Basketball - there is a problem

[Fullfillmer]

Ok - I hate to be that guy … but someone has to say it. I am seeing the ball sticking in Turner's hands wayyy too much. I know what you are going to say - 11 assists, but the ball has gotten very sticky in his hands - it's not moving through everyone's hands and as a result it appears to be the LT show. I know that you can dribble and create Lemonte -- but move the ball and get the rest of the team more involved. 4 for 16 shooting is likely because some of those shots should have never been taken - and when he takes more shots that James, Pons, and Fulkerson combined; imho there is a problem.

The offense has gotten stagnant -- while I am watching him dribble. I will give you some dribbling is necessary - he is stopping out front, showing off his skills, meanwhile everyone else is not involved. The last two games he has reverted from moving the ball to watch me dribble. JMHO
I saw this happen last year and he soon wasn't playing point. He plays a good pg for a few games and then falls in love with dribbling, stopping out front, looking for ways to dribble drive more etc. My suggestion …. Move the ball.

 

[JoAllan]

The O was certainly off tonight. Turner has been having a tough time finding his shot.....a lot of that could be/probably is his shoulder......however Tennessee did have 17 assists and are averaging 19 per game......that is Barnes basketball.......passing, motion, find an open man for a much easier “spot up” or post up shot.

The thing is Tennessee will rely more on jumpers and drives this year rather than the “post up” play.


I wouldn’t get too overly concerned with “just” tonight. 4 games isn’t a ton but probably a better indicator that just this one.

After this weekend we will all know a lot more. If Tennessee can go 1-1 or better......I think that will say a lot.......and Tennessee will be much further along than most thought they would be.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I've complained about that the last year or two. But tonight when TN was trying to milk the clock late I was saying that I'm glad that we have a senior that understands the situation and didn't make mistakes. We only had about a 10 point lead with a couple of minutes left and players not under control could gave easily thrown the game away.

I didn't notice him holding and letting the air out of the ball earlier in the game. I remember Bowden getting a bunch of looks around the FT line when he cut across the lane and I remember JJJ looking very comfortable bringing the ball up court through heavy traffic. Actually he was attacking rather than simply bringing the ball up court. He will be getting several Sports Center Top 10 assists before he's through. Just barely missed one in the first half that resulted in a turnover. His bounce pass was a little low, but it was beautiful how it split the defenders (but it bounced off of our post for the TO).

 

[Fullfillmer]

There was a lack of good flow and ball movement - Fulkerson took 4 shots, - Turner 16 shots - yet they each made 4 shots. Pons only took 5 shots.

What’s wrong with that picture.

I am not coaching them - but I haven’t liked it before and I still don’t like it. When we lost in the last couple of years this was part of our struggles .... imho.

 

[volmoon]

5-0
Were not supposed to be.
Offense sputtered against UTC and still won handily with stout defense.

 

[Coddlecreek1]

When push comes to shove , LT is money. A big shot maker. He is straw that stirs the drank. Barnes has given him the keys. I’m riding.."lets get it...next stop...Florida

 

[Shaun1985]

I'd love to see James take way more shots. He's so unselfish though.

 

[Kosmalski]

Barnes tried to keep legs fresh tonight. Early substitions, shorten the game.

Johnson and Pember both played 10 minutes. Gaines only 3.

Friday will tell. Ratchet up the defense again

 

[Johnnyreb#VFL]

They had an off night. Barnes is going to continue teach. Big proponent of impacting the game in other ways besides scoring buckets, esp when shot isn’t falling. Yeah they couldn’t score, but during the drought, notice the defense stepped up, too.

 

[Volsfaninva917]

It's early

Barnes subbed a TON

Early week game against a lack luster opponent with a big weekend tournament on the horizon

ITS GOING TO BE OK

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Ok - I hate to be that guy … but someone has to say it. I am seeing the ball sticking in Turner's hands wayyy too much. I know what you are going to say - 11 assists, but the ball has gotten very sticky in his hands - it's not moving through everyone's hands and as a result it appears to be the LT show. I know that you can dribble and create Lemonte -- but move the ball and get the rest of the team more involved. 4 for 16 shooting is likely because some of those shots should have never been taken - and when he takes more shots that James, Pons, and Fulkerson combined; imho there is a problem.

The offense has gotten stagnant -- while I am watching him dribble. I will give you some dribbling is necessary - he is stopping out front, showing off his skills, meanwhile everyone else is not involved. The last two games he has reverted from moving the ball to watch me dribble. JMHO
I saw this happen last year and he soon wasn't playing point. He plays a good pg for a few games and then falls in love with dribbling, stopping out front, looking for ways to dribble drive more etc. My suggestion …. Move the ball.

The only problem at this time in the season is that we have 4 players who played last year are in the NBA this year. We lost a bunch of laying time, rebounding, and scoring with those players. We will have to get more experience at the scoring and rebounding phases of the game, especially from behind the arc. We will have a good basketball this year, but I doubt we will be ranked # 1 in the country for 3-4 weeks.

