BTO’s Georgia Postgame Report

[whobethis16]

I’m really worried about some of the guys legs, namely Santi. He plays so many minutes and covers more ground that probably anyone in the league. The past few games, but especially last night, I thought he looked tired. By the end of the first half and most of the second half, he looked like he had ankle weights on. ZZ looked quite a bit slower last night too but that’s probably more mental due to what he’s going through right now. Thoughts?

Push through for 1 more game, and then you have almost a week off from games.

 

[LeannaVol]

I’m really worried about some of the guys legs, namely Santi. He plays so many minutes and covers more ground that probably anyone in the league. The past few games, but especially last night, I thought he looked tired. By the end of the first half and most of the second half, he looked like he had ankle weights on. ZZ looked quite a bit slower last night too but that’s probably more mental due to what he’s going through right now. Thoughts?

Sometimes teams with a double bye in the SEC tourney come out looking flat against teams that have played some games. This worries me. But I do think from a rest perspective, it is good to have as Santi and others have logged a lot of minutes.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I’m really worried about some of the guys legs, namely Santi. He plays so many minutes and covers more ground that probably anyone in the league. The past few games, but especially last night, I thought he looked tired. By the end of the first half and most of the second half, he looked like he had ankle weights on. ZZ looked quite a bit slower last night too but that’s probably more mental due to what he’s going through right now. Thoughts?

Every team has tired legs this time of year. Whichever team(s) find a way to push through it are the ones who win in March. We're a lot deeper than a good chunk of Top 20 teams, so we will have some fresher legs than most.

 

[birdie74]

Poor play was mostly due to fatigue. Recorded and watched the game - re-winding to watch off-ball action. Clearly, several of the guys were just gassed. Santi and Fulky were signaling for subs several times - and Santi still played 35 minutes due to Z’s situation. We need to dial it back for a few days and re-charge the batteries.

 

[orangemadam]

No mention of Plav.

Not much on offense, but I believe he had something like 10 rebounds in 16 min. We will be needing an "enforcer" like him in the tourneys.

 

[orangemadam]

No mention of Plav.

Not much on offense, but I believe he had something like 10 rebounds in 16 min. We will be needing an "enforcer" like him in the tourneys.

sorry for hitting enter twice!

 

[TMvol10]

Poor play was mostly due to fatigue. Recorded and watched the game - re-winding to watch off-ball action. Clearly, several of the guys were just gassed. Santi and Fulky were signaling for subs several times - and Santi still played 35 minutes due to Z’s situation. We need to dial it back for a few days and re-charge the batteries.

Agree on that last part. How you manage days between games is how you handle tired legs at the end of the season. A physical day off and short practices are essential at this time of year.

 

[ArdentVol]

1. Well that was better than a loss, but goodness gracious I really was hoping for a better performance and a less stressful game than that was, but you’ll take the end result. For the thousandth time conference road wins aren’t easy and kudos to Georgia for fighting with nothing to play for, we definitely had a hand in making it a game for them but again, good job by Tennessee finding a way to win and avoid disaster.

2. That was just such an uncharacteristic game for us it’s really hard not to chalk a lot of it up to distraction and looking past an opponent, which you hoped wasn’t the case but definitely appeared to be so. Maybe it was partially the team thinking about Ziegler’s situation or Arkansas coming up, or just thinking Georgia would roll over, but between breakdowns defensively, lazy passes, getting beat to 50/50 balls etc, that just didn’t look much like the Tennessee team we’ve seen most of this year.

3. The silver lining to this game is 2 things imo, 1. JJJ stepped up in a huge way and appeared wasn’t going to let Tennessee lose this game, he was amazing out there on both ends and played arguably his best game as a Vol, as an upperclassmen leader on this team that’s great to see him step up and play with that aggression heading into March, we are going to need it. 2. We won. Maybe it’s a wake up call and an attention getter to bring guys back down to earth a bit and have everyone realizing they haven’t won anything yet, if that’s the case then great, and it didn’t have to come at the expense of a L.

4. I didn’t think this would be a game we needed to rely on old Fulky late to get us a couple baskets but seeing it happen definitely gave some hope that maybe he still has some late game ability for us. Gone are definitely the days of 30 minute Fulk, but if he can bring some offensive game like he has of late and be out there late and a guy we can dump it down into late when we need a bucket that is a big deal. The post remains just a 4 man everyone chip in and see who’s hot on a night deal and that likely will remain the case going forward, tonight our 4 posts combined for 65 mins 23pts 20rbds on 9-18fg, you’ll take that from those guys especially when JJJ is giving you productive minutes at the 4 as well. If you split his 30 minutes and stats in half to fill those other 15 minutes that’s 80mins 34pts 24rbds from your 4/5 positions, that is good post productivity.

