The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[Vols till I fall]

I think Miller is a very underwhelming hire. Don't know what they see in him

I wonder if Texas even tried kicking the tires with in state coaches.

Surely the coach at Tech or Baylor would have had some interest? Texas is a big job.

Heck, I can't stand him but I'd say that bitch down in Memphis is better than Miller

I'd literally pick coach Drew at GCU over Miller

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Not sure what you guys think about Sean Miller, but I feel like that is a very mid hire.

Maybe 10 years ago that was a splash hire, but I'm not sure how much better he is than Terry honestly, slightly I guess.

Good but not great hire on paper. Not a bad coach by any means, but looks like a guy whose best years are behind him. Then again, once upon a time ten years ago we hired a coach whose best years were supposedly behind him, so maybe this works out for them.

 

[Vols till I fall]

Good but not great hire on paper. Not a bad coach by any means, but looks like a guy whose best years are behind him. Then again, once upon a time ten years ago we hired a coach whose best years were supposedly behind him, so maybe this works out for them.

True, however, Barnes resume at the time was far more successful than Miller's currently is.

I think even Ben Howlabd would have been better lol

 

[Vols till I fall]

Rick Stansbury in deep talks with unlv

A name I haven't heard in a long time.

I always like him as a coach

 

[cncchris33]

Honestly, I'm not really that familiar with McCollum, I rather a veteran coach that has more experience at p5 schools.

That said, I hope Barnes coaches another 10 years. If Barnes were to retire, technically we could still go after McCollum, not that I'm interested in it, but Tennessee is a better program than Iowa. Think that happened with Chris Beard at UNLV, right?

It's curious that you seemingly poo-poo the Sean Miller choice of hire as basically a mid retread, but in the very next post also show a preference for a coach "with more experience at p5 schools".

 

[cncchris33]

True, however, Barnes resume at the time was far more successful than Miller's currently is.

I think even Ben Howlabd would have been better lol

Not really. The only feather in his cap that Barnes had when Tennessee hired him that Miller doesn't have is a single Final 4. Miller has 8 Sweet 16s and 4 Elite 8s at multiple schools to his credit. Barnes had 6 S16s and 3 E8s when Tennessee hired him.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Rick Stansbury in deep talks with unlv

A name I haven't heard in a long time.

I always like him as a coach

Would be interesting to see how Rick $$$tansbury would fare as a head coach in today’s era where the money is above the table. He was low key notorious in coaching circles for throwing out stacks of cash to recruits.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Welp.....we better be ready.

 

[Col_Cathcart]

Oh ok, my bad

It’s basically impossible to trust anything on X anymore.

 

[OrangeInKy]

How do I sign the #StevenPearltoDrake petition?

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Lady Vols beat tOSU at Columbus. The 37th Sweet 16 for the LVs.

 

[OrangeInKy]

I don’t actually want him to retire. I’m just saying if I had to choose a year, it would be this year because I personally think we reach the final 4 and want him to end it on a high note.

Of course I want Barnes around another 5+ years.

And I’m not sure completely sure, but you could be right.

I misunderstood you earlier, then. My bad.

 

[omghulkhands]

Why did we lose to UK twice this season? My POV

1) let’s start with UK’s offense. Their offense isn’t the “bad matchup” part for us. Their offense is just good, period. The reason it’s good is because they have a lot of shooters, including big men that can shoot.

And a lot of their roster are good enough passers.

So pretty much every offensive set, the worst shot they are gonna get is an open weak side corner 3 that their bigs will make 33% of the time. (Because this isn’t exclusive to us. Most teams will defensively overload the strong side)

Think about it like this. A big reason why our offense is so much better this year is because of Igor.

And you’re thinking “what? Igor has been super inconsistent. That doesn’t make sense”

Igor is a 4 who is a very good screener (if not great) that is a threat to shoot the 3. And he doesn’t have to be a great 3 point shooter. He just has to be good enough. And he is.

when he screens above the 3 point line, you can’t blitz the ball handler, because it leaves a solid 3 point shooter open (Igor). And if you switch it and a guard moves on to him, You’ve got a guard on a tall shooter he can shoot over or roll on to the hoop with a big size disadvantage.

Now I wish he were a better roller. (Edit: he is actually a fine roller. I wish he were a better finisher would be the correct thing to say) But still, he opens up our offense a lot. It’s convinced me we should NEVER go forward without a stretch 4 ever again.

Anyway, I say all that to say, UK has this same thing in spades. It’s why their offense is good. It’s why Bama’s offense is good with Nelson.

