Worst basketball fans ever

#151
#151
emainvol said:
Yeah, UT looked at Louisville in the second half and thought "hey we just cut the lead to five and have some momentum, but they are way more athletic than us so we might as well give up."

Edit: If I remember correctly, we actually cut the lead to one at some point early in the second half.
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This was after being down 24-8...we made a run but in the end, with that kind of gap in athleticism, Tennessee just couldn't stay with them--especially when Lofton is shooting 3-of-15 (partly--largely--because he was being guarded by a 6-foot-8 athletic guard, which further illustrates my point).

Others picked up the slack for a while just by shooting well, but that isn't going to happen for the entire game...
 
#154
#154
VKAman said:
This was after being down 24-8...we made a run but in the end, with that kind of gap in athleticism, Tennessee just couldn't stay with them--especially when Lofton is shooting 3-of-15 (partly--largely--because he was being guarded by a 6-foot-8 athletic guard, which further illustrates my point).

Others picked up the slack for a while just by shooting well, but that isn't going to happen for the entire game...
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They didn't make a run back, they flat out gave up.
 
#155
#155
Does anybody know what our team Free Throw Percentage has been for the past 3 years compared to now? I think our lack of shooting from the charity stripe has been an achilles heel for a while now.
 
#156
#156
TXVOL07 said:
Hat knows his stuff, even if it comes across in a way that does not have sprinkles, and gum drops on top.
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True. But saying "Bruce Pearl probably will not take us to a national championship" is one thing. Saying he is "not a good coach" just because he was one round short of the Elite Eight (which is apparently the cutoff now), even though he has had 20+ wins in every season, is quite another. The tournament is the most important thing. But we can't just sit here and try to pretend that regular-season success means absolutely nothing.
 
#157
#157
TennesseeJet said:
Does anybody know what our team Free Throw Percentage has been for the past 3 years compared to now? I think our lack of shooting from the charity stripe has been an achilles heel for a while now.
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FTs haven't helped, but the lack of defense has absolutely killed them.
 
#160
#160
TennesseeJet said:
Does anybody know what our team Free Throw Percentage has been for the past 3 years compared to now? I think our lack of shooting from the charity stripe has been an achilles heel for a while now.
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2004-05 (under Buzz, for comparison): 68.9%
2005-06: 70.1%
2006-07: 65.3%
2007-08: 65.9%
2008-09: 67.2%
 
#161
#161
VKAman said:
True. But saying "Bruce Pearl probably will not take us to a national championship" is one thing. Saying he is "not a good coach" just because he was one round short of the Elite Eight (which is apparently the cutoff now), even though he has had 20+ wins in every season, is quite another. The tournament is the most important thing. But we can't just sit here and try to pretend that regular-season success means absolutely nothing.
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When the tournament starts, the only people that care about the regular season is the handicappers in Vegas. March changes everything. Beware the ides.
 
#162
#162
emainvol said:
You said they made a run late. They didn't.
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I said:
we made a run but in the end, with that kind of gap in athleticism, Tennessee just couldn't stay with them

the "in the end" goes with the second part of that sentence instead of the first. "In the end, with that kind of gap in athleticism, Tennessee just couldn't stay with them."
 
#164
#164
VKAman said:
I said:
we made a run but in the end, with that kind of gap in athleticism, Tennessee just couldn't stay with them

the "in the end" goes with the second part of that sentence instead of the first. "In the end, with that kind of gap in athleticism, Tennessee just couldn't stay with them."
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You're right, I missed the but. However, that doesn't change my thoughts on the game.
 
#165
#165
VKAman said:
True. But saying "Bruce Pearl probably will not take us to a national championship" is one thing. Saying he is "not a good coach" just because he was one round short of the Elite Eight (which is apparently the cutoff now), even though he has had 20+ wins in every season, is quite another. The tournament is the most important thing. But we can't just sit here and try to pretend that regular-season success means absolutely nothing.
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I understand what you are saying, but with this argument, it can be seen both ways, and both are not necessarily the right opinion. There are some fans who think being a good coach means having 20 win seasons and making it to the sweet 16. Then there are other fans who think going to the Final Four annually makes one a good coach. Now, in my opinion, I would have to say that winning at least 20 games a season, winning your conference, and making it to the Sweet 16 annually makes you a "good" coach. It's when a coach takes his team to the Final Four annually and wins NC's that makes that coach "great." I think our Bruce Pearl, for now, is a good coach. Hopefully soon, he can become great.
 
