The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[volplaya8]

Are you a troll or just dense? Did you watch the numerous steals and defense Vescovi played? Without him we probably don’t win either. The disrespect for a guy who is among the career leaders in various statistics in our program is mind boggling.

It’s not disrespect…he used to lead…he may be leading in other ways but not in his play anymore. We could give Mashack all of his minutes and not miss anything. Thanks for your input and name calling. Just will never understand why people take things personal and try to insult people because they don’t fully agree. Keep it on topic and don’t get personal. Man there is no way people would speak like this in person…Smdh.

 

[CornbreadVol]

It’s not disrespect…he used to lead…he may be leading in other ways but not in his play anymore. We could give Mashack all of his minutes and not miss anything. Thanks for your input and name calling. Just will never understand why people take things personal and try to insult people because they don’t fully agree. Keep it on topic and don’t get personal. Man there is no way people would speak like this in person…Smdh.

I don’t understand. How can you say he used to lead but then say he’s leading in other ways within 10 words of each other?

 

[volplaya8]

I don’t understand. How can you say he used to lead but then say he’s leading in other ways within 10 words of each other?

On court..maybe he does lead in other ways and guys look up to him. I am not there. He isn’t leading the team on the court to anything is all. Nobody is the 5th option on the court and is leading. If that were the case I will have led every team in every sport I have ever played.lol

 

[VolsSportsFan]

It’s not disrespect…he used to lead…he may be leading in other ways but not in his play anymore. We could give Mashack all of his minutes and not miss anything. Thanks for your input and name calling. Just will never understand why people take things personal and try to insult people because they don’t fully agree. Keep it on topic and don’t get personal. Man there is no way people would speak like this in person…Smdh.

Seems like you're the one taking it personally. And nobody ever said you had to "fully agree" but this is a discussion board and if you post an opinion you should be prepared that others won't agree.

 

[Lankykong]

Well that was absolutely a charge... if you've ever played the sport, you know it was. Mashack would do a lot more with those minutes over the course of the season

Dude leaned his shoulder to the side a bit to make sure he would get hit and fell down on mild contact. Refs are supposed to try to avoid calling charges this year

 

[volplaya8]

Seems like you're the one taking it personally. And nobody ever said you had to "fully agree" but this is a discussion board and if you post an opinion you should be prepared that others won't agree.

Because I know how to keep things on topic and don’t have to use troll or dense amongst other things to get my point across. Have a good day sir. Bless your heart.

 

[ndubvols]

Just want to point out that for all the crap Santi and JJJ have faced by a vocal minority of our fanbase, they have now led Tennessee to two Sweet 16’s in the 4 years where there was an NCAA tournament.

Admiral and Grant (yes I know Grant only played in 3 years) led us to 1. This is not a slight at Grant and Admiral, it’s just to point out how much I will look back on these Santi and JJJ years and be thankful I got to watch them wear Orange. Love these guys, and I hope they get to be the ones to lead us to the promised land. They deserve everything.

Add sec tournament champions and regular season champions to those accomplishments as well.

Are they leading us in scoring? No, but those 2 have been the definition of leaders on the team ever since they arrived on campus. Hoping they can help lead us to a few more banners before their career is over here.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Because I know how to keep things on topic and don’t have to use troll or dense amongst other things to get my point across. Have a good day sir. Bless your heart.

No, you just post something then whine that people aren't agreeing with you. And you don't have to use troll but you throw out a "bless your heart". Yeah....you're sure above it all aren't you Eagle Scout?

 

[Lankykong]

Agree, it was a charge. I love our fan base bjt we complain way too much about officiating. The refs have allowed teams to play form day one the tourney began.

I’m not a Purdue fan but Edey looked like he had been in a cat fight. You could see all the scratches on his arms during a post game interview.

The game is physical and TN was the benefit of some “no calls” and “bad calls” last night.

People usually say this but that game was called very loose which was not to our benefit. There are also levels of poor officiating; I felt like the worst 2-3 calls went against UT with the goaltending, the out of bounds play, and the push off before drained three

 

[berryvol]

Add sec tournament champions and regular season champions to those accomplishments as well.

Are they leading us in scoring? No, but those 2 have been the definition of leaders on the team ever since they arrived on campus. Hoping they can help lead us to a few more banners before their career is over here.

