The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#6,851
#6,851
I wish that both teams playing on CBS right now could lose. Is a double forfeit in the rule book?

I guess I hate Michigan less than I hate The ohio state school.
 
#6,853
#6,853
Yves and Fulky...
Consistently shooting the fade away when they catch the ball in the post. Coached / drilled practice habit or individual timidity?
 
#6,855
#6,855
C-town Vol said:
Yves and Fulky...
Consistently shooting the fade away when they catch the ball in the post. Coached / drilled practice habit or individual timidity?
Click to expand...

Lack of size for pons. He’s usually giving up a lot of inches/pounds down there. Fulky has more height but seldom is bigger/stronger than his defender. He’s not built to be a bully on the block. He has more moves than just the fade away. I wish he’d be a little more aggressive down low in drawing fouls. He’s an excellent FT shooter for his position and FTs were a big part of his success at the end of last season.
 
#6,856
#6,856
I have thought all season that the fade aways were a manifestation of lacking confidence. But the fact that BOTH guys who get post touches seem to be going to the same move just made me wonder.

Fulky was crafty around the basket, even early in his career. Just very weird.
 
#6,857
#6,857
C-town Vol said:
I have thought all season that the fade aways were a manifestation of lacking confidence. But the fact that BOTH guys who get post touches seem to be going to the same move just made me wonder.

Fulky was crafty around the basket, even early in his career. Just very weird.
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Fulk lacks the strength and Pons lacks the height to catch the ball in the paint and just power their way to the basket. I think the fadeaway is a method for each to get a shot off over taller defenders. Last year, both seemed much more consistent with that shot. I have significantly less confidence when it goes up, now, more so with Fulk than with Pons.
 
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#6,858
#6,858
For a little perspective this is where we ranked in the preseason statistical rankings, and where we rank now in each
KenPom 19 -> 25
Team Rankings 19 -> 17
ESPN BPI 12 -> 13
Barttorvik 18 -> 22
Sagarin 13 -> 20
Haslametrics 10 -> 17

KenPom had us going 16-7 in the regular season. Which is what we’re projected to finish at

The way we played early in the season got hopes up. Clearly the team still has that potential, so hopefully they regain that form when it counts. But let’s pump the brakes a bit on wanting to fire Barnes and saying this is the most underperforming team in Tennessee history
 
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#6,859
#6,859
Just an observation.... we started really falling off beginning w the Florida game. That was when Keon moved permanently into the starting lineup
 
#6,863
#6,863
golfballs said:
For a little perspective this is where we ranked in the preseason statistical rankings, and where we rank now in each
KenPom 19 -> 25
Team Rankings 19 -> 17
ESPN BPI 12 -> 13
Barttorvik 18 -> 22
Sagarin 13 -> 20
Haslametrics 10 -> 17

KenPom had us going 16-7 in the regular season. Which is what we’re projected to finish at

The way we played early in the season got hopes up. Clearly the team still has that potential, so hopefully they regain that form when it counts. But let’s pump the brakes a bit on wanting to fire Barnes and saying this is the most underperforming team in Tennessee history
Click to expand...

Good information, to me still the only two games that really hurt me personally are Florida and Ole Miss. The first one because Florida was missing so much production and they absolutely stomped us and only hit 6 3s in doing it. Ole Miss because we weren't missing any pieces and they had a terrible game on offense, hitting just 3 from deep and shooting 25% from behind the arc. We had just boat raced Kansas outta the gym and then fell flat on our face against a team that scored 52 points (4th lowest allowed in a game all season) and we STILL lost.

Split with Kentucky & Mizzou, lose at LSU and then drop one to Alabama on a night they shoot 50% from 3... those I can handle. LSU & Kentucky are two of the most talented teams in the conference, Mizzou and Bama have a ton of upperclassmen that play loads of minutes for them and had no coaching turnover. They should have been less impacted by missing court time to covid like younger teams (like us) would.
 
