I really like this team...I really do...

#1
zjcvols

zjcvols

"On a Tennessee Saturday night."
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#1
this is obvious the deepest team for Pearl while at UT, and his biggest. They have a lot of athleticism on the wings, they have multiple guys who can get you 20 on any night, and they now have tasted success and know how to get some more. But my biggest question is......

Will we play enough defense?

Our two best defenders are gone in JP and Wayne. JP's defense (especially in the 2nd half of the season) was a critical part to the success of our first elite eight team. Scotty's effort on D has been minimal sometimes and Cam's knees haven't been healthy the last two years to keep his defender in front of him. B-Will struggles against quicker post players, and we have no idea what kind of D Tobias will play. Melvin is a solid defender, but can Trae play enough D at the backup spot? That's my biggest concern with the team.
 
#2
#2
Big Brian Williams lost 8% body fat over the summer. I believe his defense on the interior will be very solid. It really has to help a ton how hard he worked to transform his body. Did you read about the guy he worked out with? He is a trainer for lots of top athletes and gets great results.

Fields was known for being an incredible shot blocker. He will provide toughness down low.

Goins is an upgrade over Maze on defense IMO.

I think you are right to harp on Hopson. The guy has SO much talent and it is justified to be concerned about his willingness to work hard on defense.

Cam hurt his poor knee again but it is just a bone bruise so he should be back.

Maymon is supposedly a tenacious defender.

I think honestly that Tobias Harris will be a very solid defender. I think our interior defense will be stronger, I think an opposing SG will still be able to light us up because of the unwillingness of Scotty to play hard D.

Fat Brian and Wayne and Cam

vs.

Strong Brian and Fields and Harris
or Strong Brian and Maymon and Harris

I think we will have a much stronger defensive presence.
 
#4
#4
I forgot about John Fields for a minute. He is going to bring something we haven't had ever with Pearl. A legit shot blocker.
 
#7
#7
I haven't really understood why a decent amount of people don't think we'll be as good as last season. Don't get me wrong, it's possible, but on paper it seems like we'll be awesome. We finally have the talent we need to break through. Just speaking from experience, we seem to thrive in the face of scrutiny and controversy. GO VOLS!!
 
#8
#8
We're not any more athletic on the wing this year than we were last year. We're less experienced at the post. We lost our two best players from last year's squad. No reason to think at this point that they'll be as good as last year's team, imo.
 
#10
#10
This years team definetly has a lot of talent with the possibility of being as good as last years team. It will be fun to watch this team, I'm excited
 
#11
#11
LawVol13 said:
We're not any more athletic on the wing this year than we were last year. We're less experienced at the post. We lost our two best players from last year's squad. No reason to think at this point that they'll be as good as last year's team, imo.
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Wing - Tatum, then maybe McRae, Maymon, Pearl. A little athleticism lost, but not that much

Post - Williams, Fields, Maymon, Hall, Woolridge. Not seeing "less experience" with 2 seniors

PG - a decent chance Goins will be playing better than Bobby ever did (of course, remains to be seen). Good backup in Golden and Bone

I'm seeing a better team this year. JP and Wayne are gone, but their replacements have more talent. Don't get me wrong, JP and Wayne are very talented, but they really thrived in the team-oriented system and used that to their advantage. As long as we can continue that with the better talent and deeper line-up we'll have this season, this team looks better.
 
#12
#12
Chris4Vols22 said:
Wing - Tatum, then maybe McRae, Maymon, Pearl. A little athleticism lost, but not that much

Post - Williams, Fields, Maymon, Hall, Woolridge. Not seeing "less experience" with 2 seniors

PG - a decent chance Goins will be playing better than Bobby ever did (of course, remains to be seen). Good backup in Golden and Bone

I'm seeing a better team this year. JP and Wayne are gone, but their replacements have more talent. Don't get me wrong, JP and Wayne are very talented, but they really thrived in the team-oriented system and used that to their advantage. As long as we can continue that with the better talent and deeper line-up we'll have this season, this team looks better.
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1.) Then you're blind. Fields is a first year player in this system and Williams is a career backup, who we have no clue if he can carry the load or not. Chism was a 4 year starter with loads more talent than either Williams or Fields.

2.) They thrived in a "team oriented system"? Not sure what that means. We'll presumably be using the same system this year without those guys, who were clearly better last year than the people replacing them this year.

