The Section 103 Postgame Report.

1. Laura Taliafarro kept the Anthem sheet clean for the season. Eat your heart out, American Idol.
2. Getting crushed like that on the boards is totally unacceptable. That's a function of a halfhearted effort early.
3. Skylar McBee can't play if he doesn't make shots. He's got to get out of his slump or get out of the game.
4. Josh Richardson was magnificent. He locked up Semaj Christon and was Tennessee's best offensive player.
5. Tennessee loses the game without the efforts of Yemi Makanjuola. He kept UT from getting totally annihilated on the boards.
6. Since UT won, I don't feel wrong commenting about the officiating. It was an affront to basketball
7. Cuonzo Martin tried to deliver a message to Jarnell Stokes. His play upon being reinserted to the game indicated it was received.
8. Derek Reese isn't shy. Coach Martin showed infinite confidence in him by playing him down the stretch.
9. Trae Golden was terrible for 39 minutes and 30 seconds. Then, he showed the heart of a winner and drilled the free throws to keep X at bay.
10. At the end of the day, this team is 8-3. Don't tell me how, just tell me how many.

 

Reese has a really nice shot and gave good effort on defense. I like how Lopez played as well, he pushed the ball and gave a nice defensive effort. If Jarnell played with the intensity that Yemi played with he would dominate.

 

Probably why Jarnell saw the bench while Reese and Yemi were on the court down the stretch.

 

It was great to see. If their not willing to match the effort then they shouldn't play.

 

In regards to 6, I am still flabbergasted about the whistle and then loss of possession by UT in the second half. It was when an X player tripped over another X player and lost possession, and everyone thought a phantom foul was being called. They then said it was an "inadvertent whistle" and gave the ball to X by the possession arrow.

Seemed like utter horse manure.

 

One of the worst calls I've ever seen.

 

I really, really like Josh Richardson. He'll never be "the guy", but he's the type of player every good team must have in order to be successful. However, we have to, HAVE to find a way to score more points. We were .5 seconds away from our third game of the season under 50 points. Sooner or later, that type of ineptitude will cause a lengthy losing streak.

 

At some point, the shooting has to get better, right, based on these guys' body of work?

 

Have you seen the rest of the SEC?

 

MARTIN: "I'm not big on sending messages. I play the guys that earn the minutes. At the end of the day, you're trying to win a game."

 

It says something about our depth that we could do what we did with Stokes and Golden on the bench. And totally agree about Richardson. I don't want to jump to conclusions too quickly, but he's been our best player two games running.

Also, I love the fact that two of the three recruits we grabbed late after Martin's hire have turned into major contributors. Says something about his player evaluation.

 

16-29 inside the arc isn't too bad.

 

Well, we really need a couple of guys to be dependable from outside. As is, teams are packing it in tight and it exacerbates our weakness. If no one can shoot them out of it, you get these ugly games. McBee is just in there to shoot long range and he had a few open looks today. I don't know that he made any of the open ones.

 

Dude is a "badass coach" quote machine.

 

The beautiful thing about playing your ass off on defense is that it gives you am opportunity to win night in, night out. Of course it'd be nice to score more, but these low scoring games give us the best chance to win right now. As frustrating as it may be.

 

When you play defense like UT is capable of playing, you can contend in every game. The offense just needs someone not afraid to make a play. Richardson was that guy tonight. Would be nice if it were Stokes.

 

Reese ain't skeered.

 

The SEC always has some awful losses in the non conference. It still will be an issue once the SEC rolls around and we're not scoring more than 50 points in over a quarter of our games.

 

Is Golden banged up? He was wearing that big wetsuit sleeve on his left shoulder.

 

Doesn't frustrate me all that much. Then again, I coached junior high girl's basketball. Just give me a win at the end of the day.