The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[VolsSportsFan]

I think the light has come on for Key at this point. That’s the good from today

I hope so but we were saying that about ON 2 weeks ago and he's been god-awful since.

 

[cardvolfan]

I hope so but we were saying that about ON 2 weeks ago and he's been god-awful since.

Honestly, I can’t remember one poster who said the light had come on for ON because his MO has been 2-3 bad performances followed by a good game or two, then consequently by another bad game or two. I think most were saying they hoped it was coming on, but we’ve played this ON routine for a long time now.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

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.

I dont even know what to think about next year. We will for sure be way more athletic, but very inexperienced as far as the roles guys will be in.

 

[Lankykong]

I hope so but we were saying that about ON 2 weeks ago and he's been god-awful since.

Just the way Key is handling the ball right now and making decisions is like “I gotta be the guy” and I didn’t see that attitude in him a lot before Vandy

 

[Volprofch05]

Here's an AP ballot with Vols at 13, Bama at 1

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Just the way Key is handling the ball right now and making decisions is like “I gotta be the guy” and I didn’t see that attitude in him a lot before Vandy

I mean that would be an awesome story; he starts the year with a ton of promise, disappears, then comes on strong at the end and leads us on a nice NCAAT run.

 

[berryvol]

Here's an AP ballot with Vols at 13, Bama at 1

We should fall out of the top 10 and bama should absolutely be number 1. Didn’t open the link, but those two spots seem about right to me.

 

[Volprofch05]

This series from the athletic has anonymous comments from opposing coaches. Nothing we don't know already though.

'They don't have that one guy': Behind enemy lines on the Big East, Pac-12, SEC and more

Tennessee
“You better score in transition and get some runouts, because they are so good defensively in the halfcourt. Once in a while, for whatever reason, they just stop making 3. They don’t have bigs who can shoot it, so they don’t space you as much as some other teams. They have to rely on Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi to create. They don’t have that one guy who can go create for himself. They’re more systematic. When there’s seven seconds on the shot clock and they’re playing UCLA in the Sweet 16, who’s gonna get a shot off?”

 

[Volprofch05]

Seth Davis has the Vols at 12

• Tennessee remains a metrics darling (3-4-8), but I dropped the Volunteers eight spots following their buzzer-beating losses last week to Vanderbilt (road) and Missouri (home). Both were Quad 2 losses, doubling Tennessee’s number in that category, which is more than any other team in my top 25. Tennessee also lost at home to plunging Kentucky, which remains the Wildcats’ only Quad 1 win of the season.

 

[cardvolfan]

On the “luck” metric with KenPom, Tennessee is #293. Some bad luck last week. This week will hopefully be better.

 

[Volprofch05]

On the “luck” metric with KenPom, Tennessee is #293. Some bad luck last week. This week will hopefully be better.

Haha, I never noticed the 'luck' score, definitely need that one to turn around.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

Haha, I never noticed the 'luck' score, definitely need that one to turn around.

I mean when's the last time a team got beaten by two three point buzzer beaters in a week? In guessing its a long time. Add to that some of the shots Mizzou made proves the ball wasn't bouncing our way in that game. Sometimes you have to make your own luck though.

 

[omghulkhands]

I mean when's the last time a team got beaten by two three point buzzer beaters in a week? In guessing its a long time. Add to that some of the shots Mizzou made proves the ball wasn't bouncing our way in that game. Sometimes you have to make your own luck though.

Mizzou shot over 50% from 3 with nearly 30 attempts and we lost by a last second buzzer beater. The game was absolutely variance.

About 3/4 variance with 1/4 being our mental collapse in the final minute.

Vandy game was similar. If our offense keeps playing this well, it wouldn’t shock me if we pounded Alabama. No cap.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

Mizzou shot over 50% from 3 with nearly 30 attempts and we lost by a last second buzzer beater. The game was absolutely variance.

About 3/4 variance with 1/4 being our mental collapse in the final minute.

