Roster Construction Doomed This Team

#226
#226
Derek Reese's jumpshot said:
The talent difference between Michigan, Arizona, Duke and us was/is massive. Illinois is also a lot more talented than we are. If we ever want to go further, there has to be more offense, has to be more athleticism, and has to be more play making ability. The only chance we had today was for Ament/Gillespie to have 50 points. Every Barnes team has two guys you have to guard, and if you take them away, we're done against elite teams. We cannot go into next year again having all scoring riding on two guys.
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And we don't even have those "two guys" yet. Barnes has a tall hill to climb with this portal and the decisions on the roster he's going to have to address. And losing Gainey won't make the job any easier.
 
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#227
#227
Derek Reese's jumpshot said:
The talent difference between Michigan, Arizona, Duke and us was/is massive. Illinois is also a lot more talented than we are. If we ever want to go further, there has to be more offense, has to be more athleticism, and has to be more play making ability. The only chance we had today was for Ament/Gillespie to have 50 points. Every Barnes team has two guys you have to guard, and if you take them away, we're done against elite teams. We cannot go into next year again having all scoring riding on two guys.
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You forgot to add running screens all game for the same 2 players to get them open and not get open. Watching our offense against top teams is brutal. We end up forcing up shots with terrible shooters and get embarrassed. Loved watching the shot clock hit 0 numerous times today.
 
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#228
#228
knox73 said:
I did not realize that Carey has another season. Super! Cade, Estrella and Brown are all quality SEC players most definitely.
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They are quality bench/role players. Not a starting big man in that group of 4. I'm not attacking, just saying what it is. Tobe Awaka would absolutely start for TN and unless I'm mistaken, he comes off the bench for AZ. That just shows there is a huge talent gap between the 3 or 4 top teams and us. Very proud of the guys for getting to the 8 considering how outmanned we are.
 
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#229
#229
Top 8 ain’t too shabby to close out with though especially Michigan wins it all as they probably will.
 
#230
#230
Clad in Big Orange said:
They are quality bench/role players. Not a starting big man in that group of 4. I'm not attacking, just saying what it is. Tobe Awaka would absolutely start for TN and unless I'm mistaken, he comes off the bench for AZ. That just shows there is a huge talent gap between the 3 or 4 top teams and us. Very proud of the guys for getting to the 8 considering how outmanned we are.
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Lol. Awaka would not start at Tennessee. He was too small to be a 5 here and had no mid range or jumpshot that could space out the floor either.

Awaka is in a system that he fits in very well. That's the difference.
 
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#231
#231
JMSqb11 said:
Lol. Awaka would not start at Tennessee. He was too small to be a 5 here and had no mid range or jumpshot that could space out the floor either.

Awaka is in a system that he fits in very well. That's the difference.
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So you’re saying Awaka and Okpara together would have been less productive than JP and Okpara together? LOL!
 
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#232
#232
Clad in Big Orange said:
So you’re saying Awaka and Okpara together would have been less productive than JP and Okpara together? LOL!
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You're not solving anything with that combo. You still have two guys playing who mainly score at the rim with no mid range. And in the event we go to small ball like did, he's undersized at the 5.
 
#233
#233
JMSqb11 said:
You're not solving anything with that combo. You still have two guys playing who mainly score at the rim with no mid range. And in the event we go to small ball like did, he's undersized at the 5.
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You’re right, Awaka is not solving our front court issues. He would be an upgrade over any one of our guys except maybe Felix. The point is, we need much better big men - plural. It’s been an issue with Barnes consistently.
 
#234
#234
We need players that have an offensive mindset and not defer to the other two scorers. If you're open shoot it with no hesitation. This has probably been stated but it's our most glaring issue. With that being said, I'm excited for our team next year. I like all of the recruits we have and I believe Henderson will make huge strides if he sticks around. Need a shot blocker too.
 
#235
#235
Clad in Big Orange said:
You’re right, Awaka is not solving our front court issues. He would be an upgrade over any one of our guys except maybe Felix. The point is, we need much better big men - plural. It’s been an issue with Barnes consistently.
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An issue that Awaka was apart of.
 
#237
#237
Clad in Big Orange said:
The Awaka now is better than the one a couple years ago, but forget him as an example. We both agree, the Vols aren’t nearly good enough or deep enough in the front court and haven’t been for many seasons.
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Yes because he went to an offensive system that he could fit in.....
 
#238
#238
Clad in Big Orange said:
The Awaka now is better than the one a couple years ago, but forget him as an example. We both agree, the Vols aren’t nearly good enough or deep enough in the front court and haven’t been for many seasons.
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IMO, we were this year. We were missing the shooting guard this year. Our front court was better than 90% of the country. It was better than most of the teams we lost to. Michigan’s was one of the few that was better than us.
 
#239
#239
JMSqb11 said:
Yes because he went to an offensive system that he could fit in.....
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I have to debate this a little. He is 2 years older and averaged about 2.5 ppm this year as a senior, the same as his soph year at UT, while playing with the POY at pg.
 
#240
#240
JMSqb11 said:
Lol. Awaka would not start at Tennessee. He was too small to be a 5 here and had no mid range or jumpshot that could space out the floor either.

