What we are getting with Barton

[Spartacavolus]

Watch Barton's highlights

-better/crisper passer, better vision, better ballhandler-can go hard to the rim with either hand-, better in the open court, quicker defender, quicker hands.

He will be able to penetrate and draw the D, if CM is able to learn to coach spacing.

 

[bwings]

That's all we want, consistency from him.

Ill take 8pts 3ast every night if he's playing tough D and bringing consistent effort. Sure trae scores more, but what he gave up defensively kind off offset his offensive production.

Like you said in one post.......he's primarily a SG but he has played the 1, especially in his first two years before Geron Johnson and before they moved Crawford to PG for a while. I think he did a good job running the point. He has to become more of a pass first rather than shoot first guard. I'm sure that won't be tough to pick up again. He is a good 3 point shooter when you need it.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Those who question his ability...look no further than his performance in 4 games against Tennessee in his career.

 

[TBtheGBwiththeTD]

I agree with the majority of this, sans the last sentence.

Barton shot 40% from the 3-point line last season and is a career 41.6% shooter from there. Golden shot 29.5% last season and is a career 32.6% shooter from the 3-point line. ~10% difference is a pretty sizeable gap.

I doubt we ever see any of the 1-10, 2-12 type clunkers from Barton that we saw from Golden. If for no other reason, he just won't be asked to shoulder that type of offensive load IMO.

The reason i said this is Golden attempted way more. Barton is a shoot it if your open only kind of guy. Golden forced many 3's that hurt his percentage. When he was open he was our second most reliable long range guy. (Behind McRae)

 

[GoobieVol]

Barton is a little quicker than Golden and a little better shooter from the field. His free throw shooting has been bad hopefully that will change. Golden was a better assist man and could probably get to the rim better. Overall I think it is about an even swap.

Good point guy. In all the excitment to land a decent pg, I forgot the clutch free throw shooting Trae did actually bring to the table. I hope like you said, that Barton can improve on that. IMO free throws are similar to a golf swing. The more repetitions the better. And hoping seeing more minutes, thus more attempts, his confidence will go up. And we will have a go to at the end of close games.

 

[volsbrock]

Barton isn't replacing Golden. Golden's been gone. He's replacing what might have been a freshman starting at PG. We now have a PG with plenty of D1 experience, solid on O, plays strong D and gives Thompson time to grow into that role. With this strong team surrounding him he just has to do what he's clearly capable of for us to have a really good year. Love the pick up

 

[bleedingTNorange]

The reason i said this is Golden attempted way more. Barton is a shoot it if your open only kind of guy. Golden forced many 3's that hurt his percentage. When he was open he was our second most reliable long range guy. (Behind McRae)

That's not entirely true.

Last year:

Golden played 940 minutes and attempted 95 3's. That's one 3pt attempt every 9.9 minutes.

Barton played 433 minutes and attempted 70 3's. That's one 3pt attempt every 6.1 minutes.

 

[cncchris33]

The reason i said this is Golden attempted way more. Barton is a shoot it if your open only kind of guy. Golden forced many 3's that hurt his percentage. When he was open he was our second most reliable long range guy. (Behind McRae)

True, but on a team that couldn't collectively throw it in the ocean, that's not saying much. It's as much an indictment of how bad a shooting team we were as it is a ringing endoresement for Trae's shooting ability. I agree though. Barton will be asked to do less offensively and will likely shoulder less of an offensive scoring load.

 

[TBtheGBwiththeTD]

That's not entirely true.

Last year:

Golden played 940 minutes and attempted 95 3's. That's one 3pt attempt every 9.9 minutes.

Barton played 433 minutes and attempted 70 3's. That's one 3pt attempt every 6.1 minutes.

Stupid facts...

Haha, I am only going off a few highlight videos, as i don't watch memphis BBall unless they play UT, but it seemed like Barton's offensive role was find the open man and shoot the open jumper. It just seems to me that he was in a friendlier situation as far as nurturing percentages. We all know Trae was both asked to do a lot and he probably took some lazy jumpers that hurt his stats.

Regardless, Barton can clearly be effective in a open shooter role. That is what we need from him. If he can help stretch the D, it will open up the middle... And when the middle is open for the guys we have... Holy Cow will we be effective.

 

[darkgable]

Barton brings three things:

1) Great outside shooting

2) Great, hard nosed defense

3) More consistency

Barton can't break down a defense like Golden nor can he pass like Golden. I'd say ball handling is about the same. But he'll be more consistent and better defense. Tough to say it's an immediate upgrade, but he will replace Golden's production.

Actually AB is a better passer. I don't know what you're watching. And he can drive to the basket he just prefers to pull up and shoot or he breaks down the defense and passes to the big man left standing wide open. He's twice the player Golden is.
He's a baller with an attitude. Trae who?

