cncchris33
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2009
- Messages
- 32,320
- Likes
- 44,779
Volnation Road Trip except For TAD, Bring Back Dooley, Butch Jones, Derek Dooley, Dave Hart, and John Currie
View attachment 277267
Not with this team. We are very experienced and need to go full steam ahead early and often.
I think that we should ease into 2020-21 with Keon, Springer, and Bailey having played zero minutes, Vescovi missing the first two months, and JJJ having missed so many minutes due to his injury. The perimeter isn't all that experienced, especially minus Turner, Jalen, and Bowden.
If you don’t think this team needs to play tough competition then you might as well say we haven’t been ready to do so more than once or twice over the last 25 years. The amount of Experience along with incoming talent is way ahead of the curve of nearly every Vol team over the last 20 years
This is one time I agree with Bru. Iron sharpens iron, even if UT takes some tough early season losses, it will only make us better, come Tournament timeIf you don’t think this team needs to play tough competition then you might as well say we haven’t been ready to do so more than once or twice over the last 25 years. The amount of Experience along with incoming talent is way ahead of the curve of nearly every Vol team over the last 20 years
Teams like Duke, UNC, UK, KU don't worry about throwing 3-5 freshman out there against top talent every year. Why should we? Absolutely nothing to lose by playing tough competition early and often with this team.
Losing games loses seeding in the NCAAT. Plus too many beat downs can destroy the confidence of our young players who should be the core of the team in March if they develop over the season.
Didn't Keon pretty much sit out 2019-20 with an injury? IMO it will be better to ease into the 2020-21 season. There will be plenty of big time opponents during the conference schedule.
I’m gonna be honest, if you are worried about cracking these guy’s psyche and taking several “beat downs,” we have polar opposite expectations for this team. There are very high expectations with this group and rightfully so. I’d rather them take their lumps early than win a bunch of cupcake games and think they’ve arrived headed into conference play.Losing games loses seeding in the NCAAT. Plus too many beat downs can destroy the confidence of our young players who should be the core of the team in March if they develop over the season.
Didn't Keon pretty much sit out 2019-20 with an injury? IMO it will be better to ease into the 2020-21 season. There will be plenty of big time opponents during the conference schedule.
I’m gonna be honest, if you are worried about cracking these guy’s psyche and taking several “beat downs,” we have polar opposite expectations for this team. There are very high expectations with this group and rightfully so. I’d rather them take their lumps early than win a bunch of cupcake games and think they’ve arrived headed into conference play.
Keon did sit out much of last season. But that was also in a effort to be 100% by the fall. He should be fully ready to go.
You expect to only gain 2 games in SEC play next season? That would put us finishing between 3rd-5th, in all likelihood. That’s just absurdly low expectations for a team that will probably be the consensus favorite to win the conference.My expectation is to win in the 1st round of the NCAAT. I'd put the over/under in SEC play at about 11-7. So I'd like to pile up a bunch of wins in the pre-conference schedule, hopefully no more than 2 loses. Getting to the 2nd weekend will be exceeding expectations for me. The perimeter will be very inexperienced and none of what are likely the first 6 will have even played an entire season together. At least 5 of them haven't played a single minute in a conference tournament or the NCAAT. I assume that Bailey had at least a few minutes in the PAC12 and NCAA tournaments. Ticket and JJJ come the closest at playing together for more than a cup of coffee, but Ticket didn't log a ton of minutes and JJJ missed some time and the entire pre-season with injuries. The most experience is in the post and I'd rather the more experienced group to be on the perimeter. Keon really won't have played for 2 years and only Walker went to prep school (unless Webb Bell Buckle was a prep school).
I wouldn't minimize potential negatives in the mental aspect. Bowden, a senior, was in a complete funk last season. Josiah's lack of confidence held him back.
With COVID-19 the off season development could be limited and JJJ may not be able to attend his planned leadership training. IMO, this year with the absence of work so far for the perimeter, I don't think it's a good idea to create too many challenges early on in a long season.
With COVID-19 the off season development could be limited and JJJ may not be able to attend his planned leadership training. IMO, this year with the absence of work so far for the perimeter, I don't think it's a good idea to create too many challenges early on in a long season.
You expect to only gain 2 games in SEC play next season? That would put us finishing between 3rd-5th, in all likelihood. That’s just absurdly low expectations for a team that will probably be the consensus favorite to win the conference.
I think more people need to be talking about how covid is going to affect teams of all sports and their off season development and teams bringing in a lot of new pieces. It’s not being mentioned much and in the context of this post it’s being used the complete opposite that it should be imo.
With us only losing 1 player it really helps us that places like Kentucky that will have an entire new team aren’t able to have summer workouts as usual. If we go to war with JJJ, SV, Ticket, Pons and Fulky that’s a unit that’s played a lot of basketball. Then you just have to sprinkle in the new talented faces and we will be way ahead of schools that aren’t taking trips over seas as usual. Covid isn’t a “good” thing for any team but with the team we have its “better” than most of our opponents.
And I'll reiterate that our perimeter is very inexperienced and needs the work. It would be better to sprinkle in a physically mature post or two or spot up shooting guards. Our first 6 on the perimeter have very little time together. Vescovi has the 2nd most experience and needs to develop his off hand. JJJ is the most experienced and missed pre-season work and some games last year AND he needs to become much more assertive. Our version of man-to-man defense also requires a lot of cohesiveness.
Sorry but I can’t agree that SV and JJJ are Inexperienced at all. Those battles they lost this past year are priceless right now. That both played high minutes and you seem to be ignoring that.
and I’ll also add perimeter players are Always easier to plug in immediately to play than bigs. It just takes bigs longer to be ready to play at a high level