Official Game Thread #10 Tennessee vs #7 Purdue

[utucla]

Hopson was a no show tonight. I have been reading how he has been lighting it up, but I did not see it at all. He made one nice move toward the end but that's all I saw. Tennessee has much better players than Purdue in my opinion. Pearl's daddy looked pretty ticked off too. I thought Chism was wide open to drive it down the lane at the end instead of settling for a 3 pointer.

Tennessee has better athletes.....Purdue has better basketball players.....

 

[VolGal423]

You owe it to your good friend to convert her to the Big Orange, for her own sake.

I've tried. Even showed her how much better she looks in Orange vs. crimson. She just doesn't get it. She only follows them 2 or 3 games out of the year (has absolutely no sports knowledge) but swears she's a die-hard fan. It's a hopeless case. :dunno:

 

[thagodfather]

He hardly played the 2nd half after his first half performance. How about Woolridge though - how many minutes did he play? He really did make the most of those, lol.

Hopson looks like a future NBA player on some nights and on other nights i wouldn't start him on my rec league team.

 

[TennTradition]

He's too old.

He looks younger than Greg Oden.

 

[PPPpartsp3]

But he doesn't have plays. We just run and gun. Anytime we set up to run an offensive set, we look like CRAP. Then, we end up taking a wild shot with 3 seconds left on the shot clock. Our half-court sets are terrible!

All those points in the first 3 games came from forcing turnovers and fast breaks, not offensive sets. When we face teams that don't turn the ball over and can get back on defense, we can't score.

+1 Someone with some sense.

 

[Rockytoprowdy]

You've got to like the opportunity there. There were maybe 4-5 players total that were upcourt in position to do anything. That means lots of room in a pretty dang good defense.

Room to drive maybe? We had Chism outside, Goins outside, a guy spotted up in each corner, and one guy underneath. Either drive and draw a foul or get it to Tyler under the basket. That wasn't a shot with 2 sec. on the clock. There was plenty of time (about 8 sec.) to make a move, and the way they were calling fouls a Purdue player would have had to merely look at us and we would have been going to the free throw line. I'll take Chism, Goins, or Smith at the free throw line over Wayne shooting a 3 any day. Much higher percentage on a free throw than a three. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one because I see no reason that Chism should be taking that shot.

 

[BigPapaVol]

Tennessee has better athletes.....Purdue has better basketball players.....

Bravo. Somebody saw what really happened.

 

[hmanvolfan]

I've tried. Even showed her how much better she looks in Orange vs. crimson. She just doesn't get it. She only follows them 2 or 3 games out of the year (has absolutely no sports knowledge) but swears she's a die-hard fan. It's a hopeless case. :dunno:

Tell her Smokey is cuter than the elephant.

 

[The Ambassador]

Chism is around a 35% 3 point shooter. I would like a higher percentage shot at the end of the game to win it when we are only down by 1 point. That is the point I was trying to make. I set with Wayne's mom at several games but we needed a better shot when we only needed 1 point to win.

 

[hmanvolfan]

He looks younger than Greg Oden.

Nice.... lol:

 

[Rockytoprowdy]

Also, remember losing the following game.

Yeah #1 for 2 days then letting Shan Foster go ape on us.

 

[VolGal423]

Tell her Smokey is cuter than the elephant.

And UT boys are muuuuch cuter than those rednecks in Bammer. She's an IDIOT!

 

[hmanvolfan]

And UT boys are muuuuch cuter than those rednecks in Bammer. She's an IDIOT!

Yes, we are.

 

[thagodfather]

I'd put this loss on our offensive, in the half-court we looked completely lost. I do think Bruce blew the game by not calling a timeout there at the end. If we were to have thrown the ball in to Chism or Smith I would've liked our chances alot more. This definitely doesn't go on Chism though

It's a tough loss but, it was to the number 6 team in the country, and it was in November. This hurts as it takes away a chance for a good non-conference win which matters for seeding next March.

Hopefully it can be a learning experience. Guys have got to step up though.

Yeah, it's ok that we lost. Purdue is ranked 6th. This lost probably won't even count. We're still 4-0. I really hate that kind of attitude. It makes us look as bad as Prince playing defense.

 

[madkels]

Agreed. Our half court game is terrible. I don't know if Bruce can teach these guys a half court set with varying plays. We look lost and everyone stans around waiting on someone to make a play. No better than last season on the half court offense.

 

[PPPpartsp3]

Bravo. Somebody saw what really happened.

If UT can't just absolutely overwhelm a team athletically, then we can easily get beat, just like tonight. Doesn't help that we have no guidance on the offensive end, coming mostly from the head guy.

Hopson is a good example of not being effective, unless he is just has an large talent gap on the guy guarding him.

 

[SGMVols]

Chism is around a 35% 3 point shooter. I would like a higher percentage shot at the end of the game to win it when we are only down by 1 point. That is the point I was trying to make. I set with Wayne's mom at several games but we needed a better shot when we only needed 1 point to win.

Exactly. With Purdue's best interior defender already fouled out, we should have attacked the paint instead.

 

[utucla]

Bravo. Somebody saw what really happened.

I only call it like it see it.....good basketball players are so hard to find these days.....

 

[thagodfather]

If UT can't just absolutely overwhelm a team athletically, then we can easily get beat, just like tonight. Doesn't help that we have no guidance on the offensive end, coming mostly from the head guy.

Hopson is a good example of not being effective, unless he is just has an large talent gap on the guy guarding him.

I'd probably be satisfied if Hopson would learn to dribble and then pass with two hands.

 

[Rockytoprowdy]

Don't think we drop very far...UNC only fell 6 spots after getting dominated by an unranked Syracuse team.

 

[Heebs]

Something tells me that this game was our chance to take down a big boy and we couldn't take advantage of a top 10 team playing very badly.

 

[thagodfather]

Don't think we drop very far...UNC only fell 6 spots after getting dominated by an unranked Syracuse team.

They're UNC, we are not.

 

[Rockytoprowdy]

But they got man handled by an unranked team while we lost by 1 to a team ranked higher than us. We'll see but I don't think we fall farther than maybe 12 or 13.

 

[TooLegit2Quit]

Well, bring on the College of Charleston Cougars. Hopefully we can get back to our 100+ offensive performance play.

 

[ChattanoogaVols]

If anything positive can be taken from this game, it's the fact that we played like absolute garbage, yet still had a very good chance to win the game at the end. Yeah, Purdue did force some of our bad play, but they had nothing to do with the horrible passes that were ultimately the result of horrible decisions. We also are, without a doubt, the most undisciplined team in the top-10, and more than likely the top-25. I love CBP to death, but he has GOT to get his team playing under control, within themselves, and making smart decisions. IF he can do that, the Baller-Vols will be able to beat anyone in the country.