Rick Barnes is NOT a bad coach

#29
#29
BowlBrother85 said:
It's hard not to feel frustrated with this team. For the first time under Barnes, Tennessee is underachieving in the regular season. We just showed three days ago that this team is better than this.
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You know I was gonna try and refute this but I thought about it for a second and thats probably an accurate statement, both in that none of his previous teams underachieved in the regular season and that this one is. Maybe the team that was #1 in the country for many weeks could have been argued to have underachieved but that is mainly due to very high standards
 
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#31
#31
Missing 2 front ends of one plus ones in the second half was killer (Springer both times iirc). Also Keon missing the first of 2 that could have tied the game at 52. I’m giving our freshmen a pass. Onward and upward.

Also not getting to the free throw line in the first half? Brutal.
 
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#32
#32
Vol49er said:
For me even if Keon is right under the basket, I have shots id prefer than him trying to force it up over three dudes. Not he did have Scovi wide open for three off the offensive rebound and he should have kicked it, but I guess he didn't see him
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You'd trust Vescovi and his 1 for 4 day over Johnson getting to the line? Why? Again, free throws should be automatic, and with 3.5 secs left, that's as perfect an opportunity as anyone can expect.
 
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#33
#33
vols1071 said:
The game has passed him... Offensively at least... Half court trap and we just play into it..... Every Single Time.... We play way to slow looking for the "good shot"
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The offense is really suspect this year, I agree! I don't think that the missed bunnies help (how many shots rolled or bounced out tonight; for a stretch there, it felt statistically improbable that I was watching things continue to fail at going through the net), but this team has turnover and free throw issues that negatively impact offensive efficiency and these are things that Barnes needs to figure out.

However, as dire as OffEff is this year now that we're in conference play (maybe worse than stated since we had those great games OOC), not to mention last season, coaches have fielded poor offensive teams for consecutive years only to come back strong (an easy example, one of many, would be Huggins at WVU after his last two seasons relative to this year). A good amount of this is on Barnes for failing to recruit and structure a team that was capable of having an offensive leader/scoring threat when it's become increasingly-clear in recent years that this is no longer a sport that can be won with stifling defense alone (no team makes the Final Four with an OffEff outside of 40, no matter how blazing their defense is), and it's obvious that McClung would have been the perfect x-factor on this roster, but I think that acting as if Barnes has let the game pass him by is a little short-sighted. There's some time for this team to pull things together before March, but I won't be beyond the point of no return when it comes to offense unless next year yields further regression.
 
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#34
#34
whobethis16 said:
You'd trust Vescovi and his 1 for 4 day over Johnson getting to the line? Why? Again, free throws should be automatic, and with 3.5 secs left, that's as perfect an opportunity as anyone can expect.
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Well Santi is a 39.2% 3 point shooter on the season after tonight, including games where he was nursing a hip injury. He's surely even better on catch and shoot wide open 3s, but for clarity's sake lets say just say if its kicked out to Scovi we have about a 39% chance to win the game. Keon is a 66.7% free throw shooter on the season after tonight. The odds of him making two consecutive free throws is then about 44%. I'm taking a 39% chance to win right there (again, probably an under estimate given that he was wide open) over a 44% chance to go to overtime. Not to mention Keon was only fouled after Jaden missed an awkward runner and TN fortunately got the rebound. I admit you could go either way and again, Keon shooting freebies came not from a well designed play but actually from a poor shot that we rebounded
 
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#35
#35
TrumpedUpVol said:
The offense is really suspect this year, I agree! I don't think that the missed bunnies help (how many shots rolled or bounced out tonight; for a stretch there, it felt statistically improbable that I was watching things continue to fail at going through the net), but this team has turnover and free throw issues that negatively impact offensive efficiency and these are things that Barnes needs to figure out.

However, as dire as OffEff is this year now that we're in conference play (maybe worse than stated since we had those great games OOC), not to mention last season, coaches have fielded poor offensive teams for consecutive years only to come back strong (an easy example, one of many, would be Huggins at WVU after his last two seasons relative to this year). A good amount of this is on Barnes for failing to recruit and structure a team that was capable of having an offensive leader/scoring threat when it's become increasingly-clear in recent years that this is no longer a sport that can be won with stifling defense alone (no team makes the Final Four with an OffEff outside of 40, no matter how blazing their defense is), and it's obvious that McClung would have been the perfect x-factor on this roster, but I think that acting as if Barnes has let the game pass him by is a little short-sighted. There's some time for this team to pull things together before March, but I won't be beyond the point of no return when it comes to offense unless next year yields further regression.
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Man I was pulling my hair out with how many shots we had rim out
 
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#36
#36
1985Vols said:
This. Barnes has never really done anything in his career to be considered “ elite”. I mean over 700 wins with only one final four tells you everything you need to know about how good of a coach he really is
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Acting like we’re too good for Barnes because he’s been to 1 FF when we’ve been to none as a school is a little dramatic.
 