 

[VolGee4]

Not so sure on Golden as a passer. He was pretty decent in transition I guess, rare as that opportunity was for this team. He was lousy (as was the rest of the team save for McBee) at feeding the post though. Perhaps the absence of Maymon may have led to that as well?

To be honest, he was a bad decision maker in transition. I swear many times he tried to take it himself when he had an easy pass. He would sometimes get bailed out with a foul. I have always thought his decision making was poor. That probably comes from being a score-first guard. But, I can't tell you how many times I screamed at the tv because of his decisions.

 

[Volfan2012]

To be honest no one really knows what Barton can accomplish in a full season he was usually a backup or played on the wing. He was injured most of one season. I think he will be better and have better stats simply because of additional playing time. I think he can match Golden's numbers and hopefully be a little more consistent game by game doing it.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Stupid facts...

Haha, I am only going off a few highlight videos, as i don't watch memphis BBall unless they play UT, but it seemed like Barton's offensive role was find the open man and shoot the open jumper. It just seems to me that he was in a friendlier situation as far as nurturing percentages. We all know Trae was both asked to do a lot and he probably took some lazy jumpers that hurt his stats.

Regardless, Barton can clearly be effective in a open shooter role. That is what we need from him. If he can help stretch the D, it will open up the middle... And when the middle is open for the guys we have... Holy Cow will we be effective.

Oh there's no doubt Barton's level of difficulty on his shots was much easier than Golden's and I'm sure that helped his %. As you stated though, that's all we need though, take and bit the open 3 ball, and he's proven to be pretty good at that.

 

[VolGee4]

To be honest no one really knows what Barton can accomplish in a full season he was usually a backup or played on the wing. He was injured most of one season. I think he will be better and have better stats simply because of additional playing time. I think he can match Golden's numbers and hopefully be a little more consistent game by game doing it.

As this thread started, he had several clutch moments at Memphis. I still follow them some, but I don't watch all of their games. He hit some clutch shots, and he had a big tournament game in 2011.

With him getting more minutes, I expect him to be pretty good.

 

[SlyStone]

That's all we want, consistency from him.

Ill take 8pts 3ast every night if he's playing tough D and bringing consistent effort. Sure trae scores more, but what he gave up defensively kind off offset his offensive production.

Barton brings lateral quickness that Trae didn't have. Also, Barton can push the ball up court much faster than Trae. I still recall Trae chasing Joe Jackson in a cloud of smoke up court. Trae brought physicality at the point and when "on" could knock down the outside J. Watching the Tigers I often felt that A Barton might have been better at point than Joe Jackson. Pastner in his infinite wisdom was determined to have Joe Jackson as the PG for that team. Either way this is or could be a blessing for the Vols. Barton does bring experience so this is a good trade off.

 

[RationalThinker]

As a Memphis Tiger basketball fan i think there is a need to change leadership. Asap!

No. Just no.

 

[cncchris33]

To be honest, he was a bad decision maker in transition. I swear many times he tried to take it himself when he had an easy pass. He would sometimes get bailed out with a foul. I have always thought his decision making was poor. That probably comes from being a score-first guard. But, I can't tell you how many times I screamed at the tv because of his decisions.

No doubt he made some silly decisions in transition that mostly were a product of not passing to the open man. I'm speaking more to the times when he did pass it vs taking it himself. He was a decent passer in transition, but a very marginal to bad passer from a set play in the halfcourt.

As you said, perhaps another product of being a SG playing PG.

 

[PMC2726]

[/U]

I think it's a mistake to immediately assume Barton will be better than Golden. Golden was a proven commodity (for better and for worse) at the SEC level whereas Barton was a backup on a talented but underachieving Memphis team that played in CUSA. At times, Golden was an excellent player for UT and, at other times, he really struggled. In all honesty, I wish he was still on the team. What can be said, however, is that, under the circumstances, CCM went out and filled a huge need with a senior PG who is talented, seems to be more athletic and a better outside shooter than Golden, and, because of the circumstances and his talent, was a perfect match for UT. It is truly a great match for player and program and I hope Barton and UT are ready for a Sweet Sixteen, or deeper, tournament run.

