The Tennessee State Postgame Report

[cncchris33]

Now that is how you finish off an inferior opponent...67-46. It wasn't pretty for 40 minutes, but glad to see us finally finish off one of these teams.

The Good...
1. Points off of TOs; TN-25, TSU-0
Wow.

2. We only commit 14 fouls, which is 9 off of our average, but still force 16 TOs. That is the disciplined defensive intensity it will take to be a plus .500 team in conference play.

3. Dominated the boards, esp defensively, and only gave up 7 2nd chance points.

4. 17 fast-break points

5. I have been building up to it in previous postgame threads, but it finally all came together for Robert Hubbs. 11 pts, 5 rebs, 3 assts, blk, stl, and 0 TOs. His finest game to date. 3-6 from 3 too. He looked confident, and there is just a noticeable difference in his game when he has that confidence. I'd still like to see him attack the basket more, but I can't complain about his performance. The last several games have been building towards this one.

6. We are shooting much better from outside, which is key to our success since we won't beat many opponents inside for lack of depth and size. 45% on 13-29 from 3. Probably too many attempts from that distance, but at least we hit a lot of them.

7. JRich with another rock solid all-around game. 16 pts, 6 rebs, 8 assts, 2 stls, and 2 TOs. PG is atarting to feel more comfortable for him it appears too.

8. Punter is starting to develop a nice little consistency lately. My complaint earlier this season was his tendency to disappear for long stretches, but his scoring ability has been pretty reliable lately. 18 points and 4 stls. Would like to see some more boards. A 0-stat line in rebs from any starter will usually be bad for this team. They all need to pitch in a couple there. Didn't need it on this night fortunately.

The Bad...
1. Opponent still shot well from 3 against us. I have conceded the fact that Tyndall is just willing to roll the dice on teams' ability to hit consistently from outside if his team can limit their looks inside.

2. Mostella has really gone quiet lately. I'd like to see him get about 6 pts/gm. His shot has been off lately and this was probably his worst game of the year.

3. I'd like to see a little more offensive efficiency from Armani, but he contributes so much elsewhere, it's hard to fault his offensive. He has at least cut down on the number of attempts, so I'm fine with a 1-6 shooting line, even if I would prefer a 4-6 from him.

Overall...
Not a lot to be upset with, and like I said, we finished this team off in the end. Good win and great to see Hubbs put it all together. Get one more vs ETSU, and get to conference play at 8-4. Habe to defend the perimeter vs ETSU. They shoot well from outside.

 

[calban]

Happy for Hubbs, who's bringing it on defense lately. When he does start taking it to the rim and drawing the fouls I think we'll finally have the guy we thought he should be when recruited.

 

[hikermanvol]

Good report Chris. Keep them coming--I look forward to these!

 

[MphsBlues]

You mentioned the possibility of being a plus .500 team in conference play. If I could lock that in right now, I would.

 

[volKano]

The Bad...
1. Opponent still shot well from 3 against us. I have conceded the fact that Tyndall is just willing to roll the dice on teams' ability to hit consistently from outside if his team can limit their looks inside.



You can't have a swarm defense without leaving someone open. I can live with it

 

[bleedingTNorange]

The Bad...
1. Opponent still shot well from 3 against us. I have conceded the fact that Tyndall is just willing to roll the dice on teams' ability to hit consistently from outside if his team can limit their looks inside.



You can't have a swarm defense without leaving someone open. I can live with it

Not true.

Lousiville who runs the closest thing to Tennessee's matchup zone has given up 28% from 3 to its opponents.

 

[TNVolunteerGrad]

Good write up, thanks OP.

 

[cncchris33]

You mentioned the possibility of being a plus .500 team in conference play. If I could lock that in right now, I would.

10-8 in conference would leave us at 18-12, assuming we can beat ETSU on Wednesday. I'd sign up for that right now as well.

These are the games I can see most likely to get us to 10 wins...
@Miss. St.
Alabama
@Mizzou
@USCe
Texas A&M
Auburn
Miss. St.
@UGA
Vandy
USCe

Lose any of those, and you'd have to win another from this group...
Arkansas
@Arkansas
@Vandy (the most winnable IMO)
LSU
Kentucky
@Ole Miss (2nd most winnable IMO)
@Florida
@LSU

 

[wtorange]

Not true.

Lousiville who runs the closest thing to Tennessee's matchup zone has given up 28% from 3 to its opponents.

There is one huge difference. Louisville has strength and depth inside so they can afford to hedge out on the shooters. We simply can't at this point. If we do our lack of size, strength, and depth will kill us. We are doing what we can do with our roster. If guys can consistently knock down threes then we will lose but if we start letting them get inside it will be worse.

 

[JabbyCuz]

Now that is how you finish off an inferior opponent...67-46. It wasn't pretty for 40 minutes, but glad to see us finally finish off one of these teams.

The Good...
1. Points off of TOs; TN-25, TSU-0
Wow.

2. We only commit 14 fouls, which is 9 off of our average, but still force 16 TOs. That is the disciplined defensive intensity it will take to be a plus .500 team in conference play.

3. Dominated the boards, esp defensively, and only gave up 7 2nd chance points.

4. 17 fast-break points

5. I have been building up to it in previous postgame threads, but it finally all came together for Robert Hubbs. 11 pts, 5 rebs, 3 assts, blk, stl, and 0 TOs. His finest game to date. 3-6 from 3 too. He looked confident, and there is just a noticeable difference in his game when he has that confidence. I'd still like to see him attack the basket more, but I can't complain about his performance. The last several games have been building towards this one.

