Tennessee vs South Carolina Official game thread (6:30 SECN)

[chuckiepoo]

Going back to DK being Batman looking for a Robin…Santi has to be Robin. Aidoo is normally decent, but I don’t think he’s a viable number two scorer on a consistent basis. I know Santi is selfless and has been willing to take a secondary role. To some extent, he still should be in a secondary scoring role, but the days of him passing up an open three to dribble and pass need to stop after tonight. This team needs him to be more assertive. DK will benefit from that.

Passing up way too many open looks. Thats not the way Barnes’ offense iz supposed to work…

 

[aWhiteLoftonChism]

ZZ took too many bad shots. 0/6 from the field and 0/4 from beyond the arc. I don’t have a problem with him shooting 4-5 times a game but I do have a problem with his shot selection of late. At best he’s our 4th option on offense. No reason to pop a three pointer unless he’s wide open or we’re under 8 seconds on the shot clock.

ZZ ‘s shot selection isn’t always the best but, late in a close games, it seems to get worse. Rushed contested or long shots when they aren’t really necessary.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Disappointed by Aidoo. Dude has to nut up and get it.

Physical bigs have bothered him all season. No reason to expect that to change at this point. He’s just not going to be a guy you can rely on to consistently give you offense. He’s great in finesse games, but when it becomes a slobber knocker like tonight, he shrinks.

Santi has to be more assertive. He doesn’t have to shoot fifteen shots or anything
, but he should be shooting ten times every game.

 

[EasternVol]

Oh is it? I thought it was 4 games. And actually, his free throw shooting was bad Saturday too. It’s okay to think he’s incredible and the key to our success and also think his free throw shooting should be better. I simply said he won’t win national player of the year if that doesn’t get fixed.

Yeah, last game too. He's at 80% for the year, which won't hurt him as far as POY goes.

 

[D3Athlete]

Disappointed by Aidoo. Dude has to nut up and get it.

Same. Idk what was wrong with him. Hasn’t looked that all year.

 

[walkenvol]

This point why not start mashack over 3j?

Cause Mashack isn’t scoring either and is smaller than JJJ. Guess we could play some Aidoo and Awaka together as Awaka isn’t afraid to shoot? But subbing one guy playing the 4 because he’s not scoring with a smaller guy who’s also not scoring doesn’t add up to me?

 

[BigOrangeFanatic]

So competent officiating = filling gaps for us?

Did they miss some calls? Yes, it happens every game. Did they get picky there at the beginning of the half? Call some crap calls on us? Absolutely. But those calls have nothing to do with how we played tonight. The effort was not there. The focus wasn't there. We missed a gazillion easy shots. It was more on us than the stripes tonight. The difference In this game and last Saturday? Because the stripes were bad for half the game in Nashville....we over came the bad calls and just took control of the game in the second half. We never played with same aggression tonight. Now...I will say there's one game on our schedule when officiating will completely affect how the game is played...tune in Saturday night to see what I'm talking about. Tonight though, no where close to what it's like playing in Rupp.

 

[Pappy]

Yep, people like Basilio can chill on the national player of the year talk. He’s incredible, of course, but you can’t be trash at the line like that and expect to beat Edey in that race.

Trash? Where did you play college ball?

 

[BreatheUT]

I just found out we lost, and I really don't know what to say yet.

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

I just found out we lost, and I really don't know what to say yet.

Had to be in the top 3 worst home performances in 20 years.

 

[RockyTop140]

You’re all wet - DK didn’t just decide to quit passing. Barnes decided to call his number repeatedly since the other guys couldn’t make good shots.

Do you know that? I think knecht simply just takes over and Barnes is smart enough to not fix something that’s working.

 

[OrangeInKy]

Yeah, last game too. He's at 80% for the year, which won't hurt him as far as POY goes.

