The Official #6 Tennessee vs. #14 Mississippi State Game Thread, 7:00 PM ET, ESPN2

#551
#551
Starting to get a little concerned over Igor.
Still looks hesitant on shooting, not going to the rim enough.
Had hoped he would be progressing at a better rate by now. Tough 2 weeks coming up.
Hope Felix continues his upward trend, offsetting Igor lack of progress.
 
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#552
#552
orangemadam said:
Starting to get a little concerned over Igor.
Still looks hesitant on shooting, not going to the rim enough.
Had hoped he would be progressing at a better rate by now. Tough 2 weeks coming up.
Hope Felix continues his upward trend, offsetting Igor lack of progress.
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I don’t understand why he isn’t more aggressive driving to the rim. He often has a mismatch in terms of quickness but rarely uses it.
 
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#555
#555
orangemadam said:
Starting to get a little concerned over Igor.
Still looks hesitant on shooting, not going to the rim enough.
Click to expand...

CornbreadVol said:
I don’t understand why he isn’t more aggressive driving to the rim. He often has a mismatch in terms of quickness but rarely uses it.
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Igor adds so much defensively and on the boards that he doesn't need to be a huge factor offensively to be important to this team, but if Rick could get him to just go to the rack instead of pulling up and passing back out it might get him jump started.

He has had a lot of no calls at the rim when there has been contact, but getting a few easy baskets or getting to the line would help collapse the defense and further free up the perimeter shooters. To me, that is the biggest missing piece right now.
 
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#556
#556
sami said:
Igor adds so much defensively and on the boards that he doesn't need to be a huge factor offensively to be important to this team, but if Rick could get him to just go to the rack instead of pulling up and passing back out it might get him jump started.

He has had a lot of no calls at the rim when there has been contact, but getting a few easy baskets or getting to the line would help collapse the defense and further free up the perimeter shooters. To me, that is the biggest missing piece right now.
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Good points but I can’t agree with your first sentence. As usual, our short coming when we lose is typically scoring. I believe for this team to reach its potential and make a deep run in the tourney Igor will have to find his 3 point shot and become an overall more aggressive scorer. JMO

Wonder what CLTman thinks about Igor’s offense to date?
 
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#557
#557
It’s my fault guys. I’m sorry. I sat down and watched the two games we lost this year. I missed the others. I guess I will only be able to watch highlights after the game this year.
 
#558
#558
walkenvol said:
Good points but I can’t agree with your first sentence. As usual, our short coming when we lose is typically scoring. I believe for this team to reach its potential and make a deep run in the tourney Igor will have to find his 3 point shot and become an overall more aggressive scorer. JMO
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I don't disagree but was just pointing out that Igor does add a lot aside from scoring that makes him a valuable piece. But him being able to put up 10-12 pts. routinely is something that would make a huge difference, especially come tourney time.

It is the difference between being able to win some games comfortably and every game not needing to be a defensive dogfight, which is hard to maintain from night to night.
 
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#559
#559
BernardKingGOAT said:
Absolutely. I almost believe that rule has been modified as long as that BS has been going on
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They actually did modify that rule. Players get a second dribble if they lose control due to attempted shot, opponent touch, or in pursuit of a loose ball. That last one looks ugliest because they dribble in pursuit of control, gain control and then dribble again. The geezer in me has a seizure when that happens.
 
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#560
#560
Stoerner Fumbles said:
They actually did modify that rule. Players get a second dribble if they lose control due to attempted shot, opponent touch, or in pursuit of a loose ball. That last one looks ugliest because they dribble in pursuit of control, gain control and then dribble again. The geezer in me has a seizure when that happens.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it drives me crazy too
 
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#561
#561
orangemadam said:
Starting to get a little concerned over Igor.
Still looks hesitant on shooting, not going to the rim enough.
Had hoped he would be progressing at a better rate by now. Tough 2 weeks coming up.
Hope Felix continues his upward trend, offsetting Igor lack of progress.
Click to expand...

Igor isn't a volume guy, he's now played 101 games in his college career. The highest FGAs for a game is 14 and he has only done that twice (once here at TN).

