Basketball - there is a problem

#26
#26
Thunder Good-Oil said:
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).
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I have no problem with JJJ's game at this point. He does a lot of things well. However, he has to become more of a scoring option as the season moves along for us to be successful. He needs to stop passing up penetration opportunities and take the ball to the rack. Right now we just don't have enough scoring options. Bowden goes cold for a few minutes and we are toast against a good team.
 
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#28
#28
Fullfillmer said:
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.
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They also combined to play around 10 minutes less last night as well. Gotta look at the whole picture. For sure, we will see this weekend.
 
#30
#30
JoAllan said:
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.
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Finishing was the problem last night. Too many missed east shots. Also, Pons was just plain bad on the offensive side.
 
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#31
#31
VolFreakJosh said:
A lot of overreacting in this thread
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Probably due to the perception that UT Chattanooga would be a cupcake. It wasn't. That was a sound mid-major that will likely have a good season.

Nice win, especially because I saw it as a possible trap game between Washington and the tournament next weekend with FSU and either Purdue or VCU lurking.
 
#32
#32
I agree with this post. We have played well this year, but if we're being totally realistic, we all know this team has some glaring deficiencies. That's why I was so upset with the Plavsic ruling because IMO, his contributions would have aided in one of those areas. His length, size, and physical presence would be extremely important to the depth of this team moving forward. I know we love Fulky because of his tenacity, relentlessness, and passion, but It's going to be hard to sustain that 2-3 times per week for the next four months. Our depth with ball handlers, particularly PG's will end up being a problem as well. We struggled last night against the press and you could tell LT was a little gassed. We're gonna rely extremely heavily (too much probably) on Bowden and LT's minutes and point production. LT is the one guy that has the ability to consistently create his own shot---I love our offense and team play, but crunch time and needing a bucket will prove to be a challenge in the future. Grant and Admiral were great at hitting big buckets when he had to have them.

That's not to say we can't improve and get better in some of these areas as the season progresses. The truth is that a bad shooting night (which is common with even great teams) will end up getting us beat several times this season. It's likely to end up getting us beat even against a few opponents that aren't as good as us. Last year, we were able to win games in multiple ways and it's obvious, as well-coached and talented as we are, the margin of error is much smaller with this group. Knocking down jump shots, taking care of the ball, and playing with more energy than the opponent will give us a shot to win every game.
 
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#33
#33
Fullfillmer said:
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.
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You are basing your premise on one game out of 5, even pointing out that the last game they played much better. You might consider getting a larger data set and seeing if the chemistry develops at all. You are taking one game and extrapolating to the end of the year. Lose that paradigm and accept the letdown against a lesser is an anomaly, not a trend.
 
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#35
#35
Pride85 said:
You are basing your premise on one game out of 5, even pointing out that the last game they played much better. You might consider getting a larger data set and seeing if the chemistry develops at all. You are taking one game and extrapolating to the end of the year. Lose that paradigm and accept the letdown against a lesser is an anomaly, not a trend.
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I am basing my premise off of several games -
There was a reason that Barnes more or less replaced him as a point guard last year - when the same thing happened - Only then WILLIAMS etc.didn’t get the ball and there was poor ball movement.

Either Barns or LT can fix it - but ask yourself
Should Chattanooga give us a better game than Washington is Chattanooga better than Washington .

Is it easier to defend Kentucky’s one dimensional football offense or LSU’s multi dimensional offense where everyone is involved and has to be respected and defended.

What was LT’s shooting percentage inside the arc against Chattanooga - 1 for 10 or 1 for 11?

Those are not physical issues with his shoulder- just poor shot selection and/or not finishing.

I like him and like his game - I don’t like a stagnant offense that doesn’t have great ball and people movement.

I already know he can dribble and dribble drive.

I.e. Slow down at the top of the key, Dribble, dribble, dribble drive often followed by a wah hoo s hitter - it wasn’t effective or efficient last night - it almost never is.

Don’t shoot the messenger - I think it is something that needs to be fixed for maximum wins going forward - we will see if it self corrects.

Just an observation-
 
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#36
#36
Fullfillmer said:
I am basing my premise off of several games -
There was a reason that Barnes more or less replaced him as a point guard last year - when the same thing happened - Only then WILLIAMS etc.didn’t get the ball and there was poor ball movement.

Either Barns or LT can fix it - but ask yourself
Should Chattanooga give us a better game than Washington is Chattanooga better than Washington .

Is it easier to defend Kentucky’s one dimensional football offense or LSU’s multi dimensional offense where everyone is involved and has to be respected and defended.

What was LT’s shooting percentage inside the arc against Chattanooga - 1 for 10 or 1 for 11?

Those are not physical issues with his shoulder- just poor shot selection and/or not finishing.

