The Official #5 Tennessee @ Mississippi State Game Thread, 7:00 PM ET, SEC Network

[sportsnut624]

Thought Dillione earned minutes tonight. But they still gave them to Gainey in the second half. Freddie wasn’t perfect, but it looked like he was giving all his effort on defense and gave us more than Gainey was giving us.

Dillione needs all of gaineys minutes. At this point build for the future with him and those minutes.

 

[Jimmyandjoes]

Oh whatever. Lol.

We bodied, reached, pushed, and roughed that dude (Smith) the whole night. He was better, he was more physical, he had good moves and he wanted the ball. We fouled him a lot.

 

[vavolfan6]

Vescovi, JJJ, and Gainey a combined 2-17 FG and 0/10 3pt shooting.

 

[SGidds]

Bottom line.…You can’t give up 50% shooting defensively AND 27 free throws and expect to win, especially on the road. The full court press was a new wrinkle on defense, and I like it, but the halfcourt defense wasn’t good enough. It seemed like Miss St scored in the final 5 seconds of the shot clock several times. And there were several other times where we had defensive rebounds or steals but just couldn’t control the basketball and gave it right back.

Despite all that, we had chances to go ahead in the second half but couldn’t get over the hump (no pun intended). It’s like we were rushing the shots a little too much when we could have taken the lead.

Oh well, we weren’t going to go undefeated in conference play, but we need more Quad 1 wins. 2-4 isn’t great.

 

[D3Athlete]

Can not lose to UGA this weekend tho. That would be a bad lose and cause concern.

 

[Hbg]

The most frustrating part of the game for me is JJJ and SV performance. Being super seniors, they should be the most reliable players, especially on the road. They always seem to disappear, from an offensive standpoint, when they are needed the most.

Be careful, you will get roasted for comments like these. I speak from experience.

 

[hatingbamaisawayoflife]

We had a chance to move up possibly 3-4. With this loss we will move down to #17
Miss St isn’t that great.

Maybe 8

 

[walkenvol]

Only 10/16 on free throws and at least one was the front end of a 1&1. To even be close missing that many freebies along with just a combined 5 points between JJJ, SV,& Mashack is surprising. If we can’t get 8+ out of both JJJ and SV then we’re probably gonna have a tough night.

And maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like every time the ball took a weird bounce it would go straight to a Miss State guy? Oh well, didn’t expect to win them all but that was sure disappointing. Put it behind us and go get the next one.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Oh, wow, Alabama's next Saturday. Got the dates conflated.

Not a good luck, boo…

 

[Jimmyandjoes]

Horse $hit call that changed the outcome of the game.

Didn't we immediately score after that play?

 

[aWhiteLoftonChism]

We did ourselves no favors with that turd of a first half, but I'm not sure what's a foul anymore. At least dalton seems to have located his mojo.

If Dalton can play and produce in as physical as that game was then we know he’s tough enough for anyone.

 

[LibertyVol]

Forget the rankings. This is such a bad loss that Danny White will probably cancel the rest of our team’s season.

I wouldn’t go that far. But I think we know how it is going to turn out. 12 and 6 give or take one. And at best a sweet 16. Not complaining. Just the way it is.

 

[JCP201]

We are a second half team. Need to get that mojo in the first half. I hate losing.

 

[joevols89]

Honestly the biggest ref blunder was were Tolu Smith tripped up ZZ on a loose ball he had causing the ball to go back to MSU. Tolu Smith then proceeded to knock down an and 1.

 

[Dougie_D]

…I’m thinking this is a little extreme.

Not really. The best we can end up is 12-4
There’s teams can end up 14-2.
Plus with KS and Purdue losing doesn’t help us. They will both drop out of top 5 now

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Says it all. Two-man show tonight. Everyone else disappeared.

 

[walkenvol]

The biggest concern I had in the offseason is proving to be our biggest issue. We cannot defend any team with an above average 5. It’s time to start giving Estrella more minutes because we cannot count on aidoo and awaka to stay out of foul trouble with teams that have posts that can play. We need a third big man in the rotation.

Smith wasn’t our biggest problem, their 5’-10” freshman was their high scorer. Why did ZZZ and the other guards leave him free so much?

 

[hUTch2002]

Tough to be a top 5 team this week. Purdue, Houston, Tennessee and Kansas all lose.

Wow. Kansas has a sizable lead too.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Vescovi, JJJ, and Gainey a combined 2-17 FG and 0/10 3pt shooting.

Yep. That was a problem.

 

[Dougie_D]

Maybe 8

No way that a 12-4 team ranks 8

 

[minorvol]

It was a reasonable assessment. No SEC title for these guys. They just don’t have it in the clutch. I will take another sweet 16. And will not complain about that.

Same. But I’m not giving up yet. When they play to their potential they can beat anyone. Maybe, just maybe they get hot at the right time this year.

 

[hUTch2002]

tied or within a bucket several times at the end but couldn't take the lead. Both teams only had 2 players that were going to take the shot. We couldn't stop theirs and they stopped ours. That was the difference. Beat Georgia and then we head back home.

Yeah that freshman guard they have is a baller.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I HATE DJ Jeffries, he’s a bigger Mashack and just is always a problem when we play the dogs.

 

[Chaz-Vol]

The big through line with most of vols loses are Aidoo/Awaka getting eaten up by elite big men. They have gotta be better getting to avoid getting bullied without fouling. Both JJJ and Vescovi no-showing made it exponentially more difficult game to win and would not have been close if not for Herculean performances from ZZ and Knecht.

 

[hUTch2002]

We bodied, reached, pushed, and roughed that dude (Smith) the whole night. He was better, he was more physical, he had good moves and he wanted the ball. We fouled him a lot.

We did but the part that’s crap is he fouled us a lot too and didn’t get called like we did. Not why we lost but typical officiating these days.