The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[VolGee4]

We definitely had some stretches last night where the defensive effort was subpar, which let UK build up a lead that ended up being too big to overcome.

Also not sure it ended up mattering but in these losses (other than UF) little things stand out. Mashack had that breakaway before the half and missed the layup (granted was defended but still) and that would have been a 5 point lead instead of 3. Would it have ended up mattering? Not sure but wish we could have found out.

Yep. Little things definitely matter in an uber competitive league. ZZ missed the FT on the "and one." We missed a few free throws in the first half. Gainey got a rebound right under the basket and kicked it out. Any of those could make it a different game.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Was curious...I don't recall everyone we were after in the portal last year so someone let me know if I missed anyone. Here's a check-in on a few we seemed to have interest in that went elsewhere.

SG- AJ Storr from Wisconsin to Kansas: 17.4 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1 apg a drop of nearly 10 mpg and scoring 10 less ppg from his year previously at Kansas
C- Clifford Omoruyi from Rutgers to Alabama: 18.4 mpg, 7.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg
PG- Malik Mack from Harvard to Georgetown: 34.8 mpg, 13.0 ppg, 4 rpg, 4.5 apg
SF- Cade Tyson from Belmont to UNC: 9 mpg, 3.1 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 28.6% 3PT
CG- Javian McCollum from OU to Georgia Tech: 28.4 mpg, 12.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.6 apg
PG- Ja'Kobi Gillespie from Belmont to Maryland: 29.8 mpg, 14.6 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 4.7 apg, 1.9 spg 42.1% 3PT

Feel like I might be missing a few... Also I don't know if we were ever after him, but I know someone was pretty high on Frankie Fidler in the portal. He's at Michigan State...17.5 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg and shooting 19.1% 3PT right now

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Yep. Little things definitely matter in an uber competitive league. ZZ missed the FT on the "and one." We missed a few free throws in the first half. Gainey got a rebound right under the basket and kicked it out. Any of those could make it a different game.

When you go 11-45 from 3, the little things become even more critical. Can’t shoot the ball often and poorly from outside in addition to not doing the little things and still expect to beat decent teams.

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Abolish the Quadrant System (And Use Win Quality Instead)

Introducing a new resume metric that makes understanding wins and losses easier

blog.evanmiya.com

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Well...looks like we are going to live and die by the 3 for the remainder of the year which doesn't bode well for post-season success. 45 attempts while shooting 24% is insanity...we simply can't seem to find any way to help ourselves when we are in a slump by attacking the paint. Any hopes of a true post game died when Estrella went out for the season especially given Milicic has shown he doesn't really have a back to the basket game. I am surprised we haven't tried to invert our offense a bit more by running more action in the paint with Chaz, Gainey and esp Dubar. It has also been frustrating to watch how many times ZZ attacks the paint and literally no one flashes so he has to bring it back out.

 

[OrangeInKy]

When you go 11-45 from 3, the little things become even more critical. Can’t shoot the ball often and poorly from outside in addition to not doing the little things and still expect to beat decent teams.

I still can’t process 11-45. I don’t think I’ve been this upset about a loss since the Sister Jean show. Usually, I shake it off as an aberration and am confident it won’t happen again, but I’m just not there now.

 

[OrangeInKy]

Well...looks like we are going to live and die by the 3 for the remainder of the year which doesn't bode well for post-season success. 45 attempts while shooting 24% is insanity...we simply can't seem to find any way to help ourselves when we are in a slump by attacking the paint. Any hopes of a true post game died when Estrella went out for the season especially given Milicic has shown he doesn't really have a back to the basket game. I am surprised we haven't tried to invert our offense a bit more by running more action in the paint with Chaz, Gainey and esp Dubar. It has also been frustrating to watch how many times ZZ attacks the paint and literally no one flashes so he has to bring it back out.

The last sentence I especially agree with. I kept looking for someone to do that Tuesday night.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Howdy, as many probably have assumed I’ve avoided this place while it dies down a bit, for my own sanity I just can’t deal with the idiots and drive by’s, if I’m going to continue to post and be an active member on this board avoiding this place after a loss seems wise lol. A few thoughts…

-big picture obviously losing that Kentucky game hurts, gotta protect home court in this league and given they were down 2 starters it’s a game you really wanna win, now you gotta find a a way to make up for it with an unexpected road win.

