BTO’s Texas Postgame Report

[bleedingTNorange]

1. That was a tough game, disappointing not in the sense necessarily of losing but the fashion in which we did. We weren’t “expected” to win that game and grand scheme it won’t hurt much, but how we lost it is what makes it sting. Texas is a very good defensive team, and plays a very slow pace, we fed into that with turning down open shots early in the clock, and then added to it with missing free throws. We have to realize that free throws are huge no matter when it is in the game, make some of those front ends and shoot a good percentage, don’t foul on a half court shot and we are up at half and never get down as much as we did, requiring an epic comeback to make it a game. As for the last shot, maybe I’m in the minority but I don’t have much issue with it, James has shot very well of late, was wide open, Vescovi was going to be covered if the design was for him, hard to ask for a better look with 6 seconds remaining.

2. It’s not a secret this team hasn’t found it offensively and struggles at times there, we actually got some points off turnovers last night which was nice, but in the half court with them shutting down Vescovi we really struggled. We passed up too many open shots early in the clock and Barnes seemingly has reached his breaking point on it saying postgame the next guy that passes up an open shot is getting pulled. Defense gets easier when there’s <8 seconds on a shot clock, and makes getting a good look difficult, need to take the good looks you get. Would also like to see JJJ play aggressive for a whole game like he did final 5 minutes, taking 3’s but also driving and taking those 5-7 foot pull ups, or heck even take it to the rim, seems this year it’s been 3 ball or nothing for him.

3. I know nobody wants to hear it but I’ll say it anyways, winning on the road is tough, that’s not to say it can’t be don’t or we couldn’t have won that game because we could have, but you’ve gotta bring it on the road. Yesterday home team was 9-1 in the SEC/B12 challenge, that included TCU beating LSU, Bama beating Baylor, Florida beating Oklahoma State…the lone road win was Kentucky going to Kansas in really imoressive fashion. Again it’s not to say it can’t be done, and it sucks because obviously the chance was there for us to do it as well, but didn’t do what we needed to. With some league road games upcoming we have to be more focused and bring it on the road.

4. These guys definitely haven’t figured it out yet, will they obviously is the question but they need to fast. You don’t know what you’re getting from a guy like Powell on a game-game basis, you’re still searching by playing Mashack & Bailey (thought he played well), in the post you never have any clue who is going to do what, ON was aggressive and rebounded well, but missed some shots too, nobody else really showed a pulse. I’m sure it’s frustrating for Barnes and I’m not sure what the answer is, I’ve said I would start 4 small which we play a lot of anyways and see if that helps things at all, but not sure Barnes will do it. Barnes said postgame that guys were more vocal in the locker room than they had been all year about things they needed to do, but we will see whether that shows up in games or not.

5. From offensive rebound and turnovers we got 16 more shots than Texas did, and still lost the game…the positive spin is that you did those things well, the negative is that the offense couldn’t execute well enough to win cause with that difference you should win most times. Our defense was solid but they did shoot 54%fg and 44% from 3, the rebounding and turnovers just limited their shots and made our numbers decent. On the flip side us shooting 36%fg and 28% from 3 just ain’t getting it done, again the level of difficulty on a lot of our shots were tough compared to what they were getting, realistically this shouldn’t have been as close a game as it was.

6. Alright big picture…I said going into the 4 game stretch 2-2 was probable, 3-1 and you feel good, well we went 3-1 so feel good right? If you can forget this loss sure, but knowing how close you were to a huge road win to go 4-0 and really build some momentum makes that a tough pill to swallow. We actually moved up a spot on KenPom after yesterday results, so it’s not all bad and we don’t suddenly suck, just gotta not let that tough loss linger. As for SEC standings if you were going to drop 1/4 games this one doesn’t hurt anything at all obviously, and is another Q1 loss, which is what all 6 of our losses are. We are tied for 3rd place currently and have some very winnable games upcoming, need to go at least 3-1 in this stretch of games, protect home court and get one on the road, very doable (A&M,@SC,@MSST,Vandy).



