My Player of the Game….

[walkenvol]

Gainey! He’s been invisible for a month and shows up huge today with 15-5-1 and some pesky defense. We’ve all been fearing he was playing his way out of the lineup. We all also knew we needed him to be a contributor for this team to reach its potential. Here’s to hoping he’s rediscovered his confidence and stroke!

 

[Lukusw]

And 3 steals

 

[AllThingsTN]

Gainey and Aidoo both had great games. Knecht was off today but still played well.

 

[CAVPUT]

Can't bring myself to count on Gainey. If ZZ and/or Vescovi are off today and we need Gainey to produce, we're likely in for a long afternoon.

Good call CAVPUT, you moran!

 

[sami]

This was just a great team win, the best of the season so far. Gainey, Aidoo, Vescovi, and ZZ were all terrific, JJJ played great defense and crashed the boards, and Knecht showed what a complete player he is, still getting 25 and playing great defense even though he was clearly not sharp offensively.

This group has a good chance at being the best team Barnes has had here, and they're getting better every game. The Vols have always been unselfish and played suffocating defense, but there's an explosiveness with this bunch that I can't recall seeing in any other CRB team here.

 

[Franklin_Vol09]

Mine is Mashack. His defense was on point.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

Gainey probably played his best overall game today. Aidoo had a very good game, we need him to continue to play well. Awaka needs to get more involved down low. He needs to step it up. Vescovi seems to be getting into rythmn more. I think we are going to explode one night soon where everyone is hitting. We have a team that plays together well and has depth. I would like to see Estrella come on. As we head deeper into season our inside game has to continue to get more consistent and play tough. If I could add 1 thing to this team it would be one more rugged inside player. But I love this team! Just keep up the effort and intensity and we will be fine. GBO

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Gainey probably played his best overall game today. Aidoo had a very good game, we need him to continue to play well. Awaka needs to get more involved down low. He needs to step it up. Vescovi seems to be getting into rythmn more. I think we are going to explode one night soon where everyone is hitting. We have a team that plays together well and has depth. I would like to see Estrella come on. As we head deeper into season our inside game has to continue to get more consistent and play tough. If I could add 1 thing too this team would be one more rugged inside player. But I love this team! Just keep up the effort and intensity and we will be fine. GBO

Awaka must stop commiting stupid fouls

 

[Lankykong]

Gainey probably played his best overall game today. Aidoo had a very good game, we need him to continue to play well. Awaka needs to get more involved down low. He needs to step it up. Vescovi seems to be getting into rythmn more. I think we are going to explode one night soon where everyone is hitting. We have a team that plays together well and has depth. I would like to see Estrella come on. As we head deeper into season our inside game has to continue to get more consistent and play tough. If I could add 1 thing to this team it would be one more rugged inside player. But I love this team! Just keep up the effort and intensity and we will be fine. GBO

Awaka is not great against finesse tall bigs currently. I feel like he gets a few cheap fouls on him and then somewhat struggles. Against guys who are shorter he does pretty well though

 

[pimo1]

This was just a great team win, the best of the season so far. Gainey, Aidoo, Vescovi, and ZZ were all terrific, JJJ played great defense and crashed the boards, and Knecht showed what a complete player he is, still getting 25 and playing great defense even though he was clearly not sharp offensively.

This group has a good chance at being the best team Barnes has had here, and they're getting better every game. The Vols have always been unselfish and played suffocating defense, but there's an explosiveness with this bunch that I can't recall seeing in any other CRB team here.

Fully agreed. This team can turn into something special

 

[LibertyVol]

Awaka must stop commiting stupid fouls

Not sure a couple weren’t bs

 

[Namorto1]

Mine is Mashack. His defense was on point.

Definitely set the tone early on defense. He was tremendous.

 

[hatingbamaisawayoflife]

Nice win

 

[Unimane]

Mine is Mashack. His defense was on point.

Yes. Mashack had one of the best defensive performances I've seen in quite some time. He ate them alive and allowed practically nothing for the nearly 30 minutes he played. He won't make Sportscenter, but I guarantee the coaches know very well what he did today.

 

[Volfan1000]

Gainey! He’s been invisible for a month and shows up huge today with 15-5-1 and some pesky defense. We’ve all been fearing he was playing his way out of the lineup. We all also knew we needed him to be a contributor for this team to reach its potential. Here’s to hoping he’s rediscovered his confidence and stroke!

Aidoo and Gainey took the scoring load off Knecht today and Tennessee played lock down defense against the Red Elephants.

 

[radams52780]

Mashack Defense and Vescovi assists to Aidoo score combo on offense.

 

[LAVol1]

Curb stomped the "Commie Ba$$ards*".

*in honor of Rob N ATL

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Good call CAVPUT, you moran!

I’ll take half a cookie…

Yea starting 5, and then I would assume Mashack, Awaka & Gainey get the first shots off the bench. I would imagine they’ll try to avoid the freshman unless the game is going far in either direction, would love for this to be the game Gainey breaks out.

 

[tennrich1]

Listening to Rick’s post game and I think DK was mentioned maybe once. Which I’m fine with. Amazing most of the comments mention he was off today (he wasn’t throwing them in from 3 much and he was well defended most of the game) when he still had 25 pts. How long has it been since we’ve had a player going for 25 and we think he had “an off day”? Bernard? Houston?

 

[sami]

Mine is Mashack. His defense was on point.

Yeah, how did I forget to mention him? This UT team is fortunate to have two players who can be described as "glue guys" - Mashack and Vescovi. They do the dirty work and make a ton of plays that don't necessarily show up on the scoresheet.

Mashack is as good an on-ball defender as we've had here, and if he can consistently shoot 35-36% from 3 he's going to have a long career in the NBA as a 3&D role player. Players like him are great in any system.

 

[sami]

If it's possible to have a 'gripe' with a game like this, it would be the free throw shooting. I get that it was a blowout, but we missed a ton of FT's many the front end of 1-and-1's, or this would have been really ugly early in the second half.

 

[CAVPUT]

I’ll take half a cookie…

Gotta tip my cap to the coaches...even tho one is his father. To hang with him through the slump he's been in...well...that's a credit to them. If he returns to the form he showed earlier in the season, it's gonna make this team a nightmare come March.

 

[CAVPUT]

If it's possible to have a 'gripe' with a game like this, it would be the free throw shooting. I get that it was a blowout, but we missed a ton of FT's many the front end of 1-and-1's, or this would have been really ugly early in the second half.

Pretty sure bama out rebounded us, too. Plus, Knecht was 1-6 from 3. Such an average performance.

 

[cardvolfan]

Gainey! He’s been invisible for a month and shows up huge today with 15-5-1 and some pesky defense. We’ve all been fearing he was playing his way out of the lineup. We all also knew we needed him to be a contributor for this team to reach its potential. Here’s to hoping he’s rediscovered his confidence and stroke!

He was shooting well in warm-ups. Looked good. Of course, he’s been shooting well in practice, too.

 

[Voljayton]

Mashack has such consistently good D. He shut down Sears for most of the game until garbage time. I love watching Knecht with the ball but I love watching Mashack on D. So so good.