I like him and like his game - I don’t like a stagnant offense that doesn’t have great ball and people movement.

I already know he can dribble and dribble drive.

I.e. Slow down at the top of the key, Dribble, dribble, dribble drive often followed by a wah hoo s hitter - it wasn’t effective or efficient last night - it almost never is.

Don’t shoot the messenger - I think it is something that needs to be fixed for maximum wins going forward - we will see if it self corrects.

Just an observation-
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Did Fulkerson and Pons combine to take 2 shots in the first half ?

Did we see our non scholarship players mopping up at the end of the game ?

More observations....
 
#38
#38
Fullfillmer said:
I am basing my premise off of several games -
There was a reason that Barnes more or less replaced him as a point guard last year - when the same thing happened - Only then WILLIAMS etc.didn’t get the ball and there was poor ball movement.

Either Barns or LT can fix it - but ask yourself
Should Chattanooga give us a better game than Washington is Chattanooga better than Washington .

Is it easier to defend Kentucky’s one dimensional football offense or LSU’s multi dimensional offense where everyone is involved and has to be respected and defended.

What was LT’s shooting percentage inside the arc against Chattanooga - 1 for 10 or 1 for 11?

Those are not physical issues with his shoulder- just poor shot selection and/or not finishing.

I like him and like his game - I don’t like a stagnant offense that doesn’t have great ball and people movement.

I already know he can dribble and dribble drive.

I.e. Slow down at the top of the key, Dribble, dribble, dribble drive often followed by a wah hoo s hitter - it wasn’t effective or efficient last night - it almost never is.

Don’t shoot the messenger - I think it is something that needs to be fixed for maximum wins going forward - we will see if it self corrects.

Just an observation-
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Thank you for the breakdown. It was a Meh kind of game, but not indicative of even the other four played. The distribution has been better in other games than this one. The assists are absolutely through the roof this year (94 assists on 133 FGs. I think LT is trying to do a better job at being a point guard in this offense. I think the chemistry will click prior to SEC play. Barnes will fix what needs to be fixed. Maybe not as great a team as last year, but it is far from bad.
 
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#40
#40
We didn't need to beat our little brothers by 50. We needed to have an injury free game with solid minutes from our bench. That's what we got and we looked great doing it!
 
#41
#41
Lurker said:
Probably due to the perception that UT Chattanooga would be a cupcake. It wasn't. That was a sound mid-major that will likely have a good season.

Nice win, especially because I saw it as a possible trap game between Washington and the tournament next weekend with FSU and either Purdue or VCU lurking.
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Not to say UTC isn’t a decent program, but that same team just lost to FSU by nearly 40 a week ago.
 
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#43
#43
The reason Bowden and Turner are taking the majority of the shots is because we are running the offense through them. Barnes said in his interview after the game that we would like to run it through other guys, but what good is it when you do that successfully and those guys don't hit free throws when they're fouled.

It's too early to get caught up in this. As we play other teams with more athletic players, you'll see Turner and Bowden draw some solid defenders. At that point we'll have to have some other guys step up and probably adjust our game plan to get some other guys open. No need to worry at this point.
 
#44
#44
iBleedOrangeWhite said:
Not to say UTC isn’t a decent program, but that same team just lost to FSU by nearly 40 a week ago.
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That's exactly my point. If you see that score margin without watching the game the assumption could have been Chattanooga is a cupcake and the real challenge will be Friday night with FSU---trap game thinking. Watching Chattanooga last night, I think it may be a very good mid-major. The Mocs have some players. The Vols didn't seem anywhere near as focused as they were against Washington.
 
#45
#45
Lurker said:
Probably due to the perception that UT Chattanooga would be a cupcake. It wasn't. That was a sound mid-major that will likely have a good season.

Nice win, especially because I saw it as a possible trap game between Washington and the tournament next weekend with FSU and either Purdue or VCU lurking.
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It’s harder to swallow when the opponent you struggled with just got whipped by 36 by your next opponent.
 
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#48
#48
ThatVolGuy said:
Playing transitive chess with common opponents in college basketball (or any sport, really) is almost never a successful exercise.
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That’s a given, I was just pointing out that it’s not likely UTC is a legitimate ‘Cinderella’ team come March as was being suggested. On the other hand, we aren’t going to win every game or beat everyone 100-50, and everyone should just be happy we’re 5-0 with a shot to potentially crack the top 10 with a big weekend.
 
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#49
#49
Pons looked lost the whole game for some reason. Fulky will not take 10 shots a game and what he takes will be layups so to speak. JJJ needs to and will take a few more as the flow dictates. Senior guards like our two can take as many as they can shoot. LT still has shoulder issues and you can see it on every shot. Bowden is the best shooter in the league in my thinking.
 
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