GBO!

 

[TheMookieMonster]

It’s a brutal loss and I was mad at the time (still am), but I’m not concerned about losing on the road to a pre-season Top 5 team. I’m concerned about all of the issues we’ve seen all year still being a problem after 20 games.

I thought we maybe had found something offensively lately, but at this point I’m not sure if we did or if we will.

It’s frustrating.

It seems foolish for me to expect in game 21 or beyond that Barnes will change anything on offense to give this team a spark. So, it’s getting to the point where we better just hope our draw in March is filled with bad defenses because otherwise I’m not confident this team can score consistently enough.

Last night, Fran Fraschilla said at least 3-4 times he doesn’t understand why Tennessee is letting Texas get set in their half court defense and playing the pace Texas wants to play. It wasn’t working. It very clearly wasn’t working.

It was a weird game plan by Barnes, tbh. We kept attempting to work the ball inside to ON and Uros in a clear athletic mismatch in the front court. I believe I saw ON drop the ball a half dozen times when it was bounce passed into him. Uros seemed overwhelmed, too. In fact, Uros seems to be in his own head now after getting the love and admiration from our fans following the LSU game. Two stinkers in a row.

It’s just frustrating to see us waste this elite defense and Chandler’s one year so far. I really hope Barnes shocks us all and decides to go small and see what happens. This team is NOT good in the half court. We don’t have the post presence to play that style, which leaves me wondering what happened to the team from the pre-season that Barnes said was going to play quick and shoot 30 or 40 3’s a game.

We need to get back to that. It’s the only way I see this team making any noise in March because our post game isn’t getting it done.

 

[Namorto1]

1. That was a tough game, disappointing not in the sense necessarily of losing but the fashion in which we did. We weren’t “expected” to win that game and grand scheme it won’t hurt much, but how we lost it is what makes it sting. Texas is a very good defensive team, and plays a very slow pace, we fed into that with turning down open shots early in the clock, and then added to it with missing free throws. We have to realize that free throws are huge no matter when it is in the game, make some of those front ends and shoot a good percentage, don’t foul on a half court shot and we are up at half and never get down as much as we did, requiring an epic comeback to make it a game. As for the last shot, maybe I’m in the minority but I don’t have much issue with it, James has shot very well of late, was wide open, Vescovi was going to be covered if the design was for him, hard to ask for a better look with 6 seconds remaining.

2. It’s not a secret this team hasn’t found it offensively and struggles at times there, we actually got some points off turnovers last night which was nice, but in the half court with them shutting down Vescovi we really struggled. We passed up too many open shots early in the clock and Barnes seemingly has reached his breaking point on it saying postgame the next guy that passes up an open shot is getting pulled. Defense gets easier when there’s <8 seconds on a shot clock, and makes getting a good look difficult, need to take the good looks you get. Would also like to see JJJ play aggressive for a whole game like he did final 5 minutes, taking 3’s but also driving and taking those 5-7 foot pull ups, or heck even take it to the rim, seems this year it’s been 3 ball or nothing for him.

3. I know nobody wants to hear it but I’ll say it anyways, winning on the road is tough, that’s not to say it can’t be don’t or we couldn’t have won that game because we could have, but you’ve gotta bring it on the road. Yesterday home team was 9-1 in the SEC/B12 challenge, that included TCU beating LSU, Bama beating Baylor, Florida beating Oklahoma State…the lone road win was Kentucky going to Kansas in really imoressive fashion. Again it’s not to say it can’t be done, and it sucks because obviously the chance was there for us to do it as well, but didn’t do what we needed to. With some league road games upcoming we have to be more focused and bring it on the road.

4. These guys definitely haven’t figured it out yet, will they obviously is the question but they need to fast. You don’t know what you’re getting from a guy like Powell on a game-game basis, you’re still searching by playing Mashack & Bailey (thought he played well), in the post you never have any clue who is going to do what, ON was aggressive and rebounded well, but missed some shots too, nobody else really showed a pulse. I’m sure it’s frustrating for Barnes and I’m not sure what the answer is, I’ve said I would start 4 small which we play a lot of anyways and see if that helps things at all, but not sure Barnes will do it. Barnes said postgame that guys were more vocal in the locker room than they had been all year about things they needed to do, but we will see whether that shows up in games or not.

