Reasonable fans post game discussion

[zjcvols]

Thought the exact same thing on the hook-and-hold called on Uros. Officials weren't too good in this one.

I can’t believe they called that a flagrant, but to paraphrase Barnes postgame, if you told us we’d shoot 37 FTA on the road against LSU we all would have taken it.

 

[cncchris33]

I can’t believe they called that a flagrant, but to paraphrase Barnes postgame, if you told us we’d shoot 37 FTA on the road against LSU we all would have taken it.

Yeah, hard to believe we'd get that many attempts when we rarely shoot FTs. The disappointing part is that we missed 14 of them, and lost by 13.

 

[zjcvols]

Yeah, hard to believe we'd get that many attempts when we rarely shoot FTs. The disappointing part is that we missed 14 of them, and lost by 13.

Even still, you shoot 38.8% in a road conference game, chances are you’re not gonna win. FT’s was really the only thing that kept us in the game.

 

[VolArmy74]

Even still, you shoot 38.8% in a road conference game, chances are you’re not gonna win. FT’s was really the only thing that kept us in the game.

The defense wasn't there tonight. LSU shot 45 percent from 3 and 48 percent overall. We aren't remotely good enough on offense to win a game like that. If LSU hadn't also missed a ton of free throws it's a 20+ point loss.

 

[cncchris33]

Even still, you shoot 38.8% in a road conference game, chances are you’re not gonna win. FT’s was really the only thing that kept us in the game.

Yeah, I'm not making a case that we should have gone 37 for 37 at the line. The offense was pathetic. It has been. We changed where we shoot the ball from in our attempts, but not how we get those attempts. I long to see some pick and roll, some lobs at the rim, consistent drives to the basket. We just seem to want to make getting good looks hard, so we settle for deep shots and hope we're hit that game.

 

[1985Vols]

He is a college junior. A highly ranked one at that. You simply cannot make that terrible of a decision even if your opposite hand is poor.

Seems the recurring issue is JJJ Shooting “ bad” shots with 20 seconds left on the shot clock Why does this keep happening? Where is the coaching? Why do we have a supposed “ elite” coach that can’t either 1) figure this out or 2) get the players to understand spacing on the floor? Maybe it’s too many substitutions and just overall management of the roster

 

[Vols8086]

The offensive system just isn't very good and hasn't been other than the two years we had Grant Williams to dump it to and get us a basket.

We also seem to struggle making any adjustments over the course of a season, which is why we seem to always disappoint as the season drags on. Teams know what we want to do, they counter it, and we don't have an adjustment for their counter. Barnes seems to be one of those "as long as we execute we don't need to worry about what the other team does" coaches. That only works when you have superior talent: which i don't think we fall into that category.

 

[cardvolfan]

Agree on the tempo. I'll throw this out here. The most successful coaches today rely on transfers/portal. The last 3 big transfers here have been huge disappointments and appeared to regress while here. Does the complex offensive scheme hurt in assimilating those transfer players and freshmen? Does it hurt in bringing in those transfers that could contribute?

I just think the true, upper-tier transfers are going where they believe they have a shot at a title, Tshiebwe being an example. Pre-season talk was that Nkamhoua was much improved and ready to carry the torch, and that hasn’t been the case. I think last night there was a glaring difference between our bigs and theirs. We haven’t signed any difference makers in the recent future.

 

[TheMagnificantOne]

In order to prevent this from being an echo chamber, what's causing the team to perform a little below expectations?

Is it assimilating freshmen, misses with transfers, lack of continued development from bigs, upperclassmen not performing to recruiting rankings, assistant turnover, combo of all the above?

Last year the excuse was covid and the team didn't have time to gel...

Why does this team looks just as lost as last year's team...with way more time with each other

 

[NighthawkVol]

Don’t know where all these crazies have come from, but I hate being run off the forum by these guys spewing over the top trollish negativity. If you can’t have a reasonable discussion without mentioning CRB’s salary or making over the top insults of the staff, team, or individual players then please move on to one of the 10 other threads where like minded folks will welcome your venting.

Let the reasonable discussion begin!

The salary stuff is moronic. I don’t care if we pay him $1 or $10m. That’s between him and his employer. I’m sure these same people would give him a pass to lose 20 games if he were coaching for $250k/year.

 

[cobbwebb0710]

I think I’ve finally figured out why Uros gets minutes every game - the effort is there the whole time he plays. I’ve been posting how I wish he would start trying to dunk every time he touches the ball in the paint and he tried to tonight. If the officials would start officiating him fairly he would be even more productive. I thought the intentional foul they called on him should have been a foul on the lsu guy and Uros got hit in the head when the guy blocked his dunk attempt. Hope this game builds his confidence some and he can become better from it.