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#6,864
#6,864
MoCo_Vol said:
Good information, to me still the only two games that really hurt me personally are Florida and Ole Miss. The first one because Florida was missing so much production and they absolutely stomped us and only hit 6 3s in doing it. Ole Miss because we weren't missing any pieces and they had a terrible game on offense, hitting just 3 from deep and shooting 25% from behind the arc. We had just boat raced Kansas outta the gym and then fell flat on our face against a team that scored 52 points (4th lowest allowed in a game all season) and we STILL lost.

Split with Kentucky & Mizzou, lose at LSU and then drop one to Alabama on a night they shoot 50% from 3... those I can handle. LSU & Kentucky are two of the most talented teams in the conference, Mizzou and Bama have a ton of upperclassmen that play loads of minutes for them and had no coaching turnover. They should have been less impacted by missing court time to covid like younger teams (like us) would.
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I think many will agree that it’s not necessarily the losses per se, but how we lost those games. We have had some injuries but any one player doesn’t count for that much.
 
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#6,865
#6,865
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Right now everybody in the SEC has a game 3/2 or 3/3 EXCEPT for TN and Georgia. 6 games are listed on the SEC’s website.
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Would love to get UGA again, that should be a decent tune up.

Although, I suppose we'd have to travel and always play like crap there so who knows lol
 
#6,866
#6,866
The problem is not losing to teams like Kentucky, Florida and LSU. It's that we are not even competitive in those games. Good teams lose a few games but they compete night in and night out.
 
#6,867
#6,867
ColinS said:
The problem is not losing to teams like Kentucky, Florida and LSU. It's that we are not even competitive in those games. Good teams lose a few games but they compete night in and night out.
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Many on here are brain dead to that scenario. It's Yuk, Yuk, uhuh we lost anoder. All teams do dat.
 
#6,869
#6,869
ColinS said:
The problem is not losing to teams like Kentucky, Florida and LSU. It's that we are not even competitive in those games. Good teams lose a few games but they compete night in and night out.
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This is where my concern lies, and coupled with our inability to string together multiple strong performances in a row during conference play, is why I think we are likely a first weekend exit from the NCAA Tournament.

When we lose, it isn’t typically a close game, meaning we go collectively cold as a team and our psyche is very fragile in those moments. Even our defense typically turns to shambles in those moments. During SEC play, and including Kansas, our margin of victory in our wins is 13.3 points. Our margin of defeat in our losses is 12.2 points. Even the Bama loss, which ended with a modest point differential on the scoreboard, never felt like a close game at any point in the 2nd half, and truthfully, aside from hitting 10 3s, Bama didn’t shoot that well, overall. It just seems like when we fall behind by 8 points, or more, you can typically see the defeat in the players’ eyes. They just don’t know how to overcome adversity.

The win at Rupp is really the only game we can point to and say this team overcame adversity and won. The lack of a true alpha dog mentality by any single player who refuses to let his team show up and just go thru the motions when their back is against the wall will seemingly be the ultimate undoing of this team.
 
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#6,870
#6,870
Seems like Keon or JJJ are the closest to being alphas for this team.

Keon though still makes a lot of freshman mistakes, bad fouls, dumb passes, confusing shot decisions...so it's almost like until it works through that and gains some confidence he's not letting himself be that outspoken dog.

James obviously knows what Barnes & coaches want out of the team on both sides of the court, but with him not willing to force the issues on offense I don't know if he can/will really be an alpha. He has the comfort in the system, the size, the talent, but if he won't step-up and drop 30 on teams then it's hard to imagine an 8-10 a night scorer being considered an alpha.

Jaden has the game, but just not the personality. I think both incoming freshmen next year might have it, doesn't help us this year though.
 
#6,871
#6,871
ColinS said:
The problem is not losing to teams like Kentucky, Florida and LSU. It's that we are not even competitive in those games. Good teams lose a few games but they compete night in and night out.
Click to expand...

