The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#26,151
#26,151
TheMookieMonster said:
I said it was debatable and it “wouldn’t shock me” not that it was an absolute certainty. At the very least, I don’t think there are “way more” LV fans as you suggest. In 2024, the Lady Vols averaged roughly 10,500 in home attendance in an arena that seats over 21,000. Baseball averages 5,600 in 2025 in a stadium that seats 6,300. Once the renovations are done, you’re going to have a capacity closer to 8,500. Both sports are probably closer in popularity than you or I think. We’re just on different sides.
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The interesting thing is that people never underestimated how much of the Lady Vol brand was Pat. I think many have underestimated how much of the Vol baseball brand is Tony.
 
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#26,152
#26,152
omghulkhands said:
Here is what I am most excited to see against Duke.

It seems like our best shooter is going to be our PG.

The offense may look quite a bit different this year because of that. I wanna see if they utilize him off ball (and who handles the ball when that happens?)

And how we get him open looks on-ball.

These aren’t things we’ve really done much of in the CRB era at UT. But CRB always adjust the offense based on personnel. Exciting for an X/O nerd like me.
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I agree with that. TJ Ford’s 02/03 season was so fun to watch as his scoring opened up so many other options I’m also very excited to see JP play. I think having a big who scores inside and out, and sees the floor, will be a new dynamic as well.
 
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#26,153
#26,153
Last year we pretty much spammed the middle ball screen all game long.

And it was effective

BUT

ZZ wasn’t a good enough shooter for us to fully unlock the NBA style pick and roll.

Cade and Felix are great screeners and rim runners. So we know we have that part of the equation.

But will Gillespie be able to hit pull up and step backs on those ball screens? (or more importantly will he have the green light from CRB to do it)

If that’s the case, well, sky is the limit on offense.
 
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#26,154
#26,154
Stoerner Fumbles said:
The interesting thing is that people never underestimated how much of the Lady Vol brand was Pat. I think many have underestimated how much of the Vol baseball brand is Tony.
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I think this is true. The Lady Vol brand is still strong, but I don’t think it’s as recognizable as many still think, and I believe the Vol baseball brand will take a hit as well now that Tony is gone. It’s hard to replace personalities like those.
 
#26,156
#26,156
omghulkhands said:
Last year we pretty much spammed the middle ball screen all game long.

And it was effective

BUT

ZZ wasn’t a good enough shooter for us to fully unlock the NBA style pick and roll.

Cade and Felix are great screeners and rim runners. So we know we have that part of the equation.

But will Gillespie be able to hit pull up and step backs on those ball screens? (or more importantly will he have the green light from CRB to do it)

If that’s the case, well, sky is the limit on offense.
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I’m also curious if Gillespie will be able to finish around the rim consistently. ZZ’s size was a big handicap down there and it made our pick and rolls too predictable. He just wasn’t a threat to finish most of the time. You could almost always count on him to pass.
 
#26,158
#26,158
The promotion of Elander by White would be another sign that maybe things weren’t quite as bad as many thought with Vitello/White. The narrative was being pushed that White would clean house of everyone connected with Vitello, clearly not the case as he chose to promote him and Elander likely to keep most of that entire staff together.
 
#26,159
#26,159
bleedingTNorange said:
The promotion of Elander by White would be another sign that maybe things weren’t quite as bad as many thought with Vitello/White. The narrative was being pushed that White would clean house of everyone connected with Vitello, clearly not the case as he chose to promote him and Elander likely to keep most of that entire staff together.
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I wonder if White really chose him, or if his hand was forced.
 
#26,161
#26,161
Lankykong said:
I would think he chose him because he thought he had the best chance of continuing success. Usually ADs get to do what they think is best on hires, as we see with basically all of the ones that go bad. The Schiano situation is a rarity
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I was referring to the possibility of Boyd/Plowman making the call, or donors threatening to pull funds if Elander didnt get it. It’s off for DW to talk “national search “ and make a hire in 3 days. I just am not sure it was 100 percent his decision. Maybe it was, IDK.
 
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#26,162
#26,162
OrangeInKy said:
I wonder if White really chose him, or if his hand was forced.
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If White was gonna let the hardcore fans of a program dictate what he was gonna do then he would have never fired Coach Harper. And he definitely wouldn't have replaced her with a coach that only had one year of division 1 coaching experience.
 
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#26,167
#26,167
OrangeInKy said:
I was referring to the possibility of Boyd/Plowman making the call, or donors threatening to pull funds if Elander didnt get it. It’s off for DW to talk “national search “ and make a hire in 3 days. I just am not sure it was 100 percent his decision. Maybe it was, IDK.
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Report was that he interviewed Schnall. I thought Elander was the guy, but Schnall is a great candidate.
 
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#26,168
#26,168
VolGee4 said:
Report was that he interviewed Schnall. I thought Elander was the guy, but Schnall is a great candidate.
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Definitely. He would have been the only other candidate fans would have been good with imo. The DW haters would have still complained Elander should have gotten it, but real UT college baseball fans would have been fine with it. also jmo
I kinda feel like DW took the current players thoughts and opinions into account a lot and that’s why the trigger was pulled so quick on coach E
 
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#26,170
#26,170
omghulkhands said:
Here is what I am most excited to see against Duke.

