2019 Vols

that's not what I call an injury bug. An elbow to the face is about it.

 

I’d say this is a boost. Never seen anything from Pons except a vertical.

 

I would love to see Jalen Johnson take this opportunity to establish himself firmly in the rotation.

 

He’s given some good energy in a few games but he’s gotten picked on in league play for sure

 

He gets lost in defensive rotation. His man shoots wide open 3’s often.

Can’t dribble. Can’t shoot. Can jump.

 

I'd say [uck fay] off. That'd be a boost.

 

I’ve been asking for that. Never happens though.

 

.

 

Even with the understanding of the inherent dangers associated with my asking a technical question about basketball, can someone legit check my hypothesis (read: my pure blind-assed guess, I have no idea, but even fools can be right)

1. Grant Williams had a helluva time staying out of foul trouble last year.

2. The only game that Tennessee lost this year, to KU, Grant was in foul trouble almost all day.

3. Grant hasn’t been in serious foul trouble since the KU game, IIRC. And this, despite every team damned well knowing that we are in deep shit on both ends of the floor without him (as our entire offense goes through him, and he’s one of the best inside guys we have) and must be trying to get him into foul trouble, but haven’t been able to do so, outside of KU.

4. Deacon knows this, and so we’ve packed the defense a lot tighter in the paint this year, so as to help Grant to prevent the same type of unnecessary fouls that he routinely committed last season, and earlier this year, against KU.

5. Both packing the defense closer to the goal, and the emergence of Kyle Alexander, is making the three more difficult for us to defend, and in turn, more open for our opponents - and who are routinely setting season highs in attempts and made shots.

6. And, these same opponents who know that they likely can’t keep up with Tennesee in a straight up possession game, and/or can’t drive like they want (to score and to get Grant in foul trouble) because Tennesse has it packed, so they need the 3-2 point differential of a bunch of threes to even have a shot at us.

Is there any substance to this at all? Does it even make sense?

I just know that our 3-point defense was a source of strength for us last year, and now, it seems to easily be our biggest and most consistent weakness.

So, if I’m crazy (which is fine) as to what’s possibly changed - what has actually changed, with teams now killing is from 3?

 

I believe Grant fouled out of the Gonzaga game, which we still won.

 

I think it was Gahlee who mentioned that the switching we do on defense is part of the reason we get in bad situations on the perimeter, and I think he's probably right. You're going to tend to favor the ball moving inside, which gives space to kicking it out.

 

We could mitigate this by doing a better job of hedging.

 

I feel like this team has been kind of sleep walking and still beating conference opponents by double digits

 

It’s almost like they’re bored. They know they’re better

 

"Oh, look, they're going on a run....let's rip their hearts out now"

 

Tough stretch of games coming up. They're gonna have to bring it for 40 minutes a night to avoid dropping a few to the end the season.

 

6-2

 

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/25379665/duke-your-new-no-1-apologies-vols

Lol no one saw this coming. No one.

Stop. No, they didn't. At one point late in the game, the announcer literally said that if Duke had only shot a mere 50% from 3, Virginia would be winning.

 

It's ESPN's power rankings. Who cares?

 

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...6/real-fake-why-virginia-full-title-potential

A talented collection of talent? "Yep" instead of "Yet?"

Do these people actually get paid to do this?