BTO’s Florida & Texas Postgame Report

[bleedingTNorange]

1. Wanted to give a few days after the Florida debacle to pass before doing a report because as predicted the board was swarming with idiots. Not to suggest the game wasn’t a disappointment but holy crap the moronic behavior by some of these “fans” is truly hard to comprehend. It didn’t end our season, it didn’t mean Barnes needed to retire, it didn’t mean we suck or are frauds, it didn’t mean we’re doomed for a 5/6 seed at best, it didn’t mean Chaz is a bust etc etc…losses happen and even sometimes blowout losses happen to good teams, even great teams. That doesn’t mean you don’t dismiss it or take lessons from the game, you absolutely do, but you also don’t overreact to 1 game.

2. On to Texas, needed to bounce back in a really tough spot, on the road against a team that knows what we want to get done as well as anyone done that we’ll face. Definitely didn’t play our best but not a shock given the situation, but you won’t always have your best and finding a way to win that game showed a lot of toughness and grit, much like that win at Illinois earlier in the season.

3. Gonna be a double dip for player of the game, I’ll go with Felix Okpara for both games, in this Texas game you could’ve gone a few directions, Ziegler & Dubar both come to mind for sure. In the Florida game though there wasn’t many options and he felt like the guy who brought it most that evening. He’s really seemed to be getting more and more comfortable throughout the season and his shot blocking is starting to really show as well, his continued development while recovering from that hip pointer has been huge and will continue to be for us.

4. On one of those other guys I mentioned, Darlinstone Dubar, that’s twice on the road we’ve pulled out arguably our best wins and that we likely don’t without him. Coincidence or something that can be taken from that? Not sure but I would say you gotta try and find out. He’s got to continue to buy into his role as a 4 man imo, he’s too slow to guard most opposing 3’s and his defense will get him yanked, but he’s big enough to bang with 4’s or even 5’s and his ability to shoot the 3 without much thought is a weapon that should help stretch the floor for us.

5. Not super concerned on Chaz, I’m sure some are, he’s shown to be way too good of a shooter for too big of a sample size for me to think that 2 games on the road is going to be the new norm. Clearly the staff and his teammates have a ton of confidence in him and expect him to keep shooting, is there a great plan b if his shots aren’t falling, probably not unfortunately but there wasn’t last year without DK either. Maybe that’s Gainey, maybe it’s Zeigler, maybe Milicic who’s struggling a bit, not sure. Maybe Phillips and/or Mashack getting healthy also provides more options, definitely a question mark though but obviously not one that’s been too much of a hindrance and if we’re being honest probably is a bit nit picky given this is a 15-1 team that’s still a projected 1 seed.

6. We’ve completely our first 3 game stretch of league play, I said the goal for each of these stretches was to go 2-1, you do that 6x and you’re 12-6 and probably a 1 seed in the NCAAT, 2 seed at worst, and should be a double bye for the SECT which this year is massive. This first 3 game stretch at least as of now appears to be our most difficult of the season, so being able to hit that 2-1 mark should be considered a major W, even if the 1 loss was as ugly as it was. With that said you’ve got Georgia at home, Vandy on the road & Mississippi State at home, none are considered lay downs by any stretch and any of those teams can absolutely beat us. As I’ve said protecting home court is huge this year and then stealing a few road games along the way, so going 2-1 would again be holding serve and considered a W, ideally winning the home games.



GBO!!!

 

[PandamoniumReigns]

Season is over.

 

[ZZ13]

Interesting on the theory of going 2-1 six times in a row. Right now, 10 SEC teams started the league play 2-1 or better. Basically, the same five teams took most all the losses.

 

[chuckiepoo]

He’s really seemed to be getting more and more comfortable throughout the season and his shot blocking is starting to really show as well, his continued development while recovering from that hip pointer has been huge and will continue to be for us.

Okpara. Steady signs of development.

 

[Oldvoldad]

1. Wanted to give a few days after the Florida debacle to pass before doing a report because as predicted the board was swarming with idiots. Not to suggest the game wasn’t a disappointment but holy crap the moronic behavior by some of these “fans” is truly hard to comprehend. It didn’t end our season, it didn’t mean Barnes needed to retire, it didn’t mean we suck or are frauds, it didn’t mean we’re doomed for a 5/6 seed at best, it didn’t mean Chaz is a bust etc etc…losses happen and even sometimes blowout losses happen to good teams, even great teams. That doesn’t mean you don’t dismiss it or take lessons from the game, you absolutely do, but you also don’t overreact to 1 game.

2. On to Texas, needed to bounce back in a really tough spot, on the road against a team that knows what we want to get done as well as anyone done that we’ll face. Definitely didn’t play our best but not a shock given the situation, but you won’t always have your best and finding a way to win that game showed a lot of toughness and grit, much like that win at Illinois earlier in the season.

