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

Barnes picked up the technical because the refs had made a mistake that they could have corrected by looking at the game video, but they refused. I think it was that they gave a Bama foul to a wrong player. It should have been a 2nd on one of their key players and they gave it to somebody else.
It was actually on a Vol player. They called an off ball foul and it should have been allocated to Johnson. They mistakenly gave it to Vescovi who was on ball at the time the play occurred. An off ball foul can be reviewed, and Barnes was pleading to have it reviewed. The officials refused, for some unknown reason.
 
I said this in the "biggest concerns thread" but I'll say it again: this team has got to have an alpha dog on offense that can get us a bucket when we are struggling. Basketball is a game of stars, and while we have a bunch of really good players, the fact that we can't definitely say "thats our best player" is a problem if we are going to reach our ceiling. Egalitarian offense and touches sounds good on paper, but that doesn't work against the best teams.

Also our half court offense gets stale and bland and has always been my biggest critique of Barnes. When you see you're struggling to generate looks with you base offense, you need to call a set or 2. We didn't do that (or didn't execute worth a darn). I wish Barnes would just push the pace with this bunch. Live in transition and you don't have to rely on your halfcourt offense. That would help mask our lack of an elite offense weapon.
 
It was actually on a Vol player. They called an off ball foul and it should have been allocated to Johnson. They mistakenly gave it to Vescovi who was on ball at the time the play occurred. An off ball foul can be reviewed, and Barnes was pleading to have it reviewed. The officials refused, for some unknown reason.
"Officiating issues" always seem to be the norm when playing Bama....in any sport. Not hard to relax and play loose when you seem to get all the calls. The refs took Pons out of the game. Add that to Springer's injury and we were toast.
 
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I just want to say I'm glad that we lost the way we did. Not that we lost of course. But watching this game I saw a lot of guys going off script trying to do what Alabama was doing. For the first time I saw a me first attitude. The lack of assist proves that. Maybe the Missouri win and all the final four talk went to their heads or something. But they need to get a hunters mentality first. Barnes will get that corrected I'm sure. They will work on the defense that got diced last night. Better a loss now than tourny time. Now get back to work and win the SEC.
 
I just want to say I'm glad that we lost the way we did. Not that we lost of course. But watching this game I saw a lot of guys going off script trying to do what Alabama was doing. For the first time I saw a me first attitude. The lack of assist proves that. Maybe the Missouri win and all the final four talk went to their heads or something. But they need to get a hunters mentality first. Barnes will get that corrected I'm sure. They will work on the defense that got diced last night. Better a loss now than tourny time. Now get back to work and win the SEC.

I don’t think that it was so much a me first attitude as it was desperation and overconfidence in their own ability to pick up the offense after it was disrupted. There was a bit of selfishness though.
 
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"Officiating issues" always seem to be the norm when playing Bama....in any sport. Not hard to relax and play loose when you seem to get all the calls. The refs took Pons out of the game. Add that to Springer's injury and we were toast.

SEC refs are horrible. They altered the outcome with that one incident. 3 mistakes in one episode. They put another key UT player in foul trouble with a missed call. They refused to go to the video to correct it. And then their egos lead to giving Bama 2 free points. If TN was scratching back from 3 points and 5 points late in the game Bama would have been under tremendous pressure. The SEC office really needs to be moved to Atlanta or Nashville and out of Gumptown Alabama.
 
I said this in the "biggest concerns thread" but I'll say it again: this team has got to have an alpha dog on offense that can get us a bucket when we are struggling. Basketball is a game of stars, and while we have a bunch of really good players, the fact that we can't definitely say "thats our best player" is a problem if we are going to reach our ceiling. Egalitarian offense and touches sounds good on paper, but that doesn't work against the best teams.

Also our half court offense gets stale and bland and has always been my biggest critique of Barnes. When you see you're struggling to generate looks with you base offense, you need to call a set or 2. We didn't do that (or didn't execute worth a darn). I wish Barnes would just push the pace with this bunch. Live in transition and you don't have to rely on your halfcourt offense. That would help mask our lack of an elite offense weapon.

We’ve pushed the pace more this year. We had a couple of fast breaks last night where we didn’t convert. I think Springer and Johnson are still learning to make good decisions in transition.

As Dykes pointed out, we isolated Johnson a couple of times. It actually worked.
 
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I don’t think that it was so much a me first attitude as it was desperation and overconfidence in their own ability to pick up the offense after it was disrupted. There was a bit of selfishness though.
You hit the nail squarely on the head. Also, Alabama executed the game plan and Tennessee didn't. We played hard, but not well. It happens in basketball.
 