-things don’t get easier so can’t hang our heads, have a winnable stretch of games upcoming but do the wheels come off with a loss to Florida at home? Win that one and things look much better, lose that one and things start to look pretty bleak, feels like a huge game.

-the offense and defense both weren’t very good Tuesday evening, yes we shot horrible from 3, but we are 50-5 the last 3 years when scoring 73+ points, if we’re going to be a defense first team then 73 needs to be enough to win you games, we allowed way too many 3 point looks to a team that is a great 3pt shooting team, they made 1 more 3 on more than 20 less attempts, that’s crazy, but leads me to my next point. Comparatively speaking we are 19-19 when we score less than 73 over the last 3 years.

-I said it early this season and then waffled when guys were showing an ability to score efficiently from 2, but I’m afraid my original take was the accurate one…this team is going to be big time dependent on the 3 ball. Teams aren’t going to allow ZZ to beat them off the bounce and have an open layup or easy lob for a dunk, they’re not going to give up backcuts or flex cuts for easy looks, they’re going to make us prove we can beat them from 3. We don’t have a low post scorer to dump it down to on a consistent basis and no guard that can really slash and get to the rim consistently either, teams are going to continue to back off and shoot 3’s, the team has got to find their confidence across the board. We’re 48-6 over the last 3 years when we shoot 33%+ from 3, when we don’t we are 21-18, pretty clear our success is often tied to making 3 point shots.

-I like Mashack and appreciate him, but if he can’t find consistent offense or a perimeter shot he’s handicapping us. Yes he’s a good defender, but metrics suggest we’re about 3ppp better with him on the court defensively, and about 15ppp offensively when he’s off the court, so yes we’re better defensively, but the lack of offense brings everyone else down around him and thus makes him being out there inefficient for us on the whole. He can change that, but he’s got to start scoring, playing the 3 and not being a threat along with Okpara out there allows teams to absolutely smother Chaz and ZZ off the PnR, while Gainey is struggling to shoot recently when he’s on the court our offensive numbers are much better because opponents respect his game, not writing the final chapter on Mashack, but it’s something to monitor and watch, he’s gotta bring more offensively to where teams respect him on that end, we know what he can do defensively.

-we still sit as a 2 seed on almost every projection currently, so everything is still wide open, they’re projected 3-4 SEC teams on the top 2 seed lines, so not like you have to win the SEC to attain that. The goal should be lock down a Top 4 finish which gets you the double bye and probably will also come along with a 2-3 seed at worse in the NCAAT, that’s all still very much on the table and hopefully looking more realistic starting with a win tomorrow.

 

[Chaz-Vol]

Howdy, as many probably have assumed I’ve avoided this place while it dies down a bit, for my own sanity I just can’t deal with the idiots and drive by’s, if I’m going to continue to post and be an active member on this board avoiding this place after a loss seems wise lol. A few thoughts…

-big picture obviously losing that Kentucky game hurts, gotta protect home court in this league and given they were down 2 starters it’s a game you really wanna win, now you gotta find a a way to make up for it with an unexpected road win.

-things don’t get easier so can’t hang our heads, have a winnable stretch of games upcoming but do the wheels come off with a loss to Florida at home? Win that one and things look much better, lose that one and things start to look pretty bleak, feels like a huge game.

-the offense and defense both weren’t very good Tuesday evening, yes we shot horrible from 3, but we are 50-5 the last 3 years when scoring 73+ points, if we’re going to be a defense first team then 73 needs to be enough to win you games, we allowed way too many 3 point looks to a team that is a great 3pt shooting team, they made 1 more 3 on more than 20 less attempts, that’s crazy, but leads me to my next point. Comparatively speaking we are 19-19 when we score less than 73 over the last 3 years.

-I said it early this season and then waffled when guys were showing an ability to score efficiently from 2, but I’m afraid my original take was the accurate one…this team is going to be big time dependent on the 3 ball. Teams aren’t going to allow ZZ to beat them off the bounce and have an open layup or easy lob for a dunk, they’re not going to give up backcuts or flex cuts for easy looks, they’re going to make us prove we can beat them from 3. We don’t have a low post scorer to dump it down to on a consistent basis and no guard that can really slash and get to the rim consistently either, teams are going to continue to back off and shoot 3’s, the team has got to find their confidence across the board. We’re 48-6 over the last 3 years when we shoot 33%+ from 3, when we don’t we are 21-18, pretty clear our success is often tied to making 3 point shots.

