The Official #16 Tennessee @ #23 Arkansas Gam Thread, 4:00 PM ET, ESPN

[Franklin_Vol09]

1- He drove and was called for two charges.
2- Besides Aidoo, our 4/5 scored nothing.
3- Plav is so bad they actually left him unguarded at the elbow for ten minutes. No threat. Fulkerson needs to be healthy and draw fouls.

He also had a clear lane to drive on several occasions and didn’t.

 

[Rocky Volboa]

I almost felt like he was trying too hard to not be homering for UT by going too pro-Arkansas.

Just once I would love to see a TN guy be a homer on national tv. I mean ESPN would probably fire him but I would love it.

 

[jim43]

We played badly, but, I believe a lot of it was caused by our players realizing they had to be extra cautious. The rules are different in Arkansas. For instance, if our guys breath out while waiting on a driving player for Arkansas, it is a block.

On the other hand, Arkansas draws the charge if they move to the right or left by less than 3 1/2 feet.
Our team was taken out of its game while Arkansas was given free reign.

Those striped shirt guys were not an officiating crew; they were enforcers of the Arkansas Mafia.

 

[Persian Vol]

Late to the party but why was Vescovi getting booed?

 

[Creeker]

Late to the party but why was Vescovi getting booed?

Just a thing Arkansas does, they boo the highest scorer on the other team anytime they touch the ball. There’s a Twitter page dedicated too it.

 

[TooLegit2Quit]

Late to the party but why was Vescovi getting booed?

 

[Volfan1000]

We played badly, but, I believe a lot of it was caused by our players realizing they had to be extra cautious. The rules are different in Arkansas. For instance, if our guys breath out while waiting on a driving player for Arkansas, it is a block.

On the other hand, Arkansas draws the charge if they move to the right or left by less than 3 1/2 feet.
Our team was taken out of its game while Arkansas was given free reign.

Those striped shirt guys were not an officiating crew; they were enforcers of the Arkansas Mafia.

Tony Soprano gets interested in basketball games.

 

[walkenvol]

I used to throw my Nintendo, Sega and PlayStation controllers and they would bounce off of the old TVs, but they were hosses. All I did was throw a 2 AA battery remote control against the TV. Like I said, back in the olden days, my TV would have broken the remote control. Just another example of me, becoming an old man, that acts like a dumba$$, occasionally (yeah right, half the time).

Dumb me - I thought weed mellowed you out and brought on the munchies?

 

[MoCo_Vol]

There is a reason we hadn’t won there since 2009, tough loss we shot poorly and officiating was lopsided.

Auburn getting upset by Florida keeps us in striking distance. Hopefully we don’t lose another game, should be favored the rest of the way.

 

[walkenvol]

And JJJ, if he shoots 50%+ and gets 15+

Boy - did I overestimate JJJ or what? I truly thought him and Fulky had turned the corner but apparently not.

 

[vavolfan6]

There is a reason we hadn’t won there since 2009, tough loss we shot poorly and officiating was lopsided.

Auburn getting upset by Florida keeps us in striking distance. Hopefully we don’t lose another game, should be favored the rest of the way.

And how many times have we actually played them on their court since 2009? I thought that stat was overblown

 

[Volprofch05]

And how many times have we actually played them on their court since 2009? I thought that stat was overblown

Looks like we've lost there last 7 times:

University of Tennessee Athletics Men's Basketball History vs University of Arkansas

 

[rdk4121]

Eh, we'll probably destroy them at home, just like Kentucky and LSU. Is what it is, hopefully they can teach SEC refs what a "blocking" foul is.

 

[EasternVol]

Offensive strategy and execution are not strengths of Barnes' coaching. Probably why his teams have never had any great success in the NCAA tournament.

The Vols FG percentage was 27% in the 1st half and 27% in the 2nd half. One wonders if there was any effective offensive execution anytime in the game.

He's won a lot of games with his style of play but there appears to be a limit on what his teams can achieve offensively in tournament play.

The strategy was there, we just missed a whole lot of open looks.

 

[EasternVol]

I don’t know what pissed me off worse the refs or Dane Bradshaw. I get not being a homer but he was slobbering all over Arkansas every chance he got today.

