The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[berryvol]

The one interview I give him a bit of slack, it was after ZZ got hurt and you could tell that was weighing on him. He seemed checked out of that interview understandbly.

I don’t know how anyone could object to the idea Barnes was outcoached tonight. That was obvious. As to the interviews the only one I remembered was right after it looked like Zakai could’ve torn his ACL so that would explain if he seemed morose. But speaking of Z, I think Barnes is here for as long as he is; if they do the 5th year thing then I think he’ll definitely come back, if not I think it’s at best 50/50

To both of you, since you both raised the same point: that could’ve been the timeout they were referencing and that point in my post may be moot. Like I said, wasn’t watching with sound. Just found it interesting I got the same text from several different folks.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

People are gonna take issue with this, but who cares at this point. Check the stats I am Barnes until I die and remain that way. That said:

Pope coached circles around Barnes tonight. We had no juice out of half and no plan out of timeouts the whole 2H. Our defense also got abused all night and never adjusted to UK taking advantage of us switching everything. They also got whatever they wanted by bringing corner screens and going baseline, while we had zero discipline/athletic ability to deal them off.

I had several neutral and UK people text me about how he seemed tired and checked out in some of the interviews - I was watching without sound so I can’t confirm the validity of this. All that said, if this is Barnes’ last gasp as a HC and he’s done after this year, I really hope we don’t go out this pathetic. But the way we’ve shown up and/or finished big conference games isn’t giving me much hope.

Seemed inevitable to me last season that Barnes would be done when Zeigler was done. Given how much we will be losing after this season and how things are going, I suspect Barnes will be done even if the fifth year stuff passes.

Was a great ride overall, but if things don’t improve with this season, there sadly will be a sour taste left in our mouths about the Barnes era.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Ironically we’re in a very similar place that Kentucky was in coming into tonight. Hope we respond the same way

Hope so. We’ll find out. I’m not optimistic, though.

 

[berryvol]

Ironically we’re in a very similar place that Kentucky was in coming into tonight. Hope we respond the same way

If this team doesn’t respond Saturday, I really don’t know where we go from there. Getting punched in the mouth and wilting would just really deflate everything we’ve built this year.

 

[ColinS]

Is it considered being outcoached when you basicly choose not to coach. We did the same thing all night and never seemed to adjust to anything. Barnes should have just stayed home and let a fan have his seat. He brought nothing.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Would be shocked if we don’t lose Saturday. While I expect us to be more competitive with Florida this time around, it’s hard to envision us winning after tonight’s debacle.

We’re a wounded animal right now. Going to find out if this group is able to step up and fight for its life or let the predators make a meal of them.

Lots of basketball left and it's a March sport but right now things kinda suck. We've lost 4 games all to our biggest SEC rivals and one of them at home. We're staring at getting swept by 2 of them and Vandy at Knoxville won't be easy I don't think .

 

[Vol49er]

Seemed inevitable to me last season that Barnes would be done when Zeigler was done. Given how much we will be losing after this season and how things are going, I suspect Barnes will be done even if the fifth year stuff passes.

Was a great ride overall, but if things don’t improve with this season, there sadly will be a sour taste left in our mouths about the Barnes era.

Meh. I’m upset tonight (I HATE Kentucky), and I’ll be upset if this year ends up going down the drain. But I’m not gonna let two months define a ten year tenure as coach. Within a year of his retirement a poor end to this season would not weigh much more on our minds than say the two Covid seasons, I suspect

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Lots of basketball left and it's a March sport but right now things kinda suck. We've lost 4 games all to our biggest SEC rivals and one of them at home. We're staring at getting swept by 2 of them and Vandy at Knoxville won't be easy I don't think .

Plenty of time for things to turnaround if the right adjustments are made and guys bow their backs, but right now, it’s hard to be optimistic. Feels like this team is going to have to keep games against quality teams in the 60s with how offensively challenged we are.

Vandy in Knoxville will be as hard or harder of a game to win than tonight.

 

[ColinS]

Lots of basketball left and it's a March sport but right now things kinda suck. We've lost 4 games all to our biggest SEC rivals and one of them at home. We're staring at getting swept by 2 of them and Vandy at Knoxville won't be easy I don't think .

