Roster Construction

[1985Vols]

Actually per ShotQuality we ranked #1 in SEC in shot quality

And what did that get us? Doesn’t even matter....Guess we’re #1 in something, huh?

 

[1985Vols]

I’m sure he’ll be here soon to tell us Barnes didn’t land any of them lol

It’s great Barnes can land 5* recruits. The question becomes can he coach them up and blend them with a bunch of pedestrian players to make a decent “ team” ?

 

[Roustabout]

I think Uros will be a completely different player next season. He doesn't play timid. Another off season will help his game.

I’m hoping that includes a different uniform.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

And what did that get us? Doesn’t even matter....Guess we’re #1 in something, huh?

Point was we didn’t shoot very well...if you want to say that’s Barnes fault for not recruiting better shooters I could listen to that, but you keep changing what you’re complaining about so it’s hard to keep up.

 

[Lurker]

Point was we didn’t shoot very well...if you want to say that’s Barnes fault for not recruiting better shooters I could listen to that, but you keep changing what you’re complaining about so it’s hard to keep up.

Like my Nana Rosanna Danna used to say, "if its not one thing, it's another" with these repetitive complaints.

I'm a little surprised we haven't been told that the coach lazily allowed COVID-19 to screw up off-season planning, freshman development, team chemistry and player health.

The season was a huge disappointment. No question. Why, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's not because the game has passed Barnes by. Until Barnes voluntarily demands that UT reduce his salary to an amount these guys say is "correct" (not "market," correct according to them), short of a national championship, they will always complain about a never ending and ever changing set of Barnes' "failures."

That's just life on a UT sports board.

 

[cwbytruckers]

I’m hoping that includes a different uniform.

I'm a fan so I root for success

 

[Roustabout]

I'm a fan so I root for success

I’m starting to think I’ve seen enough.

 

[zjcvols]

Yet if you look at that very website, we are one of the lowest in terms of 3 pointers and shots at the rim as a %. Which is what analytics say are the best shots to take.

The stat BTO is peddling takes into account 90 something variables. One is how open you are and another is the likelihood of an offensive rebound. Well we just saw Oregon State let us shoot, so im sure those will be counted as quality looks according to this stat. Also not sure how the likelihood of an offensive rebound, which would account for a missed shot, somehow makes it a better shot but whatever.

The only thing asinine is people acting like our offense isn't a problem.

Imagine seeing our offensive efficiency the last two years being 9th in conference and thinking the offense isn’t a problem.

 

[zjcvols]

Point was we didn’t shoot very well...if you want to say that’s Barnes fault for not recruiting better shooters I could listen to that, but you keep changing what you’re complaining about so it’s hard to keep up.

How come we’ve been below average in eFG% the last two years if we get so many great shots?

 

[bleedingTNorange]

How come we’ve been below average in eFG% the last two years if we get so many great shots?

our 3pt numbers during Barnes tenure...

2021: 19.9attempts 33.1%
2020: 19.3attempts 31.3%
2019: 19.3attempts 36.6%
2018: 20.5attempts 38%
2017: 18.1attempts 32.6%
2016: 22.6attempts 32.7%


any coincidence our 2 best season were by far our best 3pt shooting teams? we hard largely the same roster in 2017, are you suggesting there was a 2 year only philosophical change to the offense?

LET ME BE CLEAR I’m not suggesting we couldn’t make some changes to the offense to improve it, but I think simply put if we had shot the ball around 37% from 3 our offense would’ve looked a whole lot better, and I don’t buy that the shots we were getting 2-3 years ago were night and day better than what we got this year, I think we simply ghad guys who shot the ball much better than this roster does. Could having better shooters have also opened things up for even better shots, quite possibly so also.

 

[iKrager]

I think the players play their game too worried of mistakes. A good example of this is Vescovi. When he got here and played against LSU, he dropped 27 points. He didn’t know how to defend and made 7 TOs but the idea was that, he could clean up the TOs, dribbling and then he’d be a baller. Now he seems so scared of making a mistake and does not play with the same flow.