Even though we weren’t a great team in 2019-2020 (their freshman years) they did a great job continuing the Barnes culture that Grant and Admiral really embodied in the years before. We don’t get the success of the last 2 seasons without them doing that and holding everyone after them to the same standard.

 

[DowntownVol]

I love how some of y'all think Mashack is gonna play his own minutes, plus Vescovi's, plus JJJ's, so I guess he's gonna play about 70 minutes a game now somehow?

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

First time in program history that we’ve been to back to back S16?

2nd time.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I love how some of y'all think Mashack is gonna play his own minutes, plus Vescovi's, plus JJJ's, so I guess he's gonna play about 70 minutes a game now somehow?

There’s also considerable value in bringing a great defender off the bench AND fully rested to go full on attack mode versus whatever opponent is hurting us. Mashack would be less effective if he wasn’t entering games fresh when the opponent is starting to fatigue. Mashack plays with more energy than anybody on the court. That advantage is lessened if he’s played equal minutes.

 

[JohnnyD1024]

 

[omghulkhands]

Early betting on Draft Kings has opened with UT -2.5

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I will say one thing I personally think favors us against Creighton, 6 players average 20 or more mpg... no one else on the team averages 10. They basically start and play the same 6 guys all the time and their top 4 guys are all averaging 31 or more mpg. They only have 3 players under 100 for defensive rating (lower the number, better you are as a defender) and all 3 are still around 98. For comparison the Vols have only 2 of our 16 players with minutes above 100 defensive rating.

I can say with confidence they have yet to face a more physical defense than we have.

What they are good at is shooting the ball really well, but we've played a pretty good schedule. Facing Kentucky, Purdue, Kansas, Alabama, Auburn, & Illinois... all teams that shoot as well or better than Creighton in FG%. They seem to be very similar to Alabama if you're looking for a team we've faced that plays their style of basketball, Bama is overall more athletic and fouls a lot more...

 

[walkenvol]

Does Creighton have any players who can beat our top defenders off the dribble as I didn’t notice one? If we can avoid getting into defensive rotations and not have to double their center then we can make things miserable for them on offense. Also, I’d get Awaka as many post touches as he can successfully handle playing him and Aidoo together. That would force their center to stay with Aidoo and that other tall 3 point shooter to guard Awaka who will completely manhandle him.

 

[omghulkhands]

Does Creighton have any players who can beat our top defenders off the dribble as I didn’t notice one? If we can avoid getting into defensive rotations and not have to double their center then we can make things miserable for them on offense. Also, I’d get Awaka as many post touches as he can successfully handle playing him and Aidoo together. That would force their center to stay with Aidoo and that other tall 3 point shooter to guard Awaka who will completely manhandle him.

Alexander is that guy.

I’m interested to see how we defend Scheierman. I assume JJJ gets the assignment, and then Mashack when he subs in. But the dude is big, strong and can shoot

 

[Chaz-Vol]

I will say one thing I personally think favors us against Creighton, 6 players average 20 or more mpg... no one else on the team averages 10. They basically start and play the same 6 guys all the time and their top 4 guys are all averaging 31 or more mpg. They only have 3 players under 100 for defensive rating (lower the number, better you are as a defender) and all 3 are still around 98. For comparison the Vols have only 2 of our 16 players with minutes above 100 defensive rating.

I can say with confidence they have yet to face a more physical defense than we have.

What they are good at is shooting the ball really well, but we've played a pretty good schedule. Facing Kentucky, Purdue, Kansas, Alabama, Auburn, & Illinois... all teams that shoot as well or better than Creighton in FG%. They seem to be very similar to Alabama if you're looking for a team we've faced that plays their style of basketball, Bama is overall more athletic and fouls a lot more...

This is more or less my thought. I think the vols will have more space compared to how tight Texas played them especially Knecht.

Granted the 2 big variables are vols hitting open shots and keeping Creighton from not going supernova from 3. Even if vols just hit open 3's at decent clip (~30%) I like our chances.

 

[SGMVols]

I think Kentucky would be nuts to fire Cal. I don’t think there’s another big name out there who would for sure take the job this year.

If they do it, Louisville should offer him on the spot. Can you imagine how fired up he’d be in recruiting to build a team to beat UK?

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Alexander is that guy.