I think we can still make a deep run in the tournament. We shouldn't see high calibur SEC level teams till the third round at least. Can we get good matchups and make a few shots?

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Meh. I’m upset tonight (I HATE Kentucky), and I’ll be upset if this year ends up going down the drain. But I’m not gonna let two months define a ten year tenure as coach. Within a year of his retirement a poor end to this season would not weigh much more on our minds than say the two Covid seasons, I suspect

Oh I agree. Just know a lot of people have recency bias. Now, ten years down the road, those folks will be over this season (assuming it does end up being average), but the immediate reaction will be very mixed when he hangs it up if this season doesn’t improve.

 

[Nighthawkvol10]

I’m usually on the very positive end of the spectrum about basketball, but I’m vastly lowering my expectations for this team. They’re just flat out bad on offense and settle for bad shots far too often. They also seem completely uninterested in defending half the time. This is basically what everyone who whined about the 2022 team’s offense asked for: a little better offense for inconsistent defense. Disappointing, but it is what it is. Hopefully they can figure something out by March, but they’ve been regressing since December. Not hopeful.

Definitely need to reset expectations after that one. That was a BAD kentucky team they put out there tonight.

Not trying to overreact but feels like we're looking at a 9-9 or 10-8 conference record if we keep up our recent play. Hopefully land somewhere on the 3/4 seed line in the end as a sweet 16 hopeful

 

[walkenvol]

We don’t have anybody that’s shown the ability to drive and finish at the rim, and we don’t have anybody we can post up and throw the ball down into. If 3’s aren’t falling, we become pretty limited offensively.

Would like to see more drive and kick 3’s for some better looks, or to open up some cutting lanes. Mashack and milicic have shown the ability to drive occasionally, think they need to do more of that to reach our peak.

On the bright side, thought dubar played within the offense a better tonight, and milicic came out of his slump a bit. Think Dubar needs to drive more when he’s in as well.

Dubar was 1-7 from 3

 

[Chaz-Vol]

Regular season SEC title totally gone now. I hope Barnes focuses on finding an offensive lineup that works. Get Boswell functional to spell ZZ. I think offense should run throw Igor right now. He can drive, shoot, and pass. Don't run ZZ into the ground. And tournament is a crapshoot and all about matchups so maybe we get lucky.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

I think we can still make a deep run in the tournament. We shouldn't see high calibur SEC level teams till the third round at least. Can we get good matchups and make a few shots?

Definitely all about matchups. You’re right it just takes shots falling at the right time. Maybe it’ll happen for us. Hope it does.

 

[Vol49er]

I think we can still make a deep run in the tournament. We shouldn't see high calibur SEC level teams till the third round at least. Can we get good matchups and make a few shots?

That’s the weird thing. Even if we go into the tourney swirling the drain, that would be just like two years ago where Zakai tore his ACL, we lost two of three (to meh teams), and then made the Sweet 16 after beating a poplar F4 pick in Duke. The previous year to that we were super hot, had won the SEC tourney, just to bow out in the first weekend to an 11 seed. I’m mainly angry tonight bc we lost to Kentucky, who I despise. Our effort didn’t portend well for the long term but honestly who the hell knows once you’re in; as you alluded to, it’s all matchups whether we’re a 2 or a 4 or whatever

 

[Vol49er]

Oh I agree. Just know a lot of people have recency bias. Now, ten years down the road, those folks will be over this season (assuming it does end up being average), but the immediate reaction will be very mixed when he hangs it up if this season doesn’t improve.

Oh ok. Yeah fair enough. I’d hate to see his tenure end with a bunch of people saying “Don’t let the door hit you” after all the success here. Seems like we’d need to make the second weekend to avoid that

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I absolutely love the guy, but how many wide open 3 pt shots did ZZ miss tonight? At some point he's going to make some of those in game. I hope

 

[berryvol]

Definitely need to reset expectations after that one. That was a BAD kentucky team they put out there tonight.

