Tennessee vs. Iowa Round of 32 NCAA Tournament

Butch Jones never sniffed anything close to the equivalent of this level of play, so any "mix" talk from him is not relatable.

 

IP gonna be walking around with a sweet 16 tee shirt and blazer on before long.

 

Already have an ensemble: Peyton Manning Jersey and some jogging pants with"Sweet" written across the butt. You got to read it from low to high, but this ass speaks loudly so it isn't a problem.

 

The only coaching issue I have is how we attack the zone.

We should know by now that teams just aren't going to stay in man and let us have our way with them. But we either can't or won't put in an answer for zone defense and that's coaching.

 

Alexander, Admiral or Grant should always be at the free throw line when the other team is in zone. I don't understand why the bigs, besides Grant, spend so much time on the perimeter - even more than just setting screens. None of them shoot it often enough or well enough to be out there, so it just takes them out of the offense.

 

I dont know where the dont know how to attack the zone stuff comes from. We attacked Iowa zone in the middle with Grant and admiral all day and made them get back to man. Every team that played zone against us was forced to get back to man.
The only game we struggled this year was Colgate's packed in 3/2, as our guys hesitated to pull the trigger.
Attacking the zone isnt a problem for this team and hasnt been.

 

Fulkerson has gotten the ball a few times at the top of the key and made great passes down to Grant for easy buckets. There was one time in particular where I remember screaming at my TV because none of our guards would feed Grant. Fulky gets the ball and immediately throws it to Grant to shut me up.

 

Yup.

And if I'm Purdue I'm copying that 3-2 zone and putting that 12 footer up top and daring them to do something.

I don't get why a 3-2 isn't use more. Best zone defense there is IMO.

 

Colgate was zone because they had matchup problems across the board. Most of the time you can scheme around 1 or 2 bad match ups, but when you can't contain either guard and their 3 an 4 can beat you off the dribble or with their back to the basket there is not much you can do but pinch off the paint and pray they can't shoot. They way they played it was unorthodox for today's game. We didn't handle it great but still put up 77 points. That game was closer than it should have been because they had a guy have a career day at the right time. If he just has a good game we win by 20.

Most coaches at this level don't play zone unless they are forced to, outside a handful of coaches. Most fear being outnumbered on the back side misses and anymore you can scheme zone type principles into a man defense.

 

Butch didn't speak in complete sentences. Would've been more like, "One Champion. Upper echelon. Final four. Great teams. Victories. Sweet sixteen. In the mix."

 

I can't help but wonder what role (if any) Admiral not going in for OT had in Iowa tripping all over themselves. I kind of wonder if they didn't spend their OT huddle on accounting for him on the defensive end and going at him on offense to foul him out... and then he wasn't there. Even to a very small degree, it may have served as a distraction by absentia or undermining their confidence in their plans since they had assumed he would be there.

Or not. dunno.

 

I can buy the argument of why Admiral is out in regards to defense. I can literally talk myself in to that. What I have a hard time reconciling is how they put him in when they called TO with 8 seconds left and a chance to win the game. There is no scenario in which Kyle is a better scoring threat there than Admiral. If I understood Barnes correctly, that play was supposed to go through Grant for him to get a shot or kick it. In that case, how do you not want Admiral in the game?

 

Could be game time decision for Purdue and they don't want to leak so they waste time on the scout? IDK if he's practicing though.

 

I prefer squirrels or a nice raccoon. I’ve named a dead raccoon that has been on the side of the road for three weeks now. Roadie smiles at me every day.