Vols-Horns 8pm Saturday on CBS / scouting the Horns

[MoCo_Vol]

Agreed. They only defeated 3 ranked teams all year; Baylor in Austin by 2 points, then @TCU, and @Oklahoma (who ended up missing the NCAAT, entirely).

3-6 vs top-25 teams, lost to UCF, lost WVU, lost to LSU, only beat Louisville by 1.

We show up ready, we win.

And I hope Tobe Awaka avenges Olivier Nkamhoua for the cheap shot Brock Cunningham laid on him in the final second of the Texas win in Austin two years ago. I'd love to see Tobe Crack that dude's beak with an "inadvertent" elbow. That guy is such a dirty player. If he didn't just suck at basketball, he'd have fit right in at Duke.

That's one thing I love about Santi and not many people really seem to appreciate when they come to harp on him not shooting.

Santi is the most physical player on our team, he's a guy that will run into screens hard and force either the screener or the official to change what they're doing. I think this season we're seeing the by product of playing that way and what sort of toll it takes on your body physically.

 

[volbound1700]

We should win this one but it is March and you can't take anything for granted. Texas just doesn't match up well.

 

[cncchris33]

In fairness, it was a logical assumption. I'm wondering if his "source" was actually a post I made on here predicting the early game haha

A logical assumption is one thing. Sourcing it from inside the program and being as wrong as one possibly can be is another. And I think it's fair to question how logical it is to predict noon on Saturday when you had the late tip on Thursday. Not a shot at you, but the late tip on Saturday makes more sense to me, honestly, to try and allow a maximum amount of time for Tennessee to have between games. Not to mention it is one of the more compelling Saturday 2nd round matchups for obvious reasons. Putting that game in primetime has its merits regardless of anything else.

Admittedly, Dayton v Arizona in Salt Lake City at 12:45pm EST (10:45am local time) is silly. Duquesne v Illinois in Omaha or Oregon v Creighton in Pittsburgh made a lot more sense for that timeslot.

 

[WhiteMike81]

Do they like to push and get out in transition or prefer a slower paced game?

 

[Sarms58]

Team is a good team and we will need to play at our best to beat them. Really hope we come out strong and never let them think they are in the game.

 

[sami]

That's one thing I love about Santi and not many people really seem to appreciate when they come to harp on him not shooting.

Santi is the most physical player on our team, he's a guy that will run into screens hard and force either the screener or the official to change what they're doing. I think this season we're seeing the by product of playing that way and what sort of toll it takes on your body physically.

Great point. SV's value goes far beyond his shooting, but here's hoping that he broke the seal on the basket last night with those two 3's he hit and can be a legit threat, which would greatly enhance the spacing on offense.

Regardless who we play, it will still come down to balanced scoring, rebounding on both ends (we still gave up too many second chances last night), and hitting free throws in the clutch. Do all of those things, and this is a Final Four group.

 

[rickyyrs]

Open question, how do we match up against Texas?

I believe Tennessee can play with anyone, but they can also lose to anyone. The one thing that i worry about is the refs. Are you going to get some refs that will let them play, or you going to get one ref wants to be on TV alot and call everything.

 

[omghulkhands]

ESPN Analytics has us at 78% chance to win tomorrow. Sounds about right to me.

 

[BisonVol]

Texas is a talented team. We’ll have to play well to get it done. Think we are plenty capable of getting the job done. Just gotta keep our composure and not play tight.

The latter is what concerns me a bit with this group. ZZ and DK won’t play tight. That’s not to say that it’s a guarantee that they’ll play well necessarily, but the moment isn’t going to be too big for those guys. As for everyone else…we’ll see.

 

[VolCalls]

Texas is an interesting squad, once again we're facing a team that doesn't have a legit size advantage.

Disu is 6'9" 220lbs he's second on their team in scoring at 15.7 ppg, and grabs 5.0 rpg
Shedrick a 6'11" 216lbs freshman is their tallest player that sees minutes, about 17.5 a game and has appeared in 31 games.
Mitchell at 6'8" 205lbs is the only other "big" that plays really and he has started 32 games for them at 29.1 mpg

So we'll see Disu and Mitchell on the court together, the question will be do we counter that with Aidoo/Awaka or leave JJJ guarding one of them and see how it goes?

This game comes down to guards though, Max Abmas & Tyrese Hunter both transferred to Texas this year and are 1st & 3rd in scoring for the team with each averaging 4.2 apg. But the good news is that they're small at guard.