I think it would be a mistake to immediately assume that in the SEC Golden faced tougher competition than Barton faced in the C-USA, if that's your point. When you set emotion aside, from top to bottom, C-USA has been just as good as the SEC during Barton's eligibility. The best indicator of that (in my book) is head-to-head match-ups. Barton has had 3 years of eligibility, so here's a look at the last 3 years of head-to-head match-ups b/w conference USA and the SEC (yes, I know he didn't really play last year):

'12 -'13: 3-3 tie
UCF vs. UF L 66-79
UM vs. UT W 85-80
SMiss vs. UGA W 62-60
Tulane vs Bama W 53-50
Marsh vs UK L 54-82
Utep vs Vandy L 49-73

'11 -'12: 4-3 C-USA
Houston vs ARK W 87-78
Houston vs LSU L 58-59
UM vs. UT W 99-97
UM vs. UT W 69-51
S.Miss vs. Ole L 48-50
UAB vs. UF L 61-79
UTEP vs. Aub W 83-76

'10-'11: 4-4 tie
Houston vs. LSU L 73-75
UCF vs. UF W 57-54
UM vs LSU W 70-61
UM vs. UT L 84-104
Rice vs LSU W 74-68
S.Miss vs Ole L 57-75
UAB vs Ark W 70-65
UAB vs UGA L 66-64

If you still believe Golden somehow faced tougher conference competition, look at some of Memphis's non-conference schedule during Barton's time there. He's had plenty of time during his 2+ years of playing time to be considered a "proven commodity":

'10-'11:
Miami
LSU
Kansas
Georgetown
Tennessee
Gonzaga
Arizona

'11-'12
Michigan
Tennessee (x2)
Georgetown (x2)
Miami
Murray State
Louisville
Xavier
St Louis

FWIW, compare that to the big guns on UT's non-conference schedule:

'10-'11
VCU
Nova
Pitt
Oakland
Uconn
Michigan

'11-'12
Duke
Memphis (x2)
Oakland
Pitt
Uconn

 

[Volitorial]

He is college graduate (well, sorta), he is quick, a solid defender and is a winner and wants to remain one, given his choice to transfer to UT, because you know those boys way over there were all up in his ear to not do exactly that. I wonder how his brother really feels about him playing for the enemy.

 

[darkgable]

Barton brings lateral quickness that Trae didn't have. Also, Barton can push the ball up court much faster than Trae. I still recall Trae chasing Joe Jackson in a cloud of smoke up court. Trae brought physicality at the point and when "on" could knock down the outside J. Watching the Tigers I often felt that A Barton might have been better at point than Joe Jackson. Pastner in his infinite wisdom was determined to have Joe Jackson as the PG for that team. Either way this is or could be a blessing for the Vols. Barton does bring experience so this is a good trade off.

That's what boggles the mind. Barton is just as good a PG as JJ but he got that Mtown lean. Barton however stayed humble and loyal and got his degree. He has alot to prove to himself. He is the kind of PG that Zo has been wanting since the beginning and now he's got him. We get to see what a true Cuonzo Martin team looks like. A good tough blue collar team. I love it.

 

[darkgable]

He is college graduate (well, sorta), he is quick, a solid defender and is a winner and wants to remain one, given his choice to transfer to UT, because you know those boys way over there were all up in his ear to not do exactly that. I wonder how his brother really feels about him playing for the enemy.

His brother was the one that broke the news. He's proud of him.

 

[Volitorial]

His brother was the one that broke the news. He's proud of him.

I believe he supports his decision, as a man, but no way he's "proud" of him. I think the fact he broke the news says it all. "Fine, go to UT, but I'm spilling it, immediately, so I can get all the bs out of the way, ASAP."

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I believe he supports his decision, as a man, but no way he's "proud" of him. I think the fact he broke the news says it all. "Fine, go to UT, but I'm spilling it, immediately, so I can get all the bs out of the way, ASAP."

Have you seen what Will has said?

He's been talking to Jarnell and Jordan, telling them to show out this year. Will has said he'll be in Knoxville for games, and ones he can't make he will be watching. I believe Will is very excited to see Antonio get a chance to play 30 minutes a game.

 

[Volitorial]

Have you seen what Will has said?

He's been talking to Jarnell and Jordan, telling them to show out this year. Will has said he'll be in Knoxville for games, and ones he can't make he will be watching. I believe Will is very excited to see Antonio get a chance to play 30 minutes a game.

I have not seen those exchanges. Apparently, he's a bigger man than I. Are you sure he went to Memphis?

 

[PMC2726]

That's what boggles the mind. Barton is just as good a PG as JJ but he got that Mtown lean. Barton however stayed humble and loyal and got his degree. He has alot to prove to himself. He is the kind of PG that Zo has been wanting since the beginning and now he's got him. We get to see what a true Cuonzo Martin team looks like. A good tough blue collar team. I love it.

AB will be a great addition to UT. But do you really think Pastner would play an inferior player? Do you think Memphis fans would stop filling seats if a Memphis kid didn't get the nod? Do you really think it would have hurt UM's ability to recruit Memphis kids if AB had gotten the nod? Wouldn't sitting AB hurt Memphis's ability to recruit the Maryland area? Your Mtown lean logic doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe you can explain, I'm a little slow.