BTO’s LSU Postgame Report

#52
#52
This program should have moved beyond having to play “effort guys” like Fulky, Small school players like Vescovi, or busts like JJJ. Is there no one else? These guys aren’t good enough to win consistently, especially when the conference is so deep. I hate it.
Small school players like Vescovi? Lol, ok.
 
#53
#53
Barnes always brings his freshmen along at a snail's pace. They develop way slower than necessary. Aidoo, Mashack and BHH need playing time now. They can't learn sitting on the bench. I would rather lose games developing new talent than letting them languish and probably hit the portal because they can't get on the floor. Especially Aidoo and BHH. We have no post play to go along with poor outside shooting.

Sorry, Kid Shelleen avatar (not Liberty Valance), but you speak as if the only time they play basketball, and the only time the staff sees them playing ball, is during games.

Are some guys "gamers?" Sure. But only in the area of effort. No one plays smarter or with greater understanding of the scheme in a game than they do in practice. Whoever is not playing is not playing because the coaches know under that game's circumstances, the player--no matter how talented and motivated--would hurt the team's performance. Nobody's playin' street ball out there on instincts or individual abilities!

No matter how much better it makes some fans feel to blame the coaches...

the coaches know more than us, they see more than us, and they have assistants who evaluate every player's every play in practice and games. The coaches KNOW who can do what, who has done what... they just don't know on any given game night who is going to do what.
 
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#54
#54
First round tourney bounce when the 3s won’t drop.

Barnes can’t coach them up or figure out a different game plan.
 
#56
#56
I wasn’t saying we are as good as they are, or have that ceiling from 3, I’ve said it a thousand times, we have to shoot better…the point was though that if your offensive game plan is to shoot 3’s then typically you win and lose based on how many of them you hit. I don’t see a mid season philosophical change being the strategy, and I don’t see us having the post players to do it, so at this point it would seem our most likely path to success is we start shooting the ball better…on all fronts, not just 3.
My point was that our margin of error is much smaller than that AU team. Just seemed like an odd comparison because that AU team rarely shot as poorly, as often as we have, this season.

It would seem like stating the obvious to say if you predominantly shoot a lot of 3s and miss most of them, then you typically lose.
 
#57
#57
But Barnes does NOT need to throw John under the bus publicly. Barnes has always had a temper, however, never accepting personal responsibility while laying out your own players is not the way to go. Right now, he just sounds like a mean tempered old fart.
I think Barnes finally got to the point to go public because the behind the Door conversations were not getting the Job done. Barnes has coached Fulkerson for 6 years, it is not like he is calling out a Freshman or Sophmore.
We have no idea what the conversations have been behind the scenes so not much here but to wait and see which one prevails. Fulkerson's floor presence is a problem, don't you think?
 
#58
#58
The team's early season success behind the 3 point line created a false picture of the team's offensive personality. Now we have settled into reality and we do not have the tools to easily respond with a plan B. You can only "coach up " under the rim offensive ability so much.
 
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#59
#59
I’m still confused by how terribly lost we look on offense. Even when we get in a nice groove of consistent passing we miss open 3s by a mile.
 
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#61
#61
Is this team as talented as many seem to think? I’m beginning to think not. They’re going to have to prove they’re good shooters, which they haven’t. Are they playing so hard on defense it’s affecting their shooting? They say defense travels but it took the night off Saturday. Hopefully it’ll turn around soon, as in now, but I’m beginning to wonder if it will at all.

Go Vols
 
#62
#62
For the life of me I don't know why Coach Barnes keeps saying he has a good three point shooting team, when he obviously doesn't. You are what the numbers say you are. And the numbers aren't good.
 
#63
#63
1. Had you told me that we would score a near season high allowed by LSU and that we would shoot 37 free throws I would feel pretty confident that we would win that game. I definitely didn’t see our defense electing not to make the trip and allowing LSU best offensive showing against a P5 school on the season. They out physicaled us all game long and our turnovers came at bad times and led to really ease baskets for them.

2. Shooting 38%fg 25%3pt 62%ft is really bad on all 3 levels, I know that’s a good LSU defense, and our KenPom offensive efficiency actually went up after last nights game (if that tells you how bad it’s been), but if we had shot just decent at all 3 levels 45/35/75 we win that game pretty handily, kind of hard to fathom.

3. Barnes is at a crossroads with some guys, Fulk looked bad again and even worse he looked as if he didn’t really even want to be there or care, his energy has always been his best attribute and if that’s not there then he’s tough to watch. JJJ is key for many reasons and a guy we need, but his shooting looks absolutely abysmal, shouldn’t be a confidence thing or a short leash thing because he continues jacking up 3’s with no regard at all, 1-7 last night with not a single 2pta taken.