It seems like our best shooter is going to be our PG.

The offense may look quite a bit different this year because of that. I wanna see if they utilize him off ball (and who handles the ball when that happens?)

And how we get him open looks on-ball.

These aren’t things we’ve really done much of in the CRB era at UT. But CRB always adjust the offense based on personnel. Exciting for an X/O nerd like me.
Click to expand...
Good stuff. I’m curious how this front court scenario plays out. Talk of Phillips and Okpara working on 3’s, while Estrella and Carey can probably shoot some 3’s (and will) as well. We’ve got some mobile bigs who can really pass the ball well. We have strength, length, and depth. The whole group has a lot of flexibility, which makes it even more interesting.

I‘m also curious about how Duke chooses to defend JG. You know they’ve seen all the reports about his shooting and scoring. Wonder what their strategy will be.
 
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#26,172
#26,172
So many thoughts and opinions around the game. Don't know if anyone cares about all of them lol. So I'll stick to just some super salient ones.

- Overall, the result doesn't matter to me. I was very encouraged by what I saw. I think offensively, we have the pieces we need to be elite. You didn't see it coalesce today. But I saw enough to know based on what I know about our offense, and Rick Barnes as a coach, that this offense has the highest ceiling we've seen since Grant/Admiral.

-The substitutions and playing time were super weird. It was an exhibition after all. I don't think it means anything. Wouldn't read into it.

- Duke played like they scouted us. We didn't appear to do the same best I could tell. I think the we just approached this game differently than Duke. I believe this because Duke did things like doubling the ball early as we got into our offense. And on the other side, they looked really crisp and practiced with blender, which is our one defensive weakness and always has been under Barnes (blender is where you get a defense on it's heels after a double/help/rotation and keep making quick passes to expose that rotation until you get an open three). Duke did this a TON and did it really effectively. It's hard for me to fathom that such a new team would be so crisp at this naturally. I think they game planned for it.

On the other side, we seemed to approach the game as a series of situational opportunities. I could wax poetic on it all night about why I think that and what I saw.

-I think we are all correct to be very excited about this team. Look, our two best players shot 10/39 and we lost by 6 to a pre-season #6 team. Basketball isn't about individual games. It's about average performance over time. And I am willing to go on record that this looks to be far under what our average will look like.
 
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#26,173
#26,173
omghulkhands said:
So many thoughts and opinions around the game. Don't know if anyone cares about all of them lol. So I'll stick to just some super salient ones.

- Overall, the result doesn't matter to me. I was very encouraged by what I saw. I think offensively, we have the pieces we need to be elite. You didn't see it coalesce today. But I saw enough to know based on what I know about our offense, and Rick Barnes as a coach, that this offense has the highest ceiling we've seen since Grant/Admiral.

-The substitutions and playing time were super weird. It was an exhibition after all. I don't think it means anything. Wouldn't read into it.

- Duke played like they scouted us. We didn't appear to do the same best I could tell. I think the we just approached this game differently than Duke. I believe this because Duke did things like doubling the ball early as we got into our offense. And on the other side, they looked really crisp and practiced with blender, which is our one defensive weakness and always has been under Barnes (blender is where you get a defense on it's heels after a double/help/rotation and keep making quick passes to expose that rotation until you get an open three). Duke did this a TON and did it really effectively. It's hard for me to fathom that such a new team would be so crisp at this naturally. I think they game planned for it.

On the other side, we seemed to approach the game as a series of situational opportunities. I could wax poetic on it all night about why I think that and what I saw.

-I think we are all correct to be very excited about this team. Look, our two best players shot 10/39 and we lost by 6 to a pre-season #6 team. Basketball isn't about individual games. It's about average performance over time. And I am willing to go on record that this looks to be far under what our average will look like.
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I for one, would love to hear all your thoughts.

As for me, I felt much the same. It was an exhibition game with a bunch of guys just learning how to play together, and play for Barnes. We also have about 6 games coming up before the competition gets really strong (on paper, at least). So, I'm really pumped to see this season play out.
 
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#26,174
#26,174
I’m mostly encouraged by what I saw. We’re deep, long, and athletic, we just ran up against perhaps the only other team except for Florida who can best us in those categories. I agree that it seems like Scheyer was trying to win the game, like Woodson last year, while Rick was scrimmaging. Boozer playing 39 minutes tells you as much, as well as the number of funky lineups we threw out.

Only small concern is Boswell getting 24 minutes. If he’s playing that much consistently, we have problems at the shooting guard position worse than I anticipated.
 
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#26,175
#26,175
Jakobi's style was a little too lackadaisical at times for me...he will need to correct that imo. Loved what I saw from our bigs overall...Brown played so well he may surprise everyone. Ament was pressing too much...he will improve his shot selection. Burg looked good in limited time. Boswell can't consistently play 20+ min.
 
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