-I like Mashack and appreciate him, but if he can’t find consistent offense or a perimeter shot he’s handicapping us. Yes he’s a good defender, but metrics suggest we’re about 3ppp better with him on the court defensively, and about 15ppp offensively when he’s off the court, so yes we’re better defensively, but the lack of offense brings everyone else down around him and thus makes him being out there inefficient for us on the whole. He can change that, but he’s got to start scoring, playing the 3 and not being a threat along with Okpara out there allows teams to absolutely smother Chaz and ZZ off the PnR, while Gainey is struggling to shoot recently when he’s on the court our offensive numbers are much better because opponents respect his game, not writing the final chapter on Mashack, but it’s something to monitor and watch, he’s gotta bring more offensively to where teams respect him on that end, we know what he can do defensively.

-we still sit as a 2 seed on almost every projection currently, so everything is still wide open, they’re projected 3-4 SEC teams on the top 2 seed lines, so not like you have to win the SEC to attain that. The goal should be lock down a Top 4 finish which gets you the double bye and probably will also come along with a 2-3 seed at worse in the NCAAT, that’s all still very much on the table and hopefully looking more realistic starting with a win tomorrow.

I think the Mashack point is the biggest key. When he's on the floor with either Okpara or Phillips the offense is so clogged up and looks awful. Not sure there's a drastic change but he needs to either drive to the basket or shoot the ball.

Not sure Carr would have been a 10 + per game scorer but he would have really helped with spacing on this team. He was at 40% from 3 before injury. Unfortunate Baylor corrupted him.

 

[Delmar]

Howdy, as many probably have assumed I’ve avoided this place while it dies down a bit, for my own sanity I just can’t deal with the idiots and drive by’s, if I’m going to continue to post and be an active member on this board avoiding this place after a loss seems wise lol. A few thoughts…

-big picture obviously losing that Kentucky game hurts, gotta protect home court in this league and given they were down 2 starters it’s a game you really wanna win, now you gotta find a a way to make up for it with an unexpected road win.

-things don’t get easier so can’t hang our heads, have a winnable stretch of games upcoming but do the wheels come off with a loss to Florida at home? Win that one and things look much better, lose that one and things start to look pretty bleak, feels like a huge game.

-the offense and defense both weren’t very good Tuesday evening, yes we shot horrible from 3, but we are 50-5 the last 3 years when scoring 73+ points, if we’re going to be a defense first team then 73 needs to be enough to win you games, we allowed way too many 3 point looks to a team that is a great 3pt shooting team, they made 1 more 3 on more than 20 less attempts, that’s crazy, but leads me to my next point. Comparatively speaking we are 19-19 when we score less than 73 over the last 3 years.

-I said it early this season and then waffled when guys were showing an ability to score efficiently from 2, but I’m afraid my original take was the accurate one…this team is going to be big time dependent on the 3 ball. Teams aren’t going to allow ZZ to beat them off the bounce and have an open layup or easy lob for a dunk, they’re not going to give up backcuts or flex cuts for easy looks, they’re going to make us prove we can beat them from 3. We don’t have a low post scorer to dump it down to on a consistent basis and no guard that can really slash and get to the rim consistently either, teams are going to continue to back off and shoot 3’s, the team has got to find their confidence across the board. We’re 48-6 over the last 3 years when we shoot 33%+ from 3, when we don’t we are 21-18, pretty clear our success is often tied to making 3 point shots.

-I like Mashack and appreciate him, but if he can’t find consistent offense or a perimeter shot he’s handicapping us. Yes he’s a good defender, but metrics suggest we’re about 3ppp better with him on the court defensively, and about 15ppp offensively when he’s off the court, so yes we’re better defensively, but the lack of offense brings everyone else down around him and thus makes him being out there inefficient for us on the whole. He can change that, but he’s got to start scoring, playing the 3 and not being a threat along with Okpara out there allows teams to absolutely smother Chaz and ZZ off the PnR, while Gainey is struggling to shoot recently when he’s on the court our offensive numbers are much better because opponents respect his game, not writing the final chapter on Mashack, but it’s something to monitor and watch, he’s gotta bring more offensively to where teams respect him on that end, we know what he can do defensively.

-we still sit as a 2 seed on almost every projection currently, so everything is still wide open, they’re projected 3-4 SEC teams on the top 2 seed lines, so not like you have to win the SEC to attain that. The goal should be lock down a Top 4 finish which gets you the double bye and probably will also come along with a 2-3 seed at worse in the NCAAT, that’s all still very much on the table and hopefully looking more realistic starting with a win tomorrow.