3. Gonna be a double dip for player of the game, I’ll go with Felix Okpara for both games, in this Texas game you could’ve gone a few directions, Ziegler & Dubar both come to mind for sure. In the Florida game though there wasn’t many options and he felt like the guy who brought it most that evening. He’s really seemed to be getting more and more comfortable throughout the season and his shot blocking is starting to really show as well, his continued development while recovering from that hip pointer has been huge and will continue to be for us.

4. On one of those other guys I mentioned, Darlinstone Dubar, that’s twice on the road we’ve pulled out arguably our best wins and that we likely don’t without him. Coincidence or something that can be taken from that? Not sure but I would say you gotta try and find out. He’s got to continue to buy into his role as a 4 man imo, he’s too slow to guard most opposing 3’s and his defense will get him yanked, but he’s big enough to bang with 4’s or even 5’s and his ability to shoot the 3 without much thought is a weapon that should help stretch the floor for us.

5. Not super concerned on Chaz, I’m sure some are, he’s shown to be way too good of a shooter for too big of a sample size for me to think that 2 games on the road is going to be the new norm. Clearly the staff and his teammates have a ton of confidence in him and expect him to keep shooting, is there a great plan b if his shots aren’t falling, probably not unfortunately but there wasn’t last year without DK either. Maybe that’s Gainey, maybe it’s Zeigler, maybe Milicic who’s struggling a bit, not sure. Maybe Phillips and/or Mashack getting healthy also provides more options, definitely a question mark though but obviously not one that’s been too much of a hindrance and if we’re being honest probably is a bit nit picky given this is a 15-1 team that’s still a projected 1 seed.

6. We’ve completely our first 3 game stretch of league play, I said the goal for each of these stretches was to go 2-1, you do that 6x and you’re 12-6 and probably a 1 seed in the NCAAT, 2 seed at worst, and should be a double bye for the SECT which this year is massive. This first 3 game stretch at least as of now appears to be our most difficult of the season, so being able to hit that 2-1 mark should be considered a major W, even if the 1 loss was as ugly as it was. With that said you’ve got Georgia at home, Vandy on the road & Mississippi State at home, none are considered lay downs by any stretch and any of those teams can absolutely beat us. As I’ve said protecting home court is huge this year and then stealing a few road games along the way, so going 2-1 would again be holding serve and considered a W, ideally winning the home games.



GBO!!!

We played UF and lost. We played the other ut and won. Don’t overthink it.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Good write-up. Thanks, BTO. Some brief thoughts of my own:

1) Said this in another thread, but we need to value the basketball a bit better. We’re far too turnover prone, which I think is leading to some of our offensive struggles. Just some uncharacteristic composure issues where we lose focus and throw the ball away trying to make the hard pass instead of the easy one.

2) Defense continues to be elite under Barnes, no surprise. I thought we defended fairly well against Texas, it’s just Tre Johnson hit some insane shots. Felt like Texas threw up some absolute prayers that almost always went in. Nothing you can do there. We even held Florida, who has an elite offense, to just 73 points. Florida played pretty poorly and still beat us by 30, which I think says more about just how historically awful we played than it says about Florida.

3) I’m not making any declarative statement here or saying the book is closed on how good our offense can be, but I’ll admit I’m a bit more concerned after this week about facing similar problems in March that Barnes has always faced. I not sure we have the firepower to keep up with an Auburn, Alabama, Duke, or even Kentucky if we don’t find more consistency from our role players.

I think Chaz is going to figure things out, so I’m not worried at all about him, but we generally are still being too passive on offense. Igor is far too skilled to be turning down as many open shots as he does, and he’s nearly 7 feet tall and won’t (or can’t) dunk the ball from 2 feet. Dubar’s game is promising, but his first 2 SEC games he put up a goose egg. Mashack…..is who he is. He’s playing injured, so I’ll cut him some slack, but we heard about how he hit 30,000 3’s over the summer and he refuses to shoot the ball.

 

[SN-A-C Orange]

His non shooting hand is injured. You can say, "it is the Non-shooting Hand" which suggests the you may not realize that for some shooters it is a really big deal!
I expected us to lose at FLA, so we are still on track...in my projections.
Florida showed us a defensive wrinkle that we need to work on. The rematch in Knoxville will give us more info into our offensive development.
Actually, Barnes shocked me yanking Chaz. I knew his leash was short, but that one...whew.
Lanier did not shoot any better, but he certainly left then fly after that conversation.
Ohio State got beat by Michigan(football), but since then have looked mighty tough. I want to see the same thing from our basketball team.