 

[Giveem6]

This team will have nights like this one especially early on in the season. You can see we are still trying to find offensive identity with us missing %70 of our scoring from last year. The good news is fulky stepped up in a big way in the second half and our defense is playing like a Barnes coached ball team should play. We will probably drop a couple of tough games before league play when we have nights shooting like this but I still think this team has a ton of upside!

I really hope JJJ can get into a rhythm offensively. He's big body as a guard can really stretch defenses and take some pressure off our undersized front court. Go vols!

 

[IPleadInsanity]

5-0
Were not supposed to be.
Offense sputtered against UTC and still won handily with stout defense.

We are 5-0 because we have senior guards. SEC teams that don't have senior guards have already lost games to these mid-majors. Winning all of these easier games is very important for this team in order to make the NCAA. 2020 SEC road wins will be hard to get.

 

[1985Vols]

Ok - I hate to be that guy … but someone has to say it. I am seeing the ball sticking in Turner's hands wayyy too much. I know what you are going to say - 11 assists, but the ball has gotten very sticky in his hands - it's not moving through everyone's hands and as a result it appears to be the LT show. I know that you can dribble and create Lemonte -- but move the ball and get the rest of the team more involved. 4 for 16 shooting is likely because some of those shots should have never been taken - and when he takes more shots that James, Pons, and Fulkerson combined; imho there is a problem.

The offense has gotten stagnant -- while I am watching him dribble. I will give you some dribbling is necessary - he is stopping out front, showing off his skills, meanwhile everyone else is not involved. The last two games he has reverted from moving the ball to watch me dribble. JMHO
I saw this happen last year and he soon wasn't playing point. He plays a good pg for a few games and then falls in love with dribbling, stopping out front, looking for ways to dribble drive more etc. My suggestion …. Move the ball.

Really?, take the ball out of the hands of a player that is averaging 9 assists a game? Turner is our best " playmaker" and probably our second best shooter beyond the arc. He should be taking 12-15 shots per game on this team. James hasn't shown me that he needs to shoot more because he looks awkward ar this point shooting the ball. Great defender and rebounder but lacks offensive skills. Turner is our Jajuan Jennings. he and Bowden should be taking 50% of the teams shots

 

[cncchris33]

There was a lack of good flow and ball movement - Fulkerson took 4 shots, - Turner 16 shots - yet they each made 4 shots. Pons only took 5 shots.

What’s wrong with that picture.

I am not coaching them - but I haven’t liked it before and I still don’t like it. When we lost in the last couple of years this was part of our struggles .... imho.

I’m not going to say I disagree with your premise, entirely, but I think you are supporting your argument in a flawed manner. To say Fulk and Turner both made 4 shots but Fulk was more efficient should be expected. By the nature of the shots both take relative to their position and size, Fulk is likely to be, and should be more efficient. Almost all good post players should have better shooting percentages than good guards.

Having said that, Lamonte seems to be pressing a bit, possibly out of necessity at times, but last night, he had missed 3 shots in the opening 3 minutes on 5 Tennessee possessions. Now, sandwiched in between all that was 2 assists on both of our made baskets, but his slump to open the season seems to be beckoning him to “shoot himself out” of it, and that isn’t really what the team needs.

As the primary ball-handler, you are going to see some dribbling, so I have little problem with that and it’s difficult to argue the results when he is averaging 9.2 apg (2nd in the nation). Is he guilty of doing it too much, or to a fault, at times? Probably, but as a senior, and our best ball-handler and distributor, he isn’t likely to change, so you take the good with the bad. He just needs to get those shooting percentages back up to 2018-19 levels.

This team is going to look stagnant, offensively, at times as they identify their roles and look to replace guys like Williams and Schofield. The lack of flow that you see is partly to blame on the fact that this team is still learning to play without those 2 guys, especially when we need a bucket. Bowden and Turner are becoming those guys, but LT is pressing a bit, and needs to know when he is having an off night. On those nights he needs to look to affect the game in other ways.

 

[therealitytheory]

Whereas the rest of us worry about LT's health and ability to withstand the rigors of 35 minutes-a-game all-out effort.

 

[Fullfillmer]

I’m not going to say I disagree with your premise, entirely, but I think you are supporting your argument in a flawed manner. To say Fulk and Turner both made 4 shots but Fulk was more efficient should be expected. By the nature of the shots both take relative to their position and size, Fulk is likely to be, and should be more efficient. Almost all good post players should have better shooting percentages than good guards.

Having said that, Lamonte seems to be pressing a bit, possibly out of necessity at times, but last night, he had missed 3 shots in the opening 3 minutes on 5 Tennessee possessions. Now, sandwiched in between all that was 2 assists on both of our made baskets, but his slump to open the season seems to be beckoning him to “shoot himself out” of it, and that isn’t really what the team needs.

As the primary ball-handler, you are going to see some dribbling, so I have little problem with that and it’s difficult to argue the results when he is averaging 9.2 apg (2nd in the nation). Is he guilty of doing it too much, or to a fault, at times? Probably, but as a senior, and our best ball-handler and distributor, he isn’t likely to change, so you take the good with the bad. He just needs to get those shooting percentages back up to 2018-19 levels.

