The Official #8 Tennessee vs. #12 Kentucky Game Thread, 7:00 PM ET, ESPN

[wmcovol]

Kentucky was without their starting PG, their second string PG, a starting Forward, and had their 7 foot center running point? Who does this?? Gotta give credit to Pope. He coached a helluva game…and their players executed.

NBA guys have a huge advantage over college coaches IF they’ll recruit. Stackhouse coached very well vs Barnes but he wouldn’t recruit.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Ky attempted half as many 3's and still made one more than us, so they did a lot more than shoot 3's.

Making a few helps. Making most of them assures a victory.

 

[hUTch2002]

MAYBE this game was a turning point for Igor. Hopefully he builds off this game and keeps it going.

Offensively anyway. His D wasn’t great tonight.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

We shoot like this and we'll get beat by 60+ in Rupp

We won’t & that won’t happen.

Even as bad as we shot, a flip in the whistle and us settling for 3s when we had plenty of time to catch them with 2s is what they needed to win tonight, despite shooting 50% FG & 3PT.

That was the absolute BEST offensive performance Kentucky could have had and they STILL needed 7 FTs to secure the win.

They didn’t have a made FG in last 5 minutes.

 

[vavolfan6]

You do know they shot very few 3s the second half right? They got the fouls because they went to the basket, something we should’ve tried.

It wouldn't have worked. Refs were hellbent on evening up the foul count and free throws. We were actually being fouled in the first half. But second half, becuase UK fouled us so much more in the 1st half, refs were determined to even things up which led to a 2nd half advantage for UK. We wouldn't have got the calls as evidenced multiple we did drive and no whistle.

 

[LivinginthePast]

We are missing DK drive and take over ability. Thought Chaz would be it but his three pointing has fell off. Nevertheless. Beat Florida and we are still top ten. Kentucky was on fire

 

[Vol737]

I’ll call it like I see it. Barnes has failed to recruit offensive talent, especially in the post.

That’s not a lie.

 

[OrangeInKy]

They shouldn't be ashamed they shot 50% from 3. They should be ashamed they couldn't beat us any other way in any other scenario. That and they needed the refs to even up the foul count and free throw count after half time.

Sign me up for that kind of shame then.

 

[DooleyOrangePants]

Dubar started out right taking to the rack and then he gets pulled. Nobody else was making a serious effort to drive to the hole.

Okpara was standing down in the paint, we never looked at him. Phillips the same thing - and he got pulled for a defensive lapse and we didn’t see him again until late.

One dimensional and even that one dimension is more like half of one.

 

[GBO18]

Offensively anyway. His D wasn’t great tonight.

Just needs points.

 

[whobethis16]

Well, KY shot 22 FT's to our 5 in the 2nd half and their last 7 points were FT's.

Tennessee shot 28 3s in the second half vs the 17 in the first, which means they stopped attacking.

 

[rocketskates]

Kentucky was without their starting PG, their second string PG, a starting Forward, and had their 7 foot center running point? Who does this?? Gotta give credit to Pope. He coached a helluva game…and their players executed.

They live and die by the 3. When they are off, they lose, when they shoot 50% or better they win. I give Pope credit though for completely changing his strategy in the second half and driving to the rim and drawing fouls rather than taking all of the 3s. What’s annoying about a game like this, and the game against Auburn is it can be traced back to one or two key plays.

That’s why each possession is so important, and for the love of all that is holy stop fouling a 3 point shooter when he’s taking a rushed shot and falling back.

 

[VOLATNES]

Think this is bad? Just wait until next year when Barnes is gone as well as everyone else except Phillips, Estrella, and Boswell. Are there enough players in the portal to fill out the roster?

Pope did it.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

NBA guys have a huge advantage over college coaches IF they’ll recruit. Stackhouse coached very well vs Barnes but he wouldn’t recruit.

Mark Pope has never coached in the NBA.

 

[DooleyOrangePants]

I’ll call it like I see it. Barnes has failed to recruit offensive talent, especially in the post.

Yes to some degree. But we don’t even look at the post. We dribble around with 3-4 guys on the perimeter and rush 3’s.

Several times tonight Okpara or Phillips could have been involved or at least looked at for something, but we just kept doing the same old crap.

 

[VOL_Lyfe]

Other than Igor, the rest of the team was 7-37 on threes.

Why???

 

[VOLtaism]

Offensively, we can't shoot the 3 (I mean, not even close; total back-of-the-rim bricks from everyone), we can't drive to the rim and finish or get fouled, and no one can create shots for themselves. I don't know what else you can say. I know they are trying; it's just not there. I understood on the road, but at home, come on! The transfer experiment is a bust; the transfers are not SEC-ready. I don't even have suggestions at this point.

 

[volsarelife1]

Well, KY shot 22 FT's to our 5 in the 2nd half and their last 7 points were FT's.

And we shot 12 to their 2 in the first half. With us jacking up 20 3s. We got the better whistle by far in the first half. And Kentucky got the better whistle the second half

 

[patrick]

Bro, take a break. You've posted the same post 30 times.

30 is an exaggeration but several times but he deserves to wear it.

I have been defending the Bball Vols all season. I call a spade a spade. No excuse for this loss - it’s on Barnes and his team. 40+ three balls. I’m sure Barnes going to talk about Defense.

Equal praise equal criticism.

 

[vavolfan6]

They’re open because we can’t hit them. Who’s open matters.

It was a team effort of missed 3s. ZZ, Chaz, Gainey all shot a ton of 3s. They all had open shots.

But sure, maybe Dubar shouldn't have shot 7 3s.

 

[hUTch2002]

It wouldn't have worked. Refs were hellbent on evening up the foul count and free throws. We were actually being fouled in the first half. But second half, becuase UK fouled us so much more in the 1st half, refs were determined to even things up which led to a 2nd half advantage for UK. We wouldn't have got the calls as evidenced multiple we did drive and no whistle.

Maybe, maybe not. We will never know as we settled for 45 3s. I bet our record against SEC teams when shooting 40+ 3s under Barnes is not good. It’s not worth looking but that’s never been our game under him.

 

[iVolSoHard]

Regarding Barnes' roster strategy - We haven't developed a consistent scorer in-house since 2019. We now have to pray that we hit the lottery out of the transfer portal for at least one alpha scorer every off-season. The rest of the guys typically don't have either that scoring mentality or the ability to do it consistently

 

[Anti-shunshinepumper]

Okpara was standing down in the paint, we never looked at him. Phillips the same thing - and he got pulled for a defensive lapse and we didn’t see him again until late.

One dimensional and even that one dimension is more like half of one.

Dude needs 20 mins every night and just see what happens. They said his D is terrible but he got a nice block and did ok and even got a steal and finish.
We need someone that is looking to score instead of just passing it around

 

[WilliamDuVOL]

Losing to Florida, Vanderbilt, Pearl and Kentucky. Just twists the knife over and over.

Outside of the men's Florida debacle, the men's and women's teams have now lost 8 games this month against mostly ranked teams by an average of like 2.875 points per loss. Absolutely brutal.

 

[UTS4EVR]

We won’t & that won’t happen.

Even as bad as we shot, a flip in the whistle and us settling for 3s when we had plenty of time to catch them with 2s is what they needed to win tonight, despite shooting 50% FG & 3PT.

That was the absolute BEST offensive performance Kentucky could have had and they STILL needed 7 FTs to secure the win.

They didn’t have a made FG in last 5 minutes.

They were also down 2 point guards and a starting forward….with their Center running point. On paper, the Vols should have boat raced them. I’m just curious as to what Pope saw to make him do this. I have to say, I was impressed.