What Happened to Our Offense?

#1
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calban

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#1
Looking back at the season there seemed to be a definite change in our offensive production beginning with the Kentucky loss.
Up to that point we were averaging almost 20 assists per game and had one of the most potent offenses in the country.
We had 10 assists in the Kentucky game and averaged about 14 per game there after.
What happened?
Was it the caliber of team that we faced after the KY loss? Were they shutting down the passing lanes and forcing turnovers?
Did some of our guys become selfish and stop sharing?
Was it the short bench and tired legs? It seemed like we weren't able to sustain the offensive intensity for 40 minutes in the latter part of the season.
One of the knocks on Barnes has been that he burns his teams out practicing too hard late in the season. You heard him say his practices are harder than games. Is that a factor?
Is it a combination of of these factors or something else?
They didn't look like our Vols in the first half of the Purdue game. Where did our offense go?
 
#5
#5
When the level of defense/play you are facing gets better, you have more trouble passing the ball around and thereby creating assists.
 
#6
#6
calban said:
Looking back at the season there seemed to be a definite change in our offensive production beginning with the Kentucky loss.
Up to that point we were averaging almost 20 assists per game and had one of the most potent offenses in the country.
We had 10 assists in the Kentucky game and averaged about 14 per game there after.
What happened?
Was it the caliber of team that we faced after the KY loss? Were they shutting down the passing lanes and forcing turnovers?
Did some of our guys become selfish and stop sharing?
Was it the short bench and tired legs? It seemed like we weren't able to sustain the offensive intensity for 40 minutes in the latter part of the season.
One of the knocks on Barnes has been that he burns his teams out practicing too hard late in the season. You heard him say his practices are harder than games. Is that a factor?
Is it a combination of of these factors or something else?
They didn't look like our Vols in the first half of the Purdue game. Where did our offense go?
Click to expand...

Let me qualify this by saying that I don't watch every game - do watch every home game and this is just my take - so there is that. I think that it was a combination of things. One - Opposing
defenses became accustomed to what we were doing and where we were going with the ball. Two - with increased notoriety - our guards seemed to become very me centric and impressed
with their ability to dribble and do their own thang. When the ball gets sticky in the guards hands - you don't get assists. I think Admiral and Grant at times were capable of scoring at any time,
almost against anyone, but you can't do that without the ball arriving when it is needed and good ball and people movement. There was a better overall flow and movement and you didn't see the guards doing a lot of dribbling
early in the season.
 
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#8
#8
Talent level went up. But what i saw was guys making lazy passes. Forcing passes. And thinking they could make the fancy passes. I just think our guys bought into being #1 and got a little lazy. But our biggest problem was defense. And im not sure it was just lack of effort. But teams learned to scheme us really well. And the 3s bombed down from everywhere it seemed.
 
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#9
#9
May have been just tougher defense, but we didn't hit the curls as tightly and Grant stopped posting as hard, especially after they let Kentucky batter him around in there.
 
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#10
#10
Our problems were not on the offensive end. We had the 3rd most efficient offense per KenPom. Our issues were on the defensive end. We were the only team in the top 15 of KenPom rankings that was outside the Top 40 on defense.....
 
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#11
#11
Remember when Kyle was hitting the five foot jumper and hook regularly? Any attempt to feed him in the post disappeared. Most of his offense became clean up later in the year. It’s hard to imagine with the attention Grant draws that he didn’t get more points. I’d have drawn up some plays cutting Kyle hard to the basket anytime grant was double teamed.

No question the flow looked off at times later in the year.
 
