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BTO hasn't done the postgame report yet, I am sure for good reason and I hope he still posts one, but imma steal some spotlight here and do my own.
1. Look, games like this are going to happen. It's conference play. It's why nobody really goes undefeated in Power 5 conference play. Think about those back to back national title teams that Florida had and they lost games like this. This happens. And the big thing is Tennessee won. Tennessee played their worst game of the year and a ten minute stretch of Jodie Meeks flashbacks from John Petty and won. Last year, they lose this game. That is growth.
2. Okay, so went wrong? Simply, Tennessee got little from the perimeter. They only hit 3 three-pointers, which cannot happen in today's basketball. Alabama outscored them by 21 points from the three-point line. Some of this was open looks were just missed. Admiral had four good looks and only hit one. I'm not worried about that. But Tennessee really struggled to get open looks from the perimeter. Alabama shut down that part of the game. Grant has to manage double teams better and guys have to reset better after passes to get good looks. You can tell the lack of perimeter shooting hurt because Tennessee only had 1.03 points per possession and that is usually much higher. Three-pointers matter.
3. So with John Petty...some of this was just good offense by him. He was in the zone to start the second half. He hit two contested deep three-pointers over Alexander and Fulkerson, which they guarded really well. Whatever, you move on. But Tennessee really struggled to cover off ball screens. Tennessee usually just has the perimeter players fight through screens, but other than Bowden nobody really did fight through those. Not sure if miscommunication was a problem, but that has to be cleaned up. Also, Tennessee might want to consider more switching on wings like Petty in the future.
4. Grant Williams cannot have zero defensive rebounds. That is simply inexcusable. Putrid even. Lazy rotations and lack of effort led to 12 offensive rebounds for Alabama. It's the biggest problem Tennessee has and I don't know if it will get fixed. Every team has a weakness and Tennessee's is the defensive glass.
5. I thought Kyle Alexander had a good game. He got caught in some tough spots defensively but that was some bad perimeter defense too. He had the second-best offensive rating today and his 5 blocks were absolutely huge. He continues to be an elite rim protector. Jordan Bone was efficient today (10 points on 10 shots and 7 assists to 1 turnover) but bad defense and not enough aggressiveness on offense. We need him to do more in the pick and roll and take the ball to the rim.
6. Yves Pons was better today. Rick Barnes said he can struggle defensively sometimes with multiple actions and he got caught lost on some off ball screens. Offensively Pons was more engaged and more decisive. So we are going to give him a good grade for today.
7. Not sure what the issue was but Tennessee struggled with assignments in transition that led to easy Alabama buckets, especially in the first five minutes of the second half. It happened in the first half late too. Not sure if the substitution pattern was different and might have caused that but it needs to be cleaned up.
8. Bernard King Player of the Game: Jordan Bowden. 12 points and 4 assists won't blow you away but he was super efficient and shut down Petty the final ten minutes. He was excellent defensively and he should have had fifteen shots today not seven. That pin down play where Grant sets him an off-ball screen, gets it near the high post area and then dishes to Grant or rises for a jumper produced 10 points today. It was unstoppable.
9. Rick Barnes isn't perfect. Not calling timeout after the 8-0 start by Alabama and waiting till it got to 13-0 is inexcusable. I know he wants the guys to fight through it and having only four timeouts in today's game you have to be a little more judicial. But Tennessee needed something drawn up to get a bucket to stop the run when it went 8-0. He will know for next time.
10. Tennessee had its worst game of the year against a potential tournament team and won. That's all that matters. The second half against Arkansas was sloppy but never in doubt. Tennessee got a wake up call and will be top 2 in the country on Monday. This should easily wake them up for Wednesday against Vanderbilt and I expect a really good game from Tennessee. Tennessee did not get exposed today. Alabama didn't find the key to beat Tennessee. They played really hard and caught Tennessee on a bad night. They do need to clean up some issues and need to get back to guarding hard on every possession. They've gone away from that the last three games. But this is an experienced Tennessee team with a lot of leaders and mature young men. They will get it together.
