2023 SEC Tournament

#126
#126
MoCo_Vol said:
True, but essentially if you play the first 25-28 minutes well with the guys mentioned then you should have a pretty comfortable lead going into the last 10-12 minutes.

And other than Edwards we've seen rotations with all those guys playing together. Obviously don't send out a Uros, Aidoo, Awaka, Mashack, Edwards lineup...but keep an eye on how many minutes you can steal for the other guys you'd like to have as healthy as possible going into the big tournament.

I'd say most people think we're a 3 or 4 seed. Realistically what are the chances we jump to a 2 seed or drop to a 5 seed?
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Oh I’m with you, I’m not referring to our seeding as much as I am just trying to find cohesion as a team and maximize our potential without ZZ. This team practice 90% of the time probably with ZZ at PG, during the year we have have maybe a week or two of full health practices, ZZ went out and we still were missing Key, there just hasn’t been much of any consistent practice habits etc for this team.

Imo that has been a big deal and led to allot of our inconsistencies, add in that our only game without ZZ so far we struggled mightily defensively in the 2nd half and I would say this team needs as many minutes together as they can get. I’m not saying play them all up 20 with 5 minutes left, but I’m also not punting on games or putting them on pitch counts.
 
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#127
#127
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Two sides to that theory. They need the work. But that also potentially gives future opponents a preview of how to best defend the revamped lineup.

This wouldn’t be a bad time to totally change up the offensive approach. But since this year the philosophy starts with defense, little is likely to change. The focus is going to continue to get stops first.

Barnes get closer to his preference of being able to switch on every screen. They can almost do that with Uros sitting. ZZ could only defend 2 or 3 players consistently well. But I wouldn’t want to see ON or Awaka switch up and be on a small, quick guard that can shoot. At least Aidoo can give them lots of space and still be able to affect outside shots or trail them into the paint and swat away shots at the rim.

I kind of like our chances better in the NCAAT relative to the SECT. We might be able to out talent 2 opening week opponents and in the regionals play the underdog role. Plus the deeper they go, the less the refs are calling the ticky tack touch fouls. We can’t afford to have SV, JJJ, JP, or JM sitting down in foul trouble.
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I would like to see Aidoo and Awaka paired together to give Tennessee the best chance to dominate on the glass and score off offensive rebounds.

You also get better rim protection with them paired up.
 
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#129
#129
It's tough, ZZ needed as many reps at PG as anyone since last year it was mostly KC as the starter there...but damn would have been nice to have gotten Mashack and BJ Edwards more time at the point too.

The speed/quickness that ZZ has as a defender on the perimeter is something we simply don't have from anyone else on this team. Mashack is a great on ball defender himself, but matched up against a quicker and smaller PG he is going to struggle.
 
#135
#135
I would like to get two wins at least in the SEC tournament and get a 3 seed hopefully. We got some good quality wins on our resume
 
#141
#141
bleedingTNorange said:
While I normally wouldn’t disagree this team has played very few minutes without ZZ running PG, and very few minutes totally healthy outside of ZZ. I would probably play my main guys whatever minutes it took to try and get a win and hopefully a comfortable lead, at which point then I’d pull them. Unfortunately this team needs every second together they can get right now imo, I get the idea of saving them but if you’re rolling rotations out in the first round that haven’t played much together then what was the point of saving them.
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Agree with this. Also, JJJ and JP have missed a bunch of games, so they should have plenty of gas in the tank. Mashack hasn’t played huge minutes this season so his legs should be fine. Vescovi might be the one to worry about, but we always hear about what great shape he’s in. The frontcourt rotates fairly even minutes anyway.

So yeah, play your dudes. No reason not to. They need as much fine-tuning without ZZ as possible.
 
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