Who here doesn't think we'll get 20 wins?

#26
#26
SGMVols said:
Of course not. A strong SOS helps your chances to get in the tournament. However, it doesn't help you win once you get there if your players don't improve as a result.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. Playing top notch teams IMO can only help us though. nothing wrong with losing a few games to show us our weakness and hopefully we can improve on that. That was sorta my whole point. It does give us an advancetage, but if we can capitalize on what we find wrong.
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#29
#29
If UT doesn't get 20 wins this year as crappy as our OOC schedule was, aside from 3 games out of approximately 12 games, and the SEC being in a down year then we're in trouble.
 
#30
#30
i agree to a certain extent. has he brought the program back to life? yes. isn't it kinda weird that his best teams were his first couple of teams? Bruce's first years at TN the guys bought into what he was selling, and the results were very good. but the last 2 years he has made comments about not getting the team to do what he wants. what does that tell you?

the thing is, there is more "talented" players on the past few teams then there were on his first few teams. you can not sit there and say that you can see improvement in our team from last year, or that you can see where individual players have improved. its stale, if not declined the past few years.
 
#31
#31
TNsnyper20 said:
Your probably right, but I my friend have faith that anything can and will happen. Our difficult schedule will give us an advantage come tournament time.
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Our out of conference schedule is not very difficult this year which makes all road games even more important to perform well in. This loss will hurt us and further goes to expose our lack of quality at point and our softness underneath, combine that with a poor 3 point game and it means you are very likely to be beaten by disciplined teams and those who do have above average point players and three point shooters and these are the types of teams you will most likely be playing against in the NCAA tourney.
 
#32
#32
Vol Mania 21 said:
i agree to a certain extent. has he brought the program back to life? yes. isn't it kinda weird that his best teams were his first couple of teams? Bruce's first years at TN the guys bought into what he was selling, and the results were very good. but the last 2 years he has made comments about not getting the team to do what he wants. what does that tell you?

the thing is, there is more "talented" players on the past few teams then there were on his first few teams. you can not sit there and say that you can see improvement in our team from last year, or that you can see where individual players have improved. its stale, if not declined the past few years.
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I'm not sure how to respond to this, except that i disagree..... I don't think that we've went stale(as far as coaching). And the one thing i see differently off his first few teams was the heart of Bradshaw and Lofton was greater than the heart of any of our players combined. IMO thats what most of these players are missing. Love for the game. I will say that the lack of PG play recently has worried me, but we really havn't had a great PG in some time.
 
#33
#33
volswin08 said:
I'm trying to understand your comments. Can you give some specific examples of who you are referring to when you talk about lack of player development from this staff? Then give an example of another staff and who they have developed. Thanks for helping the obviously unimformed.
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Compare Tyler Smith and D'Sean Butler as freshmen. Then, compare them now. That's what we're talking about.
 
#37
#37
hatvol96 said:
Yes. He's no better now than the day he arrived from Iowa City.
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Hat I get the feeling that Pearl lets the inmates run the asylum a little too much, do you think there is any truth to that?
 
#38
#38
When Smith got here people were talking about him being gone the next year. The fact that he's still here doesn't look too good for Pearl IMO.
 
#40
#40
tvolsfan said:
When Smith got here people were talking about him being gone the next year. The fact that he's still here doesn't look too good for Pearl IMO.
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An NBA scout expressed that exact sentiment to me on press row Saturday.
 
#44
#44
I like watching and listening to UT basketball for the first time in years because I believe we have a chance to win any game. That my friends is the work of Bruce Pearl.

I am just a long time NBA fan, but I have never seen in Tyler's play anything that makes me think he will be an average NBA player. He got off to a quick start here due to the guards he was playing with. They made it easy for him to post up. Now he can't. He is too slow to carry the load himself. Just look at his hops and compare his catch and dunk or that to Kenny Hall. Now there is NBA talent and height, our first in years( CJ excluded).
 
#45
#45
Pearl doesn't coach. He substitutes and lets talent win games for him. I'd say 20 wins though. A second round exit in the SEC Tournament and a 2nd round exit in the NCAA tournament to Texas.
 
#46
#46
The question would be how many essential and nonessential wins out of the 20.
 
#47
#47
The book is out on how to beat the Vols - Limit your turnovers and slow the game down and get us into a half court game.

I think we have the potential to win 24 or 25 games but we could also lose 2 of our next 3 games. With our issues with FT's, half court offense, and 3 point shooting that would put pressure on us to win 10+ in the SEC. It has been proven recently that 20 wins is no guarantee to get a NCAA bid especially with a weak non-conference schedule. Our RPI won't be as good as years past unless we get some quality wins and road wins.
 
#48
#48
IPorange said:
20 wins isn't much of a metric for success. Florida has gotten 20 wins the last two years.

Let's talk about what matters: The tournament. I'll go ahead and eat crow if we make it to the Sweet 16. Granted a lot can change, but I just don't see it.

I'm sure you think that makes me less of a fan, but I guarantee that I have attended more games than you have over the last seven years.
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They also played one of the weakest schedules in the history of college athletics.
 
#49
#49
Griffmann said:
I want a list of all the doubters right now.

Go back and look at Pearl's past years at UT. There's always one game in mid December where we lose to a team we shouldn't. Not just lose, but get blown out. I have no idea why, that's just the way it is. To me, yes, the USC loss was disappointing, but I don't think it will have very much effect on the rest of the season.

I don't know why so many of you are jumping ship with Pearl now. Did you expect this team to be a top 15 or top 10 team? Why? Did you not watch any games last season?

Some of you may say 20 wins doesn't mean anything, but it does. That's enough to get us in the tourney and once you get in, anything can happen. It's all about matchups. Get a few good ones and we could make our first elite 8. Get a bad one and we'll be out the first round like last season.
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1. 20 wins and an NCAA appearance does mean something. It means UT is a step ahead of the days where they were winning 17 games with an NIT appearance. Any appreciable tournament success seems to be a step ahead of where we are now.

2. Tournament success isn't nearly as accidental as you make it sound. By the time you reach the Sweet 16, you are going to have to face somebody who can play, and sometimes before. That is generally where we exit.
 
#50
#50
cotton said:
1. 20 wins and an NCAA appearance does mean something. It means UT is a step ahead of the days where they were winning 17 games with an NIT appearance. Any appreciable tournament success seems to be a step ahead of where we are now.

2. Tournament success isn't nearly as accidental as you make it sound. By the time you reach the Sweet 16, you are going to have to face somebody who can play, and sometimes before. That is generally where we exit.
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Yes
 
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