Texas was a better effort. Turnovers aside (8 to 10 points we tossed in the ocean), better game against a talented team. Pretty sure they are not going to have a losing SEC record.

BTOs next 3 game set I have is going 3-0.
No gimmes at all but looking forward to seeing a better offensive effort at home. Then, on to the funky gym.
Go Vols.

 

[BigOrangeFanatic]

The interesting thing to watch for IMO is who is going to consistently step up and help out with scoring in addition to Lanier and ZZ. Gainey has picked up the slack at times. Sometimes it's a combination of guys like Stone and Okpara like last night, but for me, and I keep saying this, we really need it to be Igor. I'm not saying we run the offense through him, but dad burn it, he's got to look to score more. Right now he's passing up shots, he's passing up opportunities to go to the basket...and we desperately need another consistent scoring threat or it will cost us a game or 2 somewhere that we're supposed to win, like a home loss to someone. There are very few games this year, even at home, that we can play an average game and still expect to win. Every one of them are going to be battles. I definitely want to see more drives from ZZ to get guys open and dish like he did in second half last night. He is what makes the offense go and he definitely impacted the game last night more than any other player.

 

[PreacherVol2]

The Florida loss is not a complete disaster, because, as Barnes stated, it might actually be a good thing. Last year we got blown out by A&M, but a couple of weeks later annihilated them at Thompson Boling. Barnes uses a loss to teach and then recalibrate the team. It’s great to see this team continuing to evolve and hopefully get better as we approach tournament time.

 

[CNeagleVolFan]

If Dubar gets consistent minutes I am confident he can get at least 8ppg. That would be a HUGE help for us off the bench.

 

[DowntownVol]

We've gotta find a way to get ZZ more rest, as I don't think we're going to blow many teams out in this year's SEC, but at the same time, the offense is basically helpless without him out there. 36 minutes per game is too much.

 

[CAVPUT]

We've gotta find a way to get ZZ more rest, as I don't think we're going to blow many teams out in this year's SEC, but at the same time, the offense is basically helpless without him out there. 36 minutes per game is too much.

Agreed. It's a long season and having him with fresh legs would be huge heading into post season. Lanier will lead us in scoring. ZZ is the qb of the team. Okpara is our post presence. But for some reason, I think Milicic finding his offense will be the key...the final piece to the puzzle that gives us a chance at a deep run in the tournament. Having his offense to go with that rebounding would make a world of difference in how this team looks and is defended going forward.

 

[Col_Cathcart]

Agreed. It's a long season and having him with fresh legs would be huge heading into post season. Lanier will lead us in scoring. ZZ is the qb of the team. Okpara is our post presence. But for some reason, I think Milicic finding his offense will be the key...the final piece to the puzzle that gives us a chance at a deep run in the tournament. Having his offense to go with that rebounding would make a world of difference in how this team looks and is defended going forward.

It also helps because he could create his own offense some. Right now, pretty much everyone (including Lanier) is dependent upon ZZ feeding them open looks or lobs. Gainey and Milicic have the ability to create their own offense which is critical if we’re going to survive minutes without ZZ.

 

[VolsAgainstTheWorld15]

Agree that Chaz is going to be fine. Against better competition that he has and will continue to see in SEC play, he may not be lights out the way Dalton was. He will, however, be better than he has been in the last two games.

 

[CNeagleVolFan]

Chaz is still getting good looks. He just needs to keep shooting and he will be fine.

 

[gainesvol82]

I still really like the diverse makeup of this team on offense. I think this year's group has the highest ceiling for a Barnes team at UT as long as guys like Milicic and Dubar continue to find their role and improve. Their improvement to consistent double digit scorers and continued physical play is the key to how far we go.

Gainey will have off games but is more consistent than last year. Chaz will probably level out as a 15-17ppg player in SEC play with occasional 20-25+ home performances. ZZ/Mashack and, to some extent, Okpara are known commodities. Dubur/Igor and Cade (unless Okpara is dominating) all around a double/double would make it extremely hard to focus in on stopping any one guy.

I'd also like to see Milicic bringing the ball up more as a point forward to spell ZZ instead of it always being Gainey. Possibly Dubar also.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Whew. Fellas, pardon me for noticing, but I’m sensing a little sunshine getting pumped up in here…

 

[griffdog14]

i miss estrella so much

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Great write up.

These 2 games on the road Felix averaged 29.5 mpg, shot 5-8 (62.5% FG), 5-7 (71.4% FT) 7.5 ppg, 8 rpg, 3 bpg, 1.5 apg, 0.5 spg

Also this might be the best 3 game stretch we see where we can go 3-0,

Georgia
at Vandy
Mississippi State

at Auburn
Kentucky
Florida

Missouri (Quad 2)
at Oklahoma
at Kentucky

Vandy (Quad 2)
at Texas A&M
at LSU

Bama
at Ole Miss
South Carolina (Quad 3)

Bold are the ONLY non Quad 1 games left on the schedule.

