Tony B Show: Do the Vols feel top 5?

#101
#101
I believe this team will compete for a SEC Championship, that’s about all I can say. This team played 3 teams in the top ten and lost all three (admittedly against two of the very best). Hopefully we’ll never see them again this year.

But I can’t see anybody that is in the SEC that is better than us. This is gonna be a real fun year.
Maybe if the cards break just right, we’ll be celebrating an SEC Championship and Elite Eight (or higher) Run come March time.

As for feeling top five… more like top ten. To be Top 5, we would have needed to have beaten one or two of the big boys we lost to.
 
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#102
#102
TheMookieMonster said:
I mean….how many other teams have 10-12 guys they trust to close out and win a “must win game”. Not many. That’s not the point I was really trying to make though.

To your point, most teams are going to run 7-8 man rotations in tournament play, and I can’t think of many teams out there that have a better 7-8 than our 7-8.

You yourself just listed that we have 7 guys you trust. So, which is it? You don’t trust out depth in tournament play, or you do? Because if it’s our 8-10 guys you worry about I would struggle to think of many teams who trust the 8-10 bench pieces in crunch time. And honestly if you’re having to rely on 8-10 for anything more than a handful of breather minutes in tournament play, you’re in trouble anyway.
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I clearly said that I don’t trust it in tournament play. As I said earlier, as a team we burn a lot more energy milking the shot clock on offense and trying to keep pressure on the ball on defense than just about every other team. I’m sure you’ve watched enough games to have heard that we play harder defense than most. If not, I’m not sure what you’re doing here.
 
#103
#103
adam.vol said:
I clearly said that I don’t trust it in tournament play. As I said earlier, as a team we burn a lot more energy milking the shot clock on offense and trying to keep pressure on the ball on defense than just about every other team. I’m sure you’ve watched enough games to have heard that we play harder defense than most. If not, I’m not sure what you’re doing here.
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Barnes has often said/claimed he wants them to run and push it offensively. He also expects tough defense, not almost always, but absolutely always. I'm certain it sometimes thwarts efficient offense. He doesn't give 2 facks. That's the way you play the game. It's one reason why parents who played at the highest levels steer their offspring to coaches like Barnes
 
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#104
#104
jeff1vol said:
IDC what other teams do. Teams that will be around at the end of the tourney don't go through scoring droughts like we do. If you don't want to take my word for it... fine. A 4 min scoring drought, against a GOOD team, will equal getting blown out or giving a team you have on the ropes an opportunity for a huge comeback. That's just basketball. Are you saying we don't have unusually long scoring droughts? If so, I don't know what team you're watching.
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How can you qualify our scoring droughts as “unusual” if you don’t care enough about other teams to watch or give support to your argument? If you only care about UT, these should be the most usual droughts in basketball.
 
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#105
#105
adam.vol said:
I clearly said that I don’t trust it in tournament play. As I said earlier, as a team we burn a lot more energy milking the shot clock on offense and trying to keep pressure on the ball on defense than just about every other team. I’m sure you’ve watched enough games to have heard that we play harder defense than most. If not, I’m not sure what you’re doing here.
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No, I know what you said. You said you don’t trust Tennessee beyond our first 7 players and said that because of this we have a depth issue in tournament play.

What I’m saying is that in tournament play, most teams are shrinking the rotation and only playing 7-8 guys anyway. So, if you trust the 7 guys that you named, how is it that we have a depth issue compared to other teams? Because very few are going deep into the bench and playing the 9-12 guys anyway in March.

My original point is that I personally think depth is a strength of ours. In the rare situation in March where you might be getting minutes from your guys that are 9-12, I really don’t think there is a team out there except the obvious 1-seeds who have a 9-12 clearly better than us.
 
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#106
#106
berryvol said:
How can you qualify our scoring droughts as “unusual” if you don’t care enough about other teams to watch or give support to your argument? If you only care about UT, these should be the most usual droughts in basketball.
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As spot on as this post is, it's useless with this guy. He's much more interested in telling us why the Vols will lose instead of mixing positive and negative critiques into an analysis of the team. Those intermittent sections of trees block his view
 
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#107
#107
chuckiepoo said:
Didn’t they generate some rando stat within the past few years, 10+ point runs, and didn’t we stack up well with the contenders by that metric? Just curious if you recall.
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The Chuckster referred to it as “Spurtability”…what a perv… 🤣

blog.evanmiya.com

The Power of The 10-0 Run

The scoring metric that measures "spurtability" and what it means for all 68 tournament teams
blog.evanmiya.com blog.evanmiya.com

IMG_4974.jpeg
 
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#108
#108
From what I watched last night….no, but 3 pt shooting was off. I don’t think they will be off like that Saturday, but I wish they could just take the damn ball to the hole and play aggressive like Knecht does. James should be attacking the basket. I like what I see in the kid Estrella (sp?). He’s not afraid to get physical and go to the basket. We need to get more easy buckets and fouls than having to rely on the three.
 
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#109
#109
I think Tennessee has really, really great depth and that should pay dividends when March rolls around and other teams lose one or two key players and fold.
 
