The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#19,102
#19,102
bleedingTNorange said:
It’s truly a miracle we have any quality wins, no clue how we’ve done it.
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That's a bit disingenuous. I'm talking about teams that we're bound to run into in the tournament. After the first weekend, we're going to start seeing rosters with one or maybe both of those threats. I'm not discounting our overall body of work. Too bad we don't have a physical post or some athletic guards/wings who can manage to stay in front of the opponent. Bad luck I suppose?
 
#19,103
#19,103
CAVPUT said:
That's a bit disingenuous. I'm talking about teams that we're bound to run into in the tournament. After the first weekend, we're going to start seeing rosters with one or maybe both of those threats. I'm not discounting our overall body of work. Too bad we don't have a physical post or some athletic guards/wings who can manage to stay in front of the opponent. Bad luck I suppose?
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Is Tobe not Physical? Are Mashack and JJJ not athletic wings who can stay in front of their man?
 
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#19,104
#19,104
Well, I did what many have done in the past on here. Woke up and Got all excited about our game tonight, and just realized it's tomorrow. I'm old as Heck. I'm using that excuse 😆
 
#19,105
#19,105
CAVPUT said:
I'd have to assume he's an exceptional athlete if the NBA was looking at him as a first rounder...assuming reports were correct. I do know that Jefferson is likely the best athlete on the roster. The only thing that makes sense....kind of...is that they just aren't mentally able to grasp what's being asked of them. Again, as they're in their second years, that's hard to imagine. Just the sheer number of games, practices, reps....how do you not pick things up by this point? Maybe they don't start over the vets, but with fouls, injuries, fatigue, blowouts....and they still sit? Just don't get it. I have to assume that they've already disconnected and they're out the door at seasons end. Barnes is all about "development", but when you don't play guys and they end up leaving, how does that work? Now he's gonna start over with some freshmen and grab a guy or three from the portal. The cycle starts all over again. Just sad that in the one year we have with Knecht, JJJ and Vescovi decide to turtle up and the youngsters on the bench never got the development to help us in some way. JJJ I never expected to change. Vescovi is a real head scratcher. Really thought he'd go nuts with Knecht drawing so much attention. Just his drives should draw a defender and give tons of kickouts to an open Vescovi. Never dreamed he'd be unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. Season isn't over so I'm not giving up on these guys although some will accuse me of it. Having said that, my Tenn Cup is securely in place. History is a great teacher. Learn from it or repeat it. Just hope we don't walk into a Valentine's Day massacre on Wed. That is not a friendly place for the Vols.
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"The NBA was looking at him" is likely a bit of a misnomer. He was on some media-driven draft boards, but in reality, we don't know how much he was really being looked at by NBA scouts. Those kinds of kids (top-40) generally get a bit of pub based on potential, which Freddie has.

Still, he was late getting to campus, so he's not had a full two years. He's actually only been there for about 13 months. He isn't a great athlete like a Keon Johnson (he's more Jaden Springer) and he's been his own worst enemy with the playing time he has gotten by being a rotten defender who gambles too much. That is improving over time, but Barnes has always been one to trust upperclassmen and experience over upside.

Playing freshmen and hoping they figure it out by March is Calipari coaching, not Barnes coaching. Barnes is going to make young guys earn their minutes by proving your talent doesn't come with mental lapses and defensive laziness and poor discipline. If it does, he'll play someone he trusts more even if they are slightly less talented. That isn't new, either, so if Dilione and DJJ didn't know what they were signing up for, that's on them.
 
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#19,107
#19,107
CornbreadVol said:
Is Tobe not Physical? Are Mashack and JJJ not athletic wings who can stay in front of their man?
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I was replying to Walken. You should ask him, but since you asked me, I'll respond. Mashack is our ace defender. Amazes me he doesn't get more minutes especially when an opposing player inevitably starts having a career game against us. JJJ is a box of chocolates. I never count on him. I just take whatever he does and accept it for that game. That's the one player I don't put expectations on. Pointless IMO. Awaka is undersized but has the motor. His problem is fouling. Been that way forever it seems. Don't know if it will ever change or if it's his reputation, but he can't provide much from the bench and that's where he spends a lot of time due to fouls. So where do you turn? Gainey sure isn't that physical, athletic answer. Dillione is athletic for sure but he's a forgotten man. Jefferson also has physical tools but outside of the early exhibitions, I don't recall him getting a single minute. So other than the youngsters, who's left? What's the answer?
 
