The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#14,903
#14,903
berryvol said:
Those two kinda break his point. Overall tho, I don’t disagree that this team has no business being top 3 in the nation from a talent standpoint. I never expected the success they had in early-mid season.
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I would agree with your assessment as well. I think thats partly why Ive been harder on Barnes than usual, the hot start and the high ranking had me thinking that maybe this was the team, but in reality it probably never was.
 
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#14,905
#14,905
Honestly, this team needs an exorcism. They might also quite possibly be the LEAST clutch team in Rick Barnes tenure when you take expectations and talent into account. Feels like this team folds like a cheap suit in the final 3-4 minutes if they don’t have a big lead.

I’m glad some people are still trying to be optimistic, but this season has 2021 written all over it. The collapse has only just started. This team has ZERO confidence right now late in games and we’re 6 games left in the regular season and we still don’t know what our rotation is.

It also doesn’t help that you pretty much can’t count on any of your veterans. ORN sucks. Vescovi is snake bit and can’t close games. Uros is Uros. JJJ can’t stay healthy. Key has his two best games of the year and we lose BOTH.
 
#14,906
#14,906
berryvol said:
Don’t know if I want to be around here for a few days but we will see. Only real take away from this game is that we have a senior leader who can’t hit a single damn clutch free throw to ice a game for us and has lost us two in a row. It’s honestly pathetic. Everything still on the table for this team, but the seniors have zero heart to them it seems.
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In all fairness, Vescovi was 4-5, which I’ll take any day of the week. Awaka was 1-6 at the line, so blaming Vescovi for this loss because of a missed free throw late seems out of touch. If not for Key and Vescovi, we would have never been back in this game.
 
#14,908
#14,908
This team just isn’t doing anything well right now. Even the defense has straight disappeared this week.

14-26 from 3 for Mizzou???? Ridiculous.

I don’t really see any point in even getting upset the rest of the season. We’ve clearly peaked.
 
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#14,909
#14,909
I have not given up on this team. And it is somewhat fun to be relevant and angry about these last few games. I grew up in the 80s and listened to every basketball game on the radio.........I loved basketball as a kid (peak NBA years with Jordan, Bird, etc). Dreamed the Vols would be good each fall/winter when the season rolled around. We sucked bad from mid 80s until Jerry Green in late 90s. Yeah the 89 team and Dyron Nix and crew were ok, but for the most part we were awful. We were totally not relevant even with Alan Houston playing for us for four years!!!! So yeah it is frustrating and y'all can hate on Barnes or whatever. But this is a great era of Vols hoops and I am going to keep enjoying it. Careful what you wish for.
 
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#14,910
#14,910
cardvolfan said:
In all fairness, Vescovi was 4-5, which I’ll take any day of the week. Awaka was 1-6 at the line, so blaming Vescovi for this loss because of a missed free throw late seems out of touch. If not for Key and Vescovi, we would have never been back in this game.
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He was 4/4 and bricked two FTs when it mattered. For the second time in 4 days. If we can’t rely on him at the end of games, who can we rely on?
 
#14,913
#14,913
TheMookieMonster said:
Honestly, this team needs an exorcism. They might also quite possibly be the LEAST clutch team in Rick Barnes tenure when you take expectations and talent into account. Feels like this team folds like a cheap suit in the final 3-4 minutes if they don’t have a big lead.

I’m glad some people are still trying to be optimistic, but this season has 2021 written all over it. The collapse has only just started. This team has ZERO confidence right now late in games and we’re 6 games left in the regular season and we still don’t know what our rotation is.

It also doesn’t help that you pretty much can’t count on any of your veterans. ORN sucks. Vescovi is snake bit and can’t close games. Uros is Uros. JJJ can’t stay healthy. Key has his two best games of the year and we lose BOTH.
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It's starting to look like Texas was the peak. Uros looks like he's an afterthought for Barnes now. ON also looks like he peaked against Texas.
 
#14,914
#14,914
TheMookieMonster said:
This team just isn’t doing anything well right now. Even the defense has straight disappeared this week.

14-26 from 3 for Mizzou???? Ridiculous.

I don’t really see any point in even getting upset the rest of the season. We’ve clearly peaked.
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A lot of those 3s were well guarded. Can’t control guys having career days all over the place. I felt like our second half 3 PT defense was generally great and they still shot like 50% with hands in their faces

2nd half defense was like our normal, I think
 
#14,915
#14,915
berryvol said:
Those two kinda break his point. Overall tho, I don’t disagree that this team has no business being top 3 in the nation from a talent standpoint. I never expected the success they had in early-mid season.
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Honestly, we got to the top 3 on a pretty weak schedule and a lot of chaos in the top 15 this year. The back half our slate gets harder in SEC play, and most of that is still to come.
 
#14,916
#14,916
I’m still super pissy about multiple things tonight and I doubt that changes until we beat a team with a pulse. That said, kinda wild how we have a totally different frame of mine without back to back buzzer beaters, with tonight’s being especially insane. We’ve not been playing well, but we also have been victims of typical Tennessee luck the last few games. No real point here other than this just sucks.
 
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#14,917
#14,917
VolArmy74 said:
Honestly, we got to the top 3 on a pretty weak schedule and a lot of chaos in the top 15 this year. The back half our slate gets harder in SEC play, and most of that is still to come.
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We have double digit wins over two (soon to be) top 5 teams. Not sure what else you can ask for with a resume. I think we have benefitted more from CBB being awful this year, more than anything. That said, CBB being awful this year gives me hope this group can put it together and make a run in the postseason.
 