5. From offensive rebound and turnovers we got 16 more shots than Texas did, and still lost the game…the positive spin is that you did those things well, the negative is that the offense couldn’t execute well enough to win cause with that difference you should win most times. Our defense was solid but they did shoot 54%fg and 44% from 3, the rebounding and turnovers just limited their shots and made our numbers decent. On the flip side us shooting 36%fg and 28% from 3 just ain’t getting it done, again the level of difficulty on a lot of our shots were tough compared to what they were getting, realistically this shouldn’t have been as close a game as it was.

6. Alright big picture…I said going into the 4 game stretch 2-2 was probable, 3-1 and you feel good, well we went 3-1 so feel good right? If you can forget this loss sure, but knowing how close you were to a huge road win to go 4-0 and really build some momentum makes that a tough pill to swallow. We actually moved up a spot on KenPom after yesterday results, so it’s not all bad and we don’t suddenly suck, just gotta not let that tough loss linger. As for SEC standings if you were going to drop 1/4 games this one doesn’t hurt anything at all obviously, and is another Q1 loss, which is what all 6 of our losses are. We are tied for 3rd place currently and have some very winnable games upcoming, need to go at least 3-1 in this stretch of games, protect home court and get one on the road, very doable (A&M,@SC,@MSST,Vandy).



GBO!

Good write up. Agree with all of it. 10 more SEC games and all but 2 are winnable. I’ll predict 6-4 the rest of the way and just hope we are playing our best basketball by the end of the year. To this point, this group and coach have been frustrating to watch offensively. They have zero clue what they are doing.

 

[KB5252]

It’s a brutal loss and I was mad at the time (still am), but I’m not concerned about losing on the road to a pre-season Top 5 team. I’m concerned about all of the issues we’ve seen all year still being a problem after 20 games.

I thought we maybe had found something offensively lately, but at this point I’m not sure if we did or if we will.

It’s frustrating.

It seems foolish for me to expect in game 21 or beyond that Barnes will change anything on offense to give this team a spark. So, it’s getting to the point where we better just hope our draw in March is filled with bad defenses because otherwise I’m not confident this team can score consistently enough.

Last night, Fran Fraschilla said at least 3-4 times he doesn’t understand why Tennessee is letting Texas get set in their half court defense and playing the pace Texas wants to play. It wasn’t working. It very clearly wasn’t working.

It was a weird game plan by Barnes, tbh. We kept attempting to work the ball inside to ON and Uros in a clear athletic mismatch in the front court. I believe I saw ON drop the ball a half dozen times when it was bounce passed into him. Uros seemed overwhelmed, too. In fact, Uros seems to be in his own head now after getting the love and admiration from our fans following the LSU game. Two stinkers in a row.

It’s just frustrating to see us waste this elite defense and Chandler’s one year so far. I really hope Barnes shocks us all and decides to go small and see what happens. This team is NOT good in the half court. We don’t have the post presence to play that style, which leaves me wondering what happened to the team from the pre-season that Barnes said was going to play quick and shoot 30 or 40 3’s a game.

We need to get back to that. It’s the only way I see this team making any noise in March because our post game isn’t getting it done.

I'm not a fire Barnes guy but I sense a square peg round hole scenario at play. Barnes is a stubborn guy, hiss system has worked but I think he thought he had what he needed to run his preferred offense but he obviously does not. I think we should play small as well, we look better when we do it. We don't have the inside presence, we should either play small or prep our future big man with playing time and take our lumps for the payoff next year. JMO at this point because we aren't clicking anywhere.

Ziegler is going to be star for us in the future. I really like his upside.