6. We are shooting much better from outside, which is key to our success since we won't beat many opponents inside for lack of depth and size. 45% on 13-29 from 3. Probably too many attempts from that distance, but at least we hit a lot of them.

7. JRich with another rock solid all-around game. 16 pts, 6 rebs, 8 assts, 2 stls, and 2 TOs. PG is atarting to feel more comfortable for him it appears too.

8. Punter is starting to develop a nice little consistency lately. My complaint earlier this season was his tendency to disappear for long stretches, but his scoring ability has been pretty reliable lately. 18 points and 4 stls. Would like to see some more boards. A 0-stat line in rebs from any starter will usually be bad for this team. They all need to pitch in a couple there. Didn't need it on this night fortunately.

The Bad...
1. Opponent still shot well from 3 against us. I have conceded the fact that Tyndall is just willing to roll the dice on teams' ability to hit consistently from outside if his team can limit their looks inside.

2. Mostella has really gone quiet lately. I'd like to see him get about 6 pts/gm. His shot has been off lately and this was probably his worst game of the year.

3. I'd like to see a little more offensive efficiency from Armani, but he contributes so much elsewhere, it's hard to fault his offensive. He has at least cut down on the number of attempts, so I'm fine with a 1-6 shooting line, even if I would prefer a 4-6 from him.

Overall...
Not a lot to be upset with, and like I said, we finished this team off in the end. Good win and great to see Hubbs put it all together. Get one more vs ETSU, and get to conference play at 8-4. Habe to defend the perimeter vs ETSU. They shoot well from outside.

:good!::clapping: GO VOLS

 

[Brentwoodvolfan]

THANKS CHRIS!! Always look forward to your take!! GBO

 

[JabbyCuz]

Good report Chris. Keep them coming--I look forward to these!

I do too! It helps me to look for these points in the next game! :rock:

 

[cncchris33]

There is one huge difference. Louisville has strength and depth inside so they can afford to hedge out on the shooters. We simply can't at this point. If we do our lack of size, strength, and depth will kill us. We are doing what we can do with our roster. If guys can consistently knock down threes then we will lose but if we start letting them get inside it will be worse.

You have a point, but more concerning than our ability to close out on a shooter, is our inability to consistently identify shooters and there location on the floor. We seem to be slightly improving in this regard, but far too often, we fail to find the shooter quickly enough and he gets a relatively uncontested look. It's one thing to give up a semi-contested look to a good shooter, but you can't give good shooters wide-open looks time and again.

 

[VolGee4]

Not true.

Lousiville who runs the closest thing to Tennessee's matchup zone has given up 28% from 3 to its opponents.

You also have to look at the numbers of each team's opponents. These are the ranks of Louisville's opponents for 3 point FG %:

5, 294, 302, 346, 51, 4, 335, 7, 24, 73, 351(last), and 231 (UK)

Not surprisingly, they gave up the most points against teams 5 and 7. But they have played 5 teams above 294 and UK at 231.

The ranks of UT's opponents for 3 point FG %:

102, 344, 134, 32, 114, 24, 88, 307, 104, 184, and 125

Only 2 above 250 and 8 in the top 134. I think the numbers clearly show that we have played better outside shooting teams. Now, you can argue about whether we should play the zone, but you can't just say that UL is that much better at the matchup zone because good shooters can still make contested shots.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

There is one huge difference. Louisville has strength and depth inside so they can afford to hedge out on the shooters. We simply can't at this point. If we do our lack of size, strength, and depth will kill us. We are doing what we can do with our roster. If guys can consistently knock down threes then we will lose but if we start letting them get inside it will be worse.

Oh I agree 100% and have stated the same multiple times, I was saying that our type of defense isn't why we are one of the worst 3 point defenses in the country.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

You also have to look at the numbers of each team's opponents. These are the ranks of Louisville's opponents for 3 point FG %:

5, 294, 302, 346, 51, 4, 335, 7, 24, 73, 351(last), and 231 (UK)

Not surprisingly, they gave up the most points against teams 5 and 7. But they have played 5 teams above 294 and UK at 231.

The ranks of UT's opponents for 3 point FG %:

102, 344, 134, 32, 114, 24, 88, 307, 104, 184, and 125

Only 2 above 250 and 8 in the top 134. I think the numbers clearly show that we have played better outside shooting teams. Now, you can argue about whether we should play the zone, but you can't just say that UL is that much better at the matchup zone because good shooters can still make contested shots.

It's not as if there's a slight difference in our percentage verse lousiville's percentage, and as I have pointed out, we allow teams to shoot above their average from 3 in 9/11 games now iirc, I doubt the same would be said for UL.

 

[jjay2518]

Oh I agree 100% and have stated the same multiple times, I was saying that our type of defense isn't why we are one of the worst 3 point defenses in the country.

Yep, not so much the overall style as the way we're having to play due to our personnel.

I still think we'll see some improvement through the year as the rotations become more second nature. There will be a ceiling though with how much we have to try and protect the paint.

 

[vols 30]

After watching numerous small schools beat power 5 teams this year, even an ugly 1 point win should be satisfactory.

 

[VolGee4]

It's not as if there's a slight difference in our percentage verse lousiville's percentage, and as I have pointed out, we allow teams to shoot above their average from 3 in 9/11 games now iirc, I doubt the same would be said for UL.

I wasn't trying to say there was a slight difference. But to understand the numbers, you have to look at the opponents as well. You just can't say that one team defends it at this rate and other team at this rate. You have to see who they have played and what those teams ranks are. Louisville has played some horrific outside shooting teams.