5. Alright so let’s reset things, Tennessee gets the win and sits at 22-7(13-4) with an absolutely huge game coming up Saturday at home against Arkansas. With a loss this team still finishes out the regular season overachieving almost everyone’s preseason expectations, but at this point we are all feeling my greedy and want that revenge game and to close out the regular season with a W. We are firmly entrenched on the 3 seed line and avoiding that loss tonight really makes it feel like a 4 seed is probably the floor for this team, a win Saturday though probably moves that floor to a 3 seed and makes a 2 seed very realistic. Tennessee has played really great basketball the last 6 weeks or so and you hope tonight was just an outlier stinker, they’ve got a chance Saturday to show it was exactly that and avenge the earlier loss in the season to Arkansas to enter the SECT with as much momentum as any team in the country.


GBO!!!

best points were no3, no 4
good analysis as usual

 

[SouthKnoxVOL]

So if Auburn loses at least one more and if we win out do we get the tiebreaker since we beat them head to head? Since we split with KY if KY wins out. Does that make us Co SEC Champions with Ky.

No...with the regular season championship it will be a 3 way tie because all will have 4 losses. I dont think they do tie breakers for regular season...just for tournament seeding. When we won the co champ with Auburn in 17-18....they had defeated us during the season...so if they did tiebreakers for that...they would have won it outright.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I’m really worried about some of the guys legs, namely Santi. He plays so many minutes and covers more ground that probably anyone in the league. The past few games, but especially last night, I thought he looked tired. By the end of the first half and most of the second half, he looked like he had ankle weights on. ZZ looked quite a bit slower last night too but that’s probably more mental due to what he’s going through right now. Thoughts?

Not much worried about that, look around the league and at history, these guys aren’t playing all that much.

 

[wisvol22]

No...with the regular season championship it will be a 3 way tie because all will have 4 losses. I dont think they do tie breakers for regular season...just for tournament seeding. When we won the co champ with Auburn in 17-18....they had defeated us during the season...so if they did tiebreakers for that...they would have won it outright.

Correct, the SEC does not do tiebreakers designating regular season champs in basketball - we were designated as co-champs with Auburn in 2018, even though they had the head-to-head

 

[DMcVol]

No...with the regular season championship it will be a 3 way tie because all will have 4 losses. I dont think they do tie breakers for regular season...just for tournament seeding. When we won the co champ with Auburn in 17-18....they had defeated us during the season...so if they did tiebreakers for that...they would have won it outright.

^^^This^^^ Nothing wrong with being Co-Champs, as we were in 17-18....Pearl said, at the time, that Auburn was proud to be Co-Champs with Tenn....the fact that they won the regular season matchup and got the #1 seed in the tourney was/is irrelevant....If we tie them this year, even if we get the #1 in the SEC tourney, it doesn't dilute their being Co-Champs, same with us in 17-18....

 

[LeannaVol]

^^^This^^^ Nothing wrong with being Co-Champs, as we were in 17-18....Pearl said, at the time, that Auburn was proud to be Co-Champs with Tenn....the fact that they won the regular season matchup and got the #1 seed in the tourney was/is irrelevant....If we tie them this year, even if we get the #1 in the SEC tourney, it doesn't dilute their being Co-Champs, same with us in 17-18....

To Pearl's credit, He usually is very complimentary and gracious when discussing Tennessee and other teams Auburn competes against. I'm not saying I would trust him with my life savings but he can be a good sportsman. Which kind of makes it all the more strange that he allows his team to go and dance on the other teams logo before games. I am sure if UT did this some folks would defend them/ cheer them for being in your face, but it really is in poor taste and he should put a stop to it.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

To Pearl's credit, He usually is very complimentary and gracious when discussing Tennessee and other teams Auburn competes against. I'm not saying I would trust him with my life savings but he can be a good sportsman. Which kind of makes it all the more strange that he allows his team to go and dance on the other teams logo before games. I am sure if UT did this some folks would defend them/ cheer them for being in your face, but it really is in poor taste and he should put a stop to it.

And he took pics and shook hands with a lot of UT fans after his loss on Saturday. Yes. It is odd how he lets his players act like fools while he works his audience at the same time.

 

[Caculator]

FBP

 

[FlyFishnVol]

IF Auburn loses 1 more game and UT wins Saturday, do we not have the tie breaker, or is there a tie breaker system in the SEC?

Highest ranked wins

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Highest ranked wins

No. Regular season co-champions. Tie breakers decide SECT seeding only.

 

[arkyvol]

If the Vols play the pigs like they played the dawgs, they'll be hog slop. What scares me is the thought that they will play that way at the dance. I've seen that show before.

 

[Frozevol]

Tom Crean can clap his goofy azz straight out of a job for all I care. GBO!!!!
Thanks for the post as well BTO.

Disagree. I wish he’d stay there forever…but after this year’s fiasco, I’m afraid he’s toast.

 

[volanatic]

1. Well that was better than a loss, but goodness gracious I really was hoping for a better performance and a less stressful game than that was, but you’ll take the end result. For the thousandth time conference road wins aren’t easy and kudos to Georgia for fighting with nothing to play for, we definitely had a hand in making it a game for them but again, good job by Tennessee finding a way to win and avoid disaster.