 

[KB5252]

Good write up. Agree with all of it. 10 more SEC games and all but 2 are winnable. I’ll predict 6-4 the rest of the way and just hope we are playing our best basketball by the end of the year. To this point, this group and coach have been frustrating to watch offensively. They have zero clue what they are doing.

They weren't very good in long stretches on defense yesterday either. You're not going to win many games like that, especially with a limited offense.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

They weren't very good in long stretches on defense yesterday either. You're not going to win many games like that, especially with a limited offense.

Defense was never a problem yesterday. The defense was perfectly fine. We held them scoreless the final 5 minutes of the game. If we get that defense from yesterday with even serviceable offense we win by 10-15.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

which leaves me wondering what happened to the team from the pre-season that Barnes said was going to play quick and shoot 30 or 40 3’s a game.

We need to get back to that. It’s the only way I see this team making any noise in March because our post game isn’t getting it done.

I listened to Barnes press conference before making my postgame report, and I mentioned it, Barnes seemed just as confused as you to some degree…he says we had open looks and guys didn’t take them, he told them they’ll be pulled if they do it again, said postgame lockeroom guys were saying the same thing to each other, they put themselves in bad spots passing on looks whether it was thinking they’d get a better one or those guys didn’t wanna shoot idk. I’ve been as vocal as anyone about going small ball and still am, wish he’d commit to starting it, seems like we start big and then after slow starts or getting down he makes the switch.

 

[Namorto1]

This team is NOT good in the half court. We don’t have the post presence to play that style, which leaves me wondering what happened to the team from the pre-season that Barnes said was going to play quick and shoot 30 or 40 3’s a game.

We need to get back to that. It’s the only way I see this team making any noise in March because our post game isn’t getting it done.

Rewind any number of years and listen to what Barnes says preseason. Invariably as the season moves along he coaches differently than how he suggests in preseason. I like the guy and am glad he is our coach, but it is almost laughable and predictable that this occurs every year (except when we had Grant Williams and we were very efficient).

Defensively we play hard and are aggressive. Offensively, especially without a post presence we are passive, indecisive, display little confidence or purpose of play, and look like a church league squad, in the half court. Essentially what he says preseason and seemingly every postgame, never is remedied. You can see this at times with certain leadership styles in any organization. What said vs what is done are entirely two different things. It’s confusing to us as fans and I expect it is confusing to the players too. There is little joy to the game on the offensive end.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Defense was never a problem yesterday. The defense was perfectly fine. We held them scoreless the final 5 minutes of the game. If we get that defense from yesterday with even serviceable offense we win by 10-15.

Good offense yesterday scores 60-62.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

Good offense yesterday scores 60-62.

Well they scored 52 so I guess that’s still within the 10 point range I listed. I wasn’t using hard or fast numbers, my point was just the defense wasn’t the problem. It was elite and wins you games probably 90% of the time.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I listened to Barnes press conference before making my postgame report, and I mentioned it, Barnes seemed just as confused as you to some degree…he says we had open looks and guys didn’t take them, he told them they’ll be pulled if they do it again, said postgame lockeroom guys were saying the same thing to each other, they put themselves in bad spots passing on looks whether it was thinking they’d get a better one or those guys didn’t wanna shoot idk. I’ve been as vocal as anyone about going small ball and still am, wish he’d commit to starting it, seems like we start big and then after slow starts or getting down he makes the switch.

Well, hopefully they listen and respond. I feel like I hear the locker room stuff a lot in sports and then it never leads to anything, but I guess we’ll see. We certainly have a very winnable stretch coming up to make these changes.

Just shoot the ball. We’re selfless to a fault. You don’t always have to make the extra pass. Just shoot. You’d think these guys would WANT to shoot the ball. That’s kind of the point of the sport.

 

[berryvol]

One interesting thing to me is this is now multiple times in the last 2 weeks that Barnes has gone to ZZ in crunch time and benched KC. KC is always gonna get his 30 mins per game, but ZZ has been outshining him in less minutes over the last few weeks.

 

[walkenvol]

Best one you’ve done this year BTO!