I think he regressed over the summer. I’m not sure what happened but he had more offensive tools last year. Things like slashing, and mid range jumpers, I’m not sure where it all went or what Barnes’ pressures Vescovi to play like.

 

[zjcvols]

our 3pt numbers during Barnes tenure...

2021: 19.9attempts 33.1%
2020: 19.3attempts 31.3%
2019: 19.3attempts 36.6%
2018: 20.5attempts 38%
2017: 18.1attempts 32.6%
2016: 22.6attempts 32.7%


any coincidence our 2 best season were by far our best 3pt shooting teams? we hard largely the same roster in 2017, are you suggesting there was a 2 year only philosophical change to the offense?

LET ME BE CLEAR I’m not suggesting we couldn’t make some changes to the offense to improve it, but I think simply out if we had shot the ball around 37% from 3 our offense would’ve looked a whole lot better, and I don’t buy that the shots we were getting 2-3 years ago were night and day better than what we got this year, I think we simply ghad guys who shot the ball much better than this roster does. Could having better shooters have also opened things up for even better shots, quite possibly so also.

Any coincidence we ran the offense through a 2x SEC POY those years? I mean if we could get a legit post creator like Grant then yeah the offense would be better. But Barnes hasn’t been recruiting those types at all focus more on guards and wings. Either you gotta recruit more towards that philosophy or change the offense.

The other problem I am seeing no adjustments. We run the same system no matter who the players are. That’s a huge problem. We got the #1 PG, a natural creator coming in next year and I have little faith we are gonna start running more ball screens and pushing the pace because it’s always the same type of offense

 

[Vols8086]

our 3pt numbers during Barnes tenure...

2021: 19.9attempts 33.1%
2020: 19.3attempts 31.3%
2019: 19.3attempts 36.6%
2018: 20.5attempts 38%
2017: 18.1attempts 32.6%
2016: 22.6attempts 32.7%


any coincidence our 2 best season were by far our best 3pt shooting teams? we hard largely the same roster in 2017, are you suggesting there was a 2 year only philosophical change to the offense?

LET ME BE CLEAR I’m not suggesting we couldn’t make some changes to the offense to improve it, but I think simply out if we had shot the ball around 37% from 3 our offense would’ve looked a whole lot better, and I don’t buy that the shots we were getting 2-3 years ago were night and day better than what we got this year, I think we simply ghad guys who shot the ball much better than this roster does. Could having better shooters have also opened things up for even better shots, quite possibly so also.

The change was Grant Williams developed into a dominant force that forced the opposition to do more than their base defense to stop him. He was virtually unarguable 1 on 1 on the block.

How much extra attention did Grant Williams command on the block? The entire defensive gameplan revolved around stopping Grant, thus bringing off ball defenders a step further from their own man. Having an extra half second or second to get a shot off at this level is enormous when he kicks it out or the defense has shifted.

The point others have made is that Grant Williams masked a lot of deficiencies in this offense. An elite player like that will make any offense look good. Without a stud like that, the numbers haven't been kind to this offense. I don't understand why you continue to bury your head in the sand and act like everything is ok here.

 

[zjcvols]

The change was Grant Williams developed into a dominant force that forced the opposition to do more than their base defense to stop him. He was virtually unarguable 1 on 1 on the block.

How much extra attention did Grant Williams command on the block? The entire defensive gameplan revolved around stopping Grant, thus bringing off ball defenders a step further from their own man. Having an extra half second or second to get a shot off at this level is enormous when he kicks it out or the defense has shifted.

The point others have made is that Grant Williams masked a lot of deficiencies in this offense. An elite player like that will make any offense look good. Without a stud like that, the numbers haven't been kind to this offense. I don't understand why you continue to bury your head in the sand and act like everything is ok here.