Vandy game was similar. If our offense keeps playing this well, it wouldn’t shock me if we pounded Alabama. No cap.

I said Saturday dont be surprised if Bama is closer than people think.
My main point though is about defense, it doesn't really matter how good defense you play elite shot makers are going to make shots. Finding ways to get the ball in the bucket is more important than being Elite on defense. Good is just fine.
On another side not, all season I've though JP needed to be the guy that takes over, but these last 2 games make me think it needs to be Key. If he continues his hot streak, and the coaches can trust him to run the O, ZZ and Vescovi can get some rest down the stretch. Lastly give me all the Awaka and none of the ORN

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Where I’m at…

Tennessee played 2 opponents last week who offensively played out of their minds, considering we have the #1 defense that’s both bad defense on our part to a certain extent but also just some unreal bad luck as well. Back to back games of season worst 3pt defense, you are unlikely to win teams combine for 24 made 3’s on nearly 50%.

A positive, our offensive play has looked much better in those 2 games and we are getting something from Key & Vescovi seems to have found something offensively which are 2 things we really needed to happen.

My biggest criticism is I just don’t get Barnes decision to go 2 bigs for 25 minutes against Missouri, I said it leading up to the game that it was an interesting matchup because they play small and uptempo, not a good mix for our bigs. It would’ve been one thing if our bigs were dominating them down low and getting dunks/layups each time down but they weren’t, they also weren’t dominating the boards, so all it was doing was allowing Missouri to space us out and have Plavsic chasing 3pt shooters around the perimeter which is a horrible idea. When Barnes finally went small at the 16 minute mark it’s no coincidence imo that we immediately made our run, even took the lead and again coincidentally ZZ going out and us going back big is when they make a comeback. (That’s on ZZ not Barnes)

With JJJ out and Phillips banged up it definitely limited what you could do with players and rotations, maybe Barnes knew it was his best but was scared of foul trouble, even if that’s the case deploy it in the first half, we keep getting ourselves into these holes that are really tough to get out of, and we are doing that both in single games and also big picture season over all as well. We had a 1 seed right in our sights and now our digging ourselves a hole as tougher and tougher games await.

If you’re looking for silver lining/optimistic outlook here’s where I’m at…this team is still very much currently sitting 2/3 seed line, now could they collapse and lose out, guess anything is possible, but 3-3 down the stretch and they’re still probably a 3 seed or better (crazy I know). This season was going to be about the tournament for most folks anyways, if this team went 28-3 and got a 1 seed but lost 2nd round or even S16 there was gonna be the same crowd saying regular season doesn’t matter and Barnes can’t win in March. It was always gonna be about the tournament for most folks this. So manage to get a 3 seed which as I’ve said is very real, and you are in a spot where you’re likely favored to at least win 2 games, obviously have to win them but you’ve given yourself a chance for success at least. While securing the best seed we can we have to get healthy, realistically even if that means essentially punting on Bama game. This team has no chance to be at its best for the tournament if we aren’t at full strength, and going back to preseason I’m not sure this team has had a 2 week stretch where they’ve all been healthy for games and practices, is that part of the inconsistently? Idk. We’ve got our guards starting to shoot better and we promptly lose our 2 best defenders and more versatile pieces, just haven’t caught much of a break in that department, but if we can manage to stay healthy after getting JJJ & JP back then hopefully we can start to see a better and more consistent product.

 

[Freak]

 

[cardvolfan]

I mean when's the last time a team got beaten by two three point buzzer beaters in a week? In guessing its a long time. Add to that some of the shots Mizzou made proves the ball wasn't bouncing our way in that game. Sometimes you have to make your own luck though.

Lady Luck is one tough woman.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

You know, honestly, I’m stunned Goodman doesn’t have us lower. We were 12th in his rankings last week and lost twice against average opponents. He also went on their nightly podcast and ranted about how much Tennessee is fraudulent and sucks and won’t go far in March, so I was fully expecting him to do his click driven BS and drop us to like 23-25 or even all the way out of his rankings.