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#37
#37
It will be a miracle for this team to make to the Elite 8, I will be surprised if we make it to the sweet 16. The problem with Barnes is inconsistency. His teams have always been that way. He is can beat the best team in the country on any given night, then turn around and shat the bed again a mediocre team the next. This kind of play does lead to championships.

I am glad he is our coach. He has done a great job. He made UT relevant in BBall again. I am not calling for his job or anything just stating what I see.
 
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#38
#38
stevenrich2003 said:
It will be a miracle for this team to make to the Elite 8, I will be surprised if we make it to the sweet 16. The problem with Barnes is inconsistency. His teams have always been that way. He is can beat the best team in the country on any given night, then turn around and shat the bed again a mediocre team the next. This kind of play does lead to championships.

I am glad he is our coach. He has done a great job. He made UT relevant in BBall again. I am not calling for his job or anything just stating what I see.
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Was TN ranked in the top 8 in any of the pre-season polls? I thought that they were mostly around 12-15.

I’ll be happy with a Sweet 16. Going in to this season only 2 players had more than a year of experience playing for TN and the COVID prevented the other 11 from taking huge strides adapting to the system.
 
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#39
#39
This offense works great when you have Grant Williams on your team.

When it doesn’t, it’s a stale offense if you don’t get them out in tempo. I don’t understand some of the sets that are run. This should be a pick and roll/driving dynamo offense with Springer but we still run wayyyyy too much post and mid range stuff.
 
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#40
#40
Like on one possession in the first half we ran a post up for ORN when we had Springer and Johnson on the floor....that should never happen. Why is he getting posts up?
 
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#41
#41
zjcvols said:
Like on one possession in the first half we ran a post up for ORN when we had Springer and Johnson on the floor....that should never happen. Why is he getting posts up?
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I agree with you 100%, but its the way Barnes wants to play.
 
#42
#42
mr.checkerboards said:
I agree with you 100%, but its the way Barnes wants to play.
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Well he’s runs that outdated 3 out-2 in offense. It’s great when you have a legit post scorer but we don’t have that and our shooting isn’t consistent so the spacing sucks and you get nights like this.

When they hit 3’s they look great but once JJJ cooled off they couldn’t hit 3’s and the defense shrinks and it’s a disaster.
 
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#43
#43
zjcvols said:
Well he’s runs that outdated 3 out-2 in offense. It’s great when you have a legit post scorer but we don’t have that and our shooting isn’t consistent so the spacing sucks and you get nights like this.

When they hit 3’s they look great but once JJJ cooled off they couldn’t hit 3’s and the defense shrinks and it’s a disaster.
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Yup, its frustrating, I said this somewhere else, but part of the issues is Barnes being stubborn. He doesn't need to completely change his offense but run some ISO stuff for the young guns.
 
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#44
#44
mr.checkerboards said:
Yup, its frustrating, I said this somewhere else, but part of the issues is Barnes being stubborn. He doesn't need to completely change his offense but run some ISO stuff for the young guns.
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We actually run a decent amount of ISO it’s just all late in the shot clock it’s hard to create anything.

My issue right now other than the actual system is they don’t go early in the shot clock and don’t use PNR/PNP to get buckets. We got Pons and Fulky who can score and can set screens but we don’t use them. And we don’t have any great shooters outside of Santi and sometimes JJJ. So teams just shrink the floor and dare UT to beat them. Against Kansas, that worked in our benefit. Tonight, it didn’t.
 
#45
#45
zjcvols said:
We actually run a decent amount of ISO it’s just all late in the shot clock it’s hard to create anything.

My issue right now other than the actual system is they don’t go early in the shot clock and don’t use PNR/PNP to get buckets. We got Pons and Fulky who can score and can set screens but we don’t use them. And we don’t have any great shooters outside of Santi and sometimes JJJ. So teams just shrink the floor and dare UT to beat them. Against Kansas, that worked in our benefit. Tonight, it didn’t.
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Not using more PNR/PNP is where I blame Barnes stubbornness. Hes got his system and wont deviate from it.
 
#46
#46
Man. We need a big man that can get us a bucket so we don’t go 5 minutes without a field goal. Is there one committed for 2021?
 
#47
#47
minorvol said:
Man. We need a big man that can get us a bucket so we don’t go 5 minutes without a field goal. Is there one committed for 2021?
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Not at the moment, but I think the bigger problem is the lack of an elite PG, and we do have one of those committed
 
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