The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[berryvol]

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

I thought Cade played well in the first half yesterday before he got into foul trouble. That said, his inability to score off the bounce or outside is definitely more of a limitation against an elite defense like Houston. Would love for him to develop an Okpara-like three point game before next season.

 

[berryvol]

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.

If they’re going to do the point differential, they need to do round robin/group stage play a week before to determine the final bracket or matchups. Makes no sense to have everyone playing 2 random teams and having a champ based off that.

 

[orbs son]

If they’re going to do the point differential, they need to do round robin/group stage play a week before to determine the final bracket or matchups. Makes no sense to have everyone playing 2 random teams and having a champ based off that.

Completely agree. I thought we were the ones that was getting hosed on the matchups, but it looks like that was Houston.

 

[sami]

Who is Jeff Goodman and why should I care?

Exactly my thought as well.

 

[omghulkhands]

If they’re going to do the point differential, they need to do round robin/group stage play a week before to determine the final bracket or matchups. Makes no sense to have everyone playing 2 random teams and having a champ based off that.

It IS stupid. But they are trying to make the best of an impossible situation I suppose.

I imagine they were extremely limited on the amount of games that could be played, but they wanted as many teams as possible. So this is what we get.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Looking ahead to tonight, I’m excited to see how we respond after a physical, emotional game just 24 hours later against a blue blood program drenched in talent, even though Peterson isn’t playing.

Ament should be relatively fresh after sitting a lot yesterday. Interested to see how he plays after his first taste of big boy basketball and what lessons he learned.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

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.

On top of that there was at least 2 egregious NO CALLS that even the announcers called out. The early foul on a 10 three shot and the very late call at the rim on 13 I believe it was. Multiple replay worthy misses, not just run of the mill borderline incidental contact calls.

I was at church during the game, so this was observed as I replayed it, not during emotionally invested live viewing. A couple of the Carey calls seemed suspect on the fairness spectrum. Big guys get their whole cylinder too.

But not a badly uneven game overall. Except for maybe the calls on Ament that the announcers indicated that CRB called out as game changers. If true they must have been bad for him to publicly put it out there.

 

[omghulkhands]

Looking ahead to tonight, I’m excited to see how we respond after a physical, emotional game just 24 hours later against a blue blood program drenched in talent, even though Peterson isn’t playing.

Ament should be relatively fresh after sitting a lot yesterday. Interested to see how he plays after his first taste of big boy basketball and what lessons he learned.

Psychologically, also interested to see how they handle the disappointment of not getting the championship payout.

Like, all the guys basically lost $20k-$30k each based on the results of games after ours last night.

We can get on our high horse about how they should respond to that. But let's be honest. That sucks.

 

[Voltopia]

Psychologically, also interested to see how they handle the disappointment of not getting the championship payout.

Like, all the guys basically lost $20k-$30k each based on the results of games after ours last night.

We can get on our high horse about how they should respond to that. But let's be honest. That sucks.

Maybe Tennessee will get to play the winner of Michigan-Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament. Maybe they'll get to express their thoughts on the matter there.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Psychologically, also interested to see how they handle the disappointment of not getting the championship payout.

Like, all the guys basically lost $20k-$30k each based on the results of games after ours last night.

We can get on our high horse about how they should respond to that. But let's be honest. That sucks.

Yep. It’s a stupid format. Lots of teams with a bone to pick, including Iowa State.

 

[Vol49er]

I thought Cade played well in the first half yesterday before he got into foul trouble. That said, his inability to score off the bounce or outside is definitely more of a limitation against an elite defense like Houston. Would love for him to develop an Okpara-like three point game before next season.

Interesting. Watching it live I remember being frustrated with Cade in both halves, but I was chasing around a toddler as I watched so maybe on a rewatch where it has my undivided attention I’d feel differently. But I agree about the 3, that would really open up our offense. I think Carey took his first three of the season last night and looked for one more. He missed but I thought his form looked nice

 

[omghulkhands]

Yep. It’s a stupid format. Lots of teams with a bone to pick, including Iowa State.

I've also read (didn't confirm the validity) that NCAA rules restrict tournaments from having more than 3 games per team.

 

[sami]

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.

The nine turnovers was great, and another overlooked number was how few fouls we had as hard as we played in the second half, to the point where we had fouls to give down the stretch. Probably the reason Sampson was moaning about foul disparity after the game, but I honestly don't recall the officials favoring one side or the other. It was just a great, physical NCAA type of game, amazing for this early in the season.

Just a fantastic win that showed the things that make this a team that can go deep into March this season - defense up to the Barnes standard, waves of bigs that can impact the game and remain fresh, a stud shooter that can score from anywhere on the floor, clutch FT shooting, the classic 'dawg' mentality led by Boswell, Carey, and Cade, and a stud freshman who showed his backbone in the second half and will only get better from this. Remarkable that this is only seven games into this group being together.

* Boswell is this year's Mashack, validating the faith that CRB has shown in him all along.

* If JP can stay healthy, he's going to be a great post option as this season progresses.

* I'm not cringing any more when Felix takes a 3, and his FT shooting is a revelation and something that will be huge in March (and April?). Took one ill advised shot, that contested 15-footer, that I'm sure CRB will address.

