Five most surprising BB teams.

[Freak]

Tennessee (7-1)
Of the handful of SEC teams that have outperformed expectations so far this season, Tennessee may be the biggest surprise. A Vols team projected to finish 13th in the SEC’s preseason poll is off to a 7-1 start that includes an impressive showing at the Battle 4 Atlantis. In one weekend in the Bahamas, Tennessee upset then-18th-ranked Purdue, put a scare into unbeaten Villanova and defeated improved NC State. The Vols have since added to their resume with a road victory at Georgia Tech. The collection of players Rick Barnes has at Tennessee is a couple inches shorter and a few pounds lighter than the McDonald’s All-Americans he often coached at Texas, but the blue-collar Vols play patient offense and physical defense and don’t beat themselves. Undersized post Grant Williams has emerged as a focal point on offense and Barnes has found some capable shooters and playmakers with which to surround him.

Ranking college basketball'''s five most surprising teams so far this season

 

[IndianapolisVol]

Ranking college basketball'''s five most surprising teams so far this season

Finally a write up that I agree with. Amazing, you have to go 7-1 before any of these analysts will do any homework.

Good find, Freak.

 

[Giveem6]

Ranking college basketball'''s five most surprising teams so far this season

As well as we should be. Getting picked 13th, which I thought was crap, but us starting out really strong like this gets the attention of national media! Go basketvols!

On a side note I live in Memphis (unfortunately) but the local radio stations hammered Barnes in the summer. Loving their eat crow words as of today!

 

[volunator]

You don't have to go to Memphis to find people hammering CRB. There were plenty onj this site that did that.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

As well as we should be. Getting picked 13th, which I thought was crap, but us starting out really strong like this gets the attention of national media! Go basketvols!

On a side note I live in Memphis (unfortunately) but the local radio stations hammered Barnes in the summer. Loving their eat crow words as of today!

Memphis Tigers...the program where they have to give tickets away so the Grizzlies don't kick them out/penalize them financially for failing to meet (very low) attendance thresholds

 

[cncchris33]

Finally a write up that I agree with. Amazing, you have to go 7-1 before any of these analysts will do any homework.

Good find, Freak.

We'll, to be honest, this team's success is only surprising to the media bozos who lazily predicted us to finish 13th rather than do their homework on this team to see that was an ignorant opinion. We MIGHT be one game up on where I thought we'd be to this point, but I hardly consider that surprising. Anyone who watched this team last year, took into account what we had returning and our newcomers, and was objective about Barnes as a coach could see that predicting us to finish worse than we did a year before was stupid.

 

[VFL10]

As well as we should be. Getting picked 13th, which I thought was crap, but us starting out really strong like this gets the attention of national media! Go basketvols!

On a side note I live in Memphis (unfortunately) but the local radio stations hammered Barnes in the summer. Loving their eat crow words as of today!

I LOVE living in Memphis and hearing all the moaning and crying these people are doing over the state of their beloved tigers. UT is 100x better than Memphis this year and they know it haha.

 

[Lefteye]

We'll, to be honest, this team's success is only surprising to the media bozos who lazily predicted us to finish 13th rather than do their homework on this team to see that was an ignorant opinion. We MIGHT be one game up on where I thought we'd be to this point, but I hardly consider that surprising. Anyone who watched this team last year, took into account what we had returning and our newcomers, and was objective about Barnes as a coach could see that predicting us to finish worse than we did a year before was stupid.

I must give you props on seeing this coming. Cause while I understood the roster and knew what we had coming(in terms of rankings) I didn’t see them all gelling this soon. And also because we have high expectations for incomers all the time, and seem to get let down, all the time. But I sure didn’t see a start like this.

Next year maybe, but not this yr.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I must give you props on seeing this coming. Cause while I understood the roster and knew what we had coming(in terms of rankings) I didn’t see them all gelling this soon. And also because we have high expectations for incomers all the time, and seem to get let down, all the time. But I sure didn’t see a start like this.

Next year maybe, but not this yr.

We are 7-1, not 10-0...many on here predicted 9-3 OOC, that means we go 2-2 against UNC, WF, ISU & Furman...that’s pretty realistic, hopefully we go 3-1 in that stretch but 2-2 is possible which would have us 9-3 and right where many on this board predicted us to be.

I do wonder if there would be a different vibe had Tennessee lost to Purdue, and then beaten WKU & N. Iowa in Atlantis instead of the route we got? The win against Purdue would be gone, close lose to Nova gone, win against ACC NCST gone...but we would still be 7-1?

