The Official #5 Tennessee @ Mississippi State Game Thread, 7:00 PM ET, SEC Network

[TooLegit2Quit]

I don’t mind it at all. If we had a problem with it, we should have stopped it from happening

Gotta pad those 2nd half FGM stats when the free throws carry you to victory. Behavior befitting of a team sitting in front of half empty arena vs a Top 5 opponent.

 

[chuckiepoo]

We had a chance to move up possibly 3-4. With this loss we will move down to #17
Miss St isn’t that great.

…I’m thinking this is a little extreme.

 

[vavolfan6]

I'm fine with whatever happens. Its too early to be occupied with rankings. Its more important we learn to play better on the road.

Too many chances to close the gap and/or take the lead, but we had an empty possession.

 

[One Vol One Fam]

The most frustrating part of the game for me is JJJ and SV performance. Being super seniors, they should be the most reliable players, especially on the road. They always seem to disappear, from an offensive standpoint, when they are needed the most.

 

[joevols89]

That’s what a rebound gets you. Possession

Yep. Then the clock went from 30 to 20. 10 seconds.

 

[JRVOL11]

sadly, saturday will be a tough one and possibly a loss as well smh just hope this team doesn’t flare out like last year

 

[whobethis16]

Reading the play-by-play on the ESPN app and I counted State having 3 "and 1s" vs Tennessee's 1. Not finishing through contact is a problem, especially when you only shot 62% from the line.

 

[DC_Vol]

Bottom line this game:

- We struggled with their bigs
- Despite good stats from ZZ and Knecht, nobody else showed up
- You just can’t go into the half trailing by double digits. First half play cost us this game

 

[LibertyVol]

The biggest concern I had in the offseason is proving to be our biggest issue. We cannot defend any team with an above average 5. It’s time to start giving Estrella more minutes because we cannot count on aidoo and awaka to stay out of foul trouble with teams that have posts that can play. We need a third big man in the rotation.

Makes sense, but Estrella ain’t playing. Barnes should have been getting him ready during non conference games.

 

[joevols89]

Reading the play-by-play on the ESPN app and I counted State having 3 "and 1s" vs Tennessee's 1. Not finishing through contact is a problem, especially when you only shot 62% from the line.

ZZ and Knecht probably should’ve finished a few of theirs at the end, but they were the only ones to show up so can’t be upset with them.

 

[DC_Vol]

I'm fine with whatever happens. Its too early to be occupied with rankings. Its more important we learn to play better on the road.

Too many chances to close the gap and/or take the lead, but we had an empty possession.

That’s right - work for a decent seed and try to be playing your hottest ball in March

 

[Caz]

Bottom line this game:

- We struggled with their bigs
- Despite good stats from ZZ and Knecht, nobody else showed up
- You just can’t go into the half trailing by double digits. First half play cost us this game

All quality points and I agree 100%

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I know it will never happen, but I am done with Gainey. He’s giving you nothing on offense and his defense isn’t anything special.

0-5 from the field 0-4 from 3. He air balled a shot. I don’t care if you’re trying to send a message to your freshmen about preparation during the week, moving forward we should be giving either Carr or Dillione some run and those minutes. Gainey has been awful since Maui. I keep hearing “He’s a streak shooter, he’ll streak in the other direction soon.” Well, we’re close to halfway through the season if not right at the half way point and he’s been bad for close to 2 months.

Time for the freshmen to get in and see if they can provide a spark.

 

[JRVOL11]

5 combined points from vescovi and james is comical

 

[chuckiepoo]

I think we’ll be out of the Top 25 for sure.

/s upvote.

 

[vols 30]

The most frustrating part of the game for me is JJJ and SV performance. Being super seniors, they should be the most reliable players, especially on the road. They always seem to disappear, from an offensive standpoint, when they are needed the most.

Yep. It's also why I don't get my hopes up too much for a deep tourney run. Those two have not shown up in the past on the biggest stage

 

[TrumpedUpVol]

It would be impressive to beat them and Georgia in the same day.

Oh, wow, Alabama's next Saturday. Got the dates conflated.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

sadly, saturday will be a tough one and possibly a loss as well smh just hope this team doesn’t flare out like last year

Georgia is #72 in KenPom. MSU was #28 entering tonight. If we lose on Saturday, this team isn’t who we thought they could be. Georgia is a very average team.

 

[TNVOLFN]

This team is going to struggle with anyone with a powerful interior presence. Bench gave us nothing, normally productive guys went silent tonight. Didn't make enough easy shots.

This is my biggest take from this game. I thought early in the year Tobe would be a nice compliment to Jonas’s lack of physicality, but he hasn’t been the enforcer I thought he might be, he’s also so limited on offense and isn’t collecting rebounds like he did last year.

Jonas is playing streaky, much like Nkamhou did, but Jonas’s krypronite is a physical 5… I’m absolutely sick about how their big man embarrassed us tonight.

 

[2EastTnVols]

Oh so Smith played in a bubble? Tons of physicality and contact but it immediately stopped when they fed Tolu in the post? Lol.

We saw this same thing with Edey. We physically couldn’t match so we fouled every possession, some which weren’t called.

What bothers me is that if anyone was near smith when he shot in the paint the refs were anticipating we would foul and call it. Even a couple times when we forced him into a miss and were in the process of grabbing the rebound there was a late whistle.

 

[Creeker]

I know it will never happen, but I am done with Gainey. He’s giving you nothing on offense and his defense isn’t anything special.

0-5 from the field 0-4 from 3. He air balled a shot. I don’t care if you’re trying to send a message to your freshmen about preparation during the week, moving forward we should be giving either Carr or Dillione some run and those minutes. Gainey has been awful since Maui. I keep hearing “He’s a streak shooter, he’ll streak in the other direction soon.” Well, we’re close to halfway through the season if not right at the half way point and he’s been bad for close to 2 months.

Time for the freshmen to get in and see if they can provide a spark.

Thought Dillione earned minutes tonight. But they still gave them to Gainey in the second half. Freddie wasn’t perfect, but it looked like he was giving all his effort on defense and gave us more than Gainey was giving us.

 

[Score50]

They were anything but super tonight

Agreed. Anyone on the bench would have done better. They both have been inconsistent for 6 years. Great one game or two and then not show up for a few games. In the end, their inconsistent play will cost us in games and then end the season in the tournament.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Especially in the first half. Obviously there was some momentum in the second half despite Vescovi and JJJ playing sub-optimally, but I could have done without the Gainey clown show and nothing was going right after the first media timeout anyway.

Santi just wasn’t getting looks, but his defensive effort along with DK’s offense is the only reason we came back in that game.

JJJ & Aidoo both playing bad on both ends was a killer, I think we’re gonna keep getting better. He had a few bad possessions but DK has really started to play better on defense so that’s encouraging.

Barnes has to get it through everyone’s head, we’re the hunted. No one is going to play passively against us on their home court.

 

[joevols89]

This is my biggest take from this game. I thought early in the year Tobe would be a nice compliment to Jonas’s lack of physicality, but he hasn’t been the enforcer I thought he might be, he’s also so limited on offense and isn’t collecting rebounds like he did last year.

Jonas is playing streaky, much like Nkamhou did, but Jonas’s krypronite is a physical 5… I’m absolutely sick about how their big man embarrassed us tonight.

Awaka has strength but it doesn’t matter when you’re 6’8 (that may be generous) and you’re having to guard a just as strong 6’11 or 7 footer with the skill of Bacot/Smith/Dickinson. Not enough length.

 

[BreatheUT]

Too many low talent offensive players.