"Another" Elite 8 exit

[Doctrippin]

I guess I’d be disappointed as well, but y’all’s team has consistently been a very good team 3 years in a row! It could be worse, Mike White could be your coach.

White has gotten us much better, but a decent shot at making the tournament might be our ceiling under him. Still, it’s better, but nowhere near the level of y’all’s team.

Rumor is Blue Cain wants to come back home to Knoxville. We'll see if he hits the portal. Look, the SEC is a whole other level from 5 years ago and nobody is going to dominate it anymore. White is a good coach. GA has great fan support and it's a tough arena to play in. Let's see what he gets from the portal. Next year could be another level for the team

 

[BreatheUT]

Hell, after what I saw yesterday, I think that the team that curb stomped us will be the ones cutting down the nets next Monday night.

We will be surprised how back to earth they are against Arizona. Now they may have been on top of their game, but I think it speaks to really how terrible we were. Open brick city isn't because of what Michigan is doing. It's decent players that surprise you with a good game but they go back to the mean %'s wise.

 

[robcovol]

After having a day to sleep on it, I have decided that Michigan is an NBA team at the college level. Tennessee seems to get the worst luck in opponents for the elite eight, with the possible exception of Michigan State in 2010. Rick Barnes can’t be blamed for that. We should be thankful he puts up with us.

 

[DirtyDawg]

Rumor is Blue Cain wants to come back home to Knoxville. We'll see if he hits the portal. Look, the SEC is a whole other level from 5 years ago and nobody is going to dominate it anymore. White is a good coach. GA has great fan support and it's a tough arena to play in. Let's see what he gets from the portal. Next year could be another level for the team

Blue would be a good get and a tough loss for us. We will see, it just seemed obvious that St. Louis took us to the woodshed bc of better coaching. They were more prepared and had a strategy that worked against us. I don’t think their talent level was any better. Their coach played a big part it seems to me.

Our team was a monster this year when we were hitting shots. St Louis made those shots tougher, and we suffered tremendously for it.

On to next season, who knows what the portal might bring to either of us? I’ll be content if we make the tournament and win 1 game honestly. Sure, I want more, but after some rough years, I’m just happy to be relevant again.

 

[VolsWinRLose]

I'm not sick of it. I'll take it every single season.

It's the way they put it that bothers me. Not "Vols take a hard loss" or even "Vols boatraced" but the implication that they failed somehow by ONLY getting to the EE...for 3 years in a row.

 

[BreatheUT]

Blue would be a good get and a tough loss for us. We will see, it just seemed obvious that St. Louis took us to the woodshed bc of better coaching. They were more prepared and had a strategy that worked against us. I don’t think their talent level was any better. Their coach played a big part it seems to me.

Our team was a monster this year when we were hitting shots. St Louis made those shots tougher, and we suffered tremendously for it.

On to next season, who knows what the portal might bring to either of us? I’ll be content if we make the tournament and win 1 game honestly. Sure, I want more, but after some rough years, I’m just happy to be relevant again.

There's probably several Blue Cain's out there. Not impressed.

 

[SlipKidVol]

We have lost our last two elite eight matchups by a combined 53 points so yea we gonna get ridiculed for that. My co workers already hit me with the Rocky Flop ragging this morning at work. RB is a very good coach but in what 40 years of coaching almost he’s been to just one final four. It was an embarrassing loss yesterday for the whole world to see.

Oh poor you..your co workers...hope you survived

 

[DirtyDawg]

There's probably several Blue Cain's out there. Not impressed.

Sure, but he would be an asset and he is from Knoxville. He didn’t have a good season this year, but he has played tons of ball and is capable of playing very well. I agree though, there will be better options in the portal. I hope the Vols say no thanks and we can keep him.

 

[vegasvolfan]

I don't know about everybody else, but I'm sick and damned tired of seeing headlines in the media referencing "another" Elite 8 loss "again." Exactly how many teams get TO the EE 3 years in a row? I much prefer to look at it as "No Final 4 YET."

I dunno but Barnes needs to keep recruiting bigger guys. We have two stout Freshman that will be a menace and have a LOT to build off this year. Okpara sp was too thin. Estrella lost a lot of weight too. We also lost a lot out of our guard play and had no real shooter. Lanier and Knecht were bigger difference makers than Ament. Don't get me wrong, all three were great talents and staple in getting a team that should never have been in the Elite 8----to the Elite 8, but that's a Barnes accomplishment. I think with Brown, Phillips, Estrella, and Carey all coming back... we will be a menace if he matches the rest of the talent around those guys. Not sure about other guys. Boswell is a good bench guy.

But honestly lost in the elite 8 again is still music to my ears.

 

[VolGee4]

Rumor is Blue Cain wants to come back home to Knoxville. We'll see if he hits the portal. Look, the SEC is a whole other level from 5 years ago and nobody is going to dominate it anymore. White is a good coach. GA has great fan support and it's a tough arena to play in. Let's see what he gets from the portal. Next year could be another level for the team

White is a good coach? I disagree. He’s maybe average.

