No wonder he left. We have the least knowledgeable fans around. Stupid sh.. like this may keep a good coach away. If anybody agrees with any of this they know nothing about basketball.
This is complete BS. Lets talk bball knowledge, pal. Start with the mental game and turnovers, pathetic point guard play, forcing the ball into lane traffic, lack of outside shooting, lack of half court offense, pathetic ball handling.
UT did 2 things well under Guonzo, they rebounded and played decent defense.
As for Stokes, as a big, he was a double double machine. Jump shot, not good, and that will hurt him as a 68 big body in the NBA. Maymon played courageously, but he missed a ton of lay ups, and turned the ball over constantly. So, for a coach with a big guy mentality, there wasnt much growth in the games of these two guys other than tenacity and physicality. Their actual on the court game didnt progress a whole lot. It wasnt until very late in this last season that these guys began to grasp the concept of inside out offense. You could argue that JR was the best shooter down the stretch. Sure, McRae could hit the 3 and get hot, but hes a shot creator, slasher, long type player, and of all the guys mentioned, he grew the most next to JR under Guonzo. But the bigs didnt progress a whole lot.
As for the sweet 16 run, come on. Youre supposed to beat a team like Iowa in the play in game, theyd lost like 9 of their last 10 games going into that match. The stars aligned for a run, and yes, the Vols took advantage. But opponents like UMass and Mercer wouldnt survive in the SEC, yet Mercer took us out of the first round of the NIT a year ago, in Knoxville! Mercer beat Duke by shooting lights out beyond the arc. Still, they werent a goliath. Duke would have stomped us out of the building.
And after all that, with the talent on this team, these guys should have never been in the position of having to sit on the edge of their chairs to see if they made the dance. This team lost to Tex AM twice, UTEP, and Vandy(who had a very depleted roster), making UT one of the only power conference teams in the tourney with losses to 3 opponents whos RPI was greater than 100!
Bottom line, Cuonzo should be gonzo, and I dont give a damn what you call me or how you describe me because all this team achieved was basketball mediocrity at a time when the SEC is weak and provided a chance to be somebody.
Enough said.
P.S. Gonzo didnt recruit Stokes or McRae, or Maymon. They were originally had by Pearl. Gonzo did convince Stokes to come after Pearls departure, so Ill give him that.