He's a high % scorer when he has his best scoring nights...the difference with him compared to Chaz is that Igor simply isn't shooting the same % he did at Charlotte. Which makes sense considering SEC is a different beast.

And the most baffling part is that it's almost exclusively his 3 point shooting that has dipped.

46.4% FG is not far off his best season at Charlotte shooting 48.7%
77.5% FT is not far off his best season at Charlotte shooting 81.8%
27% 3PT is the lowest he has shot in his college career though, he was a 35.8% 3PT shooter in his 2 years at Charlotte and he shot 36.4% at Virginia

I think part of it is the demand of playing more active on defense and rebounding. Which he has really stepped up doing those 2 things well, but the first thing you see happen on tired legs is missing jump shots from distance.

A bit of a mixed bag though, in his last 5 games he's shot 6 of 18 (33.3%) so even though we're not seeing a huge uptick in points he has been shooting a bit better from deep. He's got a bit of the JJJ mindset it seems where he's willing to be unselfish and passes up opportunities to try and get his own.
 
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#562
#562
walkenvol said:
Good points but I can’t agree with your first sentence. As usual, our short coming when we lose is typically scoring. I believe for this team to reach its potential and make a deep run in the tourney Igor will have to find his 3 point shot and become an overall more aggressive scorer. JMO

Wonder what CLTman thinks about Igor’s offense to date?
Click to expand...
@CLT MAN
 
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#563
#563
MoCo_Vol said:
He's got a bit of the JJJ mindset it seems where he's willing to be unselfish and passes up opportunities to try and get his own.
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Also, Igor seems to want to hang around the perimeter during offensive sets. Not sure if that is by design or not.
 
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#564
#564
chuckiepoo said:
Also, Igor seems to want to hang around the perimeter during offensive sets. Not sure if that is by design or not.
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To me, it seems like the only offense is high ball screens up top for dribble penetration or jump shot. (I know it’s not our only set, it just seems like it). Staying outside the lane prevents the middle from being clogged.

Igor has a great drive to the right but is ineffective to the left.
 
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#565
#565
We will know a lot about our Vols after these next four games. All are ranked and 3 of the 4 is at home. The results of these games will give a good indication of what seed we might obtain in the big tournament. At Auburn, Kentucky, Florida, and Missouri is a brutal stretch. But, we do play our best ball at home so we will see. Don’t see us knocking off Auburn on the road with or without Broome (my guess he will play but limited) Go 2-1 in the home games and that would give us a 6-4 conference record with 8 left to play. I think our ceiling is 12-6 and the floor 10-8 in conference. I think at 12-6 and 25-6 overall should be good enough to secure a 2 seed. 10-8 and 23-8 overall will land us between a 3 or 4 seed. Either way we should land a sweet 16 spot and hope for a suitable match up and hope for the best. I believe we were picked 4th overall in pre season but I could be wrong. I didn’t even mention the SEC Tournament because it really doesn’t impact our seed line IMO unless we crap the bed and have double digit conference losses. Go Vols! In Barnes we trust!
 
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#566
#566
chuckiepoo said:
Also, Igor seems to want to hang around the perimeter during offensive sets. Not sure if that is by design or not.
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Yeah as Franklin pointed out some of that is by design, although I've been surprised we've not let Igor have more opportunity to be the back to the rim inside scorer when Felix is out of the game or even let him run the pick and roll more to try and get some lobs.
 
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#569
#569
If Mashack continues to give us points, along with maintaining his stifling defense, we will be hard to beat. Whatever he gets in points, you could almost double it for the effect his defense has. So 10-12 points is actually like 20-24 points for us bc he usually locks his man down from scoring.
 
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#570
#570
I keep hoping that Igor’s trouble from 3 is just tired legs and that he’ll acclimate as the season goes on. Maybe that’s already happening but it’s hard to tell. Another potential cure for that would be playing him fewer minutes but I doubt we try that given how valuable the other stuff he does is.

I don’t think we let him do much post work because he’s almost always out there with either Okpara or Phillips and neither of those guys space at all (Okpara’s 100 3p% not withstanding).
 
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