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Well they scored 52 so I guess that’s still within the 10 point range I listed. I wasn’t using hard or fast numbers, my point was just the defense wasn’t the problem. It was elite and wins you games probably 90% of the time.

Honestly the rebounding and turnovers were elite, Texas shot really well we just limited their shot attempts…but yes, offense was definitely more the issue.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

One interesting thing to me is this is now multiple times in the last 2 weeks that Barnes has gone to ZZ in crunch time and benched KC. KC is always gonna get his 30 mins per game, but ZZ has been outshining him in less minutes over the last few weeks.

Yup…would remove Plav and insert ZZ to the lineup and see how it goes, jmo

 

[berryvol]

Yup…would remove Plav and insert ZZ to the lineup and see how it goes, jmo

Agreed. I think that would be a positive effect in 3 ways: first, obviously we are pushing the ball more, getting to the rim more, and getting better outside looks via small ball. Second, getting KC playing off the ball should cut down on turnovers and get KC better looks overall, as we saw in the late first half run v Florida. Finally, getting ZZ in the starting lineup May light a fire under KC’s arse, seeing that Barnes is pulling someone else in to split time running the offense, along with Barnes’ willingness to sit him in late game situations. We simply need more consistent and aggressive (poised aggression, without the careless turnovers) play from KC to make any type of tourney run.

 

[walkenvol]

I can recall many of the similar turn overs committed by ZZZ as is done by KC. ZZZ is clearly out performing his recruiting rankings and is a pleasant surprise. To many of us KC isn’t delivering up to his top hs PG ranking and might be viewed as a very very slight disappointment based on that ranking. If the 2 are compared production wise per minute KC is still probably out performing but our perception is clouded.

 

[Volprofch05]

I wonder if the whole ‘Rick Barnes coming home’ theme got into their heads a bit, since such a huge deal was made of this. I know we’ve seen them shoot horribly before, but usually not Santi (although Beard plan appeared to focus on nullifying SV).

Either way, I’m glad we don’t have another regular season game scheduled against a Big 12 team. Maybe the hoops are smaller in Texas, although I thought everything is bigger there.

 

[berryvol]

I can recall many of the similar turn overs committed by ZZZ as is done by KC. ZZZ is clearly out performing his recruiting rankings and is a pleasant surprise. To many of us KC isn’t delivering up to his top hs PG ranking and might be viewed as a very very slight disappointment based on that ranking. If the 2 are compared production wise per minute KC is still probably out performing but our perception is clouded.

ZZ has essentially the same assist to turnover ratio as KC, playing 2/3 the minutes. He also has exactly half the assists per game and half the turnovers per game as KC. Not disagreeing, just providing some context. I haven’t dug into this a ton, but just surface level observation, it does seem like ZZ production has gone up the last few weeks, while KC has gone down.

 

[TrippieRedd]

ZZ is better than KC and no one will convince me otherwise

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I wonder if the whole ‘Rick Barnes coming home’ theme got into their heads a bit, since such a huge deal was made of this. I know we’ve seen them shoot horribly before, but usually not Santi (although Beard plan appeared to focus on nullifying SV).

Either way, I’m glad we don’t have another regular season game scheduled against a Big 12 team. Maybe the hoops are smaller in Texas, although I thought everything is bigger there.

Bigger balls

 

[hUTch2002]

1. That was a tough game, disappointing not in the sense necessarily of losing but the fashion in which we did. We weren’t “expected” to win that game and grand scheme it won’t hurt much, but how we lost it is what makes it sting. Texas is a very good defensive team, and plays a very slow pace, we fed into that with turning down open shots early in the clock, and then added to it with missing free throws. We have to realize that free throws are huge no matter when it is in the game, make some of those front ends and shoot a good percentage, don’t foul on a half court shot and we are up at half and never get down as much as we did, requiring an epic comeback to make it a game. As for the last shot, maybe I’m in the minority but I don’t have much issue with it, James has shot very well of late, was wide open, Vescovi was going to be covered if the design was for him, hard to ask for a better look with 6 seconds remaining.