You are dead on correct about avoiding this place after losses. My policy as well. Way too many trolls, driveby’s and clueless morons who know nothing about basketball. As always, thanks for some reasoned analysis.

 

[Lefteye]

I just want to see them control the things they can control. Defend like you’re capable of especially when shots aren’t falling. 2. Control the boards!!! I’d rather all our bigs foul out, and run Shack at the 5, than give up a single offensive rebound tomorrow. And C. Start taking advantage of mismatches and feed the hot hands. Example, KY had NO pg and we did not throw a press at them at all. Igor had 10 fg attempts and Z had 18. That needs to be flipped moving forward if a guy gets hot. Jmo

GB

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Howdy, as many probably have assumed I’ve avoided this place while it dies down a bit, for my own sanity I just can’t deal with the idiots and drive by’s, if I’m going to continue to post and be an active member on this board avoiding this place after a loss seems wise lol. A few thoughts…

-big picture obviously losing that Kentucky game hurts, gotta protect home court in this league and given they were down 2 starters it’s a game you really wanna win, now you gotta find a a way to make up for it with an unexpected road win.

-things don’t get easier so can’t hang our heads, have a winnable stretch of games upcoming but do the wheels come off with a loss to Florida at home? Win that one and things look much better, lose that one and things start to look pretty bleak, feels like a huge game.

-the offense and defense both weren’t very good Tuesday evening, yes we shot horrible from 3, but we are 50-5 the last 3 years when scoring 73+ points, if we’re going to be a defense first team then 73 needs to be enough to win you games, we allowed way too many 3 point looks to a team that is a great 3pt shooting team, they made 1 more 3 on more than 20 less attempts, that’s crazy, but leads me to my next point. Comparatively speaking we are 19-19 when we score less than 73 over the last 3 years.

-I said it early this season and then waffled when guys were showing an ability to score efficiently from 2, but I’m afraid my original take was the accurate one…this team is going to be big time dependent on the 3 ball. Teams aren’t going to allow ZZ to beat them off the bounce and have an open layup or easy lob for a dunk, they’re not going to give up backcuts or flex cuts for easy looks, they’re going to make us prove we can beat them from 3. We don’t have a low post scorer to dump it down to on a consistent basis and no guard that can really slash and get to the rim consistently either, teams are going to continue to back off and shoot 3’s, the team has got to find their confidence across the board. We’re 48-6 over the last 3 years when we shoot 33%+ from 3, when we don’t we are 21-18, pretty clear our success is often tied to making 3 point shots.

-I like Mashack and appreciate him, but if he can’t find consistent offense or a perimeter shot he’s handicapping us. Yes he’s a good defender, but metrics suggest we’re about 3ppp better with him on the court defensively, and about 15ppp offensively when he’s off the court, so yes we’re better defensively, but the lack of offense brings everyone else down around him and thus makes him being out there inefficient for us on the whole. He can change that, but he’s got to start scoring, playing the 3 and not being a threat along with Okpara out there allows teams to absolutely smother Chaz and ZZ off the PnR, while Gainey is struggling to shoot recently when he’s on the court our offensive numbers are much better because opponents respect his game, not writing the final chapter on Mashack, but it’s something to monitor and watch, he’s gotta bring more offensively to where teams respect him on that end, we know what he can do defensively.

-we still sit as a 2 seed on almost every projection currently, so everything is still wide open, they’re projected 3-4 SEC teams on the top 2 seed lines, so not like you have to win the SEC to attain that. The goal should be lock down a Top 4 finish which gets you the double bye and probably will also come along with a 2-3 seed at worse in the NCAAT, that’s all still very much on the table and hopefully looking more realistic starting with a win tomorrow.

Man use that ignore feature. I used to not like to use it but I used the heck out of it the last 2 weeks. It's made it much easier.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

After having some time to get over the UK loss, I'm not as doom and gloom as I felt. It wasn't a good loss in the sense we need to hold serve and at home and losing to UK always sucks especially at home. But for whatever reason we simply have not played well against UK at home the past 3 years. I don't understand why but we do, to the point where I almost kinda expect it. So maybe that was kinda it. I didn't feel bad after the Auburn loss, heck I was encouraged.

But I do think tomorrow is pretty much a must win. Not in the sense that it is an actual must win but for the sake of the season and momentum and the upcoming stretch, we do. Plus we already got b slapped by them so losing again just will make it seem so much worse.