Not trying to overreact but feels like we're looking at a 9-9 or 10-8 conference record if we keep up our recent play. Hopefully land somewhere on the 3/4 seed line in the end as a sweet 16 hopeful

This team is really exact 2022 vibes, maybe slightly worse for me. If this team makes it to the S16 I’ll be relatively happy. But I also think they’re fairly incapable of going further, barring a major fluke, even if they run into a hot Cinderella like FAU. It just really makes me frustrated that it feels we’re wasting a Barnes year with an uncertain future looming.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

That’s the weird thing. Even if we go into the tourney swirling the drain, that would be just like two years ago where Zakai tore his ACL, we lost two of three (to meh teams), and then made the Sweet 16 after beating a poplar F4 pick in Duke. The previous year to that we were super hot, had won the SEC tourney, just to bow out in the first weekend to an 11 seed. I’m mainly angry tonight bc we lost to Kentucky, who I despise. Our effort didn’t portend well for the long term but honestly who the hell knows once you’re in; as you alluded to, it’s all matchups whether we’re a 2 or a 4 or whatever

Yep, I will never totally tap out until we're done in March, but right now we're clearly not the team at one point we thought would be our first #1 seed.

Our 09-10 EE team wasn't exactly a world beater and we limped into the NCAAT after that UK whipping and then made the EE as a 6 seed; 2 years after maybe the best UT team ever got destroyed in the S16.

 

[VolGee4]

People are gonna take issue with this, but who cares at this point. Check the stats I am Barnes until I die and remain that way. That said:

Pope coached circles around Barnes tonight. We had no juice out of half and no plan out of timeouts the whole 2H. Our defense also got abused all night and never adjusted to UK taking advantage of us switching everything. They also got whatever they wanted by bringing corner screens and going baseline, while we had zero discipline/athletic ability to deal them off.

I had several neutral and UK people text me about how he seemed tired and checked out in some of the interviews - I was watching without sound so I can’t confirm the validity of this. All that said, if this is Barnes’ last gasp as a HC and he’s done after this year, I really hope we don’t go out this pathetic. But the way we’ve shown up and/or finished big conference games isn’t giving me much hope.

Can call it an excuse or not but ZZ wasn’t himself to start the second half because of his knee. Threw a bad pass and let guys drive past him. That didn’t help the second half start.

 

[cncchris33]

Jimmy Dykes mentioning that Kentucky has been good defensively tonight is more of a condemnation of our offense than anything else. Kentucky remains a poor defensive team and we just aren’t very good offensively.

I normally am positive and preach it isn’t the end of the world, but this loss has been very eye opening about how many deficiencies this team has. About a 6/7 seed in the ncaa tournament is what we’re looking at when the dust settles.

I said the same thing when Jimmy said that. KY wasn't special on defense, but Jimmy just doesn't know how to speak in anything but superlative language. Everything is the best or the worst when he talks about it. They weren't awful, but they were just adequate. Tennessee missed dozens of open looks. Kentucky made those shots. That's the difference in the game.

 

[volgr]

I think we can still make a deep run in the tournament. We shouldn't see high calibur SEC level teams till the third round at least. Can we get good matchups and make a few shots?

No way in hell this team could make a deep run. You cant regularly play offense this poorly and make a deep run.

Barnes ball has shown that it isnt conducive for deep runs.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

I said the same thing when Jimmy said that. KY wasn't special on defense, but Jimmy just doesn't know how to speak in anything but superlative language. Everything is the best or the worst when he talks about it. They weren't awful, but they were just adequate. Tennessee missed dozens of open looks. Kentucky made those shots. That's the difference in the game.

Yep. If we hit an average percentage of open 3’s, we hit 90 points tonight. Kentucky was who it has been all season defensively.

 

[Chaz-Vol]

I said the same thing when Jimmy said that. KY wasn't special on defense, but Jimmy just doesn't know how to speak in anything but superlative language. Everything is the best or the worst when he talks about it. They weren't awful, but they were just adequate. Tennessee missed dozens of open looks. Kentucky made those shots. That's the difference in the game.

I don't think Kentucky did anything particularly great on defense. Vols shooters are not particularly good. Vols were atypically bad on defense and that was a big thing. Number 1 3 point defense consistently left guys open.

 

[Vol49er]

I hate when I’m mad at the team and at Barnes and then someone pops in and says something really broad and dumb and I half feel like arguing about it but also half don’t feel like sticking up for Barnes atm