2) Moving on. A minor point I want to make is about scouting. KY was hard to scout in our games because they had so many players in and out of the lineup. You might think it’s not a big deal, but it is. Look at our win against Florida as an example of these. You see it all the time. It gets chalked up a lot as this like, Bench guys stepping up and effort thing.

But it’s not. It’s usually about your team having good tape and the other team having none/very little on you.

3) The reason we largely matched up poorly with UK has been their defense. Statistically their defense is pretty bad. So why did we not get the results with it other teams had?

Because we scored in the 70s against them both times. Which isn’t bad in a vacuum. But UK regularly lets worse offenses get 80+ on them.

Honestly I think Pope schemed us really well. They are athletic and they played the passing lane really hard and gave us the post and the dribble drive and we aren’t great at either of those things. Especially the post scoring part.

Their athleticism let them gamble on the middle ball screens and on double.

Ultimately we started to figure it out second half of our last game with them but their offense shot too well for us to overcome them.

I think the key to beating them will be getting downhill on them. And specifically NOT Zakai. But Gainey, Igor and Chaz. If we do that and do it effectively, everything will open up and we will LOOk like we are playing against a bad defense.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

 

[Flogballs]

Any guesses on game times?

7:09 - Mich St vs Ole Miss
7:39 - Houston vs Purdue
9:39 - Auburn vs Michigan
10:09 - Vols vs Kentucky

 

[fear]

Any guesses on game times?

7:09 - Mich St vs Ole Miss
7:39 - Houston vs Purdue
9:39 - Auburn vs Michigan
10:09 - Vols vs Kentucky

7:39 per grant ramey

 

[OrangeInKy]

Why did we lose to UK twice this season? My POV

1) let’s start with UK’s offense. Their offense isn’t the “bad matchup” part for us. Their offense is just good, period. The reason it’s good is because they have a lot of shooters, including big men that can shoot.

And a lot of their roster are good enough passers.

So pretty much every offensive set, the worst shot they are gonna get is an open weak side corner 3 that a big will make it 33% of the time. (Because this isn’t exclusive to us. Most teams will defensively overload the strong side)

Think about it like this. A big reason why our offense is so much better this year is because of Igor.

And you’re thinking “what? Igor has been super inconsistent. That doesn’t make sense”

Igor is a 4 who is a very good screener (if not great) that is a threat to shoot the 3. And he doesn’t have to be a great 3 point shooter. He just has to be good enough. And he is.

when he screens above the 3 point line, you can’t blitz the ball handler, because it leaves a solid 3 point shooter open (Igor). And if you switch it and a guard moves on to him, You’ve got a guard on a tall shooter he can shoot over or roll on to the hoop with a big size disadvantage.

Now I wish he were a better roller. (Edit: he is actually a fine roller. I wish he were a better finisher would be the correct thing to say) But still, he opens up our offense a lot. It’s convinced me we should NEVER go forward without a stretch 4 ever again.

Anyway, I say all that to say, UK has this same thing in spades. It’s why their offense is good. It’s why Bama’s offense is good with Nelson.

2) Moving on. A minor point I want to make is about scouting. KY was hard to scout in our games because they had so many players in and out of the lineup. You might think it’s not a big deal, but it is. Look at our win against Florida as an example of these. You see it all the time. It gets coughed up a lot as this like, Bench guys stepping up and effort thing.

But it’s not. It’s usually about your team having good tape and the other team having none/very little on you.

3) The reason we largely matched up poorly with UK has been their defense. Statistically their defense is pretty bad. So why did we not get the results with it other teams had?

Because we scored in the 70s against them both times. Which isn’t bad in a vacuum. But UK regularly lets worse offenses get 80+ on them.

Honestly I think Pope schemed us really well. They are athletic and they played the passing lane really hard and gave us the post and the dribble drive and we aren’t great at either of those things. Especially the post scoring part.

Their athleticism let them gamble on the middle ball screens and on double.

Ultimately we started to figure it out second half of our last game with them but their offense shot too well for us to overcome them.

I think the key to beating them will be getting downhill on them. And specifically NOT Zakai. But Gainey, Igor and Chaz. If we do that and do it effectively, everything will open up and we will LOOk like we are playing against a bad defense.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

Dang man, you put in the work. Thanks for the insight.

 

[CLT MAN]

Why did we lose to UK twice this season? My POV

1) let’s start with UK’s offense. Their offense isn’t the “bad matchup” part for us. Their offense is just good, period. The reason it’s good is because they have a lot of shooters, including big men that can shoot.

And a lot of their roster are good enough passers.

