First, I'm encouraged that Villanova did not look as powerful against UCLA as I thought they would. UCLA is really challenged in the post with freshman Smith being their best player. Overall, UCLA is not very athletic anywhere on the court and not very strong in the post at all. Fouls and poor conditioning allowed him to grab only 19 minutes in the game. UCLA actually had to play a 6'8 183 pound sophomore 38 minutes at forward in the game. A 6'9 208 sophomore came off the bench to log 24 minutes.
Second, Villanova runs everything on offense strictly through the guard position. UT has done an excellent job of shutting down guards of late with the noteable exception being the terrible job we did against Jodie Meeks and KY. Last year the storyline was Ohio and their 2 guards in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. We flat shut them down. Last night was the same with Rodriguez. The last thing we want is a team that dominates with low-post scoring. If we are to face an explosive player, we want him to be at the PG position so Goins gets him. That is Villanova.
Third, Villanova's defense surprised me in how slow it was. I don't mean their players are slow, but their defense, especially in the 2-3 zone was slow to react and their zone and man to man gave up a lot off paint shots. Hopson could feast on driving to the hoop on Villanova. Perhaps because Villanova has so little length on the perimeter -- their 2 guards are 6'1 or smaller and they play a lot of minutes (36 and 28 against UCLA -- the 6'5 perimeter player, Stokes, logged 37 minutes). I can see how they might be taking a breather on defense. If it comes down to making plays in the 2nd half, we should have the advantage with fresh legs, especially in the backcourt. If it comes down to free throws, we could be in serious trouble.
Fourth, Nova's offense was interesting. It is basically get the ball in the hands of the two talented guards and let them drive to either try a layup or kick for a three point shot. Our length and athleticism should help us to deal with ball screens.
Fifth, Fields may set a preseason NIT record for blocks. As mentioned, Nova isn't big at the guard position, but those 2 guards love to drive at the big men. I could see Tatum, Fields, Williams, Hopson, Hall and Harris engaging in a block fest, especially Fields.
Sixth, Nova is not deep. They go 8 players and the 3 off the bench are noticeable drop-offs from the starters. Cheek fouls everytime he drives the ball and doesn't seem to have developed as he was expected to out of HS. In fact, he makes Hopson look like Michael Beasley in the meeting expectations arena. Their "big" off the bench looks like John Snodgrass -- blast from the past. Williams could eat the guy in two bites. Their bench scored 6 points, got 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block and 1 steal among the 3 of them in an average of about 16.5 minutes each. Our bench yesterday got 23 points and 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, and 2 blocks. We played 6 guys off the bench against VCU.
Finally, my concerned part is the officiating. I thought our game was officiated fairly well, but the Nova/UCLA game was a joke. Out of the first 7 fouls called on UCLA, I bet 3-4 were non-existent, total phantom fouls. Nova was in the bonus with 10:10 to play and had a 2-7 advantange in fouls called. 1 minute later it was 3-11. UCLA is not an impressive looking squad, but despite their shortcomings, the real difference in the game was the 10 more points that Nova got on the foul line. Fisher was 14 of 15 from the line, getting more than half of his 26 points courtesy of the FT line. I may blow up my TV if we get that same officiating crew for tomorrow's game. It is true that Nova crashes the lane on offense, but UCLA was also driving to the paint. UCLA, however, didn't get any phantom fouls called on Nova. I thought Nova was a 3 point shooting team, but they went 4 for 14 from that range against UCLA. They beat UCLA by driving the guards and hitting FTs and layups. They also outrebounded UCLA by 7, including 12 offensive rebounds.
To beat Villanova, we need our guys to really play under control. the 1-3-1 full court press that Nova runs can lead to a lot of dunks by the Vols, if they run it against us. I'd be surpised if Wright elects to run that very much. Nova does not want to get into a track meet with us. Their guards play way too many minutes, they don't have the depth, and we are way too athletic. Our FG percentage will balloon if Nova tries to press, giving us dunk after dunk.
If the refs call breathing a foul like they did in the UCLA game and Hopson and Goins get in foul trouble, we could get blown out. Our guys have to be extra careful, because Fisher and Wayns like to drive to the hoop and contort themselves because they aren't big enough to go straight-up. When they do that, the blind zebras blow the whistle almost instinctively, when (most of the time) there isn't any contact at all. Bruce may need to get an early "T" to get the refs in line tomorrow. Oh, and as mentioned, Dominic Cheek fouls with his left hand/arm every time he drives to the hoop. Our guys need to exagerrate the contact and will get lost of fouls called on him.
