The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[Creeker]

Just got to finish the game since my middle school girls played tonight and what a performance! Tip of the cap to Boswell and Carey was made for that type of game, I felt pretty good about us but we look like we are coming together quicker than I would have expected.

 

[OrangeInKy]

Auburn’s free throw and field goal percentage indicate they’ve taken on the personality of their coach.

 

[berryvol]

Man, I’m pumped. What a win. Battled through a lot of adversity in that one, including not playing very well for a lot of the 1H. Ament’s shots didn’t fall, but he made it a point to match Houston’s aggression and physicality on both ends from the jump. Love this team already and they’ve got so much room for improvement. On the championship (hopefully)!

 

[Lefteye]

The interview with Gillespie after the game tonight… not sure if anybody else caught ithis post game last night, but he called UT “they” when asked about thoughts about going against the team that put us out last year. And I can’t help but think everybody coming in and saying yeah with at least 2-3 “we”’s was a thing of beauty.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

There has never been a bigger hater of Tennessee than Jeff Goodman. Terrible interview. Immediately opens the questioning with JG by doubling down on the Tennessee hasn’t played anybody narrative, and then every question has a negative slant to it about how now one takes Tennessee seriously. Absolute clown.

 

[Delmar]

There has never been a bigger hater of Tennessee than Jeff Goodman. Terrible interview. Immediately opens the questioning with JG by doubling down on the Tennessee hasn’t played anybody narrative, and then every question has a negative slant to it about how now one takes Tennessee seriously. Absolute clown.

Who is Jeff Goodman and why should I care?

 

[volfanhill]

Who is Jeff Goodman and why should I care?

John Goodman's twin who survived being half eaten in the womb

 

[VolsSportsFan]

There has never been a bigger hater of Tennessee than Jeff Goodman. Terrible interview. Immediately opens the questioning with JG by doubling down on the Tennessee hasn’t played anybody narrative, and then every question has a negative slant to it about how now one takes Tennessee seriously. Absolute clown.

Sounds like projection, since nobody takes him seriously.

 

[CornbreadVol]

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the work Felix has put into his shot over the offseason? I’m totally fine with him taking 1-2 3’s per game

 

[Skooter]

John Goodman's twin who survived being half eaten in the womb

The only thing to be wary of re Goodman is to not stand within a foot of him while he’s talking or you better be wearing a poncho and ski mask to protect from the spit coming from his lisp.

 

[walkenvol]

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the work Felix has put into his shot over the offseason? I’m totally fine with him taking 1-2 3’s per game

And he’s become money on FT’s. Seems like he still has a lot of offensive upside that could get him an nba opportunity?

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

So proud of how this team played last night...showed heart and grit throughout the game. I was really worried when 2 of our 3 best offensive threats were on the bench with foul trouble - it would have been real easy for us go into the half down double-digits but we kept chipping away and were only down 4.

Our ability to get to the line on 45% of our FG attempts (with 29 FT attempts overall) was a decisive factor in the game when we struggled a bit shooting the ball (I doubt we see another game where both Ament and Gillespie shoot that poorly). It was also very helpful that we cut down the t/o's (except Carey but he gets a pass from me this time with that overall performance) and more than held our own on the boards against a very physical and tough team.

Boswell and Carey absolutely balled out...JG kept playing and was clutch at the end of the game (9/9 FT's) and Ament found ways to contribute (7/8 FT, 5 reb, 4 assists). JP needs more PT going forward - he's too good on both ends and is 1 of our 3 best scoring options. Go Vols!!!

 

[cardvolfan]

Just a note about Kelvin Sampson here: during his press conference, he mentioned the free throw disparity no less than three times. Said he told his players to drive, and “they were driving” but still didn’t get the calls they should have gotten.

I went to Barttorvik and noticed thru 7 games this year, Houston is ranked 360th in free throw rate. Yep, 360 is bad. My point is that Houston has been officiated consistently this year, and it wasn’t just last night. Tennessee plays great D without the need to clobber the other team each possession. Houston engages in a style that’s absolutely assault-style defense and hopes they don’t get called for fouls. I thought is was pretty low-class to even mention the free throw “issue” he was claiming.

 

[berryvol]

Just a note about Kelvin Sampson here: during his press conference, he mentioned the free throw disparity no less than three times. Said he told his players to drive, and “they were driving” but still didn’t get the calls they should have gotten.

I went to Barttorvik and noticed thru 7 games this year, Houston is ranked 360th in free throw rate. Yep, 360 is bad. My point is that Houston has been officiated consistently this year, and it wasn’t just last night. Tennessee plays great D without the need to clobber the other team each possession. Houston engages in a style that’s absolutely assault-style defense and hopes they don’t get called for fouls. I thought is was pretty low-class to even mention the free throw “issue” he was claiming.

That’s usually how we play defense as well. Another plus to our insane length this season has been that we don’t have to leave our feet on shots inside the 3 point line. It’s added another element to our physical, relentless defense.

 

[orbs son]

Haven't seen it mentioned yet, but we only had 9 turnovers yesterday and 3 of those were from Carey being a little too pumped up. That is an amazing number considering the problems we were having, especially against a team that plays D like Houston. We will be hard to beat taking care of the ball like that.

 

[Voltopia]

There has never been a bigger hater of Tennessee than Jeff Goodman. Terrible interview. Immediately opens the questioning with JG by doubling down on the Tennessee hasn’t played anybody narrative, and then every question has a negative slant to it about how now one takes Tennessee seriously. Absolute clown.