So pretty much every offensive set, the worst shot they are gonna get is an open weak side corner 3 that their bigs will make 33% of the time. (Because this isn’t exclusive to us. Most teams will defensively overload the strong side)

Think about it like this. A big reason why our offense is so much better this year is because of Igor.

And you’re thinking “what? Igor has been super inconsistent. That doesn’t make sense”

Igor is a 4 who is a very good screener (if not great) that is a threat to shoot the 3. And he doesn’t have to be a great 3 point shooter. He just has to be good enough. And he is.

when he screens above the 3 point line, you can’t blitz the ball handler, because it leaves a solid 3 point shooter open (Igor). And if you switch it and a guard moves on to him, You’ve got a guard on a tall shooter he can shoot over or roll on to the hoop with a big size disadvantage.

Now I wish he were a better roller. (Edit: he is actually a fine roller. I wish he were a better finisher would be the correct thing to say) But still, he opens up our offense a lot. It’s convinced me we should NEVER go forward without a stretch 4 ever again.

Anyway, I say all that to say, UK has this same thing in spades. It’s why their offense is good. It’s why Bama’s offense is good with Nelson.

2) Moving on. A minor point I want to make is about scouting. KY was hard to scout in our games because they had so many players in and out of the lineup. You might think it’s not a big deal, but it is. Look at our win against Florida as an example of these. You see it all the time. It gets chalked up a lot as this like, Bench guys stepping up and effort thing.

But it’s not. It’s usually about your team having good tape and the other team having none/very little on you.

3) The reason we largely matched up poorly with UK has been their defense. Statistically their defense is pretty bad. So why did we not get the results with it other teams had?

Because we scored in the 70s against them both times. Which isn’t bad in a vacuum. But UK regularly lets worse offenses get 80+ on them.

Honestly I think Pope schemed us really well. They are athletic and they played the passing lane really hard and gave us the post and the dribble drive and we aren’t great at either of those things. Especially the post scoring part.

Their athleticism let them gamble on the middle ball screens and on double.

Ultimately we started to figure it out second half of our last game with them but their offense shot too well for us to overcome them.

I think the key to beating them will be getting downhill on them. And specifically NOT Zakai. But Gainey, Igor and Chaz. If we do that and do it effectively, everything will open up and we will LOOk like we are playing against a bad defense.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

Excellent post by someone who obviously knows the game

 

[Volprofch05]

Welp, Zeigler, Aidoo, and Awaka are all headed to the sweet 16, just on 3 different teams

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I really hope we win on Friday. I think our knucklehead fanbase may never forgive Rick if he gets knocked out by a limping Kentucky team that has been worse than us all year and somehow finds ways to beat us.

Not to mention it would really suck if Rick did decide to retire this off-season and Kentucky is the team that gets to claim they “retired Rick” like UNC to Coach K.

 

[CornbreadVol]

I really hope we win on Friday. I think our knucklehead fanbase may never forgive Rick if he gets knocked out by a limping Kentucky team that has been worse than us all year and somehow finds ways to beat us.

Not to mention it would really suck if Rick did decide to retire this off-season and Kentucky is the team that gets to claim they “retired Rick” like UNC to Coach K.

I agree. However, I just have a hard time thinking that Ziegler and Mashack are going to let us lose. I know it sounds cliche but idk, I just have faith in those 2 especially.

 

[CornbreadVol]

Also people keep saying the UK is a “bad” matchup for us however I believe we actually matchup fairly well despite the 2 earlier losses. They don’t possess a big man that can go 1-on-1 which has typically hurt us and yes, they can shoot it but if we would have just shot our percentages both games we would have won despite them shooting 50%. We need to put them in PNR repeatedly, especially when Butler sits.

 

[Stoked]

I really hope we win on Friday. I think our knucklehead fanbase may never forgive Rick if he gets knocked out by a limping Kentucky team that has been worse than us all year and somehow finds ways to beat us.

Not to mention it would really suck if Rick did decide to retire this off-season and Kentucky is the team that gets to claim they “retired Rick” like UNC to Coach K.

This is a nightmare scenario.

 

[cncchris33]

Why did we lose to UK twice this season? My POV

1) let’s start with UK’s offense. Their offense isn’t the “bad matchup” part for us. Their offense is just good, period. The reason it’s good is because they have a lot of shooters, including big men that can shoot.

And a lot of their roster are good enough passers.

So pretty much every offensive set, the worst shot they are gonna get is an open weak side corner 3 that their bigs will make 33% of the time. (Because this isn’t exclusive to us. Most teams will defensively overload the strong side)

Think about it like this. A big reason why our offense is so much better this year is because of Igor.

