No one should be surprised we lost

[johnboyhunter]

I used to get really upset and down when we lose. For my mental health I’m way better off if I just accept it as part of life that if you are a die hard fan of any team you are always going to be disappointed at times and dwelling in it does nothing positive for yourself. Older I get the more I just try to forget it as quickly as possible.

 

[sechamp2012]

This game is the very definition of "trap game". Sandwiched between big emotional games vs Texas and Auburn. We got caught reveling in the Texas win and looking ahead to Auburn and forgot to play against the opponent in front of us. No SEC road game should ever be taken lightly, and we can't shoot 28% for a game. But games like this happen. It happens to everyone, so let's not overreact (which is asking a lot for our fans who routinely equate football and basketball). We are the 10th loss by the 2nd ranked team, this year. No team is going to be perfect every night, us included. This won't be our last loss, either. It sucks, but it's the nature of college basketball, and especially this year it seems. Losing is never fun, but let's bounce back and beat Auburn, Saturday.

Why would they overlook this game we’ve lost 5 of our last 6 down there. A lot of ppl were scoffing at the -5.5 game spread. There a reason we are not very fortunate down there.

 

[volfeeva]

When we play a team with an aggressive defense that matches up with us, ( that disrupts our working the ball inside ) we don't have the consistent shooters that make their shots. Some games they rip it, but very inconsistent. We really need a couple guards that can pop from 20' out.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Conference championships >>> than an early season tournament and cross-conference challenges. Again, it's not simply the losses in and of themselves, it's that when a golden opportunity presents itself to really put themselves in a good position down the stretch, they completely no-show. Losing in a 40-min battle is one thing, but laying a total egg is different. They cannot take advantage. 9-0 with this heavily backloaded schedule is helluva lot better position (and a situation that was right there for the taking) than 7-2. It's not outrageous to think they may play like this (and the UK game, and the first half of the State game) the last half. I see a more than hypothetical "world is crashing mindset" 5 losses in this second half if they don't show up. And they've already proven they don't consistently.

I never expect to be undefeated after an entire season, but it's not unreasonable to say they should have been undefeated in the first half of the conference and set themselves up nicely for the second half.

Again, Purdue is literally the only team that has been consistent this year, that’s it. It’s disappointing sure, but acting like this team should’ve gone 28-3(17-1) is pretty damn outrageous.

 

[whobethis16]

Again, Purdue is literally the only team that has been consistent this year, that’s it. It’s disappointing sure, but acting like this team should’ve gone 28-3(17-1) is pretty damn outrageous.

If they go 4-5 in the second half (or somehow only finish 1 game out of 1st in the conference) will you admit that this and the UK game were absolute beds******* performances that were choked when opportunity presented itself?

 

[bleedingTNorange]

If they go 4-5 in the second half (or somehow only finish 1 game out of 1st in the conference) will you admit that this and the UK game were absolute beds******* performances that were choked when opportunity presented itself?

If they go 4-5 to finish the 2nd half then that’s a whole lot of bed shi*^ing, not just UK & Florida games…that would mean 4-6 over final 10 games…and damn sure wouldn’t have us just 1 game out of 1st place.

 

[Lurker]

If they go 4-5 in the second half (or somehow only finish 1 game out of 1st in the conference) will you admit that this and the UK game were absolute beds******* performances that were choked when opportunity presented itself?

No. If they go 4-5 in the second half they won't have a sniff at #1 in the conference and they will appear to have been an entirely different team than the one we now have. NOTHING coming out of this outlier game suggests that the Vols won't continue to score FGs at the rate of 44% and Triples at the rate of 33% while holding other teams --- including some extremely good ones --- to under 35% and 23% respectively. This is an excellent team that lost a game in an atypical and obnoxious way to a good defensive team on its own home court. It doesn't change anything that this team can achieve, unlike football's loss to USC that took away their chance for greater glory.

One game in basketball is not a big deal and it doesn't, necessarily, predict the future. We've had lots of years of pretty good basketball in Ktown to learn the difference between basketball and football outcomes. I'm a lot more disturbed by the fans' weeping and gnashing of teeth over last night's result, than I am with the crappy result itself, even though I hate them both (not the fans, the weeping). The Vols gonna be alright.

 

[joevols89]

But that’s also ignoring or dismissing showing up to Atlantis and winning 3 games in 3 days against quality/very good teams, going to Brooklyn and beating Maryland on a neutral court, beating a Top 5-10 Texas team on our home court etc. For every let down you want to name there’s more than 1 impressive moment that this team has shown…are they perfect, absolutely not, they’re a bit inconsistent, but look around college basketball and tell me just how many teams haven’t been? Alabama just got boatraced by 30 against a worse team than we just lost to, plenty of examples of inconsistency around college basketball, it’s not just us even if folks want to act like it is.

I think OU is better than UF.

 

[IndianaVol]

John Calipari once said he would rather lose every game in Ja nuary if it meant he wins every game in March...I agree.
Let's take the lesson from the loss and move forward.

As others have pointed out though, the frustrating part of this lesson is it's hard to learn why inconsistency and cold-shooting happens.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I think OU is better than UF.

On a neutral court it’s a pick em’ or Florida -1, either way they’re comparable and we didn’t get waxed by 30.

 

[whobethis16]

If they go 4-5 to finish the 2nd half then that’s a whole lot of bed shi*^ing, not just UK & Florida games…that would mean 4-6 over final 10 games…and damn sure wouldn’t have us just 1 game out of 1st place.

Hence the "or finish 1 game out". Two different results, but sure lump them together and not answer the question.

