Official Game Thread - SECT: Friday, 1pm (ESPN) vs. MSU

#1,876
#1,876
I hope this and the UK were the " rest and relax" portion of March.

If this team bows out as a 2 seed in the 1st or 2nd round, I think Danny White needs to have a serious talk with Rick Barnes.
 
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#1,877
#1,877
IndianaVol said:
I hope this and the UK were the " rest and relax" portion of March.

If this team bows out as a 2 seed in the 1st or 2nd round, I think Danny White needs to have a serious talk with Rick Barnes.
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About what? He’s won a combination of two SEC titles in the last 4 years. Danny’s metric for success has been stated that we compete for an SEC title every 5 years.
 
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#1,879
#1,879
BernardKingGOAT said:
You made my point. We won the SEC tournament and got beat in the round of 32 by Michigan. It sucked. We struggled down the stretch last season and beat Duke to get in the sweet 16, without our point guard. The NCAA is a crapshoot, but I like our chances this year. Much like 2019. Butch Facking Jones never won a SEC championship. Butch Facking Jones never won on the road against our biggest rivals. WTF are you talking about?
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Exactly. Listen, it was the most horrific half on both ends of the floor I can remember seeing from a UT team - Barnes said so himself. Between missing wide open looks and allowing them to easily drive to the rim, it's not a big surprise we were down like that at the half. And never really getting into any kind of rhythm offensively and missing more open looks killed any comeback chance.

It's done and time to move on - the SEC tournament is small potatoes and Rick has a week to get the team prepared. I'm not worried about their state of mind, this group is mentally tough. I do worry about where we're going to get offense aside from DK, and honestly I'd prefer to sink or swim with JJJ and SV firing away at will. Passing up wide open looks only creates bad end-of-clock shots, and if one or both can get some early shots to drop, like at Kentucky, it opens up the whole offense, and we're unstoppable.
 
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#1,882
#1,882
Dadof2Vols said:
RB spent to much time early/middle time of season trying to find SV from 3 years ago and JJJ consustency instead of getting more minutes for others, now the price will be paid for not having more options.
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Agreed.

In fairness to Barnes, it was a worthy goal in the beginning/middle part of the season.

Where I think he went wrong was not abandoning that goal towards the middle/end of the season for younger guys that might be able to contribute now.
 
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#1,885
#1,885
IndianaVol said:
I hope this and the UK were the " rest and relax" portion of March.

If this team bows out as a 2 seed in the 1st or 2nd round, I think Danny White needs to have a serious talk with Rick Barnes.
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I'm as frustrated as the next Vol fan but this is ludicrous. We won the regular season championship in the toughest SEC in recent memory. White doesn't need to say a thing to Barnes.
 
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#1,886
#1,886
Volstylexx said:
Current bracketology has us matching up with 10 seed Michigan State in the 2nd round (south regional). The three seed in that bracket would be a better matchup for us, imo.

View attachment 627246
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So by losing today they go from a completely different bracket yesterday to this? I’m concerned that playing Clemson (should they win) would be today 2.0.
Last thing the Vols need is to have to put up with that
 
#1,888
#1,888
PKT_VOL said:
Agreed.

In fairness to Barnes, it was a worthy goal in the beginning/middle part of the season.

Where I think he went wrong was not abandoning that goal towards the middle/end of the season for younger guys that might be able to contribute now.
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It has always been a RB weakness.

Typically young guys don’t play good enough defense early on to earn playing time. I would rather take an early L in Dec/Jan with live fire training a young guy and have them ready come Mar then punishing them all year for not being a RB disciple yet.
 
#1,890
#1,890
GiveHim6InSC said:
How’d they go from a completely different bracket yesterday to this? I’m concerned that playing Clemson (should they win) would be today 2.0.
Last thing the Vols need is to have to put up with that
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That bracket rewards the season we’ve had by letting us play closer to home. I am in the minority opinion that we need shipped west where the matchups are far more favorable.
 
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#1,891
#1,891
tnvols72 said:
so they got tired out in practice. One would think Barnes would chage up practice toward the end of the year. That when it seems his teams always runs out of gas or looks gassed come tourney time
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The problem with that is that we last played 6 days ago. You cannot lay off or slack off for 6 days and come back ready to play. Nothing wrong with a good, tough practice. Slay didn't say we looked tired at practice, he said they looked good and dialed in. I don't know why they didn't perform better, but I doubt it was due yesterday's tough practice.
 
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#1,893
#1,893
PKT_VOL said:
What you do on the court > over what you say in a press conference.
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I think it’s good accountability by him to actually say it though. He’s saying the quiet part out loud, and maybe that lights a 🔥 in them going into the big dance. I don’t know what you do other than take their time or maybe have them meet with a sports psychologist this week.
 
#1,894
#1,894
Dadof2Vols said:
This was not a matchup nightmare. It was a formula for beating UT MBB.

if refs are not calling it tight, man up every one 1-1. Let DK do whatever he wants from outside and let no player from UT into paint without lower body contact. With lower body contact UT will shoot ~40% or less in paint. 1-1 on outside everyone else but DK will shoot ~30% from outside of paint and you win.

With that game plan you only lose if the refs call it tight on the defense especially body shots in paint or multiple UT players other than DK get hot FROM OUTSIDE OF paint.

Look at the losses and you will see.
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It's not quite that simple. We created countless wide open looks that didn't drop, we were like 2-20 from 3 in the 1st half, most of them very good looks. Make 4-5 of those and a couple of layups and it's a different game entirely, because they aren't able to run out on misses the way they did the entire half for easy baskets.

They outworked us, simple as that. They were more physical, and worst of all they killed us on 50-50 balls. We were sloppy as hell with the ball and couldn't throw it in the ocean, not exactly a recipe for success.
 
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#1,895
#1,895
Dadof2Vols said:
It has always been a RB weakness.

Typically young guys don’t play good enough defense early on to earn playing time. I would rather take an early L in Dec/Jan with live fire training a young guy and have them ready come Mar then punishing them all year for not being a RB disciple yet.
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Definitely some truth there.

Also worth noting that the younger guys are more athletic, longer, and quicker than the older guys. Meaning, that while the floor is higher for the older guys due to their experience and basketball IQ, their ceiling is also at lot lower compared to younger guys based purely on their physical limitations.

A bigger rotation would also go a help preserve our legs as the season drags on.
 
#1,897
#1,897
BreatheUT said:
Can we begin the wait until next year? That is scary without Knecht.
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Can we not engage in the worst kind of loser talk? We played an awful game, but we're probably a 2 seed in the NCAA's with a week to prepare. Is it possible to see what might happen in the tournament before commencing with the eulogies?
 
#1,900
#1,900
Volstylexx said:
I think it’s good accountability by him to actually say it though. He’s saying the quiet part out loud, and maybe that lights a 🔥 in them going into the big dance. I don’t know what you do other than take their time or maybe have them meet with a sports psychologist this week.
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That's a fair point. Verbal accountability is better than not having any accountability.
 
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