We’ve pushed the pace more this year. We had a couple of fast breaks last night where we didn’t convert. I think Springer and Johnson are still learning to make good decisions in transition.

As Dykes pointed out, we isolated Johnson a couple of times. It actually worked.
I think he showed last night that he has the "it" factor, and when he wanted to score last night, he had the confidence and athletic ability to take it low and score. Johnson obviously needs some refinement, but I think he and Springer are Tennessee's alpha dogs, 1a and 1b.
 
At least some of those years you had Allan. Buzz ball sucked something awful. That was painful.

Buzzball was painful in many ways.

1. He actually wanted to be here. He was young and enthusiastic, basically the opposite of how Jerry Green came across. And I think that was a big plus for him starting out. Kind of similar to Pearl in that aspect, but didn't win.

2. The way his teams found ways to lose, especially his first 2 seasons was just infuriating. That Louisville loss his first season.....I will never, ever forget that. And he had at least 2-3 games where we were up 3 and the other team had the ball and I was screaming at the TV for them to foul before they could get a shot off and sure enough they'd nail a 3 and we'd lose in OT. Then we do something random like win at FL and then one game we had UK beaten the entire game at Rupp only to let it slip near the end (classic Buzz).
 
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Buzzball was painful in many ways.

1. He actually wanted to be here. He was young and enthusiastic, basically the opposite of how Jerry Green came across. And I think that was a big plus for him starting out. Kind of similar to Pearl in that aspect, but didn't win.

2. The way his teams found ways to lose, especially his first 2 seasons was just infuriating. That Louisville loss his first season.....I will never, ever forget that. And he had at least 2-3 games where we were up 3 and the other team had the ball and I was screaming at the TV for them to foul before they could get a shot off and sure enough they'd nail a 3 and we'd lose in OT. Then we do something random like win at FL and then one game we had UK beaten the entire game at Rupp only to let it slip near the end (classic Buzz).
Was that the year Tennessee was up by 10 with just over a minute left?
 
Just one observation from the game. The Bama point guard is only right handed. Barnes not fixing his defense to force the guard to the left is poor coaching. The one time he drove left he switched to the right hand for the layup and it was easily blocked. Vescovi is a liability against a speedy point guard unless he is hitting 3s to equal the times his man is blowing by him to the basket.
 
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I said this in the "biggest concerns thread" but I'll say it again: this team has got to have an alpha dog on offense that can get us a bucket when we are struggling. Basketball is a game of stars, and while we have a bunch of really good players, the fact that we can't definitely say "thats our best player" is a problem if we are going to reach our ceiling. Egalitarian offense and touches sounds good on paper, but that doesn't work against the best teams.

Also our half court offense gets stale and bland and has always been my biggest critique of Barnes. When you see you're struggling to generate looks with you base offense, you need to call a set or 2. We didn't do that (or didn't execute worth a darn). I wish Barnes would just push the pace with this bunch. Live in transition and you don't have to rely on your halfcourt offense. That would help mask our lack of an elite offense weapon.
Fulkerson. Last year he turned into a-mostly-unstoppable force in SEC play. Its like, now that we have guards who can get buckets, we don’t try to go inside everytime for Fulkerson.
 
Having had a day to digest.
Refs were horrible. Barnes has a legit reason to file a case on the technical. Offense was flat. If they make free throws and shoot their normal percentage, they win.

The problem is that a guy like Fulk should be way past allowing that to happen. Pons played an incredible defensive game.
 
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Having had a day to digest.
Refs were horrible. Barnes has a legit reason to file a case on the technical. Offense was flat. If they make free throws and shoot their normal percentage, they win.

The problem is that a guy like Fulk should be way past allowing that to happen. Pons played an incredible defensive game.
I think the scouting report on Fulky is to be very physical, knock him around, handcuff him. Physicality just negates his effectiveness, or so it seems.
 
I think the scouting report on Fulky is to be very physical, knock him around, handcuff him. Physicality just negates his effectiveness, or so it seems.
But Bama doesn’t have the bruisers. He just played horrible. Who’s knocking him around at the FT line.
 
How about 6'8" Jones and 6'10" Bruner, who are both more physical than Fulky. You never cease to amaze me with your comments.
You cease to amaze me with your lack of bball IQ. Again, who was knocking him around at the Ft line.
Mizzou was MUCH bigger and Fulk played a better game.
 

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