The Official #12 Tennessee @ Auburn Game Thread, 2:00 PM ET, ESPN

#1,051
#1,051
walkenvol said:
We’re not going to win many ballgames with a combined 14 points from our 4 post players. Other than Awaka’s rebounding, those guys collectively played very poorly today. Might be the worst I’ve seen from the giraffe.

On to the tourneys - hopefully our bigs can get their Adoodoo together going forward!
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Fair assessment. Aidoo has shown some regression down the stretch and Plasvic is a liability at the FT line. ON is up and down. Will need more from them for a magical run in the Big Dance.
 
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#1,054
#1,054
walkenvol said:
We’re not going to win many ballgames with a combined 14 points from our 4 post players. Other than Awaka’s rebounding, those guys collectively played very poorly today. Might be the worst I’ve seen from the giraffe.

On to the tourneys - hopefully our bigs can get their Adoodoo together going forward!
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In 61 minutes played Aidoo, Nkamhoua and Plasvic had 7 total rebounds among them.

You'd think they were defensive tackles that supposed to take up blockers for the linebackers.

Awaka had 10 in 18 minutes.
 
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#1,055
#1,055
Tough game and tough loss. Agree we were going to have trouble at auburn. Hope we play our better games in the tourneys. That definitely was not a better game for us. Missing free throws like we do is a poison pill in tourneys. We are so inconsistent.
 
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#1,064
#1,064
CNeagleVolFan said:
We are ok. I didn’t really expect to win this game today. All year really good teams lost to good teams on the road. We played pretty well up until crunch time. It hurt us having Mashack and JJJ in foul trouble, and Mashack’s aggressive play on offense wasn’t there this game. Kentucky took care of business for us so it’s looking like a 5 seed. Barring a HUGE upset with Ole Miss beating Mizzou. It’s possible with them only down 5 at halftime, but we will see. It’s one more game we will have to play in the SEC tournament, but often times the team with a double bye has a hard time getting going. If we get the 5 seed and we get some positive momentum with a win on Thursday it may just propel us to win the quarterfinal on Friday. If we make the semifinal I’m honestly happy with that, but if we get the double bye I’d really like to get to the final. We will see what happens. Fingers crossed that Ole Miss pulls the upset
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Hopefully this game helped the players learn how to play without ZZ @ point. I’ve said it too many times, lacking an athletic player hurts this team. Our bigs don’t consistently contribute which places more pressure on the guards. Teams that go deep in the tourney either get hot from three or their athleticism takes over.
 
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#1,065
#1,065
walkenvol said:
If Uros could make a free throw, I’d play him 25 minutes a game. If nothing else, him and Awaka physically show up to battle every night.
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It’s baffling that he can’t make a foul shot. It’s so painful to watch and I honestly think he panics when he goes to the line.
 
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#1,066
#1,066
vol94 said:
Hopefully this game helped the players learn how to play without ZZ @ point. I’ve said it too many times, lacking an athletic player hurts this team. Our bigs don’t consistently contribute which places more pressure on the guards. Teams that go deep in the tourney either get hot from three or their athleticism takes over.
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Ahh this my friend is the crutch. Good post.

Think back to the dangerous team we had several years ago. Those guys were super athletic. The pre-game dunk feast was the rage of sports. Grant, Admiral, Bone, Bowden, Pons, and even Alexander. Those guys got above the rim with force. This team just doesn't have that up and down the roster.

They have to be technicians on the court and far to often they are unable to.
 
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#1,067
#1,067
OrangeInKy said:
We've had some losses that had me frustrated with our guys but this isn't one of them. Shot the ball well, rebounded, etc. Silly TO's and bad free throw shooting got them. Stinks that they shoot 45 pct from 3 and lose. I think we all knew this would be an uphill battle in that environment with what AU was playing for. JJJ has been in and out all year, then Julian gets hurt, then both come back and we look to have the team together finally, then ZZ goes down. I think that’s hard to figure out right away what the team looks like without ZZ, and it wasn’t as bad as I feared today. I hate losing, especially to Pearl, but I think there are some encouraging things as we go into postseason play.
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Good points. My concern is we continue to make silly turnovers, commit too many fouls and can’t make foul shots. Barnes has said the that he doesn’t understand why this team commits so many fouls and turnovers. He loves this team, but I think he is frustrated we still commit the same mistakes.

Those a few recipe for disaster in March for a team wanting to advance.
 
#1,068
#1,068
vol94 said:
Good points. My concern is we continue to make silly turnovers, commit too many fouls and can’t make foul shots. Barnes has said the that he doesn’t understand why this team commits so many fouls and turnovers. He loves this team, but I think he is frustrated we still commit the same mistakes.

Those a few recipe for disaster in March for a team wanting to advance.
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Of all the signs the late season collapse at the FT line might be the most telling why this team won't advance far. You normally don't fix that in season. Even Vescovi is going through a tough spell. It even cost us some games.
 
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#1,069
#1,069
I’m not a gambler, but I signed up for FanDuel and bet $25 on Auburn . . . the line was Auburn -.5. If I was a gambler I would have bet much more. I had a better chance of waking up this morning and being intimate with Halle Berry than Tennessee had of winning that game today.
 
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#1,072
#1,072
Baulder said:
You pointed at two games where TN won and neither team had anything to lose in losing those games. My point is when the other team has a strong motivation this team doesn't rise to it. And going forward where it's win or go home every team will be that motivated.
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We lost two heartbreaks at the buzzer back to back. And then won vs #1.
 
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#1,073
#1,073
Didn't see the game--but a look at the numbers shows that we in fact played pretty well, shot the ball pretty well. Key and Phillips were each in double figures. This was always going to be a tough game to win--and in the end our defense wasn't good enough. If we give up 79 points, we're probably going to lose. I agree with those above who've said that we simply didn't get enough out of our bigs: 7 points combined from our 3 centers simply doesn't cut it--but none of them is a natural scorer, and that's a problem for us. With Ziggy out we need JJJ to shoot the ball better than he did today.

Onward...
 
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#1,074
#1,074
YankeeVol said:
THE SERIES

• Tennessee leads its all-time series with Auburn, 80-44, dating to 1927.
  • When the series is contested in Auburn, the Tigers hold a 30-23 advantage.
  • The Vols have fallen in each of their last three trips to Auburn's Neville Arena, with UT's last win there coming in 2017.
    • Tennessee won an ugly defensive struggle vs. Auburn in Knoxville on Feb. 4, 46-43. See Page 4.
• Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl coached the Tennessee program from 2006-11. His son and current Auburn assistant coach, Steven Pearl, lettered for the Vols from 2007-11 and is a UT graduate.
• Among SEC teams over the last six seasons, Tennessee and Auburn have racked up a league-best 141 wins.
• A Tennessee win Saturday secures a double-bye for the Vols in next week's SEC Tournament in Nashville.
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Awaka and Plavsic need to work on their free throw shooting as they will be the two most obvious players to be fouled when they are in the game.

We left 7 points at the free throw line today which would have made the difference in this game.
 
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