And you’re thinking “what? Igor has been super inconsistent. That doesn’t make sense”

Igor is a 4 who is a very good screener (if not great) that is a threat to shoot the 3. And he doesn’t have to be a great 3 point shooter. He just has to be good enough. And he is.

when he screens above the 3 point line, you can’t blitz the ball handler, because it leaves a solid 3 point shooter open (Igor). And if you switch it and a guard moves on to him, You’ve got a guard on a tall shooter he can shoot over or roll on to the hoop with a big size disadvantage.

Now I wish he were a better roller. (Edit: he is actually a fine roller. I wish he were a better finisher would be the correct thing to say) But still, he opens up our offense a lot. It’s convinced me we should NEVER go forward without a stretch 4 ever again.

Anyway, I say all that to say, UK has this same thing in spades. It’s why their offense is good. It’s why Bama’s offense is good with Nelson.

2) Moving on. A minor point I want to make is about scouting. KY was hard to scout in our games because they had so many players in and out of the lineup. You might think it’s not a big deal, but it is. Look at our win against Florida as an example of these. You see it all the time. It gets chalked up a lot as this like, Bench guys stepping up and effort thing.

But it’s not. It’s usually about your team having good tape and the other team having none/very little on you.

3) The reason we largely matched up poorly with UK has been their defense. Statistically their defense is pretty bad. So why did we not get the results with it other teams had?

Because we scored in the 70s against them both times. Which isn’t bad in a vacuum. But UK regularly lets worse offenses get 80+ on them.

Honestly I think Pope schemed us really well. They are athletic and they played the passing lane really hard and gave us the post and the dribble drive and we aren’t great at either of those things. Especially the post scoring part.

Their athleticism let them gamble on the middle ball screens and on double.

Ultimately we started to figure it out second half of our last game with them but their offense shot too well for us to overcome them.

I think the key to beating them will be getting downhill on them. And specifically NOT Zakai. But Gainey, Igor and Chaz. If we do that and do it effectively, everything will open up and we will LOOk like we are playing against a bad defense.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

Size is another thing they have in spades on us. As you said, Zakai can't be the only one driving the ball because their size and length will eat him up in the paint. We also have to shoot well (respectable, at least) from outside to keep them from clogging driving lanes and sticking to the paint.

You're right, their offense is just good because of how many options they have. They have shooters at every position and 5 guys who all shoot at least 36% from 3. Some combination of three of those guys will be on the floor at all times. By comparison, we have 2 guys shooting >36%, and Mashack is one of them. UK has Oweh and Butler who can drive the ball and shoot well in the mid-range. Gainey and Chaz have to match that ability.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I really hope we win on Friday. I think our knucklehead fanbase may never forgive Rick if he gets knocked out by a limping Kentucky team that has been worse than us all year and somehow finds ways to beat us.

Not to mention it would really suck if Rick did decide to retire this off-season and Kentucky is the team that gets to claim they “retired Rick” like UNC to Coach K.

I will be honest, a loss Friday will probably affect me more than a Vols lose in anything in a long time. It's a perfect setup for elation and a perfect setup for absolute despair. A 3rd loss to UK this year and this one to end our season is pretty much a nightmare ending. Not to mention it would be 4 in a row we've lost and 6 out of the last 7. Rick seemed to have UK's number for a while but that tide has turned badly. It would be a pretty devastating loss on many fronts.

On top of that it really sucks that even if we win, it's probably going to be a hard fought W that is going to take a lot out of us. Feels a bit like the 2019 SECT where we had the knockout dragout with Kentucky in the semis and then seemingly had nothing left for the championship. That may be less of a factor but it's on my mind.

 

[Chaz-Vol]

Size is another thing they have in spades on us. As you said, Zakai can't be the only one driving the ball because their size and length will eat him up in the paint. We also have to shoot well (respectable, at least) from outside to keep them from clogging driving lanes and sticking to the paint.

You're right, their offense is just good because of how many options they have. They have shooters at every position and 5 guys who all shoot at least 36% from 3. Some combination of three of those guys will be on the floor at all times. By comparison, we have 2 guys shooting >36%, and Mashack is one of them. UK has Oweh and Butler who can drive the ball and shoot well in the mid-range. Gainey and Chaz have to match that ability.

Shooting and size are what give the vols such trouble last couple of matchups. Igor bursting out of his funk would help alleviate a lot on offense.

ZZ a big key too. Two of his worst games this season were against Kentucky. He shot 1-13 against them in 2 games. If he plays even just a decent controlled game vols have much better shot.