This should be each team's toughest test to date and another good one.
Second, Villanova runs everything on offense strictly through the guard position. UT has done an excellent job of shutting down guards of late with the noteable exception being the terrible job we did against Jodie Meeks and KY. Last year the storyline was Ohio and their 2 guards in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. We flat shut them down. Last night was the same with Rodriguez. The last thing we want is a team that dominates with low-post scoring. If we are to face an explosive player, we want him to be at the PG position so Goins gets him. That is Villanova.
Third, Villanova's defense surprised me in how slow it was. I don't mean their players are slow, but their defense, especially in the 2-3 zone was slow to react and their zone and man to man gave up a lot off paint shots. Hopson could feast on driving to the hoop on Villanova. Perhaps because Villanova has so little length on the perimeter -- their 2 guards are 6'1 or smaller and they play a lot of minutes (36 and 28 against UCLA -- the 6'5 perimeter player, Stokes, logged 37 minutes). I can see how they might be taking a breather on defense. If it comes down to making plays in the 2nd half, we should have the advantage with fresh legs, especially in the backcourt. If it comes down to free throws, we could be in serious trouble.
Fourth, Nova's offense was interesting. It is basically get the ball in the hands of the two talented guards and let them drive to either try a layup or kick for a three point shot. Our length and athleticism should help us to deal with ball screens.
Fifth, Fields may set a preseason NIT record for blocks. As mentioned, Nova isn't big at the guard position, but those 2 guards love to drive at the big men. I could see Tatum, Fields, Williams, Hopson, Hall and Harris engaging in a block fest, especially Fields.
Sixth, Nova is not deep. They go 8 players and the 3 off the bench are noticeable drop-offs from the starters. Cheek fouls everytime he drives the ball and doesn't seem to have developed as he was expected to out of HS. In fact, he makes Hopson look like Michael Beasley in the meeting expectations arena. Their "big" off the bench looks like John Snodgrass -- blast from the past. Williams could eat the guy in two bites. Their bench scored 6 points, got 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block and 1 steal among the 3 of them in an average of about 16.5 minutes each. Our bench yesterday got 23 points and 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, and 2 blocks. We played 6 guys off the bench against VCU.
Finally, my concerned part is the officiating. I thought our game was officiated fairly well, but the Nova/UCLA game was a joke. Out of the first 7 fouls called on UCLA, I bet 3-4 were non-existent, total phantom fouls. Nova was in the bonus with 10:10 to play and had a 2-7 advantange in fouls called. 1 minute later it was 3-11. UCLA is not an impressive looking squad, but despite their shortcomings, the real difference in the game was the 10 more points that Nova got on the foul line. Fisher was 14 of 15 from the line, getting more than half of his 26 points courtesy of the FT line. I may blow up my TV if we get that same officiating crew for tomorrow's game. It is true that Nova crashes the lane on offense, but UCLA was also driving to the paint. UCLA, however, didn't get any phantom fouls called on Nova. I thought Nova was a 3 point shooting team, but they went 4 for 14 from that range against UCLA. They beat UCLA by driving the guards and hitting FTs and layups. They also outrebounded UCLA by 7, including 12 offensive rebounds.
To beat Villanova, we need our guys to really play under control. the 1-3-1 full court press that Nova runs can lead to a lot of dunks by the Vols, if they run it against us. I'd be surpised if Wright elects to run that very much. Nova does not want to get into a track meet with us. Their guards play way too many minutes, they don't have the depth, and we are way too athletic. Our FG percentage will balloon if Nova tries to press, giving us dunk after dunk.
If the refs call breathing a foul like they did in the UCLA game and Hopson and Goins get in foul trouble, we could get blown out. Our guys have to be extra careful, because Fisher and Wayns like to drive to the hoop and contort themselves because they aren't big enough to go straight-up. When they do that, the blind zebras blow the whistle almost instinctively, when (most of the time) there isn't any contact at all. Bruce may need to get an early "T" to get the refs in line tomorrow. Oh, and as mentioned, Dominic Cheek fouls with his left hand/arm every time he drives to the hoop. Our guys need to exagerrate the contact and will get lost of fouls called on him.
This should be each team's toughest test to date and another good one.
Last edited:
