1. Jarnell's passing really brings an X factor to the offense. His passes not only were timely, but they were very crisp and were on point. He did mostly a good job of handling the double teams, although he needs to not take his time so much.
2. Tennessee played extremely well the first thirty minutes, but the last ten were bad. Why? UT stopped going inside, and they also had no flow because of the foul situation.
3. The biggest reason though was UT's offball defense. UT did a good job of their guards switching screens and I like that (especially when Q is at the 4) but I did not like how they did on off ball screens. Kennesaw State shot well because they got open looks. It's that simple.
4. I'm not sure why Yemi didn't play tonight (except for one minute) and he needs to because UT's lack of length on D hurt them inside. Both Jarnell and Kenny did a bad job on help defense when KSU got into the lane. They will get killed against an athletic team if they don't improve.
5. The Bernard King Player of the Game: Jordan McRae. He went to the basket. His shot looked better. He was active on D. He also passed the ball very well and attacked the glass. He was the box score stuffer tonight. He had four rebounds and only one turnover. Did a nice job with his shot selection. Great game by McRae.
6. Josh Richardson did a great job on Cummings and he looked very improved. He's going to be a really good player this year. I liked his strength to attacking the basket.
7. 15 offensive rebounds for Kennesaw State. Let me repeat that. Fifteen offensive rebounds for Kennesaw State. Jarnell and Kenny should be embarrassed tonight. This is where the team missed Maymon the most.
8. Tennessee had 17 assists on 26 field goals which was really good. The spacing was better, and Tennessee attacked the basket more, which I expected. But 13 turnovers is a tad too many. But I really liked the passing by everyone tonight.
9. Here's the frustrating thing with Kenny Hall. He made some nice moves. Had much better footwork on the block, and looks like he is using his length, which he never has, on offense. At times on D, his post defense was good and he did a nice job altering some shots. However, he was lazy on the boards and his rotation on defense was bad. That's the problem. Some good, but too much bad also.
10. Tennessee played very well the first 30 minutes. They got complacent, stopped working the ball inside, and was lazy on defense. The game wasn't as close as the score suggested. They have to play better though at the end. If they don't rebound better, UT won't make much noise this year. However, the offense played really well (shot 60% from the field). The D was aggressive and forced bad shots. But UT needs the next few practices to get better.
Go Vols!!!! :hi:
