A few thoughts from BTO

[Stoerner Fumbles]

What's the obsession with avoiding great teams after getting to a potential Sweet 16? We are not getting to our first Final Four without beating at least one great team. This is the NIL/portal era. Teams like that are not getting bounced in the second round. You get better and be great yourself so you can beat a team like Michigan or forget it.

Greatness isn’t a binary metric. Teams aren’t great or not. If your single goal is advancing, you want your team to play the weakest possible opponent with the most favorable individual matchups.

 

[sami]

That second half against Kansas was a jolt to this team's confidence that lasted for over a month. We looked like a top 5 team in the first half against them. Thank goodness for the marathon of a basketball season. We might end up being better as a result of those growing pains

Agree, and their growth as a group is perfectly exemplified by how quickly they bounced back after what was as brutal a loss to UK as you can take. A great road win at Alabama starting a four-game win streak after that mess, and with a week to think about it? Pretty damn impressive.

 

[ColinS]

Greatness isn’t a binary metric. Teams aren’t great or not. If your single goal is advancing, you want your team to play the weakest possible opponent with the most favorable individual matchups.

I think it's more matchup than anything. Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Houston, and Duke are all at similar levels but who do you matchup with best? Personally I wouldn't want any part of a Houston rematch despite us beating them and they are currently on the two line.

 

[NighthawkVol]

Greatness isn’t a binary metric. Teams aren’t great or not. If your single goal is advancing, you want your team to play the weakest possible opponent with the most favorable individual matchups.

Exactly. Plenty of Final 4 teams have gotten easier roads because a high seed in their bracket were upset by a lesser seed who just happened to have a good night, then didn’t repeat it. Basketball is a flukey sport. And a matchup sport.

It would be great if Tennessee could get one of those paths. Having to play Purdue and Houston in the E8 the last 2 years was not ideal. When Kansas won its last national championship in 2022, they faced a 16, 9, 4, and 10 seed to reach the F4. That’s good fortune. Then they played a 2 and 8 in the F4.

So yeah, I’d like to see Tennessee avoid the best of the best…whether that means someone else knocks them out or we avoid having them in our bracket.

 

[Unconditional Surrender]

 

[walkenvol]

I’m not saying there’s not a difference in them, I just am not really sweating that…much rather be a higher seed and get a better early round draws than take a lower seed and tougher draw but land the 1 seed I think is maybe a better draw.

For old time sakes, How about an update on your view of the team’s development/performance leading into the stretch run?

 

[bleedingTNorange]

For old time sakes, How about an update on your view of the team’s development/performance leading into the stretch run?

I’ll pull my point #9…

9. Free throws and turnovers have got to be a continued focus for this team and staff, the turnovers seem to be trending right as we’ve been 12 or less 4 games in a row, that’s a reasonable number although you’d prefer it to be a touch less. The free throws though continue to be an issue, we’re now under 70% on the year, which ranks 241st on the year, that is awful. Both of those areas can directly improve our offense, we lead the nation in offensive rebounding %, we rebound half of our missed shots, that is insane, but that’s why those stats are so important as well. When we don’t turn the ball over we typically either make a shot, miss a shot and get our own rebound, or we get fouled…right now we’re costing ourselves points at the line each night out. In our 3 losses we combined to shoot 33/55 from the FT line, that’s 60%, that’s also 22 missed points (more when you add in 1 and 1s), and you lost those 3 games by a total of 20 points, now I don’t expect us to shoot 100% but you cost yourself a chance to have 2-3 more wins as of today because of our horrid FT shooting. Carey, Estrella, Okpara & Boswell are the main culprits as of today that really need to improve.



Over the last 7 games we are 75% from the line and averaging less than 10 turnovers a game, that has directly impacted our offensive efficiency in a positive direction. Ament has obviously been great since January, everyone else largely has been the same, Estrella was coming on…but to me hitting FTs and taking care of the ball has been huge. Since January 16th we’re playing like the #12 team in the country per Barttorvik and have the #23 offense and #23 defense, that’s the balance you want to see.