 

[Vol-e-ball]

Only Michigan & Tennessee out of the final 8 had a football program that is elite. Michigan has produced more billionaires and millionaires. They have more $$$ and it's not close. They had better & more talented players with great coaching. They were better on offense than Tennessee all year. They weren't worried about any player we had. If I had the heart to bet against UT or even gambled, which I don't, this was the easiest bet to make since Bama vs ND in the national title game.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Only Michigan & Tennessee out of the final 8 had a football program that is elite.

Michigan has produced more billionaires and millionaires. They have more $$$ and it's not close. They had better & more talented players with great coaching. They were better on offense than Tennessee all year. They weren't worried about any player we had. If I had the heart to bet against UT or even gambled, which I don't, this was the easiest bet to make since Bama vs ND in the national title game.

Not picking a bone, but a good opp to share my opinion. I think elite is one of the most overused words in recent history. I can’t stand the use of that word—especially when our coach uses it loosely.

It’s like referring to all 1%ers as elite, even though a person that makes a billion a year makes over 1000x the people at the bottom of the 1 percentile. And while the people at the bottom of that group are paying a larger amount of their income towards taxes, some want to be in that club because it makes them feel elite as opposed to… ok my political analogy will stop there.

Tennessee’s football program is not elite. It’s probably a bottom of the 1%er program at best. Personally, I don’t think we belong in that conversation yet and barely did back in our best years. We lost a lot of bowl games and have only one a single NC in over 50 years.

Ohio State’s program is elite. Alabama is elite. LSU is elite. Those are teams that fire coaches if they put up 8 win reg seasons too many times in the course of 5 years. Heupel has 3. Michigan is closer to elite.

Hopefully that changes. I feel better about our QB room and coaching staff than I have in a long time. Concerned about letting Martinez go, but Knowles knows a thing or two—so we shall see.

 

[207 others]

Our team this year was *one* of the greatest Tennessee basketball teams of all time.

Put that into perspective by reading it twice. An elite 8 is ELITE. 16 is sweet.

When Tennessee football made the playoffs and got nuked by Ohio State, that was still ONE of the best Tennessee football teams of the past 50 years.

How many teams are there that get to the CFB playoffs? The CBB elite 8?That was an incredible season therefore.

There are 2 ways to gauge a season. Regular season, then tournament season. You can argue for either, so I am not mad if people say, "it was a "good" team, and nothing else." To me, it is about the end result, the placement. The final grade of this team to me is elite.

It is easy to use a final game blowout to summarize the holistic team instead of the placement and full results. This team went farther or equal to any team we have ever had.

 

[sjt18]

Not much of a basketball critic. However Barnes' focus on defense seems to keep tripping them up. He just doesn't have enough offensive weapons to shift strategy when the opponent schemes them right.

I thought it was odd that they seemed to be playing an O that focused on the low post without really having guys that have great low post moves. Barnes has forgotten more than I ever care to know... but it just seems they keep losing to their own design rather than the opponent.

 

[tennesseeduke]

Only 56 teams that wished they could have made an elite 8. I can remember when Tennessee couldn’t even make it into the tournament. It is disappointing not to win or be competitive in the last game. But dang. An elite 8 is outstanding!

We beat two 30 win teams and a 29 win team to get the elite 8!

 

[volbound1700]

It is very hard to be down on Barnes or the team this year as that final tournament run feels like overachiever to me. We had a very young team with new faces. Houston was our best chance to get there, in my opinion.

 

[Vol-e-ball]

Not picking a bone, but a good opp to share my opinion. I think elite is one of the most overused words in recent history. I can’t stand the use of that word—especially when our coach uses it loosely.

It’s like referring to all 1%ers as elite, even though a person that makes a billion a year makes over 1000x the people at the bottom of the 1 percentile. And while the people at the bottom of that group are paying a larger amount of their income towards taxes, some want to be in that club because it makes them feel elite as opposed to… ok my political analogy will stop there.

Tennessee’s football program is not elite. It’s probably a bottom of the 1%er program at best. Personally, I don’t think we belong in that conversation yet and barely did back in our best years. We lost a lot of bowl games and have only one a single NC in over 50 years.

Ohio State’s program is elite. Alabama is elite. LSU is elite. Those are teams that fire coaches if they put up 8 win reg seasons too many times in the course of 5 years. Heupel has 3. Michigan is closer to elite.

Hopefully that changes. I feel better about our QB room and coaching staff than I have in a long time. Concerned about letting Martinez go, but Knowles knows a thing or two—so we shall see.

There's a politics channel.

 

[vegasvolfan]

There's a politics channel.

Point remains, we are not elite. Not even close.

 

[VolGee4]

Not much of a basketball critic. However Barnes' focus on defense seems to keep tripping them up. He just doesn't have enough offensive weapons to shift strategy when the opponent schemes them right.

I thought it was odd that they seemed to be playing an O that focused on the low post without really having guys that have great low post moves. Barnes has forgotten more than I ever care to know... but it just seems they keep losing to their own design rather than the opponent.

This year was our best low post game in several years. Estrella has skills, and Carey can bully a smaller team. They went right to Estrella in the post when we needed a key basket against UVA.