I honestly think the light is coming on for Uros.is he going to be a double digit scorer? No. Can he give us quality minutes and help this team going forward? Yes!
I get the feeling that Powell is a rhythm guy. He has to get in a flow and this whole bringing him in for 2-3 minutes spurts and hoping he drains a couple of 3’s is not working. With that said, his defense is really lacking.
JJJ...I love JJJ, but he absolutely kills us at some very critical times.
This team is soft and tends to get bullied.
Vescovi seems to be the only one who is not afraid to take THE shot or have the ball in his hands during crunch time.
Is that the coaches fault? I really feel that most of the time, these players are afraid of making a mistake and getting pulled, rather than just balling out on the court.
This team has talent, I just don’t know if we’ll see that talent translate to the hype that Barnes and we fans put on this team.
All of this is simply my opinion, which doesn’t mean much.
GBO!!

 

[C-town Vol]

New guys+poor offensive system in general.

We take more three’s which is great! We still don’t play up tempo style enough and we still run that damned 3-2 motion 90’s offense. There just isn’t enough modern sets that consistently gets open looks. And we don’t shoot well. So we got an offense that doesn’t push the pace and generate enough open looks, and we aren’t a good shooting team. Recipe for bad offensive play

This is an interesting and informative post. Admittedly, I’m not a well versed X&O guy in either basketball or football. Never coached or played either game in a highly organized fashion.

From my observation, having at least watched a ton of basketball, it felt like the objective of our offense has shifted dramatically from dump it to the post (3-4 years ago, to mid-range looks (last year), to threes (this year).

But it sounds like we have been doing all three things using the same offensive construct?

Regarding the bad shooting, I think it is really, really simple…we don’t recruit great shooters. Period.

 

[C-town Vol]

I think I’ve finally figured out why Uros gets minutes every game - the effort is there the whole time he plays. I’ve been posting how I wish he would start trying to dunk every time he touches the ball in the paint and he tried to tonight. If the officials would start officiating him fairly he would be even more productive. I thought the intentional foul they called on him should have been a foul on the lsu guy and Uros got hit in the head when the guy blocked his dunk attempt. Hope this game builds his confidence some and he can become better from it.

I’m with you. I really like Uros, the way he plays, and how he is developing. He is giving us better post minutes than anyone the last 3 games.

 

[camp_steveo]

My 2 cents:

UT has a decent bball team. They are not world beaters, but good enough to beat anyone on a good night.

They are also bad enough to lose to anyone on a bad night, especially when Fulky is under the weather.

Chandler is not a 1 and done PG. He may need to stay in school for at least 2-3 years to turn his talent into legitimate skills, but he does have the talent to be one of the best. He really ought to stay 4 years, but I understand the desire to get paid.

Olivier Nkamhoua has the potential to become a special player. I hope he gets more PT.

Uros has improved and could help UT win some games when it comes tourney time. The Vols just need to continue to improve on working the ball into him. Last night they showed some signs of that.

Vescovi is getting better at dribbling the ball, but he apparently doesn't have the confidence to finish the play inside, or maybe CRB doesn't allow him to? Either way I see an improvement in his ball handling from last year. He just gets to a certain point and then mentally stops when he should just go for it. His 3s are lights out when he is wide open. UT needs to work on plays that get him more wide open looks. That is obvious.

At this point, UT's defense is great, but without scoring enough points the Vols will lose half their games against tournament opponents. Could be either an early out or a good tourny run. Right now I am gonna say the Vols get knocked out early by a team that can shoot.

That said, it's still early. We could see some significant improvement over the next few weeks. I certainly hope so.

Go Vols!

 

[CAVPUT]

Don’t know where all these crazies have come from, but I hate being run off the forum by these guys spewing over the top trollish negativity. If you can’t have a reasonable discussion without mentioning CRB’s salary or making over the top insults of the staff, team, or individual players then please move on to one of the 10 other threads where like minded folks will welcome your venting.

Let the reasonable discussion begin!

I've got no issues with differing opinions. I also don't see a reason to run, exclude or hide from them. What's the point of a message board where everyone is saying exactly the same things and talking the party line points?

 

[CAVPUT]

New guys+poor offensive system in general.

