bleedingTNorange
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1. Folks had been asking for a more exciting brand of basketball and more offense, what’d you guys think? I definitely did not see that coming, A&M isn’t a juggernaut defensively but Tennessee looked like a completely different team on that side of the ball, unfortunately they also looked like a different team defensively which is why this was a ball game, kinda frustrating, but a conference win is a conference win. Texas A&M is on a losing streak, watching their season that at one point they thought was a lock for the NCAAT slip away, they came in desperate for a marquee win and Tennessee held them off.
2. How good was the offense? By my calculations they posted an offensive efficiency ranking of 128.6, that is their highest mark in 3 years against a P5 team, that goes back to the Admiral and Grant team that won 31 games. Taking 26 3’s and hitting 42% of them while also hitting 21-27 free throws will help a lot, we turned it over too much which is crazy to think considering our efficiency number. After tonight Tennessee will be around 34% from deep in conference play, that’s a solid number but trending in the right direction, a big part has been the right guys getting shots and Zeigler & James both finding their shots a bit.
3. Speaking of JJJ, that’s the best he has looked in a really long time, we can only hope that that is a sign of him possibly finding something. He got into foul trouble which he has to avoid because it basically ends any chance of us playing small ball, but even still, he goes 22 minutes 14 points 8 rebounds and played aggressive on the offensive end. He’s now 40% from deep over his last 7 games, that is huge for this offense and the spacing…again he has to stay out of foul trouble though because this team needs him out there 30+mpg.
4. To the negative, our defense, who thought that would be the case? 2nd worst performance of the year to the Kentucky game, allowed them to expire 114.2 offensive ranking which is bad…they capitalized off our turnovers in large part, and also 2nd chance points. Those are 2 areas you can clean up pretty easily for the most part so not full blown panic mode there, and when we made A&M score in the halfcourt we did pretty well, but still, would’ve been nice to see us not match a great offensive showing with a horrid defensive showing, but I guess it’s nice to see the offensive spark that might be there, now if you can find a way to mesh those 2.
5. I’m hesitant in doing so but I’ll give a shout-out to Nkahmoua, maybe it was just his turn for the roulette of which post player is going to show up, but he had a nice game. 15pts 7r be 3blk 6/10fg 1/2 from deep and 2/2FT, if you could clone that from him and match it nightly you would in an instant. He isn’t a finished product by any stretch, but he flashes athleticism and post moves that I don’t see from Plav or Fulk, he’s inconsistent and I get that, and his hands aren’t great, but he’s the most likely of the group imo to give you something out of the post, and the 3pt threat is an added bonus to that over the others.
6. Kind of continuing that thought, and it’s beating a dead horse, but I can’t wait and truly hope that at some point we see majority small ball from this group. For one 2 posts don’t deserve that many minutes in this group, the strength is in your guards and playing a little bit uptempo, and imo Nkahmoua really fits into kind of that modern 5 man role very well. JJJ rebounds great for a small 4 and Vescovi is a very good rebounding guard, I think you can hang, and it makes us much better defensively and spacing offensively. The big issue is in order to play it JJJ has to stay out of foul trouble, it seemed like tonight had the potential but JJJ was saddled with foul trouble all night.
7. Alright so big picture reset…heading into this 4 game stretch (A&M, @SC, @MSST, Vandy) I said 3-1 was the projected outcome and what we had to at least get, 4-0 would be a great result and build some momentum. A&M was projected to be the 2nd hardest of the 4, obviously doesn’t mean it’s impossible to lose the others but starting off with a win feels nice. SC isn’t just going to lay down at their place, I’m sure it will be a physical and rock fight of a game as Frank Martin games against us usually are, hopefully we take care of the ball and play with confidence offensively, road wins are never easy in conference play.
GBO!!!
2. How good was the offense? By my calculations they posted an offensive efficiency ranking of 128.6, that is their highest mark in 3 years against a P5 team, that goes back to the Admiral and Grant team that won 31 games. Taking 26 3’s and hitting 42% of them while also hitting 21-27 free throws will help a lot, we turned it over too much which is crazy to think considering our efficiency number. After tonight Tennessee will be around 34% from deep in conference play, that’s a solid number but trending in the right direction, a big part has been the right guys getting shots and Zeigler & James both finding their shots a bit.
3. Speaking of JJJ, that’s the best he has looked in a really long time, we can only hope that that is a sign of him possibly finding something. He got into foul trouble which he has to avoid because it basically ends any chance of us playing small ball, but even still, he goes 22 minutes 14 points 8 rebounds and played aggressive on the offensive end. He’s now 40% from deep over his last 7 games, that is huge for this offense and the spacing…again he has to stay out of foul trouble though because this team needs him out there 30+mpg.
4. To the negative, our defense, who thought that would be the case? 2nd worst performance of the year to the Kentucky game, allowed them to expire 114.2 offensive ranking which is bad…they capitalized off our turnovers in large part, and also 2nd chance points. Those are 2 areas you can clean up pretty easily for the most part so not full blown panic mode there, and when we made A&M score in the halfcourt we did pretty well, but still, would’ve been nice to see us not match a great offensive showing with a horrid defensive showing, but I guess it’s nice to see the offensive spark that might be there, now if you can find a way to mesh those 2.
5. I’m hesitant in doing so but I’ll give a shout-out to Nkahmoua, maybe it was just his turn for the roulette of which post player is going to show up, but he had a nice game. 15pts 7r be 3blk 6/10fg 1/2 from deep and 2/2FT, if you could clone that from him and match it nightly you would in an instant. He isn’t a finished product by any stretch, but he flashes athleticism and post moves that I don’t see from Plav or Fulk, he’s inconsistent and I get that, and his hands aren’t great, but he’s the most likely of the group imo to give you something out of the post, and the 3pt threat is an added bonus to that over the others.
6. Kind of continuing that thought, and it’s beating a dead horse, but I can’t wait and truly hope that at some point we see majority small ball from this group. For one 2 posts don’t deserve that many minutes in this group, the strength is in your guards and playing a little bit uptempo, and imo Nkahmoua really fits into kind of that modern 5 man role very well. JJJ rebounds great for a small 4 and Vescovi is a very good rebounding guard, I think you can hang, and it makes us much better defensively and spacing offensively. The big issue is in order to play it JJJ has to stay out of foul trouble, it seemed like tonight had the potential but JJJ was saddled with foul trouble all night.
7. Alright so big picture reset…heading into this 4 game stretch (A&M, @SC, @MSST, Vandy) I said 3-1 was the projected outcome and what we had to at least get, 4-0 would be a great result and build some momentum. A&M was projected to be the 2nd hardest of the 4, obviously doesn’t mean it’s impossible to lose the others but starting off with a win feels nice. SC isn’t just going to lay down at their place, I’m sure it will be a physical and rock fight of a game as Frank Martin games against us usually are, hopefully we take care of the ball and play with confidence offensively, road wins are never easy in conference play.
GBO!!!