The X factor here is Harris. If he turns out to be a 15+ ppg scorer, we may very well be better. I think he'll be good, but I don't expect him to be that good. Therefore, I don't think we'll be better this year. I'm not saying we'll suck; I think we'll win slightly over 20 games and make the 'AAs again, but I don't see this year's team ever playing at the level that last year's team was at the end of the season.
 
#13
#13
LawVol13 said:
1.) Then you're blind. Fields is a first year player in this system and Williams is a career backup, who we have no clue if he can carry the load or not. Chism was a 4 year starter with loads more talent than either Williams or Fields.

2.) They thrived in a "team oriented system"? Not sure what that means. We'll presumably be using the same system this year without those guys, who were clearly better last year than the people replacing them this year.

The X factor here is Harris. If he turns out to be a 15+ ppg scorer, we may very well be better. I think he'll be good, but I don't expect him to be that good. Therefore, I don't think we'll be better this year. I'm not saying we'll suck; I think we'll win slightly over 20 games and make the 'AAs again, but I don't see this year's team ever playing at the level that last year's team was at the end of the season.
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I definitely see your point. Even though it is a new team and system, I do believe that Fields's experience will be worth more than you're giving credit to. Brian certainly hasn't been a 4 year starter, but he's played quality minutes in the vast majority of games since he's been here. He definitely has the most experience. When I say "team-oriented style", I mean how our focus is on the team, not just one or two players. I believe that is why our highest scorer was only averaging 12 ppg, and through the starting 6, that ppg stat didn't fluctuate very much. We definitely use our depth and rely on our team's overall chemistry for success. So, if we can continue doing that this season, I believe we'll be great. For what it's worth, Brian has been saying this squad has the best chemistry he's seen since he's been here.

I agree with you that Tobias has to have an immediate impact. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt in my prediction, and it seems like you're giving Scotty the benefit if you're saying that Harris is the only X factor. I have faith too. Bottom line, I think we're using the same evidence for our arguments, and it just remains to be seen.
 
#14
#14
Chris4Vols22 said:
and it seems like you're giving Scotty the benefit if you're saying that Harris is the only X factor.
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I think we'll probably get around the same from Hopson this year as last, and I think he'll probably continue to disappear at times and play well against lesser competition.
 
#16
#16
I like this team too, but our East division and schedule is extremely tough this year. I think we will lose more conference games and out of conference games, thus giving us a crappier seed in the NCAA tournament than last year. The good thing is we will be extremely ready to play come tournament time due to our tough schedule. Hopefully, the NCAA doesn't screw us for the third or 4th straight year and give us a horrible bracket. We should be rewarded for one of the top 5 hardest schedules in the country.
 
#17
#17
I really like this team too. We have sooo much depth its unreal. I think we will win the SEC if we dont have those occasional bad games like we tend to do against SEC teams on the road. Like FLA and GA
 
#19
#19
LawVol13 said:
1.) Then you're blind. Fields is a first year player in this system and Williams is a career backup, who we have no clue if he can carry the load or not. Chism was a 4 year starter with loads more talent than either Williams or Fields.
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When Tyler got dismissed and Williams suspended, we were down to Chism plus smoke and mirrors in the post. We tried Woolridge there and momentarily got shooting (Kansas game) and rebounding, but he didn't have the physicality on defense that we needed and then his shot went AWOL. Hall gave us another momentary spark, but then he started to look like a freshman playing center in the SEC.

Georgia and Vanderbilt in particular abused our post play, and it remained a question for basically the rest of the regular season.

For a decent stretch, our second-most-effective post player might have been Steven Pearl.

There is precisely one reason we stopped being concerned about post play in the NCAA's, and that's the emergence of Brian Williams as a legitimate NCAAT-caliber starter.

Losing Wayne Chism hurts; he was an elite defender and by last year had matured into a serviceable scorer. But he wasn't talented enough to even sniff the NBA draft, and we replace him with Harris, Fields, and Maymon, while keeping Williams, Hall, and Pearl.

It's a clear upgrade in experience, physicality, numbers, and raw talent.
 
#20
#20
Definitely did not upgrade on experience. Chism's 4 years of starting in the SEC trumps Fields playing for ECU and UNCW and Maymon riding the pine at Marquette.
 
#21
#21
Heebs said:
Definitely did not upgrade on experience. Chism's 4 years of starting in the SEC trumps Fields playing for ECU and UNCW and Maymon riding the pine at Marquette.
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Exactly. Also, while we gained talent at the 4, the loss of Chism is a significant drop in talent at the 5.
 
#22
#22
Also doesn't help that we lost our two best free throw shooters.

(Besides McBee, but he's not on the floor during any important times)
 
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