2. It’s not a secret this team hasn’t found it offensively and struggles at times there, we actually got some points off turnovers last night which was nice, but in the half court with them shutting down Vescovi we really struggled. We passed up too many open shots early in the clock and Barnes seemingly has reached his breaking point on it saying postgame the next guy that passes up an open shot is getting pulled. Defense gets easier when there’s <8 seconds on a shot clock, and makes getting a good look difficult, need to take the good looks you get. Would also like to see JJJ play aggressive for a whole game like he did final 5 minutes, taking 3’s but also driving and taking those 5-7 foot pull ups, or heck even take it to the rim, seems this year it’s been 3 ball or nothing for him.

3. I know nobody wants to hear it but I’ll say it anyways, winning on the road is tough, that’s not to say it can’t be don’t or we couldn’t have won that game because we could have, but you’ve gotta bring it on the road. Yesterday home team was 9-1 in the SEC/B12 challenge, that included TCU beating LSU, Bama beating Baylor, Florida beating Oklahoma State…the lone road win was Kentucky going to Kansas in really imoressive fashion. Again it’s not to say it can’t be done, and it sucks because obviously the chance was there for us to do it as well, but didn’t do what we needed to. With some league road games upcoming we have to be more focused and bring it on the road.

4. These guys definitely haven’t figured it out yet, will they obviously is the question but they need to fast. You don’t know what you’re getting from a guy like Powell on a game-game basis, you’re still searching by playing Mashack & Bailey (thought he played well), in the post you never have any clue who is going to do what, ON was aggressive and rebounded well, but missed some shots too, nobody else really showed a pulse. I’m sure it’s frustrating for Barnes and I’m not sure what the answer is, I’ve said I would start 4 small which we play a lot of anyways and see if that helps things at all, but not sure Barnes will do it. Barnes said postgame that guys were more vocal in the locker room than they had been all year about things they needed to do, but we will see whether that shows up in games or not.

5. From offensive rebound and turnovers we got 16 more shots than Texas did, and still lost the game…the positive spin is that you did those things well, the negative is that the offense couldn’t execute well enough to win cause with that difference you should win most times. Our defense was solid but they did shoot 54%fg and 44% from 3, the rebounding and turnovers just limited their shots and made our numbers decent. On the flip side us shooting 36%fg and 28% from 3 just ain’t getting it done, again the level of difficulty on a lot of our shots were tough compared to what they were getting, realistically this shouldn’t have been as close a game as it was.

6. Alright big picture…I said going into the 4 game stretch 2-2 was probable, 3-1 and you feel good, well we went 3-1 so feel good right? If you can forget this loss sure, but knowing how close you were to a huge road win to go 4-0 and really build some momentum makes that a tough pill to swallow. We actually moved up a spot on KenPom after yesterday results, so it’s not all bad and we don’t suddenly suck, just gotta not let that tough loss linger. As for SEC standings if you were going to drop 1/4 games this one doesn’t hurt anything at all obviously, and is another Q1 loss, which is what all 6 of our losses are. We are tied for 3rd place currently and have some very winnable games upcoming, need to go at least 3-1 in this stretch of games, protect home court and get one on the road, very doable (A&M,@SC,@MSST,Vandy).



GBO!

Good stuff. Yeah, these next 4 games are very important. It’s hard to win on the road, as you said, but we have to win both at home and get at least one of those road game. If we go 4-0 I’ll be impressed but we need to go 3-1 at worst.

 

[walkenvol]

ZZ has essentially the same assist to turnover ratio as KC, playing 2/3 the minutes. He also has exactly half the assists per game and half the turnovers per game as KC. Not disagreeing, just providing some context. I haven’t dug into this a ton, but just surface level observation, it does seem like ZZ production has gone up the last few weeks, while KC has gone down.