#168
#168
orangetanker11 said:
I understand what you are saying, but with this argument, it can be seen both ways, and both are not necessarily the right opinion. There are some fans who think being a good coach means having 20 win seasons and making it to the sweet 16. Then there are other fans who think going to the Final Four annually makes one a good coach. Now, in my opinion, I would have to say that winning at least 20 games a season, winning your conference, and making it to the Sweet 16 annually makes you a "good" coach. It's when a coach takes his team to the Final Four annually and wins NC's that makes that coach "great." I think our Bruce Pearl, for now, is a good coach. Hopefully soon, he can become great.
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Exactly. I don't think many of these "Pearlophiles" think Bruce is a great coach. They just see no reason not to at least think of him as "good."
 
#169
#169
VKAman said:
One...but with our best player essentially taken out of the game we weren't going to have much of a chance to win, especially against Louisville.
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I know they cut it to one. I stated that they cut it to one. Then Earl Clark went off. Tennessee then looked dead for a while, cut it back to seven and then flat out gave up.
 
#172
#172
It really doesn't matter though, there aren't a lot of people who watched the game that would disagree with me. Louisville had the better team, but Tennessee had ample opportunity to get back in that game, even after Earl Clark went off.
 
#173
#173
From the Blue Ribbon Preview for Tennessee this season:

The greatest season in Tennessee basketball history ended with a lackluster loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16, but even the most ardent Vol fan couldn't have been too disappointed. Realistically, coach Bruce Pearl and his staff had coaxed all they could out of a team that had more weaknesses than its 31 wins, brief rein at No. 1 -- after an upset win at Memphis in February -- and SEC championship would suggest.

Pearl did a great job of camouflaging those weaknesses; in fact, he did it for three years. That he coaxed 77 wins out of a team that was fairly small, couldn't defend that well and was inconsistent at the free-throw line was nothing short of remarkable.

As last season advanced into March, and the SEC Tournament, Tennessee fans got a glimpse of how the Vols' would meet their eventual demise when Arkansas beat them in the quarterfinals. Pearl rarely gets testy with the media, but when a reporter asked after the game why the Vols couldn't stop the Razorbacks' 6-6 wing Sonny Weems during a late-game surge that helped decide the outcome, he gave a frustrated answer.

"I start three 6-1 guards," Pearl said. "What 6-1 guard would you have me put on him?"

That vulnerability to long perimeter players -- offensively and defensively -- would prove to be the Vols' undoing against Louisville, which unleashed the 6-8 Earl Clark, to the tune of 17 points, 12 rebounds and a blanket defensive job on the Vols' All-American, Chris Lofton, who was hassled into a 3-for-15 night from the field, 2-for-11 from three-point range. And when Lofton struggled from deep, the Vols were a lot easier to beat.
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I take issue with this article suggesting that lack of D and FT shooting were outside of Pearl's control, but otherwise this is kind of what I'm saying.
 
#174
#174
I just want to clarify that I am not, by any means, stating that Tennessee wins that game even if they hadn't, as I saw it, decided they were completely defeated with around ten minutes left.
 
#175
#175
I've said this a million times. Last year's team was not athletic. It went about as far as it could. I don't see how that team could really have done any better with its weaknesses than a 28-3 regular season and a Sweet 16 appearance. I really don't think many coaches could have done more with that team. It just didn't have the athletes.

This year's team does, but is not mature at all. There hasn't been much leadership for most of the season. That does reflect back, partly, on the coach. At the same time, I think that as this young team grows older you will see many of those maturity issues begin to magically disappear. Last year's team wasn't particularly immature, as a whole. The difference between it and this team is that this team is more athletic and younger. There is one senior...and he doesn't play much at all. As this team gains experience (especially in the tourney), I believe it will mature. As it does, and we have a team that is mature and athletic, then we can see what BP can do.
 
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