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#14,918
#14,918
berryvol said:
We have double digit wins over two (soon to be) top 5 teams. Not sure what else you can ask for with a resume. I think we have benefitted more from CBB being awful this year, more than anything. That said, CBB being awful this year gives me hope this group can put it together and make a run in the postseason.
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Two wins, one at home and one on a neutral floor, isn't that good this late in the season. Our Non Conf SOS is 85th on KenPom. Last year it was 42nd. Of the top 28 teams in the KenPom ranking we have the 2nd worst overall SOS just ahead of St Mary's.

Our less than stellar losses are more numerous that our great wins this season. Computers love us because we were stomping the lesser teams we'd played and had been playing such dominant defense.

We have no great road wins and our only marginally good win on the road is Miss State and who knows how that looks by March. Kentucky and Auburn would be of a similar level to the Miss State win per KenPom at this point.
 
#14,919
#14,919
Remember a few weeks back when we discussed the unbelievable numbers Tennessee had on 3-pt defense? I think it was 20.2%, and while our defense was pretty good, luck probably played a role, too. We were due to get eaten alive from 3 at some point for a couple of games, and we‘re seeing that come to fruition. If it happens again Wednesday, I won’t know what to think. The fact it happened against teams we normally should and would (probably) beat is just gut-wrenching.
 
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#14,920
#14,920
South Florida Vol said:
I have not given up on this team. And it is somewhat fun to be relevant and angry about these last few games. I grew up in the 80s and listened to every basketball game on the radio.........I loved basketball as a kid (peak NBA years with Jordan, Bird, etc). Dreamed the Vols would be good each fall/winter when the season rolled around. We sucked bad from mid 80s until Jerry Green in late 90s. Yeah the 89 team and Dyron Nix and crew were ok, but for the most part we were awful. We were totally not relevant even with Alan Houston playing for us for four years!!!! So yeah it is frustrating and y'all can hate on Barnes or whatever. But this is a great era of Vols hoops and I am going to keep enjoying it. Careful what you wish for.
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We went through a period when the administration didn't care about basketball in the 80's and 90's. That is gone. The investment is there now. Barnes has been great but he's not the end all. This idea that Tennessee is going back into the basketball abyss just as soon as he retires is kind of silly. I mean we could hire a dud like Cuonzo but I trust the people making decisions right now.
 
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#14,921
#14,921
TheMookieMonster said:
This team just isn’t doing anything well right now. Even the defense has straight disappeared this week.

14-26 from 3 for Mizzou???? Ridiculous.

I don’t really see any point in even getting upset the rest of the season. We’ve clearly peaked.
Click to expand...
Mizzou hit a number of contested 3’s. They also hit some open 3’s. They just went off. Mizzou spreads the court as well as any team I’ve seen this year.
 
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#14,922
#14,922
I mean the most frustrating thing about all of this is that we should be veteran team and should have guys with a lot of experience leading the way, but our veterans have not produced the way we need them to for us to be a good team.

Just so many seniors that should be better than they have been. At this point, I’m just ready for a roster reset. Vescovi, JJJ, ORN, and Uros have given a lot to this program, and I love them. True VFLs. But, maybe next year this team can be better once we enter the next era of Tennessee hoops.
 
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#14,923
#14,923
Honestly I just hate so many fans are trying to shoulder the blame on Santi. Guy has been our most constant contributor, he’s only missed 3 FTs in the last 5 games, 2 of them just happened to be capable of icing games in the final seconds after he already logged 32+ minutes.

We overachieved early I think feasting on teams that weren’t familiar with the Rick Barnes style of play. The SEC coaches & players are experienced against us and understand how to handle our defense and shutdown our offense.

6-0 would be an insane finish to the season, but maybe playing without the pressure of being a top 10 team will ignite the team. Martin made a Sweet Sixteen with a team “no one believed in” just have to see how we respond.

I feel like going 3-3 may be the best we can hope for, but could also go 0-6. Really sucks we didn’t show up against Florida and botched the Vandy win. Missouri is good and their style of play with us down JJJ was a bad spot to be in, so despite it still being a loss we should have avoided it stings a bit less.
 
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#14,924
#14,924
TheMookieMonster said:
I mean the most frustrating thing about all of this is that we should be veteran team and should have guys with a lot of experience leading the way, but our veterans have not produced the way we need them to for us to be a good team.

Just so many seniors that should be better than they have been. At this point, I’m just ready for a roster reset. Vescovi, JJJ, ORN, and Uros have given a lot to this program, and I love them. True VFLs. But, maybe next year this team can be better once we enter the next era of Tennessee hoops.
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Yep. We can talk about all the "these games happen/crap happens" elements to the last 4 games we want but there's one aspect that should concern even the most sunshiniest of sunshine pumpers; an it's that in the 3 losses in this span, every game we've gotten a lead that a veteran team like this SHOULD have delivered knock out punches and we did not. And the 1 game we did when in this suck session came against another team that is in the middle of their own suck session; we did win but it is more like we were less suck than them that day.
 
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#14,925
#14,925
VolsSportsFan said:
Yep. We can talk about all the "these games happen/crap happens" elements to the last 4 games we want but there's one aspect that should concern even the most sunshiniest of sunshine pumpers; an it's that in the 3 losses in this span, every game we've gotten a lead that a veteran team like this SHOULD have delivered knock out punches and we did not. And the 1 game we did when in this suck session came against another team that is in the middle of their own suck session; we did win but it is more like we were less suck than them that day.
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I mean we’ve been having to rely on and ask so much of our younger players lately. I don’t think a team with this much experience should been folding this late in games so often. We also had a 6 point lead with 10 minutes to go in Gainesville and then the team collapsed. It’s just really concerning that we can’t put average or good teams away in late game situations with so much senior leadership on this roster.
 
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