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#19,108
#19,108
cncchris33 said:
"The NBA was looking at him" is likely a bit of a misnomer. He was on some media-driven draft boards, but in reality, we don't know how much he was really being looked at by NBA scouts. Those kinds of kids (top-40) generally get a bit of pub based on potential, which Freddie has.

Still, he was late getting to campus, so he's not had a full two years. He's actually only been there for about 13 months. He isn't a great athlete like a Keon Johnson (he's more Jaden Springer) and he's been his own worst enemy with the playing time he has gotten by being a rotten defender who gambles too much. That is improving over time, but Barnes has always been one to trust upperclassmen and experience over upside.

Playing freshmen and hoping they figure it out by March is Calipari coaching, not Barnes coaching. Barnes is going to make young guys earn their minutes by proving your talent doesn't come with mental lapses and defensive laziness and poor discipline. If it does, he'll play someone he trusts more even if they are slightly less talented. That isn't new, either, so if Dilione and DJJ didn't know what they were signing up for, that's on them.
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Logical and reasonable. But with that approach comes exposing yourself to real problems with fatigue or injuries. Just have to hope this year is the year we manage to avoid both and we get a nice run in the tournament.
 
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#19,110
#19,110
CAVPUT said:
Logical and reasonable. But with that approach comes exposing yourself to real problems with fatigue or injuries. Just have to hope this year is the year we manage to avoid both and we get a nice run in the tournament.
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We currently have no one averaging over 30 mins/gm. ZZ is tops at exactly 30.0 mpg. Knecht and JJJ are right behind him. That has probably ticked up in SEC play, but I don't feel like we are overusing anyone with maybe the exception of ZZ (36 mpg in SEC play), and that is mostly out of necessity. It would be nice if Barnes felt comfortable getting Dilione in there for just 3-4 of those minutes, but we've seen why he doesn't feel he can do that, yet.

We have 8 guys averaging double-digit minutes. Florida has 8, Ole Miss has 8, aTm has 9, Bama has 9, UK has 9, Auburn has 10, South Carolina has 10.

I don't think our personnel deployment is far from the norm, especially with no one averaging over 30 mpg. I think we'd all like a better second option at PG and an additional post player with some experience. Chris Ledlum could have maybe been that guy if he had stuck around, but he clearly wanted more minutes than he was going to get here. No way he plays 29 mpg at Tennessee like he is at St. John's, so I understand him leaving.
 
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#19,111
#19,111
CAVPUT said:
That's a bit disingenuous. I'm talking about teams that we're bound to run into in the tournament. After the first weekend, we're going to start seeing rosters with one or maybe both of those threats. I'm not discounting our overall body of work. Too bad we don't have a physical post or some athletic guards/wings who can manage to stay in front of the opponent. Bad luck I suppose?
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So there’s no chance an Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida etc could potentially be second weekend teams?
 
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#19,112
#19,112
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Yet, we have a #8 AP ranking and have played one of the most challenging schedules in the country.

The first 22 games without a double digit loss. 5 losses (4, 9, 8, 5, 4) by an average of 6 points plus one debacle in Texas by 16. Fahr Barnes! Bench Santi and JJJ! Put all the freshmen in the games! Don’t bother accepting an NCAAT bid since we’re going 1-1 at best!
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I was actually thinking we could just shut the whole program down, no?
 
#19,113
#19,113
CAVPUT said:
Barnes is all about "development", but when you don't play guys and they end up leaving, how does that work? Now he's gonna start over with some freshmen and grab a guy or three from the portal. The cycle starts all over again.
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Not sure about this. I cant remember one guy who transferred out under Barnes who we expected to be a major contributor unless you count Ledlum who of course didnt even make it to the season
 
#19,114
#19,114
Vol49er said:
Not sure about this. I cant remember one guy who transferred out under Barnes who we expected to be a major contributor unless you count Ledlum who of course didnt even make it to the season
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Derrick walker and DJ burns come to mind, but they left due to off the court/personality issues, if I remember correctly.