We take more three’s which is great! We still don’t play up tempo style enough and we still run that damned 3-2 motion 90’s offense. There just isn’t enough modern sets that consistently gets open looks. And we don’t shoot well. So we got an offense that doesn’t push the pace and generate enough open looks, and we aren’t a good shooting team. Recipe for bad offensive play

Hate to toss gas on the fire, but Pearl is a perfect example. He recognizes where his strengths are and tailors the offense toward them. We seem to be determined to make that square peg fit that damned round hole. Starting to look like Barnes and his staff are one trick ponies. They're going to do the only thing they know and if it doesn't work, it's on the players. Kinda reminds me of a crew cut wearing meathead that used to coach our football team.

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

The offensive system just isn't very good and hasn't been other than the two years we had Grant Williams to dump it to and get us a basket.

We also seem to struggle making any adjustments over the course of a season, which is why we seem to always disappoint as the season drags on. Teams know what we want to do, they counter it, and we don't have an adjustment for their counter. Barnes seems to be one of those "as long as we execute we don't need to worry about what the other team does" coaches. That only works when you have superior talent: which i don't think we fall into that category.

Seems to me the system is fine. We had wide open shooters all night, just didn't make a lot. We need to either find some confidence or find some guys that can stroke. It seems to me like everyone we play has shooters, and we have none. I feel like I've been saying this for the better part of a decade now.

 

[ColinS]

I’m confused and it’s late. JJJ is a lefty. I’m not sure what you mean. “He” being the defender? Or do you mean JJJ should be on the left wing?

Shouldn't he be on the left wing on offense so he can drive the baseline?

 

[C-town Vol]

I think our shooting issues are pretty simple…

We don’t recruit good, natural shooters. We recruit guys and try to develop them as shooters. Some guys are born shooters. How many have we had in the Barnes era? How about this present team?

Vescovi and Powell are the closest thing.

No one else was known for their shooting when they were recruited.

On our best teams, with Grant, Admiral, etc…

Who was a “born shooter”?

Not sure it’s prudent to try and get off more threes when you only have two guys on the roster who entered the program as highly thought of shooters.

And to be clear, I love Barnes. I want him as our coach as long as he wants to be.

 

[aWhiteLoftonChism]

It seems like a few guys are definitely regressing offensively this year. VB Jr, JJJ, Powell, and Fulky, are maddeningly inconsistent if contributing at all. VB is trying to get out of the dog house, Powell’s effort isn’t the best, and Fulky is a roller coaster. JJJ is without a doubt the one that frustrates me the most on offense. He is a 6’6” freak athlete, amazing defender, rebounder, and communicator but offensively he settles too much imho! He should be attacking the basket ALL THE TIME! A few years ago he would’ve been our big man inside for Pete’s sake. They said he is shooting 14% for OPEN 3pt attempts! 14%! I wouldn’t let him shoot a single 3 until he has made 5 Fts. Love the kid but man…

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

 

[CAVPUT]

I think our shooting issues are pretty simple…

We don’t recruit good, natural shooters. We recruit guys and try to develop them as shooters. Some guys are born shooters. How many have we had in the Barnes era? How about this present team?

Vescovi and Powell are the closest thing.

No one else was known for their shooting when they were recruited.

On our best teams, with Grant, Admiral, etc…

Who was a “born shooter”?

Not sure it’s prudent to try and get off more threes when you only have two guys on the roster who entered the program as highly thought of shooters.

And to be clear, I love Barnes. I want him as our coach as long as he wants to be.

It might be that he's hell bent on being a 3pt shooting team because we have absolutely nothing to turn to among our front court players? Huge recruiting deficiency in that regard.

 

[C-town Vol]

It might be that he's hell bent on being a 3pt shooting team because we have absolutely nothing to turn to among our front court players? Huge recruiting deficiency in that regard.

I’ve wondered the same. Though I think if Barnes went all in, Olivier Nkamhoua could have been developed into that guy. Doubtful he has the killer instinct / competitive drive that Grant had…but ON has the athleticism to accomplish similar results.

But at this point, I think it’s too late in ON’s career to go that route with him.

 

[walkenvol]

I can’t believe they called that a flagrant, but to paraphrase Barnes postgame, if you told us we’d shoot 37 FTA on the road against LSU we all would have taken it.

37 is way way above the norm, but lsu could have easily been called for twice that many. I guess that’s a choice lsu has made to put pressure on the officials figuring the won’t call 3 or 4 times the fouls against them verses their opponents?

 

[walkenvol]

I’ve wondered the same. Though I think if Barnes went all in, Olivier Nkamhoua could have been developed into that guy. Doubtful he has the killer instinct / competitive drive that Grant had…but ON has the athleticism to accomplish similar results.

But at this point, I think it’s too late in ON’s career to go that route with him.

He’s got 2 years left if he wants them