BTO’s Auburn postgame report

#1
bleedingTNorange

bleedingTNorange

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#1
1. Auburn wanted it more tonight, you do that against any team in this league and you are likely to lose. I don’t know if it’s being ranked or seeing their name in bracketology, but they haven’t accomplished anything yet, there’s no excuse for them to think the my can just roll the ball out there and win.

2. Whether it’s coaching or the players or whatever, it ultimately falls on the head coach having his guys ready to play. This will go down as one of the worst losses in the Barnes’ era, not in the sense that Auburn is bad, because I don’t think they are...but this is a game Tennessee should’ve won tonight and they lost 95% because of effort imo.

3. Auburn attempted 16 more shots than we did, they simply destroyed us on the offensive glass and many of their rebounds especially late resulted in made 3’s. We haven’t been a strong rebounding team all season, but tonight was one of our worst efforts, very disappointing and needs fixing immediately.

4. Jordan Bowden is one of the best shooters in the country, he has 1 three point attempt in the last 2 games...that can’t happen. He needs to be more selfish, Barnes has to find him some shots, he can’t continue to disappear like he has a knack for doing.

5. This team has dug themselves a tough hole, 0-2 with Kentucky coming to town on Saturday, lose that one and you’re 0-3. Most said Vols needed to go at least 3-3 in their first 6, so obviously that would be far from an ideal start to conference play. Win Saturday and things aren’t nearly as bad, lose Saturday and suddenly people are going to start getting restless.

6. It’s a looooong season, the Vols started out the season better than most anyone predicted, because of that sitting at 9-4 has people upset even though preseason just about anyone would’ve taken it. That good will Barnes built up OOC is just about all gone, whether right or not...the first 6 games of league play are very tough, can this team do enough to keep people onboard? Are they gonna abandon ship just to climb back on? Will be interesting to see.
 
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#2
#2
I think your report is way too kind.

That effort absolutely sucked, and Barnes should be ripped for it.
 
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#4
#4
The only way this team can beat even an average team is to outwork and out-coach them and then not blow it at the end. They don't have the talent to lose a bit of focus and effort. That's how it is when we're 3*U.
I hope we get it turned around this week and see another win over KY. This team is capable of that.
 
#8
#8
bleedingTNorange said:
1. Auburn wanted it more tonight, you do that against any team in this league and you are likely to lose. I don’t know if it’s being ranked or seeing their name in bracketology, but they haven’t accomplished anything yet, there’s no excuse for them to think the my can just roll the ball out there and win.

2. Whether it’s coaching or the players or whatever, it ultimately falls on the head coach having his guys ready to play. This will go down as one of the worst losses in the Barnes’ era, not in the sense that Auburn is bad, because I don’t think they are...but this is a game Tennessee should’ve won tonight and they lost 95% because of effort imo.

3. Auburn attempted 16 more shots than we did, they simply destroyed us on the offensive glass and many of their rebounds especially late resulted in made 3’s. We haven’t been a strong rebounding team all season, but tonight was one of our worst efforts, very disappointing and needs fixing immediately.

4. Jordan Bowden is one of the best shooters in the country, he has 1 three point attempt in the last 2 games...that can’t happen. He needs to be more selfish, Barnes has to find him some shots, he can’t continue to disappear like he has a knack for doing.

5. This team has dug themselves a tough hole, 0-2 with Kentucky coming to town on Saturday, lose that one and you’re 0-3. Most said Vols needed to go at least 3-3 in their first 6, so obviously that would be far from an ideal start to conference play. Win Saturday and things aren’t nearly as bad, lose Saturday and suddenly people are going to start getting restless.

6. It’s a looooong season, the Vols started out the season better than most anyone predicted, because of that sitting at 9-4 has people upset even though preseason just about anyone would’ve taken it. That good will Barnes built up OOC is just about all gone, whether right or not...the first 6 games of league play are very tough, can this team do enough to keep people onboard? Are they gonna abandon ship just to climb back on? Will be interesting to see.
Click to expand...
.
 
#9
#9
Hungover.

From the Arkansas game and quite possibly from New Year’s still.

Seems like more of a fluke than a sign of things to come imo.

Today was a bad day at the office.
 
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#10
#10
I think this team has been exposed by trying to play at the same pace Arky and Auburn likes to play at. That's not this team's forte, IMO.

We're best when we slow it down and frustrate the other team, not try to out-athlete them up and down the floor.
 
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#13
#13
I was there. Players seemed spent both physically and mentally. Worst coaching performance by Barnes that I can remember. Sat in his chair 90% of the game. I'm not talking sitting on the edge of your seat sitting. I'm talking about laying back recliner sitting. The fans in my section were begging for him to call timeout in the middle of the their run to take the lead. First time in a long time I regretted going to a basketball game. I'll go to KY but if this type of effort continues, I'll probably give my tickets away.
 
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#14
#14
I’m speaking for me and Jack D. We were ahead of schedule after the 7-1 start. The pieces for a solid team and run are still there. And it could be something that happened in the last 2 sorry excuse for games, help at the end of the season.

For all the reasons Vol fans have to be seriously pissed off, this team should Not be one. They work hard with what they have.
 