I’m interested to see how we defend Scheierman. I assume JJJ gets the assignment, and then Mashack when he subs in. But the dude is big, strong and can shoot

Honestly, I think DK could bother him too. He's 6"6" and 180lbs and leads their team in 3PAs so whoever draws the assignment needs to stay on him and have enough length to bother his shot.

Alexander is their most athletic guard and the one that as you mentioned drives and dribbles well. I expect that's the guy Santi/Mashack see the most and maybe even ZZ at times.

They'll want him on DK, but I don't think we'll want DK on him.

My projections on how we defend...

ZZ on Ashworth
Santi on Alexander
JJJ on Scheierman
DK on Miller
Aidoo on Kalkbrenner

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I think Kentucky would be nuts to fire Cal. I don’t think there’s another big name out there who would for sure take the job this year.

If they do it, Louisville should offer him on the spot. Can you imagine how fired up he’d be in recruiting to build a team to beat UK?

I think they could snag a few big names...I think Louisville also being vacant though will make it a bad year to fire Cal, now if the Cardinals or another program try to poach him...may help that happen.

I feel like Bruce is leaving Auburn this offseason though. Unlike TN they aren't really interested in putting more funding into basketball regardless of how much success they have. If Louisville offers then he's for sure gone, the real question though is that the only job he'll leave for?

 

[vol9799]

I love how some of y'all think Mashack is gonna play his own minutes, plus Vescovi's, plus JJJ's, so I guess he's gonna play about 70 minutes a game now somehow?

Agree, Wilks and 94 don't present an opinion on Mashack vs JJJ & Bob, they basically say that our coaching staff is blind (and half our fan base) and that if anyone else had been starting we would have been so much better off.

Better off how? We wouldn't have lost the games while ZZ was recovering? Oops, no , that doesn't work. Maybe we win 1 or 2 that we lost during conference play, but without JJJ starting, we lose at Rupp.

Rather than enjoying where we are, we're second guessing and arguing about a team that won the conference championship, secured a 2 seed and is in the Sweet 16. What the he!! is wrong with us? Wouldn't it make more sense to appreciate where we are vs where we have been. Once the season is over then we can debate where we should have been and what we should have done.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

On court..maybe he does lead in other ways and guys look up to him. I am not there. He isn’t leading the team on the court to anything is all. Nobody is the 5th option on the court and is leading. If that were the case I will have led every team in every sport I have ever played.lol

The problem is you only equate leading to scoring, and if that's the case Santi only "led" the team last year and truthfully that was more about the injury issues with the rest of the team. JJJ missed 12 games, ZZ missed the last 6, Key missed 3, Phillips missed 4. ON is the only guy besides Mashack that played in all 36 games even. But it was also a very different team built on defense first and scoring second. We averaged just 70.8 ppg, but held teams to 57.9.


Year 1 he was the 4th option
Year 2 he was the 5th option
Year 3 he was the 2nd option
Year 4 he was the 1st option
Year 5 he's the 5th option

But this season Santi has drawn the assignment of defending the other team's best offensive wing player almost always. Part of that is that he's just that good, but part of that is also that DK isn't as good on ball and we need to conserve his legs for offense. Last year we often played 2 bigs and ON and Phillips were very good at defending anyone they faced. So Santi didn't have to go face up with the other team's best offensive player nearly as much.

Santi is the definition of a leader, anyone that doesn't see that is either a troll or only cares about scoring. He came in with a one dimensional game, shooting from deep and has developed into a jack of all trades. He can defend at the highest level on ball, he has no issue with physical play, he rebounds, he can distribute and he can run the point when needed. He's improved his 2 PT% every season he's been here and he has clocked a ton of minutes. There has IMO never been another player that can say they have given their all more for Tennessee than Santi.

4417 minutes played (2nd all time)
148 games (2nd all time)
1540 points
325 3-point field goals (3rd all time)
595 rebounds (508 defensive rebounds, 4th all time)
451 assists (8th all time)
211 steals (tied for 1st all time)
16 blocks

Santi is a role player and when his role has required him to be more of an offense first guy he's done that, when he's needed to focus on distributing the ball he's done that, and when he's needed to step up his defense and be a "shut down corner" for us he's done that.

No better leader in a locker room than a guy who says "I just want to win" and then shows you every single day what he's willing to do to make that happen.

 

[YankeeVol]