 

[ABtheVolsfan92]

After having some time to get over the UK loss, I'm not as doom and gloom as I felt. It wasn't a good loss in the sense we need to hold serve and at home and losing to UK always sucks especially at home. But for whatever reason we simply have not played well against UK at home the past 3 years. I don't understand why but we do, to the point where I almost kinda expect it. So maybe that was kinda it. I didn't feel bad after the Auburn loss, heck I was encouraged.

But I do think tomorrow is pretty much a must win. Not in the sense that it is an actual must win but for the sake of the season and momentum and the upcoming stretch, we do. Plus we already got b slapped by them so losing again just will make it seem so much worse.

if we lose tomorrow we could be at a crossroads

 

[cncchris33]

After having some time to get over the UK loss, I'm not as doom and gloom as I felt. It wasn't a good loss in the sense we need to hold serve and at home and losing to UK always sucks especially at home. But for whatever reason we simply have not played well against UK at home the past 3 years. I don't understand why but we do, to the point where I almost kinda expect it. So maybe that was kinda it. I didn't feel bad after the Auburn loss, heck I was encouraged.

But I do think tomorrow is pretty much a must win. Not in the sense that it is an actual must win but for the sake of the season and momentum and the upcoming stretch, we do. Plus we already got b slapped by them so losing again just will make it seem so much worse.

I'm still not over the UK loss because it was an eye-opener as to how broken our offense really is with our current personnel.

There are so many offensive gaps in our team. We basically have an 8-man rotation and two profiles amongst those 8 guys; volume shooters and offensive enigmas. Milicic is the one guy I think has some unlocked potential, but he doesn't seem interested in taking the next step towards being an aggressive offensive player. Hopefully the UK game was his evidence that we need him playing to his fullest potential far more often. His euro-soft approach won't cut it in this league.

Chaz Lanier is a great shooter and would be a fantastic secondary offensive weapon. The problem is, we are looking to him to be our primary offensive weapon and his skill set is too limited for him to be that guy, especially when the league has adjusted to how to guard him (4 of his 5 lowest scoring outputs have come in SEC play). He's shooting 34.4% overall, and 34.3% from 3 in conference play.

Okpara and Mashack are zero threats on offense which bogs down everything and forces us to be far too reliant on our shooting, and the whole team has been in a funk for the better part of a month. In SEC play, we are shooting 37.9% as a team from the field, second worst in the league. I believe we have the lowest FTA% in the SEC, as well, which is another indicator of how reliant we are on perimeter offense.

A lot of this offensive ineptitude could be masked by our normally great defense, but we've given up 70+ 3 times in SEC play.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps too quick to abandon ship, but this team has shown way too many holes on offense. They may heat up and scorch the nets in February, but in the postseason, it only takes one game like we saw Saturday to end your season. That seems far too likely for this bunch on any given night, so I fear our postseason stay could be very short. On the flipside, you get hot at the right time, and perhaps we break thru. I just wish we had more balance.

 

[ABtheVolsfan92]

I'm still not over the UK loss because it was an eye-opener as to how broken our offense really is with our current personnel.

There are so many offensive gaps in our team. We basically have an 8-man rotation and two profiles amongst those 8 guys; volume shooters and offensive enigmas. Milicic is the one guy I think has some unlocked potential, but he doesn't seem interested in taking the next step towards being an aggressive offensive player. Hopefully the UK game was his evidence that we need him playing to his fullest potential far more often. His euro-soft approach won't cut it in this league.

Chaz Lanier is a great shooter and would be a fantastic secondary offensive weapon. The problem is, we are looking to him to be our primary offensive weapon and his skill set is too limited for him to be that guy, especially when the league has adjusted to how to guard him (4 of his 5 lowest scoring outputs have come in SEC play). He's shooting 34.4% overall, and 34.3% from 3 in conference play.

Okpara and Mashack are zero threats on offense which bogs down everything and forces us to be far too reliant on our shooting, and the whole team has been in a funk for the better part of a month. In SEC play, we are shooting 37.9% as a team from the field, second worst in the league. I believe we have the lowest FTA% in the SEC, as well, which is another indicator of how reliant we are on perimeter offense.