 

[walkenvol]

I’ll pull my point #9…

9. Free throws and turnovers have got to be a continued focus for this team and staff, the turnovers seem to be trending right as we’ve been 12 or less 4 games in a row, that’s a reasonable number although you’d prefer it to be a touch less. The free throws though continue to be an issue, we’re now under 70% on the year, which ranks 241st on the year, that is awful. Both of those areas can directly improve our offense, we lead the nation in offensive rebounding %, we rebound half of our missed shots, that is insane, but that’s why those stats are so important as well. When we don’t turn the ball over we typically either make a shot, miss a shot and get our own rebound, or we get fouled…right now we’re costing ourselves points at the line each night out. In our 3 losses we combined to shoot 33/55 from the FT line, that’s 60%, that’s also 22 missed points (more when you add in 1 and 1s), and you lost those 3 games by a total of 20 points, now I don’t expect us to shoot 100% but you cost yourself a chance to have 2-3 more wins as of today because of our horrid FT shooting. Carey, Estrella, Okpara & Boswell are the main culprits as of today that really need to improve.



Over the last 7 games we are 75% from the line and averaging less than 10 turnovers a game, that has directly impacted our offensive efficiency in a positive direction. Ament has obviously been great since January, everyone else largely has been the same, Estrella was coming on…but to me hitting FTs and taking care of the ball has been huge. Since January 16th we’re playing like the #12 team in the country per Barttorvik and have the #23 offense and #23 defense, that’s the balance you want to see.

Wonder what the FT % is if Carey is removed? Do you see Brown continuing to earn more minutes and Carey getting fewer, especially if JP returns? Without a deep dive into the stats, Brown appears to be more effective as of late.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Wonder what the FT % is if Carey is removed? Do you see Brown continuing to earn more minutes and Carey getting fewer, especially if JP returns? Without a deep dive into the stats, Brown appears to be more effective as of late.

Yes I do, I think if JP is healthy Carey could up 8/9 in MPG

 

[HalfullVol]

Wonder what the FT % is if Carey is removed? Do you see Brown continuing to earn more minutes and Carey getting fewer, especially if JP returns? Without a deep dive into the stats, Brown appears to be more effective as of late.

Did u see Brown exhibit his handle a bit in yesterday’s game?
Had no idea this was in his bag.
My son and I mentioned this at the same time as it occurred.
DBII coming on!

 

[Chaz-Vol]

I’ll pull my point #9…

9. Free throws and turnovers have got to be a continued focus for this team and staff, the turnovers seem to be trending right as we’ve been 12 or less 4 games in a row, that’s a reasonable number although you’d prefer it to be a touch less. The free throws though continue to be an issue, we’re now under 70% on the year, which ranks 241st on the year, that is awful. Both of those areas can directly improve our offense, we lead the nation in offensive rebounding %, we rebound half of our missed shots, that is insane, but that’s why those stats are so important as well. When we don’t turn the ball over we typically either make a shot, miss a shot and get our own rebound, or we get fouled…right now we’re costing ourselves points at the line each night out. In our 3 losses we combined to shoot 33/55 from the FT line, that’s 60%, that’s also 22 missed points (more when you add in 1 and 1s), and you lost those 3 games by a total of 20 points, now I don’t expect us to shoot 100% but you cost yourself a chance to have 2-3 more wins as of today because of our horrid FT shooting. Carey, Estrella, Okpara & Boswell are the main culprits as of today that really need to improve.



Over the last 7 games we are 75% from the line and averaging less than 10 turnovers a game, that has directly impacted our offensive efficiency in a positive direction. Ament has obviously been great since January, everyone else largely has been the same, Estrella was coming on…but to me hitting FTs and taking care of the ball has been huge. Since January 16th we’re playing like the #12 team in the country per Barttorvik and have the #23 offense and #23 defense, that’s the balance you want to see.

I think biggest thing with FTs is Ament has really improved and now almost above 80% instead of low 70s. Carey's minutes going down when JP was playing was also a big reason.

Hopefully TOs continue to trend in the right direction too and they continue to value the ball. Barnes has tried to help Gillespie get breathers and Burg seems a little more in control so helping there.