So there are only 2 good teams in CBB?

Michigan lost by 18 to Minnesota, Ohio State lost by 17 to Minnesota, Alabama lost by 18 to Stanford, Oklahoma lost by 22 to Xavier, Villanova lost by 16 to Creighton, Iowa lost by 12 to Indiana, West Virginia lost by 14 to Kansas.

That is just the Top 10 outside of Gonzaga and Baylor, should I continue? Even good teams have bad games, unless of course you’re indeed saying there’s only 2 good teams in CBB?
 
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#6,872
#6,872
cncchris33 said:
This is where my concern lies, and coupled with our inability to string together multiple strong performances in a row during conference play, is why I think we are likely a first weekend exit from the NCAA Tournament.

When we lose, it isn’t typically a close game, meaning we go collectively cold as a team and our psyche is very fragile in those moments. Even our defense typically turns to shambles in those moments. During SEC play, and including Kansas, our margin of victory in our wins is 13.3 points. Our margin of defeat in our losses is 12.2 points. Even the Bama loss, which ended with a modest point differential on the scoreboard, never felt like a close game at any point in the 2nd half, and truthfully, aside from hitting 10 3s, Bama didn’t shoot that well, overall. It just seems like when we fall behind by 8 points, or more, you can typically see the defeat in the players’ eyes. They just don’t know how to overcome adversity.

The win at Rupp is really the only game we can point to and say this team overcame adversity and won. The lack of a true alpha dog mentality by any single player who refuses to let his team show up and just go thru the motions when their back is against the wall will seemingly be the ultimate undoing of this team.
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That’s exactly why I wouldn’t make a prediction either way, this team can also very easily win 2 games in a row, they’ve proven that plenty of times, even during conference play. Obviously I think them winning 3+ in a row is less likely, but wouldn’t surprise me at all if they won their first two.
 
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#6,873
#6,873
Alabama by 8
Missouri by 9
LSU by 13
Florida by 26
Kentucky by 15
Ole Miss by 2

I still think with a healthy Springer we win 1 or 2 of those bold games, the crazy thing to me is we got 6 losses...same as Iowa & WVU, both are top 10 teams right now though. Both have lost to Gonzaga, maybe that's why they are getting top 10 hype and we're being painted as an underachieving team?
 
#6,874
#6,874
bleedingTNorange said:
That’s exactly why I wouldn’t make a prediction either way, this team can also very easily win 2 games in a row, they’ve proven that plenty of times, even during conference play. Obviously I think them winning 3+ in a row is less likely, but wouldn’t surprise me at all if they won their first two.
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This team is a total enigma, so nothing they do in the postseason will surprise me, necessarily, short of a F4 appearance.

That being said, this team hasn’t won 2 games in a row in conference play against teams that will make the NCAAT (currently projected at 6 teams, including Tennessee). In fact, they are 2-4 against those other 5 teams, so far. Furthermore, they haven’t beaten a conference opponent who will make the NCAAT since they beat Arkansas on January 6th.

I’m just saying that I’d lay money on Tennessee not making it out of the first weekend before I’d lay money on them making the S16. Just my opinion, and you know I am much more likely to give our team the benefit of doubt, historically, than not. I just don’t see it with this bunch. They are allergic to consistency and I have a really tough time picturing them getting prepared mentally to defeat two consecutive NCAAT-quality teams in 48 hours. And the further our seeding continues to slide, the less likely it becomes.
 
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#6,875
#6,875
Got at least 2 left in conference and neither are over 500, hopefully we can win both games. Not sure if a deep SECT run will help or hurt us, seems like the team is pretty banged up.

I'm not sure yet on the NCAAT success, we've ONLY lost to SEC teams. So if we're in a bracket that allows us to avoid in conference opponents who know how to play against Barnes' style of play then we may get past a few teams. All comes down to seeding and matchups.
 
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