4. I hoped to see a better game from Powell, for those that missed it he got absolutely whipped on the FT play that LSU got the rebound and putback which in the moment felt like a big momentum play, Barnes sat him after that for a very long time. If you don’t want to play Bailey and you’re going smaller Powell has to play, I’m sure it’s about what he’s seeing in practice too but Powell needs to know he’s got a little room for error and that he’s gonna get back out there, on a night we struggled shooting he’s riding the pine.

5. Some positive, Santi again looked good so won’t spend much time there, but Plavsic considering competition played probably his best game as a Vol. In just 15 minutes he scores 12 points and grabs 7 rebounds, he missed some FTs and had an embarrassing block on a layup attempt, but he was pretty good. If he could continue to develop an aggressive and physical style he could be even more effective, not claiming he’s a world beater but you can see why Barnes was hell bent on going to him early in the season.

6. Big picture, losses happen especially on the road in conference play, Alabama just lost at Missouri and were down 20 at one point, so the result isn’t a huge deal considering it was actually one of the most likely losses on our schedule by most metrics. However, it’s how we looked and that problems that we saw early on don’t appear to be getting corrected and we continue to struggle in the same areas, and that is the frustrating part. One of the big complains many have had with Barnes is his teams peak too early, I don’t think anyone would say we are playing our best ball right now so maybe they continue to work things out and improve over the course of the season and peak at a better time, then again maybe not. I said prior to conference play starting there was a very real chance we start out 2-3 and that if we do that wouldn’t really even be bad, likely road losses @Alabam, @lsu and @UK, probably on paper the 3 hardest SEC games all in the first 5…that obviously sets up for being able to make some noise later if we can get some things worked out. For now, home to Knoxville to play a South Carolina team we should beat and then on the road to Rupp.


GBO!!!


Barnes is 8-6 against Kentucky and has won three times at Rupp Arena as UT head coach.................

Tennessee has a lot of fouls to use on Tshib of Kentucky and keep him off the glass.
 
#65
#65
Trending more like we will end up as roadkill against Ky.

Ky is beginning to peak, we are at least a month away from peaking.
 
#67
#67
If we have any chance against Kentucky, we really need to start hitting some shots and getting our confidence back. These are young kids (except Fulky) and playing confident basketball is big difference for any kid. As much of this game is mental than it is physical ability. Lets score at least 80 against SC, get a little confidence back, and go to Ky with our heads down.
Go Vols!!
They better worry about South Carolina right now. Nothing is a given right now with this team.
 
#68
#68
Is this team as talented as many seem to think? I’m beginning to think not. They’re going to have to prove they’re good shooters, which they haven’t. Are they playing so hard on defense it’s affecting their shooting? They say defense travels but it took the night off Saturday. Hopefully it’ll turn around soon, as in now, but I’m beginning to wonder if it will at all.

Go Vols
We played tough D in the half court IMO. The numbers look worse due to our turnovers and associated fast breaks.
 
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#69
#69
My issue is that we never tried to get Fulky going. We seem to shoot the 3 ball better when it comes off a post touch first ( first 2 we made). When the Arizona game was on the line, Fulky got a touch ever position down the stretch. Not sure why we don't do that at the beginning more often.
 
#70
#70
According to written articles, Fulky was demanding the ball on almost every possession. That may be one reason. He's playing lackadaisical now.
 
#71
#71
My point was that our margin of error is much smaller than that AU team. Just seemed like an odd comparison because that AU team rarely shot as poorly, as often as we have, this season.

It would seem like stating the obvious to say if you predominantly shoot a lot of 3s and miss most of them, then you typically lose.
Except the OP didn’t seem to get that, which was my point, and why I chose Auburn…he acts like Pearl can do no wrong but it’s same deal for Pearl, when 3’s aren’t dropping his teams typically lose.
 
#72
#72
What bothers me the most is how careless we were with the ball. We had some genuinely embarrassing moments. Hopefully we can learn from this and play competent ball again. I don’t have a great feeling about this year’s team
 
#74
#74
I don't have any issue with what Barnes said about/to Fulky. Fulky is a grown man and should be able to handle that kind of blunt criticism. It was a brutally honest assessment.

The question I have though is "why". Fulky is on year 6. Other than a half a season hot streak he has been the same player his entire career. I just don't understand what Barnes thinks he is going to squeeze out of Fulky that he hasn't in the half decade he has been coaching him already. If the proverbial light hasn't come on by now there isn't any reason to think it will.
 
#75
#75
Might be instead of an attempt to motivate Fulk, Barnes is about to redistribute his minutes and knows that the “fans” will lose their s*** when he’s on the bench. They sure were having a hissy over the minutes allocated to Uros and to BHH.

Maybe Barnes knows that there’s going to be lots of criticism directed at the team and now he’s redirected it towards himself instead of the team. Are any of the Legions of the Miserable defending Barnes and attacking Fulk? JJJ and Bailey have also been hard targets of the loud critics. Now they’re going after the coach.

It might also not mean a thing. He’s just making random comments about the state of the team and the players. Maybe it’s not the typical Coach Speak that always gets blasted as well.
 

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