I guess they're told to do it but it's irritating to hear announcers try to cover for bad officiating. Bradshaw's 'that's a good charge call on Chandler', etc. song and dance was lame,

 

[SmokeyLives]

On the road you have to play great D, get offensive rebounds, make shots at the rim, and make your free throws. A higher shooting % helps obviously. But when you’re team plays great defense and that’s it, you’re done. To me, that’s the Tennessee dilemma.

 

[SonOfGodVolforlife]

On the road you have to play great D, get offensive rebounds, make shots at the rim, and make your free throws. A higher shooting % helps obviously. But when you’re team plays great defense and that’s it, you’re done. To me, that’s the Tennessee dilemma.

Our defense keeps us in the game for sure. We need our guys n the post to step up and take some pressure off the guards. If the inside game gets better you’ll start seeing more kick outs and hopefully the shots fall.
If not then guys down low gotta step up.

 

[walkenvol]

And JJJ, if he shoots 50%+ and gets 15+

Boy - did I overestimate JJJ or what? I truly thought him and Fulky had turned the corner but apparently not.

 

[ColinS]

And how many times have we actually played them on their court since 2009? I thought that stat was overblown

It's a very home dominated series. We have to hold our serve next time.

 

[kckempf]

He also had a clear lane to drive on several occasions and didn’t.

One of my bones to pick on those charges is that more than once someone would drive, and while they were in the air a defender would move in front of them to draw the charge. It's completely against the concept of the foul, which is supposed to reward defenders for staying in front of their marks. So what looks like an open lane isn't, because someone is going to undercut you and draw the charge.

On the other side, Jay Bilas recently wrote about defenders not being penalized for checking and diverting cutters, and Arkansas is one of the worst defenders. Fulkerson embellished one of their checks and drew a call, and I literally stood up to clap.

Saying that we could have won the game in spite of the way it was called is not a rebuttal of the fact that it was called poorly, in such a way as to make it hard to watch. NCAA needs to think about what kind of basketball they want us to see, and whether they can remain competitive for developing players when they have other options that are officiated more like NBA games.

 

[patrick]

We’ve made the SECT Championship game 2 of the past 3.

Can that be put on a T-Shirt?

 

[patrick]

One of my bones to pick on those charges is that more than once someone would drive, and while they were in the air a defender would move in front of them to draw the charge. It's completely against the concept of the foul, which is supposed to reward defenders for staying in front of their marks. So what looks like an open lane isn't, because someone is going to undercut you and draw the charge.

On the other side, Jay Bilas recently wrote about defenders not being penalized for checking and diverting cutters, and Arkansas is one of the worst defenders. Fulkerson embellished one of their checks and drew a call, and I literally stood up to clap.

Saying that we could have won the game in spite of the way it was called is not a rebuttal of the fact that it was called poorly, in such a way as to make it hard to watch. NCAA needs to think about what kind of basketball they want us to see, and whether they can remain competitive for developing players when they have other options that are officiated more like NBA games.

it’s really hard to watch and the NCAA is losing viewers allowing this style of play to continue. There are few bball watchers who watch the game because they love to watch defense.

Frankly it isn’t even defense. It is literally a foul fest - hand checking - riding a ball - handler down the court - etc. is not basketball. It’s just plain bad.

 

[BreatheUT]

TBA will be fired up after this hose job. I think we get payback just like we did to UK.

I don't think the refs were in the tank for Arkansas but I think it was one of the more puzzling called games all year. There were some bad calls on both sides but the most impactful were the slew of bad charging/non charging calls Williams got over and over. For instance, Chandler drives jumps away from Williams but they call charging. It should've been a blocking call if anything but it also potentially nullified an "and 1". Meanwhile Williams drives, knees Fulky in the gut and no call. Fulky goes down which frees up Arkansas for the offensive rebound and put back. Those are just two of the examples that were tough to overcome on a bad shooting night and Williams looking like an automatic charge in the lane.

 

[volsagain]

Shooting 27%, I doubt it. They didn't help but it wouldn't have mattered

Some of the bad calls were on made baskets, taken away on charger calls which in turn put us in foul trouble and lost minutes for our best players.

 

[Lankykong]

it’s really hard to watch and the NCAA is losing viewers allowing this style of play to continue. There are few bball watchers who watch the game because they love to watch defense.

Frankly it isn’t even defense. It is literally a foul fest - hand checking - riding a ball - handler down the court - etc. is not basketball. It’s just plain bad.

I love defense and that was still bad