A lot of this offensive ineptitude could be masked by our normally great defense, but we've given up 70+ 3 times in SEC play.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps too quick to abandon ship, but this team has shown way too many holes on offense. They may heat up and scorch the nets in February, but in the postseason, it only takes one game like we saw Saturday to end your season. That seems far too likely for this bunch on any given night, so I fear our postseason stay could be very short. On the flipside, you get hot at the right time, and perhaps we break thru. I just wish we had more balance.

Been saying for a while Barnes needs to recruit more offensive threats and play free flowingly. But that's not his style and not sure he knows how to do that. We probably won't see an exciting offense until we change coaches when he retires.

 

[Lefteye]

Man use that ignore feature. I used to not like to use it but I used the heck out of it the last 2 weeks. It's made it much easier.

No wonder you don’t reply to all my posts about how much I agree with yours!

 

[Lefteye]

I'm still not over the UK loss because it was an eye-opener as to how broken our offense really is with our current personnel.

There are so many offensive gaps in our team. We basically have an 8-man rotation and two profiles amongst those 8 guys; volume shooters and offensive enigmas. Milicic is the one guy I think has some unlocked potential, but he doesn't seem interested in taking the next step towards being an aggressive offensive player. Hopefully the UK game was his evidence that we need him playing to his fullest potential far more often. His euro-soft approach won't cut it in this league.

Chaz Lanier is a great shooter and would be a fantastic secondary offensive weapon. The problem is, we are looking to him to be our primary offensive weapon and his skill set is too limited for him to be that guy, especially when the league has adjusted to how to guard him (4 of his 5 lowest scoring outputs have come in SEC play). He's shooting 34.4% overall, and 34.3% from 3 in conference play.

Okpara and Mashack are zero threats on offense which bogs down everything and forces us to be far too reliant on our shooting, and the whole team has been in a funk for the better part of a month. In SEC play, we are shooting 37.9% as a team from the field, second worst in the league. I believe we have the lowest FTA% in the SEC, as well, which is another indicator of how reliant we are on perimeter offense.

A lot of this offensive ineptitude could be masked by our normally great defense, but we've given up 70+ 3 times in SEC play.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps too quick to abandon ship, but this team has shown way too many holes on offense. They may heat up and scorch the nets in February, but in the postseason, it only takes one game like we saw Saturday to end your season. That seems far too likely for this bunch on any given night, so I fear our postseason stay could be very short. On the flipside, you get hot at the right time, and perhaps we break thru. I just wish we had more balance.

Until I see them in March, and considering how difficult this conference is this year… I’d love to see broken replaced with struggling currently. Jmo
Not pickin either buddy, just sayin

 

[berryvol]

I'm still not over the UK loss because it was an eye-opener as to how broken our offense really is with our current personnel.

There are so many offensive gaps in our team. We basically have an 8-man rotation and two profiles amongst those 8 guys; volume shooters and offensive enigmas. Milicic is the one guy I think has some unlocked potential, but he doesn't seem interested in taking the next step towards being an aggressive offensive player. Hopefully the UK game was his evidence that we need him playing to his fullest potential far more often. His euro-soft approach won't cut it in this league.

Chaz Lanier is a great shooter and would be a fantastic secondary offensive weapon. The problem is, we are looking to him to be our primary offensive weapon and his skill set is too limited for him to be that guy, especially when the league has adjusted to how to guard him (4 of his 5 lowest scoring outputs have come in SEC play). He's shooting 34.4% overall, and 34.3% from 3 in conference play.

Okpara and Mashack are zero threats on offense which bogs down everything and forces us to be far too reliant on our shooting, and the whole team has been in a funk for the better part of a month. In SEC play, we are shooting 37.9% as a team from the field, second worst in the league. I believe we have the lowest FTA% in the SEC, as well, which is another indicator of how reliant we are on perimeter offense.

A lot of this offensive ineptitude could be masked by our normally great defense, but we've given up 70+ 3 times in SEC play.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps too quick to abandon ship, but this team has shown way too many holes on offense. They may heat up and scorch the nets in February, but in the postseason, it only takes one game like we saw Saturday to end your season. That seems far too likely for this bunch on any given night, so I fear our postseason stay could be very short. On the flipside, you get hot at the right time, and perhaps we break thru. I just wish we had more balance.

Pretty much my thoughts, to a T. The first Florida game was such an outrageous shooting performance that it didn’t worry me, but the mix offensive and defensive issues we’ve seen since have worn me down. It’s obviously outrageous to say any one game in a CBB season is “must win,” buy tomorrow’s game seems about as close as you can get. I’d love to see us play to potential tomorrow, but I’d settle for a more balanced offensive attack and a return to the stifling defense we’ve gotten used to under Barnes.