Definitely agree with your last sentence

 

[ArdentVol]

1. That was a tough game, disappointing not in the sense necessarily of losing but the fashion in which we did. We weren’t “expected” to win that game and grand scheme it won’t hurt much, but how we lost it is what makes it sting. Texas is a very good defensive team, and plays a very slow pace, we fed into that with turning down open shots early in the clock, and then added to it with missing free throws. We have to realize that free throws are huge no matter when it is in the game, make some of those front ends and shoot a good percentage, don’t foul on a half court shot and we are up at half and never get down as much as we did, requiring an epic comeback to make it a game. As for the last shot, maybe I’m in the minority but I don’t have much issue with it, James has shot very well of late, was wide open, Vescovi was going to be covered if the design was for him, hard to ask for a better look with 6 seconds remaining.

2. It’s not a secret this team hasn’t found it offensively and struggles at times there, we actually got some points off turnovers last night which was nice, but in the half court with them shutting down Vescovi we really struggled. We passed up too many open shots early in the clock and Barnes seemingly has reached his breaking point on it saying postgame the next guy that passes up an open shot is getting pulled. Defense gets easier when there’s <8 seconds on a shot clock, and makes getting a good look difficult, need to take the good looks you get. Would also like to see JJJ play aggressive for a whole game like he did final 5 minutes, taking 3’s but also driving and taking those 5-7 foot pull ups, or heck even take it to the rim, seems this year it’s been 3 ball or nothing for him.

3. I know nobody wants to hear it but I’ll say it anyways, winning on the road is tough, that’s not to say it can’t be don’t or we couldn’t have won that game because we could have, but you’ve gotta bring it on the road. Yesterday home team was 9-1 in the SEC/B12 challenge, that included TCU beating LSU, Bama beating Baylor, Florida beating Oklahoma State…the lone road win was Kentucky going to Kansas in really imoressive fashion. Again it’s not to say it can’t be done, and it sucks because obviously the chance was there for us to do it as well, but didn’t do what we needed to. With some league road games upcoming we have to be more focused and bring it on the road.

4. These guys definitely haven’t figured it out yet, will they obviously is the question but they need to fast. You don’t know what you’re getting from a guy like Powell on a game-game basis, you’re still searching by playing Mashack & Bailey (thought he played well), in the post you never have any clue who is going to do what, ON was aggressive and rebounded well, but missed some shots too, nobody else really showed a pulse. I’m sure it’s frustrating for Barnes and I’m not sure what the answer is, I’ve said I would start 4 small which we play a lot of anyways and see if that helps things at all, but not sure Barnes will do it. Barnes said postgame that guys were more vocal in the locker room than they had been all year about things they needed to do, but we will see whether that shows up in games or not.

5. From offensive rebound and turnovers we got 16 more shots than Texas did, and still lost the game…the positive spin is that you did those things well, the negative is that the offense couldn’t execute well enough to win cause with that difference you should win most times. Our defense was solid but they did shoot 54%fg and 44% from 3, the rebounding and turnovers just limited their shots and made our numbers decent. On the flip side us shooting 36%fg and 28% from 3 just ain’t getting it done, again the level of difficulty on a lot of our shots were tough compared to what they were getting, realistically this shouldn’t have been as close a game as it was.

6. Alright big picture…I said going into the 4 game stretch 2-2 was probable, 3-1 and you feel good, well we went 3-1 so feel good right? If you can forget this loss sure, but knowing how close you were to a huge road win to go 4-0 and really build some momentum makes that a tough pill to swallow. We actually moved up a spot on KenPom after yesterday results, so it’s not all bad and we don’t suddenly suck, just gotta not let that tough loss linger. As for SEC standings if you were going to drop 1/4 games this one doesn’t hurt anything at all obviously, and is another Q1 loss, which is what all 6 of our losses are. We are tied for 3rd place currently and have some very winnable games upcoming, need to go at least 3-1 in this stretch of games, protect home court and get one on the road, very doable (A&M,@SC,@MSST,Vandy).



GBO!

your first and sixth points said it all

 

[VolunteerCeltic]

Chandler hasnt been that good either, one and done for him is what everyone keeps saying however he is not even the best PG on this Vols team