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#111
#111
K-town Vol Fan said:
Is it? Even if we lose in the round of 32? I guess that's where our opinion differs and that makes me a casual.
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If you can’t appreciate a regular season SEC championship title, that’s dumb, I’m sorry. This sport is so much more than just the NCAA Tournament.

How many SEC basketball titles do we have? Only 4 titles since 1980 and only 1 of them is outright. Winning an SEC championship is 100% delivering.
 
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#113
#113
TheMookieMonster said:
If you can’t appreciate a regular season SEC championship title, that’s dumb, I’m sorry. This sport is so much more than just the NCAA Tournament.

How many SEC basketball titles do we have? Only 4 titles since 1980 and only 1 of them is outright. Winning an SEC championship is 100% delivering.
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Not saying I wouldn't appreciate it, that would be fantastic. But to follow it up with a sweet 16 loss would be disappointing
 
#114
#114
K-town Vol Fan said:
Not saying I wouldn't appreciate it, that would be fantastic. But to follow it up with a sweet 16 loss would be disappointing
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That’s just March. Most teams are going home disappointed, and the vast majority of the P5 teams will go home without any sort of championship to ease the pain.

An SEC regular season title outright with a S16 appearance would probably go down as one of the best seasons, if not the best, in TN basketball history.
 
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#116
#116
BernardKingGOAT said:
Barnes has often said/claimed he wants them to run and push it offensively. He also expects tough defense, not almost always, but absolutely always. I'm certain it sometimes thwarts efficient offense. He doesn't give 2 facks. That's the way you play the game. It's one reason why parents who played at the highest levels steer their offspring to coaches like Barnes
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Which former NBA players are you referring to as the parents?

I can think of Woodward sending his son to play for Bruce Pearl.
 
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#117
#117
TheMookieMonster said:
No, I know what you said. You said you don’t trust Tennessee beyond our first 7 players and said that because of this we have a depth issue in tournament play.

What I’m saying is that in tournament play, most teams are shrinking the rotation and only playing 7-8 guys anyway. So, if you trust the 7 guys that you named, how is it that we have a depth issue compared to other teams? Because very few are going deep into the bench and playing the 9-12 guys anyway in March.

My original point is that I personally think depth is a strength of ours. In the rare situation in March where you might be getting minutes from your guys that are 9-12, I really don’t think there is a team out there except the obvious 1-seeds who have a 9-12 clearly better than us.
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I’m not trying to dispute what other teams are doing. With how our team is trying to compete, we need a deep bench.

Aren’t we talking about whether we belong among the top 5 teams? I don’t think we’re among the top if we aren’t beating the other teams with our feet. We have always been out matched in size by Kansas, Purdue, Duke, UNC, Gonzaga.. etc. Our speed and hustle are a compromise, not an advantage against the blue bloods.
 
#118
#118
I think the upside is there to be a top 5 team, but currently do not think we are deserving of the ranking. We are a deep team, but haven't seemed to put all the pieces together correctly to reach our full potential.

We are essentially outmanning the opponent and are looking a different direction for production every game. Knecht who was comsistent to start out the year looks to have slowed down a bit. I'm curious to see how we do in SEC play and if we are able to string together some road wins. If we do, I'll be more inclined to think we deserve to be top 5.
 
#119
#119
I don't think we are a Top 5 team yet but win the next 7 games including beating Ole Miss and Alabama at Thompson Boling arena, take a tough one on the road against Miss State and take care of Georgia, Florida, Vandy and South Carolina....then we can claim to be a Top 5 team. All winnable games before we head to Lexington on 2/3rd.
 
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#120
#120
Namorto1 said:
I don't think we are a Top 5 team yet but win the next 7 games including beating Ole Miss and Alabama at Thompson Boling arena, take a tough one on the road against Miss State and take care of Georgia, Florida, Vandy and South Carolina....then we can claim to be a Top 5 team. All winnable games before we head to Lexington on 2/3rd.
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That's my prediction, 17-3, 7-0 in the SEC going into Rupp
 
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#121
#121
tennesseecoyote said:
I believe this team will compete for a SEC Championship, that’s about all I can say. This team played 3 teams in the top ten and lost all three (admittedly against two of the very best). Hopefully we’ll never see them again this year.

But I can’t see anybody that is in the SEC that is better than us. This is gonna be a real fun year.
Maybe if the cards break just right, we’ll be celebrating an SEC Championship and Elite Eight (or higher) Run come March time.

As for feeling top five… more like top ten. To be Top 5, we would have needed to have beaten one or two of the big boys we lost to.
Click to expand...
As much as it pains me to say this, I think Kentucky can match our depth. if they get the other 7 footer ruled eligible they will have a 9-10 players to play without much drop off. I really hope we can win the regular season conference championship so they finish behind us. Their fans already feel they are a lock for the final four and will win the SEC. The fire coach CAL talk has died down some but let them stumble in the conference and they will turn on him again. Go to rupps rafters and read some of their fans comments. by the way they feel we are way overrated and we will finish somewhere between third or fourth in the conference and of course they will walk away with the title. Kentucky fans are the worst!
 
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