The Official Tennessee @ #13 Auburn Game Thread, 12:00 PM ET, CBS

[Doctrippin]

Losing Bone to the NBA and Turner to injury doomed this team.

 

[vols 30]

Losing Bone to the NBA and Turner to injury doomed this team.

Agree.

 

[SGMVols]

You've never been to Rupp arena have you? It's a crap hole that even Kentucky fans hate. We were 4th in the nation in attendance last year and are rarely, even in bad years, outside the top 15. Hell, I question you've even been to TBA if you think our basketball fans aren't loud and don't show up if we aren't ranked #1.

I go to almost every game. There have been thousands of empties in every game this year besides Kentucky and Memphis.

 

[ejvols4]

I saw your post a week or so ago. The problem with our basketball program is that we don’t have consistent talent within 3 hours away, and we aren’t a blue blood. It’s simply geography.

The reason why a place like Memphis has made FF’s is being of access to talent. They made a FF in 1972 because of local talent.

East TN does not have great basketball, and a place like UT has to pull prospects out of Atlanta, NC, and now Nashville is getting better.

Nah, man.

South Carolina and Auburn have it no better with local recruiting, have worse facilities, finnicky fan bases and even less historical success than Tennessee. Yet even they've been to Final Four's and won SEC Tournament's.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

yeah , you are not allowed to question Barnes at all. If you do that means fired. I like Barnes but he took the year off and it shows

I disagree. He's probably got about as much out of the roster as the talent level dictates. This was likely a bubble team at full health and the LT injury dropped us down a notch from there. The issue (other than LT) is significant roster and recruiting misses (even with great tailwinds) in 17, 18, and 19.

 

[tnvols72]

It's on Barnes to step in and call a timeout when his team has turned the ball over on literally 6 straight possessions. Look how many freshman are in the rotation. Ugliest collapse I've seen since OSU in the Elite Eight under Pearl.

Barnes was using it as a teaching moment I guess lol. Blame anybody but Barnes and I support Barnes but this was on him.

 

[golfballs]

It sucks because I can think of a handful of games we win if he knocks down a couple more shots. He explodes today and we have too many other issues to overcome. That’s the way it goes I guess.

Losing a 17pt lead w 14 min left is the way it goes for a hopeless team

 

[hUTch2002]

You know through all the turnovers we missed to many shots inside 4 min Mark. Pons missed at least 4 inside 5 ft. They made all the tough shots. I believe it's a testament to our coaching that with this inexperienced group with no superstars that we our in each game. I know many on here believe Barnes is average but to those who know basketball and talent and experience counts understands how well they have coached this team especially without a true point with experience.

Barnes is nowhere near average. That’s crazy talk. This team is just super frustrating because they don’t play smart. They do play hard though and I agree we don’t have the best pieces this year. No team can have good PG play when you lose your top 2 like we did with Bone and Turner.

 

[Doctrippin]

And we share state borders with the 3 biggest blue bloods. So when we do have good players in state, we have to fend them off.

Vescovi and Plavosic are int'l players and as the talent continues to get better in other countries, we're going to see more of that.

 

[vol4eva]

I’d still take Bruce in a heartbeat

 

[BowlBrother85]

Losing Bone to the NBA and Turner to injury doomed this team.

Of course it hurt, but if Bowden had played the entire season the way he played today... this team would be heading to the NCAA Tournament next month.

 

[hUTch2002]

And a leader who wasn’t afraid of big moments. That loss hurt a lot more than some think.

No question. We miss his mentality. We do play hard and tough though. You can’t knock those attributes.

 

[VolunteerCeltic]

Hang that f-ing banner.

Which one?

 

[VolGee4]

Gaines hustles his butt off , he is not going to score a lot but neither in JJJ. Gaines is better than JJJ.

Just telling you what this board has said. I think Gaines is going to be solid, but others want him gone.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

I saw your post a week or so ago. The problem with our basketball program is that we don’t have consistent talent within 3 hours away, and we aren’t a blue blood. It’s simply geography.

The reason why a place like Memphis has made FF’s is being of access to talent. They made a FF in 1972 because of local talent.

East TN does not have great basketball, and a place like UT has to pull prospects out of Atlanta, NC, and now Nashville is getting better.

Now devil's advocate could ask why we barely recruited Memphis at the end of the Pastner era and during the entire Tubby Smith era....