* Carey is built for games like this one, and it is clearly the reason CRB wanted him here.

 

[sami]

Looking ahead to tonight, I’m excited to see how we respond after a physical, emotional game just 24 hours later against a blue blood program drenched in talent, even though Peterson isn’t playing.

Ament should be relatively fresh after sitting a lot yesterday. Interested to see how he plays after his first taste of big boy basketball and what lessons he learned.

Really wish Peterson was playing tonight. I'd love to get a look at him, and it's more fun when teams are at full strength.

 

[omghulkhands]

Really wish Peterson was playing tonight. I'd love to get a look at him, and it's more fun when teams are at full strength.

Same.

Bill Simmons had him on his projected 2028 Olympic team, so I really wanted to get a good look at him.

 

[sami]

On top of that there was at least 2 egregious NO CALLS that even the announcers called out. The early foul on a 10 three shot and the very late call at the rim on 13 I believe it was. Multiple replay worthy misses, not just run of the mill borderline incidental contact calls.

I was at church during the game, so this was observed as I replayed it, not during emotionally invested live viewing. A couple of the Carey calls seemed suspect on the fairness spectrum. Big guys get their whole cylinder too.

But not a badly uneven game overall. Except for maybe the calls on Ament that the announcers indicated that CRB called out as game changers. If true they must have been bad for him to publicly put it out there.

There were two blatant missed foul calls on Carey, one on a shot and one when he was throwing a lob to Felix. The announcers commented on both.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I've also read (didn't confirm the validity) that NCAA rules restrict tournaments from having more than 3 games per team.

I think that’s also true, but not sure if it’s limited to certain number of days, or what…for example, had they don’t 16 teams instead of 18 they could’ve easily done 2 8 team brackets, you play 3 games and that determines a winner from each, being only 1 3-0 team, then maybe you give it a week and those 2 teams playing for a championship fly back out?

 

[CornbreadVol]

Interesting. Watching it live I remember being frustrated with Cade in both halves, but I was chasing around a toddler as I watched so maybe on a rewatch where it has my undivided attention I’d feel differently. But I agree about the 3, that would really open up our offense. I think Carey took his first three of the season last night and looked for one more. He missed but I thought his form looked nice

I remember Carey hitting a few 3’s last year against us so I think he is a decent shooter. I think most of our bigs can shoot this year. We’ve already seen Estrella and Okpara hit a few

 

[bleedingTNorange]

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.

In these type games I just don’t see it barring major foul trouble, Barnes is gonna go with upperclassmen he trusts, unless they’re just busting assignments and he feels he has no choice I don’t see it. We saw last night that Henderson and Brown are the next 2 after Massamba and Evans to see a minutes cut, not a shock given their freshman.

Phillips didn’t play very well last night so maybe that’s something to watch, but he’s also our most laterally quickest big so I don’t see Brown likely taking his minutes.

 

[omghulkhands]

Gillespie played a ton off-ball last night. Which is precisely what I've wanted to see more of.

He is a combo guard in every sense of the word.

And we can make it work regardless of what guards are on the floor because we have a lot of bigs that see the floor and pass well. Ament has shown flashes of being especially good at this. His ability to stand up top with the ball, and just be so tall and throw an entry pass right over top his defender into the post has been a big deal.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Gillespie played a ton off-ball last night. Which is precisely what I've wanted to see more of.

He is a combo guard in every sense of the word.

And we can make it work regardless of what guards are on the floor because we have a lot of bigs that see the floor and pass well. Ament has shown flashes of being especially good at this. His ability to stand up top with the ball, and just be so tall and throw an entry pass right over top his defender into the post has been a big deal.

Yup, around midway through the half we adjusted to a bunch of that…used Carey at the top a lot too in PnR with Gillespie, get it to him quick off the double and let him drive and create, he had a couple turnovers off it but also got some good looks, and it was a precursor to just putting ament there in the second half once he was out of foul trouble.

 

[cncchris33]

Yup, around midway through the half we adjusted to a bunch of that…used Carey at the top a lot too in PnR with Gillespie, get it to him quick off the double and let him drive and create, he had a couple turnovers off it but also got some good looks, and it was a precursor to just putting ament there in the second half once he was out of foul trouble.

Gillespie actually had 0 TOs in 38 minutes.

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Looking ahead to tonight, I’m excited to see how we respond after a physical, emotional game just 24 hours later against a blue blood program drenched in talent, even though Peterson isn’t playing.

Ament should be relatively fresh after sitting a lot yesterday. Interested to see how he plays after his first taste of big boy basketball and what lessons he learned.

This was the discussion between my son and I...how will this team handle some success. I was really impressed with how they handled adversity so hopefully this team is more mature and focused than some may have thought.

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Gillespie played a ton off-ball last night. Which is precisely what I've wanted to see more of.

He is a combo guard in every sense of the word.

And we can make it work regardless of what guards are on the floor because we have a lot of bigs that see the floor and pass well. Ament has shown flashes of being especially good at this. His ability to stand up top with the ball, and just be so tall and throw an entry pass right over top his defender into the post has been a big deal.

Exactly

 

[Lefteye]

Gillespie actually had 0 TOs in 38 minutes.

That’s crazy impressive against the Cougs defense.