2. That was just such an uncharacteristic game for us it’s really hard not to chalk a lot of it up to distraction and looking past an opponent, which you hoped wasn’t the case but definitely appeared to be so. Maybe it was partially the team thinking about Ziegler’s situation or Arkansas coming up, or just thinking Georgia would roll over, but between breakdowns defensively, lazy passes, getting beat to 50/50 balls etc, that just didn’t look much like the Tennessee team we’ve seen most of this year.

3. The silver lining to this game is 2 things imo, 1. JJJ stepped up in a huge way and appeared wasn’t going to let Tennessee lose this game, he was amazing out there on both ends and played arguably his best game as a Vol, as an upperclassmen leader on this team that’s great to see him step up and play with that aggression heading into March, we are going to need it. 2. We won. Maybe it’s a wake up call and an attention getter to bring guys back down to earth a bit and have everyone realizing they haven’t won anything yet, if that’s the case then great, and it didn’t have to come at the expense of a L.

4. I didn’t think this would be a game we needed to rely on old Fulky late to get us a couple baskets but seeing it happen definitely gave some hope that maybe he still has some late game ability for us. Gone are definitely the days of 30 minute Fulk, but if he can bring some offensive game like he has of late and be out there late and a guy we can dump it down into late when we need a bucket that is a big deal. The post remains just a 4 man everyone chip in and see who’s hot on a night deal and that likely will remain the case going forward, tonight our 4 posts combined for 65 mins 23pts 20rbds on 9-18fg, you’ll take that from those guys especially when JJJ is giving you productive minutes at the 4 as well. If you split his 30 minutes and stats in half to fill those other 15 minutes that’s 80mins 34pts 24rbds from your 4/5 positions, that is good post productivity.

5. Alright so let’s reset things, Tennessee gets the win and sits at 22-7(13-4) with an absolutely huge game coming up Saturday at home against Arkansas. With a loss this team still finishes out the regular season overachieving almost everyone’s preseason expectations, but at this point we are all feeling my greedy and want that revenge game and to close out the regular season with a W. We are firmly entrenched on the 3 seed line and avoiding that loss tonight really makes it feel like a 4 seed is probably the floor for this team, a win Saturday though probably moves that floor to a 3 seed and makes a 2 seed very realistic. Tennessee has played really great basketball the last 6 weeks or so and you hope tonight was just an outlier stinker, they’ve got a chance Saturday to show it was exactly that and avenge the earlier loss in the season to Arkansas to enter the SECT with as much momentum as any team in the country.


GBO!!!

Thanks for the insight and positive take, BTO. Side note, hardly ever reply in the BB forum but definitely appreciate your postgame reports. Always a great take IMO. Thx man! Go VOLS! Fingers crossed for a 2. But would be satisfied with a 3. Love the fight of this team! They struggle with consistency but still they are one of my favorites of Rick’s tenure!

 

[TMvol10]

Not much worried about that, look around the league and at history, these guys aren’t playing all that much.

I’m not worried about how much he’s playing, it’s more the fact that he looked slower and weaker than normal. I didn’t mention KC or 3J or others because they appeared to have their normal spring in their step. This was more about a specific player, not a general statement about players at this point in the season. But maybe I watched him too closely and was over analyzing Santi last night.

 

[General Jack]

Nice to get a win on the road despite a subpar effort. I'm not concerned by last night's performance, the team can't get "up" for every game and given where this game was sandwiched I almost expected what we saw.... the lazy passes bother me the most but that won't happen again.

 

[PACKERVOL]

I hope we have refs Saturday that actually know the difference between a block and a charge, AND call it that way!

 

[BACKDOC]

It was a hideous game, but I am just reminding myself that this team did something that plenty of other Tennessee teams could not, which is beating a middling Georgia team in Stegman. That has to count for something.

Two games in a row we have shot poorly, so you hope that isn’t the start of a trend. I kind of thought we had too much upperclassmen leadership to “look past” an opponent, but maybe this wasn’t that. Maybe the Zeigler situation has more than just Zakai’s mind elsewhere.

Overall, a win is a win and that is all that matter. Just ask Ohio State.

I’ll just close by saying if JJJ can play like THAT in March, especially in games where the rest of the roster doesn’t just disappear and plays like you’d expect…….that is the type of performance that can lead you into April.

We hit 83 % from the line, and made 8 three pointers; it could be much worse.

 

[BACKDOC]

Me and my dad attended last nights game. I believe this brings the streak to forever, as I don't recall missing a game at UGA when Tennessee visits. We are lifelong Georgia residents so it's a nice short drive to the arena. Official attendance was reported as 6,139 out of the 10,000 capacity at Stegeman Coliseum. I believe someone is lying. If there was 6,139 fans in there, I'll cut my right arm off. There was a lot more orange in there than red.

yeah, I noticed a lot of orange on the TV set.