#15
#15
Negative:
1. Primarily lost this game because of poor offensive rebounding. It appeared to me we we were often to far under the basket for the jump shot/3 pointers. Also did a lot if ball watching, which was disappointing to see. Thought this was more so on the players lack of awareness/effort than Barnes.
2. We played too uptempo for a lot of the game. While we can be a good fast break team, this is Auburn’s game and we played right into it. There was a period right before/at the beginning of Auburn’s run where there was a 2-3 minute period of back and forth before pearl finally called a timeout. I think this turned the game as they knew they could get us to play their game, this was on Barnes.
Positive:
1. This is the 3rd game in a row that I thought Bone had a pretty solid game. If we can consistently get this play from him I think we’ll still be fine this season. I feel confident we will get one of Bowden/turner to show up most nights.
2. Idk if it’s a positive per say, but I think we see a spirited effort against Kentucky this weekend as a result of today’s game. Should serve as a reality check for the team and a wake up call on the boards. If I were to choose 1 to win I’d take UK, so that’s still on the table at least.
 
#16
#16
In the last 2 games, UT's guards have been exposed. They couldn't defend for sh*t. Ark & now Auburn have torched us. We have to get better performances out of those guys. They need to stop reading their press clippings from the pre-season. That's over. We are not a team that can afford to just show up. We don't have Ky talent where we can take nights off and still win. Hell, we don't have a ton of talent period. We are at our best when everyone is busting their ass and playing hard. We can play with anyone if we do that. If we don't, then we'll get results like tonight.
 
#18
#18
Agree that our guards have struggled against quicker pgs. Would’ve liked to see less full court pressure/man to man pressure at half court against these teams. Leads to unwarranted fouls and to better gyards getting a step and our bigs helping too early imo.
 
#19
#19
My 2 questions after this game:

1. When will this team learn to play with a lead? We've given up leads in each of our 4 losses after getting sloppy and letting our opponent back into the game. We had first half leads against Nova, UNC and Arkansas and tonight we were up 30-19 in the first half before letting Auburn control the tempo and go on a 23-6 run during the last 7 minutes before the half. Unacceptable.

2. Why didn't Rick do more to control the pace of play? Bruce Pearl's teams are built to score points in transition and run other teams out of the gym. Getting teams to match their tempo is exactly what they want, that's their bread and butter. At what point do you realize that we can't hang with them at this pace and make some adjustments? How many turnovers does it take before changes are made and our guards start slowing down and setting up the offense to use more of the shot clock and get better looks?

I sound like a broken record, but we aren't going to beat many teams if we keep getting into these high scoring shootouts or taking games into overtime, our guys are too young and play too out of control for that right now. Even when we went into OT against Purdue we won because we controlled the tempo, got the ball to the low post and gave Williams and Alexander opportunities to either score or draw a double team and kick the ball out to an open shooter. Look what happened--Alexander had 13 and 11 and Grant scored 22 points in the 2nd half. This team isn't built to run for 40 minutes. We might make a run and throw some points on the board in transition but thats not how this team is going to win ball games.
 
#20
#20
I didn’t get to see the game, from what hear it sounds like we played a Bruce Pearl team. Auburn controlled tempo, got more shots, wanted it more. Sounds familiar!
 
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#21
#21
This is an 18 or so win team that misses the tourney yet again imo. They have some pieces, but they’re not a smart team that plays with consistent effort and focus.

Barnes never reigns these guys in, never manages the game to stop runs, bad/lackadaisical stretches of play......seems like he’s more comfortable with publicly criticizing what we can all see rather than find a way to fix it. I honestly just don’t see this team getting to 20 wins or the tourney. Lose Saturday to Ky and we’re in real danger of starting the SEC 0-5, 0-6 or worse.

Maybe they’ll get it turned around, maybe they’ll find a way, but after seeing this same type of team and scenario playing out yet another season, gonna need to see it to believe it.
 
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#22
#22
KBVol said:
This is an 18 or so win team that misses the tourney yet again imo. They have some pieces, but they’re not a smart team that plays with consistent effort and focus.

Barnes never reigns these guys in, never manages the game to stop runs, bad/lackadaisical stretches of play......seems like he’s more comfortable with publicly criticizing what we can all see rather than find a way to fix it. I honestly just don’t see this team getting to 20 wins or the tourney. Lose Saturday to Ky and we’re in real danger of starting the SEC 0-5, 0-6 or worse.

Maybe they’ll get it turned around, maybe they’ll find a way, but after seeing this same type of team and scenario playing out yet another season, gonna need to see it to believe it.
Click to expand...

Just once after a win KB
 
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#24
#24
Just what I am used to watching University of Tennessee athletics, we lose. We lose at everything here lately. I don't know why really, I love the kids that put on the orange and white but they just don't seem to be able to win. Football, basketball, baseball, water polo whatever we just seem to lose. At least the lady vols are undefeated, maybe we can name all of our men's teams lady vols and we can start a winning streak.
 
#25
#25
I think it bodes well for Saturday. UT always plays UK well and coming off a bad loss there will be extra motivation to show up.
 
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