1. In any organized sport, you play with your strengths. Clearly, the strength of this team is quality depth that opponents do not have. That makes this a marathon, not a sprint. Fans should get used to close first halves that turn into not so close 2nd halves
2. Sometimes a team looks like they are going to bust your game plan, but you have to be patient. Wyoming started 4-7 from Three Point range and would have been 5 for 8 if the PG didn't step on the baseline before they knocked down that 5th one. The ignorant fan screams and pitches a fit, but the serious BB fan just waits. Wyoming proceeded to miss their next 14 three point shots and ended up below their abysmal 21% average. That's game-planning.
3. I liked our defense a lot tonight. Our players were supposed to let Wyoming take three pointers. Them hitting over 50% of those to start, them shooting 17 free throws in the first half, and our guys missing some good shots from the perimeter, had them in this game early.
4. Think about 17 FTs in the first half for Wyoming. These were two teams that liked to run, two teams that shot an equal amount of three pointers, yet we had 19 FTs for the entire game. Need I say that "these refs sucked". I'm not sure I've seen a first half of such poor officiating outside of Memorial Gym or Rupp Arena.
5. JP Prince has turned the light on. He only scored 4 points, but he only attempted 5 shots and he had 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. A very nice game by JP.
6. I thought Scotty also played within himself. He clearly has lost some confidence and it is harming his long-range shot. But he was still 7 of 12 from the field and really hustled on defense. He still needs to hit the glass harder.
7. This was the best game played by our PGs IMO. Probably because of Pearl's scheme and Wyoming's game plan (which basically put the ball in Tyler Smith's hands way too much for them; if a guy is 2nd in the NCAA in assist to turnovers, you probably don't want to game-plan the ball into his hands). Maze and Goins took smart shots. Goins got jobbed on 2 bad charge calls. Their assists were down, but that was because Tyler and JP were handling the ball a lot and between them they had 12 of UT's 18 assists.
8. Brian Williams seems to be improving. I don't know if they have stats on it, but he may lead this team in traditional three point plays.
9. Tyler is struggling a bit at the FT line this year. As much as he handles the ball, that has got to change for us to be successful. If he shoots 75% tonight, the Vols would have shot almost 79% as a team.
10. Some nights you just have a bad shooting night. I thought our guys took some good shots, but we just couldn't get them to go down. Between them, Wayne, Cam, Scotty, and Skyler went 2 for 13 from three point range.
11. This game in the first 20 minutes really came down to things we can't do a lot about. Wyoming's initial hot shooting, the refs' terrible first half, and our cold shooting early made this a lot closer early than it should have been. Sometimes focus has a lot to do with this stuff and I'm sure Wyoming playing a top 10 team helped their focus and us playing another bad team hurt our focus and that can lead to getting cross-ways on both ends of the court where shooting is concerned. Ultimately, however, we ended up shooting 47.6% and they finished at 37.8%. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
12. Ultimately, the jury is still out. 5 of the next 6 games (sorry NC A&T) will tell us whether this team is a legitimate contender for the Final Four or still has too many issues to make that kind of run.
2. Sometimes a team looks like they are going to bust your game plan, but you have to be patient. Wyoming started 4-7 from Three Point range and would have been 5 for 8 if the PG didn't step on the baseline before they knocked down that 5th one. The ignorant fan screams and pitches a fit, but the serious BB fan just waits. Wyoming proceeded to miss their next 14 three point shots and ended up below their abysmal 21% average. That's game-planning.
3. I liked our defense a lot tonight. Our players were supposed to let Wyoming take three pointers. Them hitting over 50% of those to start, them shooting 17 free throws in the first half, and our guys missing some good shots from the perimeter, had them in this game early.
4. Think about 17 FTs in the first half for Wyoming. These were two teams that liked to run, two teams that shot an equal amount of three pointers, yet we had 19 FTs for the entire game. Need I say that "these refs sucked". I'm not sure I've seen a first half of such poor officiating outside of Memorial Gym or Rupp Arena.
5. JP Prince has turned the light on. He only scored 4 points, but he only attempted 5 shots and he had 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. A very nice game by JP.
6. I thought Scotty also played within himself. He clearly has lost some confidence and it is harming his long-range shot. But he was still 7 of 12 from the field and really hustled on defense. He still needs to hit the glass harder.
7. This was the best game played by our PGs IMO. Probably because of Pearl's scheme and Wyoming's game plan (which basically put the ball in Tyler Smith's hands way too much for them; if a guy is 2nd in the NCAA in assist to turnovers, you probably don't want to game-plan the ball into his hands). Maze and Goins took smart shots. Goins got jobbed on 2 bad charge calls. Their assists were down, but that was because Tyler and JP were handling the ball a lot and between them they had 12 of UT's 18 assists.
8. Brian Williams seems to be improving. I don't know if they have stats on it, but he may lead this team in traditional three point plays.
9. Tyler is struggling a bit at the FT line this year. As much as he handles the ball, that has got to change for us to be successful. If he shoots 75% tonight, the Vols would have shot almost 79% as a team.
10. Some nights you just have a bad shooting night. I thought our guys took some good shots, but we just couldn't get them to go down. Between them, Wayne, Cam, Scotty, and Skyler went 2 for 13 from three point range.
11. This game in the first 20 minutes really came down to things we can't do a lot about. Wyoming's initial hot shooting, the refs' terrible first half, and our cold shooting early made this a lot closer early than it should have been. Sometimes focus has a lot to do with this stuff and I'm sure Wyoming playing a top 10 team helped their focus and us playing another bad team hurt our focus and that can lead to getting cross-ways on both ends of the court where shooting is concerned. Ultimately, however, we ended up shooting 47.6% and they finished at 37.8%. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
12. Ultimately, the jury is still out. 5 of the next 6 games (sorry NC A&T) will tell us whether this team is a legitimate contender for the Final Four or still has too many issues to make that kind of run.
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