1. You will not see a domination on another top teams court this complete very often. Last time I can remember was the Vols at Texas in Pearl's first year. Pitt is a very, very good basketball team and they are well coached, but Tennessee has just shown that we are one of the best 6 teams in the nation IMO. I was wrong. I predicted 2 losses for this team headed to Kentucky later this season. One of those was at Pitt. Now, I'm thinking this team could be undefeated into February
2. Congratulations to Doug Sirmons and his older, plumper twin out there in stripes -- they did something that isn't often seen. They made a non-Rupp game look like Kentucky was playing at home. Honestly, I have not seen officiating that lopsided in a while. I put this performance up there with the Rupp, Memorial Gym, at Ohio State, Ohio State in the NCAA tourney with Greg Oden, and the road game at Xavier a few years ago. I cannot believe how pro-Pitt two of those refs were the entire game. It was scandalous. When the commentators talk several times about how bad the officiating is, you know it is really bad. If we had unbiased officiating today, that is a 25+ blow-out by the Vols. It really does reinforce how we absolutely dominated Pitt.
3. Here's something else. Jerron Maymon may be our 4the best player. He didn't play today. We could have used Woolridge's size because of the foul trouble. He didn't play today. The refs had Tobias Harris on the bench early on in the first half. And we still destroyed that team. Just an amazing result!
4. Hopson has game. I cautioned folks to stop acting like a Freshman or Sophomore should play like a Junior. Just because Hopson should have been ranked 20th instead of in the top 6 or 7 by most, he has gotten baked on here and other boards. The kid has matured and he is the most dangerous player in this league. Yes, Kentucky has a more talented player, but he's a freshman and will make freshman mistakes. Today, Hopson was dominant offensively from 3 point range, on the dribble drive and on the pull-up. Pitt has some really talented players, but Hopson was the best player on the court today.
5. Melvin Goins closed out -- that is what you want from your PG, but he has got to stop ball-hogging when the clock gets under 10 seconds and he needs to make better decision-making. Nice dunk near the end.
6. Cam Tatum is the most valuable, least hyped player in the SEC. The guy just keeps a dagger in his pocket and pulls it out to shove it into opposing teams periodically throughout the game. He is deadly from three point range when open and has a very underrated drive to the hoop game.
7. Tobias was frustrated today. I think the early BS fouls got him off track and he finally played a PF that knows defense. He also got fouled numerous times going to the hoop without a call -- what a surprise.
8. Jay Bilas was absolute on his game today. Just a few: (a) he destroyed Mike Slive in the freaking marquee game of the Big East/SEC Challenge. He basically called-out Slive for what he is -- a prick who hates Tennessee and is in love with his own power. Wonder how many articles get written about those comments this week. (b) "where do we go to give our 100 dollars and pick up our clipboards because this has been a clinic from Tennessee". Classic. Bilas isn't afraid to share his opinions...obviously. (c) he rode the refs the entire game and for good reason. He never plays nice like many commentators. When the refs are cheating or incompetent, Bilas calls them out. Today, they weren't incompetent.
9. One more game and we are King of the Big East. UConn's wins over Mich State and Kentucky aren't looking as good right now. Oakland almost dropped MSU today. Today's win in the kind of win (along with the Villanova win) that gets you one of those top 8 seeds in March. Cannot be overstated. Maybe the dumbass voters (especially the one from Memphis) can figure out how to get both Pitt and Villanova ahead of the Vols in the next poll.
10. FT shooting. Great job Vols. The refs didn't give us an even shake, but when we did get to the line, we made them count.
11. Rebounding and Defense. This is Pearl's first complete team and Maymon is even going to make it more so. We outrebounded a very good rebounding team. And we have shut down 3 or 4 of the best guards in college BB in this young season. This team can flat-out play defense.
2. Congratulations to Doug Sirmons and his older, plumper twin out there in stripes -- they did something that isn't often seen. They made a non-Rupp game look like Kentucky was playing at home. Honestly, I have not seen officiating that lopsided in a while. I put this performance up there with the Rupp, Memorial Gym, at Ohio State, Ohio State in the NCAA tourney with Greg Oden, and the road game at Xavier a few years ago. I cannot believe how pro-Pitt two of those refs were the entire game. It was scandalous. When the commentators talk several times about how bad the officiating is, you know it is really bad. If we had unbiased officiating today, that is a 25+ blow-out by the Vols. It really does reinforce how we absolutely dominated Pitt.
3. Here's something else. Jerron Maymon may be our 4the best player. He didn't play today. We could have used Woolridge's size because of the foul trouble. He didn't play today. The refs had Tobias Harris on the bench early on in the first half. And we still destroyed that team. Just an amazing result!
4. Hopson has game. I cautioned folks to stop acting like a Freshman or Sophomore should play like a Junior. Just because Hopson should have been ranked 20th instead of in the top 6 or 7 by most, he has gotten baked on here and other boards. The kid has matured and he is the most dangerous player in this league. Yes, Kentucky has a more talented player, but he's a freshman and will make freshman mistakes. Today, Hopson was dominant offensively from 3 point range, on the dribble drive and on the pull-up. Pitt has some really talented players, but Hopson was the best player on the court today.
5. Melvin Goins closed out -- that is what you want from your PG, but he has got to stop ball-hogging when the clock gets under 10 seconds and he needs to make better decision-making. Nice dunk near the end.
6. Cam Tatum is the most valuable, least hyped player in the SEC. The guy just keeps a dagger in his pocket and pulls it out to shove it into opposing teams periodically throughout the game. He is deadly from three point range when open and has a very underrated drive to the hoop game.
7. Tobias was frustrated today. I think the early BS fouls got him off track and he finally played a PF that knows defense. He also got fouled numerous times going to the hoop without a call -- what a surprise.
8. Jay Bilas was absolute on his game today. Just a few: (a) he destroyed Mike Slive in the freaking marquee game of the Big East/SEC Challenge. He basically called-out Slive for what he is -- a prick who hates Tennessee and is in love with his own power. Wonder how many articles get written about those comments this week. (b) "where do we go to give our 100 dollars and pick up our clipboards because this has been a clinic from Tennessee". Classic. Bilas isn't afraid to share his opinions...obviously. (c) he rode the refs the entire game and for good reason. He never plays nice like many commentators. When the refs are cheating or incompetent, Bilas calls them out. Today, they weren't incompetent.
9. One more game and we are King of the Big East. UConn's wins over Mich State and Kentucky aren't looking as good right now. Oakland almost dropped MSU today. Today's win in the kind of win (along with the Villanova win) that gets you one of those top 8 seeds in March. Cannot be overstated. Maybe the dumbass voters (especially the one from Memphis) can figure out how to get both Pitt and Villanova ahead of the Vols in the next poll.
10. FT shooting. Great job Vols. The refs didn't give us an even shake, but when we did get to the line, we made them count.
11. Rebounding and Defense. This is Pearl's first complete team and Maymon is even going to make it more so. We outrebounded a very good rebounding team. And we have shut down 3 or 4 of the best guards in college BB in this young season. This team can flat-out play defense.
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