Missouri and Vandy are close to being Quad 1 games though, South Carolina will need to win a bit to get into Quad 2 though.

 

[Chaz-Vol]

Great write up.

These 2 games on the road Felix averaged 29.5 mpg, shot 5-8 (62.5% FG), 5-7 (71.4% FT) 7.5 ppg, 8 rpg, 3 bpg, 1.5 apg, 0.5 spg

Also this might be the best 3 game stretch we see where we can go 3-0,

Georgia
at Vandy
Mississippi State

at Auburn
Kentucky
Florida

Missouri (Quad 2)
at Oklahoma
at Kentucky

Vandy (Quad 2)
at Texas A&M
at LSU

Bama
at Ole Miss
South Carolina (Quad 3)

Bold are the ONLY non Quad 1 games left on the schedule.

Missouri and Vandy are close to being Quad 1 games though, South Carolina will need to win a bit to get into Quad 2 though.

It's funny, for whatever reason Felix's worst games were against mid level teams. He's really picked it up in SEC play

 

[MoCo_Vol]

It's funny, for whatever reason Felix's worst games were against mid level teams. He's really picked it up in SEC play

I do think as he's gotten healthy and adjusted to learning how to hunt blocks within our defense he's starting to get more comfortable. And it's pretty rare to see small 5s in SEC play. So I think his rebounding and block numbers are benefiting from having a more traditional matchup to defend.

But his best games have still (thus far) been Austin Peay (12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks) and UT-Martin (10 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks)

I just keep comparing Felix/Igor to Aidoo/Awaka...so far we've seen an upgrade over last year.

F & I: 17.5 ppg, 14.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg
A & A: 16.5 ppg, 11.9 rpg, 2.4 bpg

And Igor has been struggling a bit scoring since the Miami game...I think he's closer to a 12-14 points a game guy than the 7-9 we've been seeing lately.

 

[ColinS]

I do think as he's gotten healthy and adjusted to learning how to hunt blocks within our defense he's starting to get more comfortable. And it's pretty rare to see small 5s in SEC play. So I think his rebounding and block numbers are benefiting from having a more traditional matchup to defend.

But his best games have still (thus far) been Austin Peay (12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks) and UT-Martin (10 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks)

I just keep comparing Felix/Igor to Aidoo/Awaka...so far we've seen an upgrade over last year.

F & I: 17.5 ppg, 14.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg
A & A: 16.5 ppg, 11.9 rpg, 2.4 bpg

And Igor has been struggling a bit scoring since the Miami game...I think he's closer to a 12-14 points a game guy than the 7-9 we've been seeing lately.

The center position is Okpara and Phillips. Not sure why your using Igor. Yeah, he does play a little center but he primarily plays the four.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

The center position is Okpara and Phillips. Not sure why your using Igor. Yeah, he does play a little center but he primarily plays the four.

Cade didn't transfer in.

Comparing lost frontcourt to transferred in frontcourt players.

 

[VOLtaism]

We are right in the thick of the SEC race. What else can you ask for with the league as strong as it is. I would rather hang back a little and sneak up on people instead of planting that #1 team target on our backs. That #1 ranking is a load.

 

[pimo1]

His non shooting hand is injured. You can say, "it is the Non-shooting Hand" which suggests the you may not realize that for some shooters it is a really big deal!
I expected us to lose at FLA, so we are still on track...in my projections.
Florida showed us a defensive wrinkle that we need to work on. The rematch in Knoxville will give us more info into our offensive development.
Actually, Barnes shocked me yanking Chaz. I knew his leash was short, but that one...whew.
Lanier did not shoot any better, but he certainly left then fly after that conversation.
Ohio State got beat by Michigan(football), but since then have looked mighty tough. I want to see the same thing from our basketball team.

Texas was a better effort. Turnovers aside (8 to 10 points we tossed in the ocean), better game against a talented team. Pretty sure they are not going to have a losing SEC record.

BTOs next 3 game set I have is going 3-0.
No gimmes at all but looking forward to seeing a better offensive effort at home. Then, on to the funky gym.
Go Vols.

I'm posting after the UGA game so agree with your 3-0 run but after the Vandy game we hit a rough 4 game stretch luckily only Auburn is on the road. I think it's realistic for us to show up at Rupp this season with no more than 2-3 L's... If we can beat Auburn on the road we are likely back at #1. Dubar seems to be coming along and we need that. Hopefully, Chaz can shake his shooting funk in these next 2 games because we need him badly for Auburn and beyond.