1. Look, games like this are going to happen. It's conference play. It's why nobody really goes undefeated in Power 5 conference play. Think about those back to back national title teams that Florida had and they lost games like this. This happens. And the big thing is Tennessee won. Tennessee played their worst game of the year and a ten minute stretch of Jodie Meeks flashbacks from John Petty and won. Last year, they lose this game. That is growth.
2. Okay, so went wrong? Simply, Tennessee got little from the perimeter. They only hit 3 three-pointers, which cannot happen in today's basketball. Alabama outscored them by 21 points from the three-point line. Some of this was open looks were just missed. Admiral had four good looks and only hit one. I'm not worried about that. But Tennessee really struggled to get open looks from the perimeter. Alabama shut down that part of the game. Grant has to manage double teams better and guys have to reset better after passes to get good looks. You can tell the lack of perimeter shooting hurt because Tennessee only had 1.03 points per possession and that is usually much higher. Three-pointers matter.
3. So with John Petty...some of this was just good offense by him. He was in the zone to start the second half. He hit two contested deep three-pointers over Alexander and Fulkerson, which they guarded really well. Whatever, you move on. But Tennessee really struggled to cover off ball screens. Tennessee usually just has the perimeter players fight through screens, but other than Bowden nobody really did fight through those. Not sure if miscommunication was a problem, but that has to be cleaned up. Also, Tennessee might want to consider more switching on wings like Petty in the future.
4. Grant Williams cannot have zero defensive rebounds. That is simply inexcusable. Putrid even. Lazy rotations and lack of effort led to 12 offensive rebounds for Alabama. It's the biggest problem Tennessee has and I don't know if it will get fixed. Every team has a weakness and Tennessee's is the defensive glass.
5. I thought Kyle Alexander had a good game. He got caught in some tough spots defensively but that was some bad perimeter defense too. He had the second-best offensive rating today and his 5 blocks were absolutely huge. He continues to be an elite rim protector. Jordan Bone was efficient today (10 points on 10 shots and 7 assists to 1 turnover) but bad defense and not enough aggressiveness on offense. We need him to do more in the pick and roll and take the ball to the rim.
6. Yves Pons was better today. Rick Barnes said he can struggle defensively sometimes with multiple actions and he got caught lost on some off ball screens. Offensively Pons was more engaged and more decisive. So we are going to give him a good grade for today.
7. Not sure what the issue was but Tennessee struggled with assignments in transition that led to easy Alabama buckets, especially in the first five minutes of the second half. It happened in the first half late too. Not sure if the substitution pattern was different and might have caused that but it needs to be cleaned up.
8. Bernard King Player of the Game: Jordan Bowden. 12 points and 4 assists won't blow you away but he was super efficient and shut down Petty the final ten minutes. He was excellent defensively and he should have had fifteen shots today not seven. That pin down play where Grant sets him an off-ball screen, gets it near the high post area and then dishes to Grant or rises for a jumper produced 10 points today. It was unstoppable.
9. Rick Barnes isn't perfect. Not calling timeout after the 8-0 start by Alabama and waiting till it got to 13-0 is inexcusable. I know he wants the guys to fight through it and having only four timeouts in today's game you have to be a little more judicial. But Tennessee needed something drawn up to get a bucket to stop the run when it went 8-0. He will know for next time.
10. Tennessee had its worst game of the year against a potential tournament team and won. That's all that matters. The second half against Arkansas was sloppy but never in doubt. Tennessee got a wake up call and will be top 2 in the country on Monday. This should easily wake them up for Wednesday against Vanderbilt and I expect a really good game from Tennessee. Tennessee did not get exposed today. Alabama didn't find the key to beat Tennessee. They played really hard and caught Tennessee on a bad night. They do need to clean up some issues and need to get back to guarding hard on every possession. They've gone away from that the last three games. But this is an experienced Tennessee team with a lot of leaders and mature young men. They will get it together.
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