them. It's not like we told them to leave so we could sign Okpara. We got Okpara because they decided the grass was greener elsewhere.

Aidoo is looking like a potential bust at Arkansas and Awaka is still fouling so much he can't stay on the floor.

Meanwhile, we're 10-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. We beat Illinois and Arkansas got beat by 13 by them. Aidoo had 2 points and 2 boards against them.
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correct on all points. We are 10-0 without Okpara help. Thankfully in large part due to Philips
progress and Milicic.
 
#72
#72
Igor has to keep shooting...until proven otherwise, I will consider that an anomaly for Igor given his work to date AND especially since everyone else not named Gainey (and only in the 2nd half) struggled shooting.
 
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#75
#75
bleedingTNorange said:
Another incorrect take, Tennessee shoots 60% from 2 which is good for 18th best nationally.
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Not sure I'd call that take incorrect simply by quoting our 2-pt FG%. You can make 60% and still miss a lot of gimme shots. Acknowledging that we make 60% of our 2s doesn't account for a lot of variables, chief among them in this case is where those misses come from.

For example, if Felix Okpara had 100 shot attempts and they were all dunks or layups, and only made 60% of them, you'd just look at that number and say 60% sure looks good, while someone else might say, well he missed 40 dunks and layups.

In other words, not all 2s are created equal.
 
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