Abmas is 6'1"
Hunter is 6'0"
Weaver is just 6'3"
Horton is just 6'3"
Cunningham at 6'5" is their biggest guard playing more than 10 mpg

Should allow DK to hopefully shoot over his defender in most matchups. He may struggle a bit trying to dribble against the smaller defenders though.

As a defense they don't do anything great. Only 3 stats for their defense are top 75, 2 pt % given up (53rd), 3 pts allowed (66th) and 3 pt attempts (35th). I'm assuming their lack of size and depth inside is why most teams don't shoot many deep balls on them, but it could also be because their guards do a good job defending on ball too.

They're also not a great offensive team, but that's their strength ranking in the top 100 in most categories, their highest being their FG% at 49th in the country.


Keys to this game will be our bigs ability to guard Disu and the team not allowing Hunter to drive to the rim. Abmas & Disu are the two that really like to shoot the deep ball. Hunter is the driver of the guard duo.

Abmas is one of the more prolific scorers in the recent history of college basketball (over 3,000 career points) and has been on this stage before (Sweet 16 three years ago with Oral Roberts). If we contain him and control the glass, we should win the game. Texas plays great defense, but I'm confident ours is better.

 

[kckempf]

• Texas is 219th in college basketball at 34.6 rebounds per game. That's similar to the 33.8 its opponents average.
• Texas hits 7.2 three-pointers per game (208th in college basketball) at a 35.5% rate (98th in college basketball), compared to the 6.4 its opponents make, shooting 34.4% from deep.
• Texas has committed 1.4 fewer turnovers than its opponents, averaging 10.9 (144th in college basketball) while forcing 12.3 (90th in college basketball).

Reading these stats, it shouldn't surprise you that they are 195th in adjusted tempo.

 

[General Jack]

Abmas is one of the more prolific scorers in the recent history of college basketball (over 3,000 career points) and has been on this stage before (Sweet 16 three years ago with Oral Roberts). If we contain him and control the glass, we should win the game. Texas plays great defense, but I'm confident ours is better.

Mashack sounds like the man for the job.

 

[General Jack]

Texas sounds like a good match-up for us, they possess neither of the things that beat us this year, big bangers on the inside or crazy runs of 3 pointers. We should win this without too much problem, and living in Austin, I really hope we do.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Abmas is one of the more prolific scorers in the recent history of college basketball (over 3,000 career points) and has been on this stage before (Sweet 16 three years ago with Oral Roberts). If we contain him and control the glass, we should win the game. Texas plays great defense, but I'm confident ours is better.

They're 39th on KenPom for adjusted defense, we're 3rd.
They're 27th on KenPom for adjusted offense, we're 28th.

 

[sami]

I believe Tennessee can play with anyone, but they can also lose to anyone. The one thing that i worry about is the refs. Are you going to get some refs that will let them play, or you going to get one ref wants to be on TV alot and call everything.

How about that call in the Kansas game. That's as bad a missed call in a big spot as I can remember this season, I mean it wasn't even close.

 

[Vfl2407]

We have the better shade of orange, close to knox so should have "home court" advantage if fans show up, and we have that Knecht guy...........thats all I got.

But seriously, that team that played last night was a Final 4 team if it shows up like that every game. I firmly believe that.

Will be interesting to see if the big UNC crowd hangs around and watches all of our game.
If so, do they pull for the underdog Texas or the Carolina native Barnes?
I think that they mostly sit on their hands unless it’s close at the end. Then they would pull for Texas.

 

[VolCalls]

Will be interesting to see if the big UNC crowd hangs around and watches all of our game.
If so, do they pull for the underdog Texas or the Carolina native Barnes?
I think that they mostly sit on their hands unless it’s close at the end. Then they would pull for Texas.

Michigan State is no joke. I think if UNC loses, most of their fans will leave. If they win, most will stick around and root for the underdog.

 

[CeJayVols]

One thing I noticed about Texas in 3-4 games I have watched them this year is Brock Cunningham always seems to have a dirty play or hard foul which sparks almost a brawl fight almost every game I have watched them. He is a dirty player and if you go up, he will hard foul you. We need our players to keep their cool and don't get thrown out of the game.

