10 games in, 10 points of discussion

#101
#101
kckempf said:
We hit over 50% of our shots and had 11 turnovers. I think this is what a good offensive game looks like for us.
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If I had to play devils advocate I’d say the high FG% is representative of them being a dream matchup for us. Kelsey plays small ball as an offensive philosophy and his roster has very little size and strength.
 
#102
#102
omghulkhands said:
If I had to play devils advocate I’d say the high FG% is representative of them being a dream matchup for us. Kelsey plays small ball as an offensive philosophy and his roster has very little size and strength.
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Kansas and Syracuse were also smaller teams that we weren’t nearly as successful against either though
 
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#103
#103
Stoerner Fumbles said:
I don't think any of the concerns listed in the original thread are removed because we beat Louisville. One positive that can be taken away is that we won an ugly game without great offense. Barnes' teams are able to do that by out toughing teams on defense and avoiding mistakes. We could've won either of the two losses after the Houston win by just hitting free throws, limiting turnovers and hitting bunnies. They would've been ugly wins, buy still wins. This game showed me that we can win ugly games, our defense has, and will continue to improve, and we will get better. We still have issues on offense, and we are missing a 1-2 guard combo that can handle the ball and create. Gillespie is going to be a huge focus of SEC defenses. Obviously playing through the post helps, but we have to find more guard chemistry and determine how to make the most both positions. The good news is this is not a banner year for the SEC. It is a good not great league this year, and that will keep us in the hunt.
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To your points above, I would still like to see us experiment more with a 3-guard lineup at times (JG/BB/AA)...I think we're going to need it to help free-up JG to create inside-out offense in conf play.
 
#107
#107
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Yes. I looked at 3 pointers.

Even Burg doesn’t have a bad line. With all of the complaining about him I figured it would be bad. 2 TOs, but an assist, a steal, a 3 and a 2 in 13 minutes.
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Something simple that would help Burg immensely would be to stop picking up his dribble. Just can’t do that as an SEC PG.
 
#111
#111
Stoerner Fumbles said:
I don't think any of the concerns listed in the original thread are removed because we beat Louisville. One positive that can be taken away is that we won an ugly game without great offense. Barnes' teams are able to do that by out toughing teams on defense and avoiding mistakes. We could've won either of the two losses after the Houston win by just hitting free throws, limiting turnovers and hitting bunnies. They would've been ugly wins, buy still wins. This game showed me that we can win ugly games, our defense has, and will continue to improve, and we will get better. We still have issues on offense, and we are missing a 1-2 guard combo that can handle the ball and create. Gillespie is going to be a huge focus of SEC defenses. Obviously playing through the post helps, but we have to find more guard chemistry and determine how to make the most both positions. The good news is this is not a banner year for the SEC. It is a good not great league this year, and that will keep us in the hunt.
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It was the most controlled Burg looked. With his shooting, would go a long way for this season if he can be serviceable. Evans looks like baby Mashack so going to take him time and no expectations for huge leap this year.
 
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#112
#112
bleedingTNorange said:
He did use the word great, but I agree and had a similar thought reading his post…the offense was really good, 1 of the better showings on that side of the ball this year, you hit your free throws and were pushing close to 100 in this game. We shot the ball very well from everywhere on the court, limited turnovers and rebounded the ball as usual, if you shoot solid % that’s a recipe for an efficient offensive performance.
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I think the defense was the best it's been all year. Held a top-5 KenPom offense to a season-low 44% eFG% and 37.9% overall. Forced 13 TOs, outrebounded Louisville by 10...holding them to only 6 ORebs despite them missing 36 shots, forced three shot clock violations, and held a team averaging 94.3 ppg to 62 points.

Granted, all of this, offensive and defensive improvement is skewed a bit by the absence of Mikel Brown Jr., a future lottery pick. His absence is notable, as is the fact that Tennessee had 9 days to game plan for Louisville. UofL was clearly struggling with finding lineup combinations/rotations that worked in lieu of Brown's absence.

Still, in spite of that, we took away what they wanted to do. Our defensive switching looked much more fluid than it has, especially during the losing streak, and we owned the paint on both ends.
 
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#113
#113
People are crazy. That was a complete game on both ends and beat down. Offense was better than good. Everybody was involved and contributed. We dominated the paint and had better passes and post spacing for guys to finish. Check out the box score. Literally won every category except maybe fts.
 
#114
#114
omghulkhands said:
If I had to play devils advocate I’d say the high FG% is representative of them being a dream matchup for us. Kelsey plays small ball as an offensive philosophy and his roster has very little size and strength.
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There's truth to that, and on the question of whether we should expect this kind of performance against other teams it's reasonable to say we couldn't, based on this game. But as to whether this was an ugly game, I think it's reasonable to say it wasn't.
 
#115
#115
kckempf said:
We hit over 50% of our shots and had 11 turnovers. I think this is what a good offensive game looks like for us.
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It's exactly what good offensive game looks like for us (right now). As I said, it really only takes hitting bunnies and free throws and limiting turnovers and we would've won the two games after Houston. We are not "great" offensively, but we can be good enough. I think we can be much better with JP healthy and some guard development. My point is Barnes can win with teams that are not great offenses, but playing well enough on that end. As of others have mentioned, they were without a key contributor. His replacement hit 19, but they had some big chemistry problems that weren't just our defense. In a league where everyone will know our strengths and weaknesses, we will need to get better. I was definitely encouraged last night.
 
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#116
#116
bleedingTNorange said:
Kansas and Syracuse were also smaller teams that we weren’t nearly as successful against either though
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Carey dominated Syracuse. JP and Carey also combined to go 8-12 against Kansas.

But the rest of the team played so bad in those games it wasn’t enough (particularly Syracuse).

The Syracuse game really frustrated me. Because Syracuse LOOKED like a bad team as we were playing them, Carey had an efficient career night, and we still lost. It’s honestly been years since I can say that.

The biggest difference in those two games and Louisville to me, is we got away from the Ament hero ball, and played inside/out with some real discipline.

It won’t work to this level in every game. But I was glad to see the staff recognized all the same things many of us were seeing, and adjusted. Basically the opposite of the Butch Jones Football era lol.
 
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