VTTW Board Index

to make it past round 2. I hope I am wrong.  :powert:

I had no illusions that this team could win the SECT, but I hate losing.

This team has no inside presence. There is no big that can consistently score in the paint. We have two 7-footers and neither of them can score against so-so defenders. It severely limits the offense and makes it much easier for opposing teams to scheme against UT defensively.

On a positive note, Bama will not beat us in basketball this season and there’s virtually no chance that we lose a 3rd game to Kentucky this year.

Boom! There ya go! The glass is half full  :toothless:

Gotta find the positives!!! 👍🏻👍🏻

For the record, I am off the #RetirementRick band wagon

Three games and we are “Still learning to play without Zakai”
That and some really strange substitution patters (see last 4 minutes today for examples a, b, and c)

Also, note how much our defense has fallen off since Zakai was hurt

Rick Barnes has been good for this basketball program. He has made it relevant and put it in the spotlight.

That said, I think that everyone must admit that he is what he is when it comes to the postseason. His 25-26 record in the NCAA isn’t just some fluke number.

I’ve read a lot of discussions on VQ about why that is. A lot of it is pure junk, but mingled in the garage you’ll always find some possible jewels, I think. (1) He recruits for defense first. (2) His teams play ‘tight’ offensively because they don’t feel like they free to just play. (3) He doesn’t adjust well offensively when things aren’t working. (4) He doesn’t recruit well offensively. (5) He cannot make the big get in the portal. (6) He wears the players down through the season and there isn’t a lot left in the track come March. Etc, etc, etc. I’m not suggesting that all of these are accurate - just that those thoughts are out there.

I don’t pretend to know the answer(s) or have the solution(s), but I’m not being paid over $5M/year to find them. I do know that there are issues; for just one example, our press offense sucks. We have trouble getting people open against the press for the inbound and when we get them open we then have trouble attacking the press. If I was coaching against this team in a close game, I would use an aggressive trapping press from the 4 minute mark every time.

I’m not advocating for CRB to be put out to pasture. It is just frustrating as a fan to feel like the postseason is something that is beyond your reach.

He does recruit for defense

As for tight offense, note how many substitutions in the 1st 4 minutes yesterday - due to TOs.  Yeah, there were a couple of bad ones but if a player feels he is going to be yanked for a single TO then he tends to play VERY conservative.  Example?  Glad you asked, see Zakai earlier this season.  It took several games for him to recover from the very public benching.
We got BJ in the game finally yesterday, for what, maybe 2 nanoseconds?

I do believe his practices wear down the team.  It has happened far too often to be coincidence.
That is exacerbated by his weird and often lack of substituting. 
Weird, having Santi and JJJ on the bench together at a critical time late in the game yesterday is exhibit A IMO

Whoever on the staff is responsible for the bigs is letting Barnes and the team down IMO
I gave up attempting to understand the substitution and PT for the bigs a LONG time ago

Mizzou without us having Zakai available is a very difficult matchup.
Mizzou is an in your face defensive team and without a good ball handler we suffered.  Their #5 is a lot like Zakai on defense, very good
Also, we had nobody that could defend their big guy, the lack of adjustments to defend him was disturbing as well

I tend to say off VQ after losses, the SC(e) game convinced me of that - got to the hotel after the game and took one look at the meltdown on VQ and never looked at it again for 3 days

VQ after losses can be very entertaining, imo. Likewise, I really enjoy visiting Rupps Rafters after UK losses.

There are some knowledgeable folks on VQ. You just have to understand that there is a mixture of all ranges: intelligent individuals, idiots, and trolls all coexist there.

I think that CRB is stubborn. I obviously don’t know him personally, but it seems to me that he has a system and believes that it will work if implemented properly. He reminds me of some other coaches in that regard.

Why doesn't he go after shooters? I see mid majors everywhere shooting the lights out. Barnes needs to figure out the modern game. Defense is nice, but some nights you just have to be hitting some shots. It also seems he doesn't develope the 5* players that well. He also gets paid like other coaches that have won titles. What's wrong with this picture? I still resent the way he played the Vols with the UCLA nonsense.

Santi can shoot it. Key can shoot it. JJJ can shoot it. ZZ had good stretches shooting the 3 this season. Even ORN can shoot the 3 with some efficiency.

Shooting isn’t the issue with this offense, imo.

Our spacing was off yesterday, especially in the 2nd half
Also, our cuts were not good
Their pressure lessened our half court offense in the 2nd half, though it was pretty good in the first half, even Dykes noticed

Maybe. They just don't seem smooth as some teams on the offensive end.

It’s much easier to defend the perimeter game when there is no inside threat.

I'm just putting us down for a second round loss in the contest, and hope that I am wrong.  That's how little faith i have in Barnes at this point to do more than one and done.

I am not terribly concerned about the Mizzou loss, although I did not see it and only followed it from highlights.  So far as I could tell, it was a close game to the end and the final score was run up from FTs. 

It does appear, unfortunately, that the Vols are the 5th best team in the SEC at this point, which is to say our seeding was about right.  With ZZ, I think we at least advance to the semis though.

What does concern me about the game is that we apparently (as far as I could tell from the highlights) did not have a guy step up at the end, and this is a recurring theme.  Often Zakai is the guy, but I would think JJJ could also.  I wonder if Barnes just doesn't do a good job getting the ball to the playmakers at the end, because that seemed to happen a few times this season.

As for the lack of postseason success, IMO Barnes needs time to prepare for an opponent.  He typically does well in the first game of whichever round and then goes out in the next (unfortunately there are not a lot of data points on the second round  :banghead: though