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The bad news: This basketball game sucks.  :thumbdown:

https://www.rockytopinsider.com/2022/01/08/highlight-video-of-newest-tennessee-receiver-isaiah-neyor/ (https://www.rockytopinsider.com/2022/01/08/highlight-video-of-newest-tennessee-receiver-isaiah-neyor/)

I really thought this team had some pieces.

But man, we stink.   :thumbdown:

As with last year if there are no guaranteed points in the paint it's hard to consistently win.

Too much Fulky & too little BHH. Where is Aidoo (sp?)??? Year after year players just seem to disappear. Barnes is going to fizzle around and run them off!!!   :banghead:

For a second year in a row, this team is not much fun to watch. I hate that, but I don't agree with all the Barnes hatred that's building on Twitter (I do get it to a point, though; it was bound to happen the moment Barnes flirted with UCLA and signed a $5 million contract). The UT basketball program has spent a lot more years than not in the past 30 wandering in the wilderness. I don't want to go back to those days. Barnes, in addition to being an outstanding human being who you would want representing your university and your brand, has managed to put this program in a position that it has seldom been.

(I do catch myself watching Auburn and being awfully envious.)

There are numerous problems with this team at the present time, imo.  I really hope that they can get it back on track.

I think Barnes would catch less flack were he not so highly compensated. Oh well, if this team can recover and get to the Sweet 16 no one will care about the early season. This is a tournament only sport.

Being paid elite we need some elite results....Also being paid elite he needs to take the blame a lot...not throw his players under the bus.

So many on Twitter seemingly weren’t around when we were absolute nobodies in the world of college basketball and it shows.

Pearl made us "somebodies". I could care less about the Deacons faith. I forgive last year. Not this year! He is sitting a 4/5 star, and another 4/5 star. Turn em fizzleing loose, OR don't recruit them! How long does the "Deacon" think he will have them? Knucklehead!

Respectfully to all in the discussion, Fulky has over achieved at times, but he would be way better off the bench. He is NOT a NBA prospect. Barnes seemed to sniff that thought in some article I read recently.  :old:

Nobody in this forum knows what goes on in practice and in the locker room, including me. Without that knowledge, we cannot really make judgements in playing time and rotation imo.

Having said that, there are issues that are strange for me. Example: JJJ has only shot 10 free throws in 11 games. He is 10/20 from inside the arc and 14/62 from beyond it. He is good defensively and is adequate on the boards (4th, I think), but he’s giving basically nothing on the offensive end of the floor.

Sometimes I just wonder about things.

And after Pearl we slipped right back into the abyss.

Atheists never care about faith Smokey  :dance:  (If you are one)

Barnes needs to perform better for sure.  But I agree with CW that even with underperformance we are either just below or at where we were under Pearl. Pearl never got us past the Sweet 16, and Barnes arguably got a tad closer than Pearl at doing that.

As for this season, it's still early.  One thing I read on another board at the point we had played 8 games, is that half were bad and half were good, with little in between. One would hope the percentage of good increases over time, but it seems to be going the other way.  I'll say what I've been saying, is that it's still early.  Hoping the trend is up from here on in.

Let me add that LSU at home is not exactly a pushover either.

Finally I do agree that Fulky could have fewer minutes, but I think he should remain a starter. 

Pearl got UT to the Elite 8 in the 2009–10 season....Barnes is getting elite money....top 5 money and last season UT finished 46th in the country....For top 5 elite money all Barnes can do is throw his players under the bus in public....The players he recruited....develops...coaches. He turns KY Derby horses into plow horses...In going on 7 years Barnes has a total of 3 NCAA tourney game wins getting paid elite top 5 money.  

Cunzo Martin took us the same as Barnes....1 sweet 16.

I have gotten a chuckle out of everyone defending Fulkerson. Yeah, Fulky is a crowd favorite and maybe Barnes should've had enough perception awareness to realize that you don't speak ill of Fulky publicly. But I would almost guarantee you that Fulkerson doesn't want or need anyone's defense. First of all, everyone knows Barnes' M.O. by now. It was his M.O. at Texas and it has been his M.O. since he's been at Tennessee. He will call players to the mat publicly in an effort to get them to produce. Regardless of whether Barnes was right or wrong about Fulkerson (he wasn't wrong), if there's one player on that roster who can take the criticism, who would not shy away from the criticism, who will use the criticism to make himself better, it's John Fulkerson.

Fulkerson has no business being back for a 6th season...he is not that good. Barnes has done a bad job recruiting big men worth a salt and needs Fulky to take up for it.

Admitting that I'm not knowledgeable of all that is going on with this team, it seems to me that there are players who are very likely "playing scared".  At least some of the athletes seem to be tentative and afraid of making mistakes.  I believe that some are likely "thinking" instead of just reacting instinctively, and this is never a good thing.

Dang, can't believe I forgot Bruce got us to the Elite 8, lol.

Wont argue that overall Pearl was better, and (much as I hate to admit it) still is, but certainly Barnes has us close to where we were with Pearl, typically contenders for the SEC, ranked, and with expectations of a decent seed in the tourney.

We all know that unfortunately Barnes just hasn't been that good in the tourney. I don't know if anyone has a reason for that, but I have observed he usually does good in the first game and it's pretty much crap after that. So maybe he is just a HC that needs scouting time and/or time to build a game plan.  I'm sure there is probably more to it than that, but that's my guess anyway.

It could just be as simple as "second round opponents are normally better teams".

Another observation, why doesn’t Fulky look any different than when he first arrived?  Body frames are different, I know, but by their final season Grant and Admiral were BUILT.  Fulky is constantly getting knocked off his spot.

Good question. Does his frame just not hold weight? I dunno.

Also, I don't know if dawg can be taught. One has it or doesn't. An improved frame helps a dawg immensely, but may be of marginal use to someone lacking that instinct.

For some reason Barnes teams very seldom play with intensity. Seems like Pearls do every night. That is my main objection to Barnes teams.

You’d be really hard pressed to find two more unathletic  bigs on the same team - anywhere in college basketball - than Fulky and Uros.

Lol