He continued to make comments about how Tennessee had played six bye games before Houston, and also said it would take Nate Ament longer to ramp up than other players. Something about how "he's had good numbers but it's been against lower guys" but continued by saying that Ament was going to be overmatched in bigger upcoming games. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hell it took Tennessee beating Houston for their show to even talk about Tennessee - so at least they finally said something ... for a few seconds ... before they spent the rest of the time talking about Houston and Kingston Flemings. What was it one of their guys said? "Flemings took Bishop Boswell to daycare and dropped him off." Ah ha ha ha sooooo funny. It's no different than Inside the NBA commentary, I realize, but it was clear they viewed our win mostly through the lens of Houston. I doubt they would have done the opposite had Tennessee lost.

 

[Scans]

Jon Rothstein has bumped up UT to #5 in his rankings

 

[SoonerVol]

Just a note about Kelvin Sampson here: during his press conference, he mentioned the free throw disparity no less than three times. Said he told his players to drive, and “they were driving” but still didn’t get the calls they should have gotten.

I went to Barttorvik and noticed thru 7 games this year, Houston is ranked 360th in free throw rate. Yep, 360 is bad. My point is that Houston has been officiated consistently this year, and it wasn’t just last night. Tennessee plays great D without the need to clobber the other team each possession. Houston engages in a style that’s absolutely assault-style defense and hopes they don’t get called for fouls. I thought is was pretty low-class to even mention the free throw “issue” he was claiming.

Was a free throw disparity, but fouls committed wasn't that far off.

 

[cncchris33]

Just a note about Kelvin Sampson here: during his press conference, he mentioned the free throw disparity no less than three times. Said he told his players to drive, and “they were driving” but still didn’t get the calls they should have gotten.

I went to Barttorvik and noticed thru 7 games this year, Houston is ranked 360th in free throw rate. Yep, 360 is bad. My point is that Houston has been officiated consistently this year, and it wasn’t just last night. Tennessee plays great D without the need to clobber the other team each possession. Houston engages in a style that’s absolutely assault-style defense and hopes they don’t get called for fouls. I thought is was pretty low-class to even mention the free throw “issue” he was claiming.

You're not wrong and the stats back it up, but I think if the FT disparity were 29 attempts to 11, we'd be chirping, too. Sampson is likely laying groundwork for more calls come January, February, and March by drawing attention to it on a national stage in late November.

Tennessee also works the ball into the post for offense in addition to driving the ball while Houston took 40% of their shots from outside the arc. The foul discrepancy was only 21-16 in favor of Tennessee, which isn't egregious. Houston also committed 3 fouls in the final :30 to stop the clock, and Tennessee committed 1 to force an inbound. So, the final tally really was 18-15.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I think some are getting too cranky about this "tournament". I agree it's not a great format but I also think of it less of a "touranment" and more like a basketball "festival". I think if we leave 3-0, having by far the best win of the whole thing and a win over Kansas as a cherry on top then we more than accomplished what we needed. I couldn't care less about getting a trophy.

On a side note, in a funny way people complaining about the format reminds me how stupid college football's way of crowning the national champion before playoffs was and this is kind of an example how if college basketball used the same "system" how stupid it would be.

 

[zjcvols]

I think some are getting too cranky about this "tournament". I agree it's not a great format but I also think of it less of a "touranment" and more like a basketball "festival". I think if we leave 3-0, having by far the best win of the whole thing and a win over Kansas as a cherry on top then we more than accomplished what we needed. I couldn't care less about getting a trophy.

On a side note, in a funny way people complaining about the format reminds me how stupid college football's way of crowning the national champion before playoffs was and this is kind of an example how if college basketball used the same "system" how stupid it would be.

I am fine with what they are doing. However, let's not attach prize to it then OR let's make everything even. It's unfair Tennessee loses $1M because we had to play Houston, a legit national title contender, and Michigan/Gonzaga got to play two teams that won't be in the tournament come March. Also, you can't make point differential matter and then put a 20 point cap on it. That's so dumb.

 

[zjcvols]

Barnes has his nine guys, with his top 8 and Burg getting some backup PG minutes to give Gillespie a breather. I'd still find a way to get Brown 10 minutes a game. Not sure exactly how I would do it because we already play 4 bigs, but he's too talented to not get minutes.

 

[Vol49er]

Barnes has his nine guys, with his top 8 and Burg getting some backup PG minutes to give Gillespie a breather. I'd still find a way to get Brown 10 minutes a game. Not sure exactly how I would do it because we already play 4 bigs, but he's too talented to not get minutes.

There was some mention in the offseason of Cade playing the 3, which would free up some post minutes, but I didn’t see it then and I’ve seen nothing this season to think that’s a viable long term strategy. Love the kid but yesterday wasn’t his type of game

 

[berryvol]

I am fine with what they are doing. However, let's not attach prize to it then OR let's make everything even. It's unfair Tennessee loses $1M because we had to play Houston, a legit national title contender, and Michigan/Gonzaga got to play two teams that won't be in the tournament come March. Also, you can't make point differential matter and then put a 20 point cap on it. That's so dumb.

I won’t argue with your take on Michigan, but Gonzaga had to play bama. That’s a very tough game.

 

[VolGee4]

I think some are getting too cranky about this "tournament". I agree it's not a great format but I also think of it less of a "touranment" and more like a basketball "festival". I think if we leave 3-0, having by far the best win of the whole thing and a win over Kansas as a cherry on top then we more than accomplished what we needed. I couldn't care less about getting a trophy.

On a side note, in a funny way people complaining about the format reminds me how stupid college football's way of crowning the national champion before playoffs was and this is kind of an example how if college basketball used the same "system" how stupid it would be.

I don’t care about a trophy either. But the payouts are a bit inequitable IMO based on the format. $700k comes down to point differentials and scheduling. I just think it’s dumb for the player’s benefit. They are the ones who put in the work.