 

[golfballs]

This 100 times over. Everyone knew Auburn would go on a run at some point and if UT didn’t respond then Auburn would win. Better to have SV foul out with 6 minutes left vs sitting him and blowing a 17 point lead so quickly. CRB really blew it. Should have used a couple of TO’s also. Anything possible to stop the huge momentum swing.

Agree. Barnes is a notable adherent to those foul rules. Today it bit us.

 

[Rickyvol77]

I saw your post a week or so ago. The problem with our basketball program is that we don’t have consistent talent within 3 hours away, and we aren’t a blue blood. It’s simply geography.

The reason why a place like Memphis has made FF’s is being of access to talent. They made a FF in 1972 because of local talent.

East TN does not have great basketball, and a place like UT has to pull prospects out of Atlanta, NC, and now Nashville is getting better.

Memphis made final fours because they cheated both times to get there. That’s why they were stripped from them. Tennessee isn’t a blue blood basketball school (neither is memphis) but we both are top 30-35 alltime programs in the sport and Tennessee has a top 5 fanbase and facilities

 

[VolArmy74]

I saw your post a week or so ago. The problem with our basketball program is that we don’t have consistent talent within 3 hours away, and we aren’t a blue blood. It’s simply geography.

The reason why a place like Memphis has made FF’s is being of access to talent. They made a FF in 1972 because of local talent.

East TN does not have great basketball, and a place like UT has to pull prospects out of Atlanta, NC, and now Nashville is getting better.

There are 5 teams or so that are a blue blood but programs outside those 5 win and win big at times. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to have a Syracuse level program. It's in a modestly sized area hundreds of miles from a massive city area and stays buried in snow from November to April. Memphis is worse than us in every metric and have only reached the final four during major cheating scandals even with the talent in their city. My issue is that people act like we shouldn't even consider wanting to get to a final four.

 

[hUTch2002]

This 100 times over. Everyone knew Auburn would go on a run at some point and if UT didn’t respond then Auburn would win. Better to have SV foul out with 6 minutes left vs sitting him and blowing a 17 point lead so quickly. CRB really blew it. Should have used a couple of TO’s also. Anything possible to stop the huge momentum swing.

I agree we should’ve tried to bring him in to stop the bleeding but he is a turnover machine too.

 

[roberthunter]

I go to almost every game. There have been thousands of empties in every game this year besides Kentucky and Memphis.

It's still a bigger crowd than 99% of D1 basketball teams. The arena doesn't have to be full for it to be loud.

 

[BigOrangeAl 1979]

Barnes gets outcoached by Pearl again smh

 

[Rickyvol77]

Nah, man.

South Carolina and Auburn have it no better with local recruiting, have worse facilities, finnicky fan bases and even less historical success than Tennessee. Yet even they've been to Final Four's and won SEC Tournament's.

Final fours mean nothing if you don’t win them. Jacksonville state and Penn and WesternKentucky have final four appearances. So what? Tennessee is 2nd to UK in all time b-ball tradition (argument can be made 3rd bc of Arkansas)

 

[walkenvol]

ON didnt even play in the 2nd half when Fulkerson was turning the ball over and missing inside shots. Why not at least attempt to put him in and calm Fulky down?

Gaines while having 4 fouls didnt play much at the end of the game, while JJJ never went out of the game. Jalen or Gaines should have been in over JJJ, just bad coaching.

Bowden had an excellent game and hard to even say anything bad about his peformance. But for about 4 or 5 trips just stood over in the corner when the game was on the line. When its go time he just seems to disappear, although that dunk was sick.

Just super frustrating watching this team collapse like it did. As we all know 24 TO is beyond ridiculous. I only see those numbers on the womens side.

All these heart breaking losses are tough to take, but next year this team should be an exciting team to watch. A stud class, 3 seniors(2 being 5 year players), and 6 sophomores with already lots of experience going into next season. The last 2 seasons have spoiled us, even after this bad loss UT should be elite top 10 next season. Lets hope UT baseball can keep up the hot start.

Are you seriously suggesting ON would have been a better option than Fulky? ON brings nothing. Filly’s mistakes are from them force feeding him the ball because nobody else will create a shot

 

[YankeeVol]

 

[tnvols72]

I disagree. He's probably got about as much out of the roster as the talent level dictates. This was likely a bubble team at full health and the LT injury dropped us down a notch from there. The issue (other than LT) is significant roster and recruiting misses (even with great tailwinds) in 17, 18, and 19.

This is Barnes roster though, he recruited these players and they are not that good or they are not being coached. Either way this is his team and they look like garbage.