 

[Stoerner Fumbles]

Abmas is one of the more prolific scorers in the recent history of college basketball (over 3,000 career points) and has been on this stage before (Sweet 16 three years ago with Oral Roberts). If we contain him and control the glass, we should win the game. Texas plays great defense, but I'm confident ours is better.

Given your ineptitude, I was really hoping you’d predict us losing.

 

[tev.sm]

ESPN Analytics has us at 78% chance to win tomorrow. Sounds about right to me.

This matchup may be more difficult for us than expected, particularly for us offensively.

Texas limits 3PT attempts very well, ranking 35th in the country, making shots from 3 pretty difficult for opposing teams.

Texas could make this game ugly for us on the offensive end to get us rattled, somewhat similar to what Mississippi State was able to do to us in the SEC tournament.

Similar to the game plan against Saint Peters, pounding the ball inside to Aidoo and/or Awaka will hopefully overwhelm them and get Disu and/or Mitchell in foul trouble, given they're only 6'8 and 6'9.
Adversely, they may try to follow the same game plan with Disu and/or Mitchell to get our bigs in foul trouble.

Our offense will struggle if Aidoo is in foul trouble and ZZ, Vescovi, JJJ are not able to make shots efficiently, especially from 3.

Our effort and energy on defense will have to show up and force turnovers to bolster our offense.
They were 1-14 from 3PT in the Colorado State game, so hopefully we can continue that trend with strong perimeter defense.

This is a game that is winnable for sure if we bring the focus and intensity on both ends of the floor that we saw against Saint Peters.

 

[StarRaider]

Well, we've played the horns the last two years, so we should be familiar with them. Also, HC Rodney Terry, who took over when Chris Beard was fired, is a former Barnes assistant. They haven't been as good as last year after losing Timmy Allen, Marcus Carr, and Sir'Jabari Parker.

They're not a particularly big team, with small guards, Max Abmas and Tyrese Hunter both right around 6'. Their primary bigs are 6'11" (Kadin Shedrick) and 6'8" (Dillon Mitchell). Hopefully Jonas can take advantage of the size difference. They're a fairly athletic team, but I wouldn't say outrageously so. Abmas, their leading scorer, has plenty of NCAA experience from his time at Oral Roberts. Their 2nd leading scorer is Dylan Disu, who we are familiar with from his time at Vandy. They rank 25 on Kem Pom, 27 on offense and 39 on defense, so a fairly balanced team, but nothing spectacular.

horns still have their thug cunningham?

 

[Volprofch05]

horns still have their thug cunningham?

yep

 

[cncchris33]

One thing I noticed about Texas in 3-4 games I have watched them this year is Brock Cunningham always seems to have a dirty play or hard foul which sparks almost a brawl fight almost every game I have watched them. He is a dirty player and if you go up, he will hard foul you. We need our players to keep their cool and don't get thrown out of the game.

He's the one that hip-checked Nkamhoua going for the rebound 2 years ago in the final second of our 52-51 loss in Austin in Barnes's "homecoming". Knocked him to the floor in front of an official and no foul called. Dirty player who got in a dust-up with Iowa State or Houston earlier this year that I watched. One of those guys you probably like and call him an enforcer if he's on your team, but hate when he plays for the other guys. Uros comes to mind.

 

[CeJayVols]

He's the one that hip-checked Nkamhoua going for the rebound 2 years ago in the final second of our 52-51 loss in Austin in Barnes's "homecoming". Knocked him to the floor in front of an official and no foul called. Dirty player who got in a dust-up with Iowa State or Houston earlier this year that I watched. One of those guys you probably like and call him an enforcer if he's on your team, but hate when he plays for the other guys. Uros comes to mind.

Every game I have watched Texas this year he gets a technical or thrown out of the game for hard foul and against Texas tech i believe it was, almost a full court fight broke out because he knocked the guy almost off the court into the announcers table and last game he had a cheap hard foul and another game I saw he injured the other player. He's dirty

If he does this against Tobe Awaka, we going to have a problem! lol

 

[mackievol]

Texas is a talented team. We’ll have to play well to get it done. Think we are plenty capable of getting the job done. Just gotta keep our composure and not play tight.

The latter is what concerns me a bit with this group. ZZ and DK won’t play tight. That’s not to say that it’s a guarantee that they’ll play well necessarily, but the moment isn’t going to be too big for those guys. As for everyone else…we’ll see.

A talented team that was scared to score points in their previous game and many games during the year. If the vols score more than 50, it's a win