It’s an uphill climb anyway as Edey is the media darling

 

[posivol]

ZZ ‘s shot selection isn’t always the best but, late in a close games, it seems to get worse. Rushed contested or long shots when they aren’t really necessary.

he wants to be the hero so bad

 

[Zues1]

We saw Estrella for a few minutes. Seemed he played pretty well.
Did he head back to the dorm during a time out?
He never saw the floor again, while the rest of the bigs did nothing

 

[OrangeInKy]

Trash? Where did you play college ball?

You have to play college ball to know that 9-17 from the free throw line the last two games is trash? I guess you got me

 

[jdogvol]

Disappointed by Aidoo. Dude has to nut up and get it.

Aidoo has weak hands. He can’t hold onto the ball. It’s as if he’s wearing mittens!

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

They make teams play ugly

They do. The reality is a great team playing at home should not let an inferior team ugly up the game. That can work for an inferior team when they are playing at home, but on the road it just shouldn’t happen.

We’re just not a great team. We're good but clearly not great. We have a special player, but right now we aren’t a special team. That’s my biggest takeaway from this one.

 

[Namorto1]

A whole bunch of upperclassmen that didn’t show up. I’m not sure what you do with JJJ…

Coaches need to give him some attention and try to build his confidence purposefully early in games. Benching as others have posted makes zero sense because he is one of our better rebounders, defenders and screeners. Set him up for those curls in the lane or at the elbow early and let him try and hit easier mid-range jumpers. For his career, when JJJ sees his first shot fall he tends to have a decent scoring game. When he doesn't it usually is a long game for him. He always has been a bit fragile on the offensive side, in my opinion with his confidence. Given the amount of time he has spent in the gym working on his shot over the years, I think it really is just mental for the guy and the coaches aren't doing him or the team any favors by allowing JJJ to defer to others completely on offense and stating continuously postgame that it is okay. It's not. At this point you don't even have to guard him. Coaches have to help him because UT needs him.

On bright side, Vescovi looks like he is finding a groove. Still think he needs to take a couple more shots per game but he played fine for the 3rd game in a row. Aidoo and ZZ....just had bad games. We move on and hopefully even the score and beat the Gamecocks in Columbia.

 

[CAVPUT]

It’s very apparent that this team cannot win if DK isn’t playing all world for the whole game. James is giving us nothing. Gainey is inconsistent as ever. Aidoo had an off game but he has been playing great. We aren’t getting hardly anything from the bench. ZZ is a great defender but his offense is hit and miss.

SC was physical and really made it tough for us in the paint. This underscores a problem Barnes has had forever. He can recruit great and has done well in the portal. But he cannot for some reason find a game changing big man. DJ has got to be frustrated. This is an unacceptable loss. We were 14 pt home favorites against an unranked team and they came in and shoved the game in our face.

Yep. Some want to blame the fans or blame the refs. We've seen this disappearing act from several on this roster for years now. At some point, you just have to accept who and what you are as a team. Know some will take offense at my next comment, but I have to wonder if we might not have been better off if JJJ and Vescovi hadn't returned and Barnes was forced to use the freshmen.

 

[Zues1]

What is Barnes going to run them to death. That team looked spent at tip off

Remember the scene with Will Ferrell, needs more cowbell.
Barnes will have them working on defense.

 

[chuckiepoo]

I just found out we lost, and I really don't know what to say yet.

Pretty sure there’s a pending statement. …we wait with baited breath

 

[Vols All Day]

It looks like the game plan for the Vols opponents is going to be let DK get his on a high volume and go after ZZ and Aidoo.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Yep. Some want to blame the fans or blame the refs. We've seen this disappearing act from several on this roster for years now. At some point, you just have to accept who and what you are as a team. Know some will take offense at my next comment, but I have to wonder if we might not have been better off if JJJ and Vescovi hadn't returned and Barnes was forced to use the freshmen.

JJJ, possibly. Santi, nah. He’s a two time all conference player. It’s nonsense to think we’d be a better team without him.

 

[walkenvol]

I just found out we lost, and I really don't know what to say yet.

 

[volz2wallz]

#3 north Carolina just lost