VTTW Board Index

I am not impressed this year at all. I think this team should be a hell of a lot better, Stokes looks like he has regressed, and Golden seems to have done so as well. Offensively we really don't have any consistency except McRae and Richardson. This team is pretty bad, and I expected better.

I think Martin will get one more year, and next season with Maymon back and Hubbs coming in, he will get his chance. If we still struggle, he will be out.

Something is off about Stokes. I don't know if he is having a sophomore slump, has a personal issue or doesn't care anymore. One of his problems may be we do not have anyone who can consistently get him the ball in the post. Golden comes off as a me first player and is only good when he scores. He is not nor will he ever be a pg. Richardson has improved but he is not a game changer. McRae is too inconsistent but if can fix that he is our biggest offensive threat. McBee was a reach who can't shoot well enough to justify his minutes.

I will still never understand how these guys or anyone for that matter can play as much basketball as they do and shoot that bad.

Part of Stokes' issue is the absence of Maymon.  Without Maymon he is seeing double teams and defensive emphasis in general and hasn't learned to deal with it yet.  We have no other F/C that can help him.  Hall is frustrating as all heck.

We may need to get he and Yemi on the court together to see if we can get some chemistry going.

I don't like what I'm seeing this year at all.  But as I've said before, I'll give Cuonzo as pass this season due to the loss of Maymon and the equity he built last year.  But I definitely want to see some results next season.

Speaking of that equity: I was pretty pleased after the season was over, but in hindsight I'm wondering how good was it really? They played well in Maui against Memphis and Duke, then had an absolutely terrible stretch — Austin Peay is still etched in my mind — before faring better than expected against an SEC slate that we all must admit was pretty weak by SEC standards.

I'm undecided on Cuonzo. I'm really apathetic to basketball right now. The way our administration used the end to justify the means during the Bruce scandal absolutely soured me. I did attend a couple of games last year but I haven't been this year and don't plan to. I'm just not a huge fan of Cuonzo's style . . . though if he wins consistently I'll be okay with his style.  :biggrin:

There's no doubt that the SEC wasn't very good last year (and is probably even worse this year).  But we did see tangible improvement from one season to the next out of all of Bruce's holdovers, Stokes was even more than we hoped he would be, and Cuonzo's lightly regarded recruits appeared to play better than their star ratings.  Unfortunately, most of those gains appear to have been forfeited this year. 

The problem is, everyone says CCM builds on defense, but our defense seems to have disappeared and our offense still sucks

Bruce hung himself but the administration did not help him at all.

Sure he did. And if the administration had just backboned up and said, "Sorry, but the NCAA is forcing our hand on this," I would've been fine with it. The whole throw-him-under-the-bus thing before the tourney game was bad enough. But then hiding behind closed doors and issuing a press release of Pearl's firing that falsely insinuates that he committed another violation in an effort to sway public opinion just absolutely pisses me off to this day. I will not be happy until that asshat Jimmy Cheek is no longer associated with the university.

UT needs a new Men's Basketball Coach. I would be happy as hell if Bruce Pearl was brought back to replace Him! :dude: