The Official #4 Tennessee vs. #9 Florida Atlantic NCAA Tournament Game Thread, 9:00 PM ET, TBS

It still hasn't shown up in March yet with the exception of that Bruce Pearl Auburn run which is a while ago now. Tennessee and Alabama should have both have Final Fours the last 2-3 years. Let's see if Alabama can do it, their bracket is trash but I still haven't seen it out of them.

SEC teams don't make Final Fours (or rarely even Elite 8s and Sweet 16s). Butler would be a top 5 SEC program with its history.
What are you talking about? There’s an SEC team in the Elite 8 pretty much every year (I looked at the last 3 tourneys and all had SEC E8) and usually multiple Sweet 16 teams (3 this year, 1 in ‘22, 2 in ‘21, 2 in ‘19). No 2020 tourney due to Covid of course.
 
How many points did we score in second half?

Got outscored 40 to 28.

FAU figured out that spreading the ball out on offense and using their speed negated the size advantage of the Vols in the second half.

Just an all around sorry offensive display.

If someone isn't lighting it up from 3 pt range for the Vols, they can't score. They don't know how to manufacture points in a structured offense and dont have the talent to create for themselves.

This team sorely needs a talent upgrade in the back court.

Love Vescovi but he has always been a little limited athletically.
 
Phillips looks lost every time he’s out there. Hopefully he improves
Pretty disappointing how the year progressed for Phillips. He got worse by a lot, to the point where he was a detriment to have on the court. I don’t think it was all his issue.
 
Key was a huge disappointment, but Philips and BJ's time will be next year. It's time to turn the page on this group and bring in some fresh talent, and Rick must focus on getting guys who can score the ball.
I'm would wager Phillips is gone either to try NBA or transfer
 
Wasn’t gonna destroy them, this is a top 20 Kenpom team. We could have had great control early, but our offense just let us down as usual

We should have won this game. Offense was pitiful and we panicked in 2nd half. And they changed their game plan in 2nd half and wore us out with their quickness. Awaka should have played more imo. I’m a loss of words about ON, Key and others.
 
I'm not saying the refs caused the loss. I'm saying with fairer officiating, we might could have eked out a close win. But unfair officiating made our offensive challenges insurmountable.

They were the aggressor, had the momentum, the crowd, and were getting the calls during the 20-4 run. That's how these things go. Officiating momentum works like any other form of momentum. Our coach needed to call a timeout and try to stop this momentum. He did nothing.
 
Barnes have had offensive teams with Grant and Admiral-- It's not his fault. He creates great teams. I prayed he would win mostly so I didn't have to hear so called fans yell that he needs to be fired or he's not a good enough coach.
He cruited Grant.
 
the game done been swung before that

I started getting concerned after about 14 minutes in - our drought then and their stopping with the turn overs were the early signs.

Agree. The game was lost by us not being up 12-14 points after dominating the first half. Too many missed layups, and those damn second chance points. Once they got on a roll shooting it was curtains.
 
I'm not saying the refs caused the loss. I'm saying with fairer officiating, we might could have eked out a close win. But unfair officiating made our offensive challenges insurmountable.

The foul barrage in the 2nd half was ridiculous. That foul on Uros -after a review, mind you- is one of the worst calls I’ve seen in my life.
 
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Rick Barnes getting this team to sweet 16 was elite coaching job, it really was. Wasn’t even close to his best team, had them ranked top 25 all year (second consecutive year in a row), had massive wins this year, and had this team never quit through adversity. Just getting beat FAU gonna leave a really sour taste on what was actually a good season and it is depressing.
 
Maybe it is just the historic disappointments we have dealt with, but I’m afraid we are going to look at this first half and what could have been. We could have buried this team in the first half. Hope I’m wrong.
Just felt this coming at halftime.
 

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