What's odd is Barnes wasn't really able to turn Grant Williams and Kyle Alexander's (to a lesser extent Schofield since he was a SF who could body up big men) success into other big name big man recruits.

I guess you can point to aidoo and huntley-hatfield. Aidoo is pretty successful, H-H less so but probably is a solid contributor if he sticks around. Estrella has a ton of potential. But 5 years later those are really the only three names I can point to. If banchero or smith had joined up with chandler, this is a totally different conversation. I don't think Barnes has done awful with big man recruiting or anything. I had just hoped he could have turned williams productivity into someone else. Similar to knecht admiring durant.
 
#19,115
#19,115
jtipto10 said:
Derrick walker and DJ burns come to mind, but they left due to off the court/personality issues, if I remember correctly.

What's odd is Barnes wasn't really able to turn Grant Williams and Kyle Alexander's (to a lesser extent Schofield since he was a SF who could body up big men) success into other big name big man recruits.

I guess you can point to aidoo and huntley-hatfield. Aidoo is pretty successful, H-H less so but probably is a solid contributor if he sticks around. Estrella has a ton of potential. But 5 years later those are really the only three names I can point to. If banchero or smith had joined up with chandler, this is a totally different conversation. I don't think Barnes has done awful with big man recruiting or anything. I had just hoped he could have turned williams productivity into someone else. Similar to knecht admiring durant.
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I'm not sure Walker or Burns were expected to be major contributors, seems more like guys like DJ Jefferson who were highly rated recruits but the vibes were off almost immediately upon coming to campus. BHH left and was expected to be a major contributor, but it works against OP's point, bc he got a ton of minutes and even was starting and he still left. Can't make minutes decisions based on trying to get guys to stay bc ultimately they're gonna do what they want to do, and what they want to do is completely unpredictable
 
#19,116
#19,116
Vol49er said:
I'm not sure Walker or Burns were expected to be major contributors, seems more like guys like DJ Jefferson who were highly rated recruits but the vibes were off almost immediately upon coming to campus. BHH left and was expected to be a major contributor, but it works against OP's point, bc he got a ton of minutes and even was starting and he still left. Can't make minutes decisions based on trying to get guys to stay bc ultimately they're gonna do what they want to do, and what they want to do is completely unpredictable
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OPs point was "cant remember one guy who transferred out under Barnes who we expected to be a major contributor"

Derrick walker, dj Burns, and HH fit that bill entirely. All were expected to be major contributors (as evidenced by the minutes the first and third played here at UT, and Burns recruiting profile and subsequent quality of play). All those guys were decent to good players. They transferred.

I'm not entirely sure what your point is. I never made any comment about Barnes making minute decisions to get guys to not transfer...? All I said is they transferred. Obviously they all did it for their own reasons.
 
#19,117
#19,117
jtipto10 said:
OPs point was "cant remember one guy who transferred out under Barnes who we expected to be a major contributor"

Derrick walker, dj Burns, and HH fit that bill entirely. All were expected to be major contributors (as evidenced by the minutes the first and third played here at UT, and Burns recruiting profile and subsequent quality of play). All those guys were decent to good players. They transferred.

I'm not entirely sure what your point is. I never made any comment about Barnes making minute decisions to get guys to not transfer...? All I said is they transferred. Obviously they all did it for their own reasons.
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We’ve gotten our wires crossed. I was referring to Cavput as OP fretting over not playing the young guys so they’ll transfer out.
 
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#19,118
#19,118
Vol49er said:
We’ve gotten our wires crossed. I was referring to Cavput as OP fretting over not playing the young guys so they’ll transfer out.
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Oooh I've gotchya. Yeah, my general line of thinking is you give minutes to dudes that win games. Anything else is a wash you can figure out in the transfer portal if need be.

If Jefferson transfers, that stinks. But the reality is he still has 3 years to play 3 with a lot of opportunities coming up.
 
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#19,125
#19,125
Anyone watching Butler vs. Marquette? This is Butler in a nutshell. Very strong at transition defense, rarely commit silly fouls, good rebounding team… but they’re prone to going on extended cold streaks on offense. Telfort has been a liability during the 2nd half of this game with the turnovers and forced shots.
 
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