Awaka is in a system that he fits in very well. That's the difference.
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He's a very good role player for Arizona but he wouldn't have moved the needle much for this team because his greatest value add to a team is rebounding...which we already had in spades this year
 
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#241
#241
Namorto1 said:
I understand what Barnes was trying to accomplish this past offseason with the roster, with the emphasis on more size but the miss at 2G was just huge. I have no doubt in my mind that we would be a Top 10 team with a competent wing scorer on this roster. We didn't have enough guys who could make buckets. Common theme with Barnes. Boswell had some moments and surprised us early, but the guy should be a backup/role player.

I don't mind playing all the bigs as we can at times punish teams on the glass, but unlike Michigan, Florida, Duke and Arizona (all who have big lineups) and are clearly the best teams in the country, we don't have much skill with our bigs. Estrella has the most skill, but his injuries have hampered him and he still struggles with physicality at times. For much of the season, the best offense was simply our historical high % of offensive rebounding this year. Losing Cade Phillips didn't help either. Without him available, while he has little offense, it limited us against smaller teams who could spread us out. He does have athleticism at the 4 which would have helped our defensive switching moreso than leaving Carey, Brown and Estrella on islands who were repeatedly put in mismatches.

Will be interesting to see what direction he goes next year. With 15 player roster next year, we have more room to build depth and perhaps have different player "types" at multiple positions. We can have post 4's and stretch 4's. A 5 who can post, maybe another who can "pick and pop", or another who is a shot blocker. And ideally more ball handlers and "specialist" perimeter shooters. I would be shocked if any of the following guys hit the portal: Estrella, Brown, Phillips, Evans, and Boswell. Everyone else are question marks (Carey, Massamba, Henderson, Burg). With 3 high school recruits already signed (and all 3 look solid) and 2 more potential (Washington, Peck) we could have anywhere from 2 to 5 portal options depending on who stays/goes.
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I stand by my post above I stated weeks ago. With another scorer we could have been a top 10 team. Still, we aren’t beating that Michigan team with a good 2G. We are multiple players from being that good as well as the need to demonstrate a lot better basketball IQ and competitive composure. It’s not just players that we need. The intangibles count.
 
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#242
#242
Namorto1 said:
I stand by my post above I stated weeks ago. With another scorer we could have been a top 10 team. Still, we aren’t beating that Michigan team with a good 2G. We are multiple players from being that good as well as the need to demonstrate a lot better basketball IQ and competitive composure. It’s not just players that we need. The intangibles count.
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I get what you’re saying but to make an elite 8, were a 🔝 10 team and proved it. Every team we played had 30+ wins, which is insane.

Getting to that 🔝 5 is what we still need to do and we’re still knocking at the 🚪
 
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#243
#243
Derek Reese's jumpshot said:
The talent difference between Michigan, Arizona, Duke and us was/is massive. Illinois is also a lot more talented than we are. If we ever want to go further, there has to be more offense, has to be more athleticism, and has to be more play making ability. The only chance we had today was for Ament/Gillespie to have 50 points. Every Barnes team has two guys you have to guard, and if you take them away, we're done against elite teams. We cannot go into next year again having all scoring riding on two guys.
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Everything I heard was that we were heavily involved with Rice and Mckneely. They simply got offered more elsewhere.
 
#247
#247
Namorto1 said:
I stand by my post above I stated weeks ago. With another scorer we could have been a top 10 team. Still, we aren’t beating that Michigan team with a good 2G. We are multiple players from being that good as well as the need to demonstrate a lot better basketball IQ and competitive composure. It’s not just players that we need. The intangibles count.
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At the end of the day, we had to overturn a roster almost near 100% and we still played at the same level as the past 2 seasons. Like as much as yesterday sucked, Barnes wildly succeeded in keep the program from regressing when everyone was calling for us to be a one and done in the tourney this year.

And to be honest, I'm not that shocked we wound up in the Elite 8 again. While the roster was what it was compared to the past 2 seasons, the coaching was the same or even better. I am not shocked one bit that Barnes put together a roster and team that made it back to the Elite 8.
 
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#248
#248
JMSqb11 said:
At the end of the day, we had to overturn a roster almost near 100% and we still played at the same level as the past 2 seasons. Like as much as yesterday sucked, Barnes wildly succeeded in keep the program from regressing when everyone was calling for us to be a one and done in the tourney this year.

And to be honest, I'm not that shocked we wound up in the Elite 8 again. While the roster was what it was compared to the past 2 seasons, the coaching was the same or even better. I am not shocked one bit that Barnes put together a roster and team that made it back to the Elite 8.
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Barnes did a great job with a new roster to be sure but this is life in NIL environment now. Phillips also was missed due to injury.

But Michigan had to overhaul virtually their entire roster too. Burnette was the only returning starter and two bench players. Heck they didn’t even have their best perimeter creator in Cason due to injury. Operating in the same environment, same challenges and they boat raced us. We were outclassed in every respect and if we played them 10x we may not even beat them but 1x. I suspect Michigan has a bigger war chest to play with. That isn’t going to change.
 
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