Settling for 3's

[Black Diamond Vol]

This is one of the worst defensive teams in the country. Let the freshmen drive to the paint and make them stop it.

[Tnphil]

LSU been packing the paint....Hasn't been a lot of room in there.

[JeffCountyVolFan]

They are not going to let us drive until we show that we can consistently make the outside shot.  It's a good strategy from LSU.  Force us to be a perimeter scoring team first.  We are very fortunate to be down only 5.

[Black Diamond Vol]

Then drive anyway and get them in foul trouble. They only go 5-6 deep. But it's halftime, and I think they only have 3 fouls (thanks to our poor shot selection). So it's probably too late for that now.

[Tnphil]

When that happens you have to make outside shots....We are one of the worst shooting teams in recent memory. It boggles my mind how we can shoot so bad. 26 points in the 1st half tied our lowest half point total this season.

[JeffCountyVolFan]

Then drive anyway and get them in foul trouble. They only go 5-6 deep. But it's halftime, and I think they only have 3 fouls (thanks to our poor shot selection). So it's probably too late for that now.

That doesn't work when they are helping with one or two defenders to cut you off - all because they don't respect your ability to hit the outside shot.  If you make a decent percentage of those kick-outs from penetration then they have to stop helping.  We couldn't do that today.

Also, the officials were allowing a more physical game and not calling the touch fouls, hand checks, bumps, etc.  This team has trouble when the game is more physical, imo.  Athletic teams give us fits when the game is played physically.

[volsboy]

Why can't we shoot?  I'm sure all these "stars" had no trouble scoring or shooting when they were being recruited. I watched South Dakota high school girls teams that shoot better than this Vols team.  How many thought this was going to be a top 5-10 team? Right now top 20 is a stretch. I get sick of seeing this version of the team showing up so often. Does this team have more talent than Gonzaga top to bottom? Debatable probably. Why doesn't it seem that way on the court?

[Tnphil]

That doesn't work when they are helping with one or two defenders to cut you off - all because they don't respect your ability to hit the outside shot.  If you make a decent percentage of those kick-outs from penetration then they have to stop helping.  We couldn't do that today.

Also, the officials were allowing a more physical game and not calling the touch fouls, hand checks, bumps, etc.  This team has trouble when the game is more physical, imo.  Athletic teams give us fits when the game is played physically.

Yep...we don't respond to physical play....Not aggressive enough.

LSU was the better team from the opening tip....On paper we have a pretty good team but it doesn't translate to the court enough. We show flashes of being good but those flashes are too limited.

[JeffCountyVolFan]

I love UT sports, all of them.  I'm a huge fan.  Having said that, here are some of my thoughts on this team right now.

1.  They were good against the zone trap today.  They've worked on it and are now attacking the middle.  That was a very positive sign.
2.  ORN played pretty good in limited minutes, I thought.  He was effective when he got looks at the basket, boxed out and rebounded, and played pretty good defense.
3.  I don't know why Fulky is playing so much.  He isn't scoring and he isn't rebounding.  I don't know what the issue is, but his game is just OFF.
4.  Pons isn't on his game either.
5.  E.J. should almost never be on the floor.  He is nearly zero threat offensively and isn't really providing any real rebounding.  I really wonder if Uros isn't a better option than E.J. right now.
6.  I think that Bailey plays selfish.  To me (and maybe its just me) he always seems to be looking to get his points.  We need him to play better because he is athletic and talented.
7.  This team does not play very well against athletic teams when the game gets physical.  We don't like a physical game, especially when we are forced into more of a half-court style offense.
8.  I think that the 2 freshmen tried to force things too much today.  Quite a few times today they seemed to be trying to do too much.  For them it is still very much a learning phase.  They will get better as they play more games in this new "attack" mentality.
9.  When we lose, we lose big!

At this point, its all about getting better for a possible run in the tourney.  This team has no chance of winning the regular season and only a small chance to win the SECT.  Better to learn from mistakes now than to have to learn in late March.  Coaches will watch film, analyze and evaluate it and  hopefully this team will get better and learn from the loss.

The worst part of the losses now is that it hurts the seeding in the NCAAT.  This team, imo, needs a favorable draw to be able to make any sort of deep run.  Obviously the more they lose, the less likely that they can get those "easier" 1st and 2nd round games.

[Cobbvol]

We have not stopped Smart off the dribble in 7 years.

[Tnphil]

We have not stopped Smart off the dribble in 7 years.

LOL...Yep