bleedingTNorange
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1. SEC Champs baby!!!! A wire to wire win, never really in doubt, against what’s proven to be a good South Carolina team that’s style gives us trouble. It was a group effort, and a both sides of the court effort as well, another win in a hostile environment, very impressive stuff from this group. Every time South Carolina would make a run and get the crowd going Tennessee would have a response and it wasn’t just Knecht, great stuff from the Vols.
2. The job is not close to being done, and lots left to play for and much more jewelry to earn, but this as the players said was their first goal and they accomplished it. Tennessee likely had the toughest SEC schedule of any team in the conference when you look at who they drew as their home/away teams, to win an outright championship with 1 game still to be played is very impressive stuff. Again, there’s more to play for still, but don’t gloss over what this squad accomplished and how special they were.
3. You never know what’s going to happen in March, all it takes is 1 bad game or 1 lucky game from an opponent, but this stretch of games has to make you feel better. Tennessee has shown they can beat good/great teams, they can do it at home or on the road, they can play with high scoring up tempo teams or they can also lock down defensively and play a low possession game as well, that’s great experience for the Vols to have gotten and and confidence when they get into the dance. Typically to win multiple games and make a run you’ll have to win in multiple ways/styles, what we’ve seen from Tennessee of late makes you think they’ve learned from some earlier season mishaps and can now win in multiple ways.
4. Didn’t think any one player was outstanding, Knecht was good but not his most efficient night, had a much better first half than second half. Zeigler and Aidoo were good but both could’ve been better, felt like Aidoo missed 3-4 layups/dunks that you’d like to see him hit. Vescovi and James did what they’ve done of late, defer offensively but play outstanding defense and complementary offense, when their number has been called they’re there for a big bucket or 2. It’s now 2 games against SC we’ve seen us struggle offensively a bit, obviously they limit possessions so you expect lower scores, but we also missed lots of close range shots you expect to make. They are extremely physical, to a point of basically fouling every time and assuming refs just won’t call them all, I think it’s a huge factor of why we struggled on close range shots in both games against them. I say that to just mention for March, a slow tempo/physical/good defensive team is likely one this team would like to avoid. Now with that said Tennessee has shown they can get it done, but it still just seems like a style we aren’t most comfortable in.
5. As I’ve said in this spot for weeks, if Tennessee matches Arizona they would surpass them for that final 1 seed imo. Well with just about 10 days remaining until selection Sunday Tennessee has done that, and most every bracketologist currently has Tennessee as a 1 seed tonight over Arizona. Obviously Arizona has 2 games remaining and Tennessee has 1, if Tennessee wins Saturday I think they’ve locked up that 1 seed regardless of what Arizona does, if Tennessee loses Saturday I think they still have a shot at that 1 seed but that it’s a much closer call at that point. Personally I would love to see a win Saturday, I think it would lock up the best regular season in modern history for Tennessee and would earn them their first ever #1 seed in program history.
GBO!!!!
2. The job is not close to being done, and lots left to play for and much more jewelry to earn, but this as the players said was their first goal and they accomplished it. Tennessee likely had the toughest SEC schedule of any team in the conference when you look at who they drew as their home/away teams, to win an outright championship with 1 game still to be played is very impressive stuff. Again, there’s more to play for still, but don’t gloss over what this squad accomplished and how special they were.
3. You never know what’s going to happen in March, all it takes is 1 bad game or 1 lucky game from an opponent, but this stretch of games has to make you feel better. Tennessee has shown they can beat good/great teams, they can do it at home or on the road, they can play with high scoring up tempo teams or they can also lock down defensively and play a low possession game as well, that’s great experience for the Vols to have gotten and and confidence when they get into the dance. Typically to win multiple games and make a run you’ll have to win in multiple ways/styles, what we’ve seen from Tennessee of late makes you think they’ve learned from some earlier season mishaps and can now win in multiple ways.
4. Didn’t think any one player was outstanding, Knecht was good but not his most efficient night, had a much better first half than second half. Zeigler and Aidoo were good but both could’ve been better, felt like Aidoo missed 3-4 layups/dunks that you’d like to see him hit. Vescovi and James did what they’ve done of late, defer offensively but play outstanding defense and complementary offense, when their number has been called they’re there for a big bucket or 2. It’s now 2 games against SC we’ve seen us struggle offensively a bit, obviously they limit possessions so you expect lower scores, but we also missed lots of close range shots you expect to make. They are extremely physical, to a point of basically fouling every time and assuming refs just won’t call them all, I think it’s a huge factor of why we struggled on close range shots in both games against them. I say that to just mention for March, a slow tempo/physical/good defensive team is likely one this team would like to avoid. Now with that said Tennessee has shown they can get it done, but it still just seems like a style we aren’t most comfortable in.
5. As I’ve said in this spot for weeks, if Tennessee matches Arizona they would surpass them for that final 1 seed imo. Well with just about 10 days remaining until selection Sunday Tennessee has done that, and most every bracketologist currently has Tennessee as a 1 seed tonight over Arizona. Obviously Arizona has 2 games remaining and Tennessee has 1, if Tennessee wins Saturday I think they’ve locked up that 1 seed regardless of what Arizona does, if Tennessee loses Saturday I think they still have a shot at that 1 seed but that it’s a much closer call at that point. Personally I would love to see a win Saturday, I think it would lock up the best regular season in modern history for Tennessee and would earn them their first ever #1 seed in program history.
GBO!!!!