 

[Chaz-Vol]

I'm still not over the UK loss because it was an eye-opener as to how broken our offense really is with our current personnel.

There are so many offensive gaps in our team. We basically have an 8-man rotation and two profiles amongst those 8 guys; volume shooters and offensive enigmas. Milicic is the one guy I think has some unlocked potential, but he doesn't seem interested in taking the next step towards being an aggressive offensive player. Hopefully the UK game was his evidence that we need him playing to his fullest potential far more often. His euro-soft approach won't cut it in this league.

Chaz Lanier is a great shooter and would be a fantastic secondary offensive weapon. The problem is, we are looking to him to be our primary offensive weapon and his skill set is too limited for him to be that guy, especially when the league has adjusted to how to guard him (4 of his 5 lowest scoring outputs have come in SEC play). He's shooting 34.4% overall, and 34.3% from 3 in conference play.

Okpara and Mashack are zero threats on offense which bogs down everything and forces us to be far too reliant on our shooting, and the whole team has been in a funk for the better part of a month. In SEC play, we are shooting 37.9% as a team from the field, second worst in the league. I believe we have the lowest FTA% in the SEC, as well, which is another indicator of how reliant we are on perimeter offense.

A lot of this offensive ineptitude could be masked by our normally great defense, but we've given up 70+ 3 times in SEC play.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps too quick to abandon ship, but this team has shown way too many holes on offense. They may heat up and scorch the nets in February, but in the postseason, it only takes one game like we saw Saturday to end your season. That seems far too likely for this bunch on any given night, so I fear our postseason stay could be very short. On the flipside, you get hot at the right time, and perhaps we break thru. I just wish we had more balance.

At the end of the day only thing that is gone is regular season SEC crown. Top 4 SEC seed and top 4 NCAA seed are main goals now.

This team is obviously flawed and agree the main way forward is unlocking Igor. ZZ, Gainey, and Mashack are essentially who they are at this stage. Mashack hopefully will be more aggressive to help offense out. This team desperately needs a second reliable scorer. ZZ although great defender and playmaker can't be relied on as daily scorer. If Igor can be more confident and be that reliable second scorer maybe that opens things up for Lanier.

 

[vol94]

I'm still not over the UK loss because it was an eye-opener as to how broken our offense really is with our current personnel.

There are so many offensive gaps in our team. We basically have an 8-man rotation and two profiles amongst those 8 guys; volume shooters and offensive enigmas. Milicic is the one guy I think has some unlocked potential, but he doesn't seem interested in taking the next step towards being an aggressive offensive player. Hopefully the UK game was his evidence that we need him playing to his fullest potential far more often. His euro-soft approach won't cut it in this league.

Chaz Lanier is a great shooter and would be a fantastic secondary offensive weapon. The problem is, we are looking to him to be our primary offensive weapon and his skill set is too limited for him to be that guy, especially when the league has adjusted to how to guard him (4 of his 5 lowest scoring outputs have come in SEC play). He's shooting 34.4% overall, and 34.3% from 3 in conference play.

Okpara and Mashack are zero threats on offense which bogs down everything and forces us to be far too reliant on our shooting, and the whole team has been in a funk for the better part of a month. In SEC play, we are shooting 37.9% as a team from the field, second worst in the league. I believe we have the lowest FTA% in the SEC, as well, which is another indicator of how reliant we are on perimeter offense.

A lot of this offensive ineptitude could be masked by our normally great defense, but we've given up 70+ 3 times in SEC play.

I hope I'm wrong and perhaps too quick to abandon ship, but this team has shown way too many holes on offense. They may heat up and scorch the nets in February, but in the postseason, it only takes one game like we saw Saturday to end your season. That seems far too likely for this bunch on any given night, so I fear our postseason stay could be very short. On the flipside, you get hot at the right time, and perhaps we break thru. I just wish we had more balance.

Agree.

It’s more likely we will be cold and be a quick out than catching fire and making a deep run in March. We may get hot for a game but not three-five consecutive. It’s amazing that the entire team can’t shoot.

 

[YankeeVol]

 

[berryvol]

ZZ out. Just keeping this one close would feel like a win today.

 

[walkenvol]

Can’t remember the last game I missed but I’m not sure I will watch this one for my own mental health. Maybe record it and decide later if I can handle watching