This might be the first time all season his ranking of us is actually fair.

 

[johnfnkelly]

If our offense keeps playing this well, it wouldn’t shock me if we pounded Alabama. No cap.

oh brother

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I hope so but we were saying that about ON 2 weeks ago and he's been god-awful since.

Not sure what's "god awful" to you, but since the Texas game he's averaging 9ppg. Not great, but it's been a better stretch than the one he had between the 21 at South Carolina and the 27 at Texas. I will say that he was off against Florida and Auburn though, he was just 8 of 29 from the field in those games. And if he's going to take a ton of shots that % has gotta be better than 27.5% since the bulk of his looks are in the paint.

ZZ basically vanished against Auburn and Vandy offensively. 8 points and 2 of 17. That was too much to overcome for us.

Really though Julian Phillips is killing us right now. He's had 1 game with more than 6 points since scoring 10 at LSU, and in that same stretch he hasn't had a single game with 5 rebounds. So it's not just that he's not scoring he's also not rebounding or making an impact on the defensive end.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Awaka the more you see the more you like. He and ON can both guard well enough on the perimeter that it's hard for a team to expose us with switches with either of them playing the 5. If we're going to play Uros or Aidoo they have to be the only bigs on the court imo, them paired with each other or Awaka/ON isn't a good lineup.

My worry now with JJJ and Phillips both hurt is that Santi, ON, & ZZ lead the team in fouls per game. So much like Mizzou it'll be hard to play small ball if any of those 3 get themselves in foul trouble.

Mashack and BJ Edwards = it's your time men need to step up

Key keep doing what you've been doing!

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Not sure what's "god awful" to you, but since the Texas game he's averaging 9ppg. Not great, but it's been a better stretch than the one he had between the 21 at South Carolina and the 27 at Texas. I will say that he was off against Florida and Auburn though, he was just 8 of 29 from the field in those games. And if he's going to take a ton of shots that % has gotta be better than 27.5% since the bulk of his looks are in the paint.

ZZ basically vanished against Auburn and Vandy offensively. 8 points and 2 of 17. That was too much to overcome for us.

Really though Julian Phillips is killing us right now. He's had 1 game with more than 6 points since scoring 10 at LSU, and in that same stretch he hasn't had a single game with 5 rebounds. So it's not just that he's not scoring he's also not rebounding or making an impact on the defensive end.

I'm not just talking his points production, he's been a turnover machine and even worse he keep making the same type turnover mistakes every game by trying to force passes inside. I don't think I'm alone in saying he's been bad.

 

[johnfnkelly]

I didn't watch the first half but how did Edwards look? Evidently not great if his play didn't warrant any PT in the 2nd half?

 

[mr.checkerboards]

I didn't watch the first half but how did Edwards look? Evidently not great if his play didn't warrant any PT in the 2nd half?

His athleticism was on display on a couple plays. Made a three and got into the pain and hit a floater, but made a few mistakes that are to be expected from a FR. He missed a defensive assignment or two and has a couple bad TO's. One he got his pocket picked and one he made a bad entry pass trying to get us into a play.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I'm not just talking his points production, he's been a turnover machine and even worse he keep making the same type turnover mistakes every game by trying to force passes inside. I don't think I'm alone in saying he's been bad.

I mean to be fair ON has never been great in that area and after the Texas game the team felt like they should feed him the ball more so giving the ball to a guy that already is 2nd on the team in TOs per game more touches isn't going to yield different results.

I mean he's not played to the level he did against Texas, but as pointed out earlier that's never been his MO. He is the definition of inconsistent.

He can drop 20 points and look amazing on offense, but won't rebound well at all. Or he can snag tons of rebounds and show up on defense but can't hit the broad side of a barn shooting. So if you're trying to compare his last 4 games to his best single game performance of his career (against Texas) then yeah he's been bad.

But we've all also watched the guy play 20+ minutes and score 2 points as well. I just wish he treated offense like Awaka does, that young man isn't fading away or trying to throw up 10 ft jumpers off the dribble.