I guess what I am saying is that at this point it could still swing a lot of ways, sure we could finish 25-5 and ranked top 5, but we could also finish 17-13 and be a fringe bubble team like many on here were expecting. We are 7-1, like Chris said maybe we are a game ahead, but even so many predicted 9-3 OOC and that’s still a very realistic possibility.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

We'll, to be honest, this team's success is only surprising to the media bozos who lazily predicted us to finish 13th rather than do their homework on this team to see that was an ignorant opinion. We MIGHT be one game up on where I thought we'd be to this point, but I hardly consider that surprising. Anyone who watched this team last year, took into account what we had returning and our newcomers, and was objective about Barnes as a coach could see that predicting us to finish worse than we did a year before was stupid.

Some of them might even figure out before the season is over that "Daniel" (rather than "Daniels") is a pretty good player.

 

[Lefteye]

We are 7-1, not 10-0...many on here predicted 9-3 OOC, that means we go 2-2 against UNC, WF, ISU & Furman...that’s pretty realistic, hopefully we go 3-1 in that stretch but 2-2 is possible which would have us 9-3 and right where many on this board predicted us to be.

I do wonder if there would be a different vibe had Tennessee lost to Purdue, and then beaten WKU & N. Iowa in Atlantis instead of the route we got? The win against Purdue would be gone, close lose to Nova gone, win against ACC NCST gone...but we would still be 7-1?

I guess what I am saying is that at this point it could still swing a lot of ways, sure we could finish 25-5 and ranked top 5, but we could also finish 17-13 and be a fringe bubble team like many on here were expecting. We are 7-1, like Chris said maybe we are a game ahead, but even so many predicted 9-3 OOC and that’s still a very realistic possibility.

I gave props

 

[VEKZY]

We are 7-1, not 10-0...many on here predicted 9-3 OOC, that means we go 2-2 against UNC, WF, ISU & Furman...that’s pretty realistic, hopefully we go 3-1 in that stretch but 2-2 is possible which would have us 9-3 and right where many on this board predicted us to be.

I do wonder if there would be a different vibe had Tennessee lost to Purdue, and then beaten WKU & N. Iowa in Atlantis instead of the route we got? The win against Purdue would be gone, close lose to Nova gone, win against ACC NCST gone...but we would still be 7-1?

I guess what I am saying is that at this point it could still swing a lot of ways, sure we could finish 25-5 and ranked top 5, but we could also finish 17-13 and be a fringe bubble team like many on here were expecting. We are 7-1, like Chris said maybe we are a game ahead, but even so many predicted 9-3 OOC and that’s still a very realistic possibility.

I remember most of the board predicting 8-4 and saying 9-3 OOC would be great. Either way, you make several good points. If we lost to Purdue, we would be unranked at the moment with the same record.

 

[i2amavol]

I must give you props on seeing this coming. Cause while I understood the roster and knew what we had coming(in terms of rankings) I didn’t see them all gelling this soon. And also because we have high expectations for incomers all the time, and seem to get let down, all the time. But I sure didn’t see a start like this.

Next year maybe, but not this yr.

Well, I did see it coming. Last year, we depended on a lot of Freshmen. We will see how it plays out on Saturday, but if you will remember, last year, we often had the lead going into the last 5 minutes, but would fade late. This year, the biggest difference is that we are closing out better, and the won/loss record is reflecting that.

It doesn't hurt that we added some depth and a couple of seasoned guards to help with finishing.

 

[cncchris33]

I must give you props on seeing this coming. Cause while I understood the roster and knew what we had coming(in terms of rankings) I didn’t see them all gelling this soon. And also because we have high expectations for incomers all the time, and seem to get let down, all the time. But I sure didn’t see a start like this.

Next year maybe, but not this yr.

Let me try and explain my reasoning.

I guess I just think there's no substitute for experience. We lost one player of significance. We have three RS players in Turner, Fulk, and Johnson who all have an extra year of practice, film study, weight training relative to their classification. We have a group of sophomores that played a LOT of meaningful basketball as freshmen, plus a couple juniors who have played a lot of significant minutes as well. And we added some experience and leadership in guys like Daniel and Darrington, and those guys have accepted and excelled in their new roles.

Add to that, we have a coach and staff with an eye for undervalued talent and a penchant for developing that talent. He also had a plan and stuck to it.

So, my belief was that it was all but impossible to be worse than we were last year, let alone the second worst team in the conference.

Aside from Purdue, who have we played and beaten that looked like a loss in the preseason? I guess the thought of those that seem surprised was that we might have slipped up against a lesser opponent, but as I see it, we've beaten everyone we should have, and maybe stole one from Purdue.