Couple of my thoughts on that game, stayed away because this place got delusional real quick..
1. Really bad formula, no excuses, just saying a lot of things bad occurred in that game...Bama plays that 5 out and their 5 is quicker than Fulky, this was a problem, they routinely matched Jones in ISO against Fulk and took advantage more than we did on the other end. Normally in this scenario we’d go Pons at the 5, however he obviously was in foul trouble until late, at that point you saw how dominant he was that last 10 minutes and how much better our defense was, unfortunately the offense didn’t get better. Also, going small would be best not only with Pons out there but also Springer, obviously he was out with an injury, so now you’re down 2 of the better guys you’d want out there in that matchup.
2. If that wasn’t bad enough, Alabama then proceeds to shoot 20% over their season average from 3...for those of you who follow advanced metrics you know this is something that happens once or twice a year at least, a team gets hot “lucky” and makes more shots than they normally do. The silver lining is that this game occurred in January and not March, hopefully we don’t see that happen too much more.
3. On a similar note, a website called shot quality which is a legitimate trusted source by NBA and college teams maps outs shot quality etc...after this game their model showed that if both teams hit their average percentage based on shot quality that Tennessee wins the game by 8 points. Essentially, Bama shot better than expected from 3 and Tennessee shot worse than expected from all over the court.
4. Give Bama some credit, it’s not a style that is going to win you a ton of games consistently imo, but it’s a style that will win you some games you probably shouldn’t on paper. I’m betting they’ll finish around Top 5 in the league but have some WTF losses too, but again, credit to them as they hit the shots they needed to. Side note: I’m ready for John Petty to be gone.
5. I would have been curious to see Springer healthy, would he have gotten PG minutes and if so how would he have fared? Vescovi struggled (as he does against quick guards) but Keon was even worse, would Springer have been better or struggled too? My hunch is he wouldn’t have been great either, it’s games like that I really miss a Jordan Bone and can’t wait for Kennedy Chandler, we have either of those guys on roster and we win that game IMO.
6. Big picture, if Springer is fine and Tennessee learns some things from this game it’s not a big deal at all, they weren’t ever going to go 25-0. However if they don’t learn anything from this game and just stay status quo they will drop a couple more games along the way they probably shouldn’t.