And going 4-5 is not beds******* when you see who's left. Auburn x2, Bama, @UK. That's 5 quite feasible Ls and with how so many are dismissing the choke jobs against Florida and Kentucky. By metrics, those 5 would not be considered "bad losses", but compounded with the 2 that should've been Ws makes it look a helluva lot worse.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Hence the "or finish 1 game out". Two different results, but sure lump them together and not answer the question.

And going 4-5 is not beds******* when you see who's left. Auburn x2, Bama, @UK. That's 5 quite feasible Ls and with how so many are dismissing the choke jobs against Florida and Kentucky. By metrics, those 5 would not be considered "bad losses", but compounded with the 2 that should've been Ws makes it look a helluva lot worse.

It would be $h!ttng the bed

 

[whobethis16]

The way you worded it seemed like you were putting the 2 thoughts together as 1, not separate things.

If it was put together I would've used "and" since that word means "together".

 

[whobethis16]

It would be $h!ttng the bed

And it would be a solid 13-5 with winning games they should've won instead of a lackluster 11-7. All comes back to my argument of them not taking advantage of opportunity and taking care of business.

 

[Volprofch05]

Again, Purdue is literally the only team that has been consistent this year, that’s it. It’s disappointing sure, but acting like this team should’ve gone 28-3(17-1) is pretty damn outrageous.

Purdue has been very consistent, but even they lost at home (albeit by 1 point) to a Rutgers team that is 7-4 in conference. (Florida is 6-3 in conference)

 

[bleedingTNorange]

And it would be a solid 13-5 with winning games they should've won instead of a lackluster 11-7. All comes back to my argument of them not taking advantage of opportunity and taking care of business.

They aren’t supposed to lose 4-5 more games, thus that would be $hitting the bed

 

[top5vols]

Bad loss to a bad Florida team.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Purdue has been very consistent, but even they lost at home (albeit by 1 point) to a Rutgers team that is 7-4 in conference. (Florida is 6-3 in conference)

Yup, you can run down the list, Houston lost to freaking Temple…so many uninformed and freak out takes on this board, it’s embarrassing.

 

[jeff1vol]

SEC title is won via a tournament. Don’t give me this crap about regular season title being such an achievement. Winning the league tourney is a bigger deal than regular season title. I do NOT care if we were to wind up not winning the regular season title. Go back to the year we split it with Auburn…. We claim co-champions even though we lost to Auburn head to head. Vanity “title”

Well then let's just play a tourney and be done with it. OF COURSE the regular season matters. Good Lord.

 

[Zues1]

I was not suprisred they lost, it's a conference rival on the road.
You sorta expect to lose some of those games by one or two baskets.
That's not what happened last night.

 

[cncchris33]

Why would they overlook this game we’ve lost 5 of our last 6 down there. A lot of ppl were scoffing at the -5.5 game spread. There a reason we are not very fortunate down there.

I didn't say that it was rational for them to look past them. It's just human nature to overlook a team sandwiched between two ranked opponents.

And frankly, I'd bet that probably 0 out of 13 players could have told you we've lost 5 of 6 at Florida. Stats like that matter to fans and media members, not players.

 

[sechamp2012]

I didn't say that it was rational for them to look past them. It's just human nature to overlook a team sandwiched between two ranked opponents.

And frankly, I'd bet that probably 0 out of 13 players could have told you we've lost 5 of 6 at Florida. Stats like that matter to fans and media members, not players.

Yeah, you are right players don’t pay attention like fans. I was listening to EAinge radio and all those guys had this game and easily picked us to win without any hesitation.Their only ? Was 5.5 was just too small of margin they were thinking a 10 to 12 win. Thoughts like that subconsciously bleed over IMO. I remember in Football watching a National sports show & a USCe fan asked the host what chance the Cocks had vs Vols. His reply was zero to none. Sometimes the narrative does get back to players on both sides but that’s all part of it,

 

[EZE]

So we should accept this team *****ing the bed each and every time it gets an opportunity to bury a team or greatly improve their position? This is the 2nd time in 3 weeks.

Geez, man, chill a little. Late season, conference road games are a b!tch…especially those in the middle of the week. Most teams will slip up on one of them here and there.

It’s not like this team is some juggernaut that simply didn’t show up ready to play. It has a real weakness with offensive consistency that gets exposed every so often. It simply does not have enough pure scorers.

It’s also not the first time this weakness has shown itself this season. And it likely won’t be the last time. It probably will lead to a somewhat early exit from the tournament.

 

[EZE]

This game is the very definition of "trap game". Sandwiched between big emotional games vs Texas and Auburn. We got caught reveling in the Texas win and looking ahead to Auburn and forgot to play against the opponent in front of us. No SEC road game should ever be taken lightly, and we can't shoot 28% for a game. But games like this happen. It happens to everyone, so let's not overreact (which is asking a lot for our fans who routinely equate football and basketball). We are the 10th loss by the 2nd ranked team, this year. No team is going to be perfect every night, us included. This won't be our last loss, either. It sucks, but it's the nature of college basketball, and especially this year it seems. Losing is never fun, but let's bounce back and beat Auburn, Saturday.

This team did not overlook Florida. The effort was there…we just played poorly. It happens.

 

[DuckInAPen]

I used to get really upset and down when we lose. For my mental health I’m way better off if I just accept it as part of life that if you are a die hard fan of any team you are always going to be disappointed at times and dwelling in it does nothing positive for yourself. Older I get the more I just try to forget it as quickly as possible.

I envy those fans who enjoy such tranquillity in their own lives that they can afford to expend their emotional energy being negative about the best stretch of Volunteer basketball since the Carter administration