Also consider this: Will Warren did a breakdown of the offense and in that ‘19 season we hit an unusually high amount of mid range shots that year. Every other year we’ve been around average or below average.

So the argument we’ve just been unlucky shooting the ball the last two years...it’s probably more accurate to say we shot above what we should and were more lucky that year

 

[Sudden Impact]

I think the bottom line. Is that coach Barnes had no versatility in the offensive scheme. He had nobody to pull off the bench to spark the offense know new games to adjust during the game. In other words no versatility and the starting rotation or any bench rotation

 

[ndubvols]

I guess I differ a bit on where the blame lies. IMO we’re still suffering the consequences of recruiting misses in the sr/jr classes, in addition to taking way too many projects in the sophomore class. As a result, the roster was pretty flawed, despite the talent.

I thought we pretty clearly changed the offense throughout the season, going more pick and roll and iso for the freshman. The problem was the scout was pretty much out on the freshman after the Kentucky game. Teams played them really gap heavy, which often lead to them getting into trouble. The freshman weren’t able to adjust and rarely drove to kick, and when they did we were too inconsistent hitting open shots.

If you look at the games we were successful in, we were either able to knock down some open 3s which allowed the freshman to have success driving the ball. Or, pons/fulky were able to establish something offensively.

Bottom line, we didn’t get what we needed from the post, and had nobody who could create for others. I blame this more on recruiting failures than offensive scheme or on floor coaching. I have hope going forward, because it looks like the staff has been better recruiting with the last class and the upcoming one. If we can cut some of the misses and replace with a couple grad transfers we’ll be back to having success next season.

 

[VolArmy74]

Come on man. You know Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld would have been ranked higher than any player we have ever had if they had rankings back then. Name me one of Barnes top 4 recruits that has played up to their ranking?

Allan Houston was a first team Parade and Street & Smith's All-American and was the #2 prospect in the nation in 1988. He's the highest rated recruit we've ever signed, followed by Ernie and Bernie. Dale Ellis, Doug Roth, Vincent Yarbrough, Tony White, etc were all what would have been 5 star top 15-20 recruits. Barnes can recruit well but also has some horrible misses. But the stat BTO is referring to only covers recruits from around 2007-2020 and isn't reflective of the talent that has signed here over the years.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Allan Houston was a first team Parade and Street & Smith's All-American and was the #2 prospect in the nation in 1988. He's the highest rated recruit we've ever signed, followed by Ernie and Bernie. Dale Ellis, Doug Roth, Vincent Yarbrough, Tony White, etc were all what would have been 5 star top 15-20 recruits. Barnes can recruit well but also has some horrible misses. But the stat BTO is referring to only covers recruits from around 2007-2020 and isn't reflective of the talent that has signed here over the years.

Actually goes back to 1999

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Yet if you look at that very website, we are one of the lowest in terms of 3 pointers and shots at the rim as a %. Which is what analytics say are the best shots to take.

The stat BTO is peddling takes into account 90 something variables. One is how open you are and another is the likelihood of an offensive rebound. Well we just saw Oregon State let us shoot, so im sure those will be counted as quality looks according to this stat. Also not sure how the likelihood of an offensive rebound, which would account for a missed shot, somehow makes it a better shot but whatever.

The only thing asinine is people acting like our offense isn't a problem.

No one said our offense isn't a problem...it clearly was. The issue is the dumb mantra that it's all 100% due to coaching even though I watched games where our guys hit those open shots and we looked great (Kansas) and then games where we couldn't hit anything (1st half Oregon St.). All the armchair coaches here lambasted CRB for not letting Keon and Jaden run - then he did and it was very inconsistent (from great to bad). Point is this there is shared blame to go around...players gotta hit open shots (when they did we looked very good) and CRB has to find ways to get them going.

I think a more valid criticism of CRB is the roster lacking more legit shooters and, of course, post players (attrition did not help with the latter and Anosike didn't pan out but that all still falls on CRB ultimately).