ConantheVolbarian
What is best in life? Winning by fiddy!
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2015
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As we all know,
There has been a lot of frustration about the Vols starting slow out of the gate. Last year, the Vols did the exact opposite; They started strong and faded in the second half of most games. A lot of people are acting like this is a problem that is unique to the Vols, but that isn't the case.
If you look at box scores from football or basketball games at all levels of competition, you'll see that most teams have some quarters where they score gobs of points and some where they are anemic. Heck, the nba keeps stats of the average points individual players score in qtrs. When Jason Terry played for the Dallas Mavericks, he was known as Mr. 4th Quarter because he was one of the league leaders in 4th qtr scoring.
Just look at the Florida and A&M games. Both teams scored a lot of points early, but the Vols shut them down and dominated late for the most part. A&M put up 21 points in the 1st Qtr and then only scored 14 more points through the last 3 Qtrs of regulation. Did they play equally well in all 4 Qtrs? No...... Tennessee outscored them 21-7 in the 4th Qtr.
The point is some teams are strong first half teams and others are strong second half teams. Last year, the Vols were the former and it costed them pretty much all of the big games. The 2016 Vols have been a strong second half team, and they are 3-1 in big games (wins over Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia, and a loss to A&M). So would we rather be 3-1 in big games or 1-3/4 like we were last year? I know i'll take 3-1 any day.
Look, we'd all like for the Vols to come out and dominate for all 4 Qtrs in every game, but that is not a realistic expectation for most teams. Knowing that, I think we can all agree that it is better to be a strong second half team than a strong first half team because that is when games are won or lost. So chill out and appreciate that we have a team that can finish big games unlike last year.
There has been a lot of frustration about the Vols starting slow out of the gate. Last year, the Vols did the exact opposite; They started strong and faded in the second half of most games. A lot of people are acting like this is a problem that is unique to the Vols, but that isn't the case.
If you look at box scores from football or basketball games at all levels of competition, you'll see that most teams have some quarters where they score gobs of points and some where they are anemic. Heck, the nba keeps stats of the average points individual players score in qtrs. When Jason Terry played for the Dallas Mavericks, he was known as Mr. 4th Quarter because he was one of the league leaders in 4th qtr scoring.
Just look at the Florida and A&M games. Both teams scored a lot of points early, but the Vols shut them down and dominated late for the most part. A&M put up 21 points in the 1st Qtr and then only scored 14 more points through the last 3 Qtrs of regulation. Did they play equally well in all 4 Qtrs? No...... Tennessee outscored them 21-7 in the 4th Qtr.
The point is some teams are strong first half teams and others are strong second half teams. Last year, the Vols were the former and it costed them pretty much all of the big games. The 2016 Vols have been a strong second half team, and they are 3-1 in big games (wins over Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia, and a loss to A&M). So would we rather be 3-1 in big games or 1-3/4 like we were last year? I know i'll take 3-1 any day.
Look, we'd all like for the Vols to come out and dominate for all 4 Qtrs in every game, but that is not a realistic expectation for most teams. Knowing that, I think we can all agree that it is better to be a strong second half team than a strong first half team because that is when games are won or lost. So chill out and appreciate that we have a team that can finish big games unlike last year.