This team is going to look stagnant, offensively, at times as they identify their roles and look to replace guys like Williams and Schofield. The lack of flow that you see is partly to blame on the fact that this team is still learning to play without those 2 guys, especially when we need a bucket. Bowden and Turner are becoming those guys, but LT is pressing a bit, and needs to know when he is having an off night. On those nights he needs to look to affect the game in other ways.

In the Washington game - Pons, James, Fulkerson took 25 shots - the ball movement was better. Last night those three took 15 shots. Their opportunities to score were cut almost in half while Lemonte dribbled. The few looks they got were not good ones because there was no ball movement.

This is a problem - I get people may not see it - but there is a problem that will impact the success of this team imho.

 

[cardvolfan]

Really?, take the ball out of the hands of a player that is averaging 9 assists a game? Turner is our best " playmaker" and probably our second best shooter beyond the arc. He should be taking 12-15 shots per game on this team. James hasn't shown me that he needs to shoot more because he looks awkward ar this point shooting the ball. Great defender and rebounder but lacks offensive skills. Turner is our Jajuan Jennings. he and Bowden should be taking 50% of the teams shots

I doubt anyone would say he lacks offensive skills. He is too unselfish, as Barnes said, but if he decided to take over this team, you would see much more offense.

 

[Willy14]

In the Washington game - Pons, James, Fulkerson took 25 shots - the ball movement was better. Last night those three took 15 shots. Their opportunities to score were cut almost in half while Lemonte dribbled. The few looks they got were not good ones because there was no ball movement.

This is a problem - I get people may not see it - but there is a problem that will impact the success of this team imho.

They took a lot more shots because Washington played a zone imo.

 

[chattavol420]

Ok - I hate to be that guy … but someone has to say it. I am seeing the ball sticking in Turner's hands wayyy too much. I know what you are going to say - 11 assists, but the ball has gotten very sticky in his hands - it's not moving through everyone's hands and as a result it appears to be the LT show. I know that you can dribble and create Lemonte -- but move the ball and get the rest of the team more involved. 4 for 16 shooting is likely because some of those shots should have never been taken - and when he takes more shots that James, Pons, and Fulkerson combined; imho there is a problem.

The offense has gotten stagnant -- while I am watching him dribble. I will give you some dribbling is necessary - he is stopping out front, showing off his skills, meanwhile everyone else is not involved. The last two games he has reverted from moving the ball to watch me dribble. JMHO
I saw this happen last year and he soon wasn't playing point. He plays a good pg for a few games and then falls in love with dribbling, stopping out front, looking for ways to dribble drive more etc. My suggestion …. Move the ball.

Turner is just a real streaky guy. He was so up and down last year it wasn’t funny. And Bowden is an incredibly streaky shooter as well. If those 2 are the heart and soul of this team Barnes really has his work cut out for him. We’ll see. I’d imagine that we’ll have an average season with some big wins (mixed in with) some terrible losses.

 

[cardvolfan]

Well-said. Living and dying from the outside is risky business, especially when Turner can't seem to shake chronic shoulder issues. Fulky only had 4 shots last night, and Pons had little space to operate and that is not a winning formula. A case in point is last year's Vandy game where Grant literally carried us on his shoulders in the post the second half.

 

[Volle]

Unfortunately, LT is playing out of position at the PG, he does not have a perimeter move, like a step-back or crossover move to free himself for a 3-pt shot. Also, he doesn't have a great first-step, and often is cut-off on dribble drives to the basket. Ideally, JJJ would run the point, freeing up LT to play SG, and shoot more perimeter shots off screens, and be able to drive to the basket off cuts from motion play.

 

[BruinVol]

I think the problem is using the word problem and how you define the problem


Simply put this team isn’t going to be as good offensively as last years team and that isn’t a problem

 

[BruinVol]

With that that said I think we might end up being better on D

 

[ColinS]

Ok - I hate to be that guy … but someone has to say it. I am seeing the ball sticking in Turner's hands wayyy too much. I know what you are going to say - 11 assists, but the ball has gotten very sticky in his hands - it's not moving through everyone's hands and as a result it appears to be the LT show. I know that you can dribble and create Lemonte -- but move the ball and get the rest of the team more involved. 4 for 16 shooting is likely because some of those shots should have never been taken - and when he takes more shots that James, Pons, and Fulkerson combined; imho there is a problem.

The offense has gotten stagnant -- while I am watching him dribble. I will give you some dribbling is necessary - he is stopping out front, showing off his skills, meanwhile everyone else is not involved. The last two games he has reverted from moving the ball to watch me dribble. JMHO
I saw this happen last year and he soon wasn't playing point. He plays a good pg for a few games and then falls in love with dribbling, stopping out front, looking for ways to dribble drive more etc. My suggestion …. Move the ball.

Nobody else wants it. There were at least 10 instances last night when I saw a player get the ball with the potential to drive and immediately pass it back to Turner or whoever is standing at the top of the key. It was JJJ a lot of the time. If he doesn't develope offensively then we may very well end up in the NIT.