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#12
#12
calban said:
Looking back at the season there seemed to be a definite change in our offensive production beginning with the Kentucky loss.
Up to that point we were averaging almost 20 assists per game and had one of the most potent offenses in the country.
We had 10 assists in the Kentucky game and averaged about 14 per game there after.
What happened?
Was it the caliber of team that we faced after the KY loss? Were they shutting down the passing lanes and forcing turnovers?
Did some of our guys become selfish and stop sharing?
Was it the short bench and tired legs? It seemed like we weren't able to sustain the offensive intensity for 40 minutes in the latter part of the season.
One of the knocks on Barnes has been that he burns his teams out practicing too hard late in the season. You heard him say his practices are harder than games. Is that a factor?
Is it a combination of of these factors or something else?
They didn't look like our Vols in the first half of the Purdue game. Where did our offense go?
Click to expand...
Maybe all the above...on top of the farther you get into league play, teams have got film on you, and your tendencies exposed (can't guard the 3 line), and that equals more highly contested games. I could be entirely wrong here, but alot of our fast break points come from really good D and transition game. I thought we played more aggressive defense last year (not sure if stats support...just my general feeling), and therefore more transition points. When we locked in better on D w/ Purdue, that also started leading to quicker points for the good guys.
 
#13
#13
I would also love to see how the minutes of the starters stacked up against the rest of the competition. BUT, playing an extra 1.5 to 2 minutes each game means that over a season, you end up playing an entire extra game.

They certainly looked gassed in almost every game by the end of the season, SECT, and NCAAT
 
#16
#16
JoAllan said:
Lol yea Tennessee averaged 85 points during the tourney........ while improving on scoring each game.
Click to expand...
2 of those tourney games included overtime points. But I do agree that some of the offensive problems were caused by the defense not playing up to form. Fewer points off turnovers, fewer break points resulted in about 10 fewer points after the KY loss.
 
Last edited:
#18
#18
Roustabout said:
Two overtime games, duh
Click to expand...

Lol OK

Tennessee’s last game: 82 points in regulation
Tennessee’s first two games in the SEC tourney..... both in regulation: 82, 83 points
Tennessee’s first loss to Auburn, 80 points

Tennessee had offense all year when they played well. Sure the O wasn’t as good sometimes vs teams that played good D.

Also the scores might be a bit different once you start playing all SEC teams and then good teams consistently rather than Eastern KY and Samford.
 
#19
#19
calban said:
Looking back at the season there seemed to be a definite change in our offensive production beginning with the Kentucky loss.
Up to that point we were averaging almost 20 assists per game and had one of the most potent offenses in the country.
We had 10 assists in the Kentucky game and averaged about 14 per game there after.
What happened?
Was it the caliber of team that we faced after the KY loss? Were they shutting down the passing lanes and forcing turnovers?
Did some of our guys become selfish and stop sharing?
Was it the short bench and tired legs? It seemed like we weren't able to sustain the offensive intensity for 40 minutes in the latter part of the season.
One of the knocks on Barnes has been that he burns his teams out practicing too hard late in the season. You heard him say his practices are harder than games. Is that a factor?
Is it a combination of of these factors or something else?
They didn't look like our Vols in the first half of the Purdue game. Where did our offense go?
Click to expand...


Competition increased end of season. Teams honed in on how to defend this offense. 1st half of the Purdue game they were scared, stage was too big. Thats the only reason for this team missing that many free throws, they missed all 3 pointers as well. Nothing to do with Barnes.
 
#20
#20
BigOrangeMojo said:
Our problems were not on the offensive end. We had the 3rd most efficient offense per KenPom. Our issues were on the defensive end. We were the only team in the top 15 of KenPom rankings that was outside the Top 40 on defense.....
Click to expand...
However, when you rely on offensive efficiency to win games, any drop off can produce losses. There were defensive lapses from day one, even during the win streak, but the drop off on the offensive end (not extreme, but noticeable) was the difference.
 
#21
#21
SGMVols said:
Level of competition went up greatly starting with the trip to Lexington.
Click to expand...

Yep and on top of that, teams were going to do everything they could to limit Grant. When our outside shooting went into the tank, we really had no answers.
 
#22
#22
Biggest question to me was "what happened to Pons". He looked like he was ready to break out last season and began this season as a starter only to regress from week to week. Rarely used in the last weeks. I am guessing its some kind of nagging injury holding him back.
 
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#23
#23
IPleadInsanity said:
Competition increased end of season. Teams honed in on how to defend this offense. 1st half of the Purdue game they were scared, stage was too big. Thats the only reason for this team missing that many free throws, they missed all 3 pointers as well. Nothing to do with Barnes.
Click to expand...
Id attribute that more to no legs.
 
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