First of all, #2, 6, 11, 14, 18, 20 all lost today (7, 8, 10 didn’t play) so 6 ranked teams out of the 19 that played lost today and 4 of them lost to unranked teams. Welcome to college basketball.
So the first thing is a road lost in league play isn’t that uncommon.
Now, that doesn’t mean what happened in today’s game is just dismissed and no big deal.
There are concerns.
Barnes is right in that his team is not tough enough with the ball on the offensive end. Too many sloppy turnovers either bad pass, too much dribbling or whatever. They aren’t strong enough with the ball. That has to improve. The question we have all wondered is how does this team score when the perimeter shot it’s falling. We still don’t know, but getting to the free throw line is a good place to start. Tennessee did that Saturday but only shot 62% which is unacceptable. You can’t miss 14 free throws in a league game on the road. They missed 8 in the second half. Not going to beat good teams doing that.
They will shoot free throws better most every night, but the question of how you score when you aren’t making shots from the perimeter is a bad one because it doesn’t appear there is an answer to it.
This team needs to create more offense at the rim, which means you need offensive post production and players attacking the rim. Chandler was better at that in Baton Rouge. He has to attack and the bigs have to catch his dump offs cleaner.
The real question in the post is John Fulkerson. I know Barnes was frustrated with him against Ole Miss and that frustration spilled over into the post-game press conference following the LSU loss. I’m never for calling a guy out publicly. It’s an interesting way to go for Barnes because he has to have Fulkerson on the floor and producing. Maybe he doesn’t play 25 minutes but given this team’s post depth and given the fact that Barnes clearly has no trust in BHH mothballing Fulkerson isn’t realistic. Now if Barnes does sit Fulky that means BHH has to play more minutes because you aren’t going to play night in and night out with only two post players.
It will be interesting to see where the Fulkerson stuff goes from here. Now Fulkerson has to take more than one shot a game if he’s going to play.
But Tennessee can’t play a small line up and survive. They will get wore out on the glass. LSU had 14 offensive rebounds and 18 second chance points to go with 23 points off turnovers. A losing formula. The whole team has to rebound better and they gotta get more loose balls.
The other issue is Josiah James, who obviously can’t find the rim. He’s got to create some offense by going to the rim instead of just shooting threes. I know he hit a big one against Ole Miss, but he’s 14 of 62 on the year. The only guy on the team that’s shot more 3’s is Vescovi. James is made 3 more three’s on 40 more attempts than Olivier. James is shooting 50% inside the 3pt line but has only taken 20 shots inside the arc. At times, it feels like Olivier is more athletic away from the basket than James. James only has 10 free throw attempts this year. Everyone in this league is going to give him as many 3pt shots as he wants to take.
College basketball is not a one game press the panic button sport as we saw by who all lost today. But for the Vols there are some things they have to fix and fix quickly because this week we saw several concerns.
In 3 SEC games, they have given up 30 offensive rebounds and they are 23 of 87 beyond the 3 point line (26%). Inside the arc, they are 47 of 84 (56%) in SEC play. Attack the rim is where it has to start in my opinion.
This team is 2-4 when they score less than 70 points so they have to find more offensive production. Defense travels I get that, but on Saturday, Tennessee was the only team in the league to not score 70 points. You have to be able to put the ball in the basket.
So the first thing is a road lost in league play isn’t that uncommon.
Now, that doesn’t mean what happened in today’s game is just dismissed and no big deal.
There are concerns.
Barnes is right in that his team is not tough enough with the ball on the offensive end. Too many sloppy turnovers either bad pass, too much dribbling or whatever. They aren’t strong enough with the ball. That has to improve. The question we have all wondered is how does this team score when the perimeter shot it’s falling. We still don’t know, but getting to the free throw line is a good place to start. Tennessee did that Saturday but only shot 62% which is unacceptable. You can’t miss 14 free throws in a league game on the road. They missed 8 in the second half. Not going to beat good teams doing that.
They will shoot free throws better most every night, but the question of how you score when you aren’t making shots from the perimeter is a bad one because it doesn’t appear there is an answer to it.
This team needs to create more offense at the rim, which means you need offensive post production and players attacking the rim. Chandler was better at that in Baton Rouge. He has to attack and the bigs have to catch his dump offs cleaner.
The real question in the post is John Fulkerson. I know Barnes was frustrated with him against Ole Miss and that frustration spilled over into the post-game press conference following the LSU loss. I’m never for calling a guy out publicly. It’s an interesting way to go for Barnes because he has to have Fulkerson on the floor and producing. Maybe he doesn’t play 25 minutes but given this team’s post depth and given the fact that Barnes clearly has no trust in BHH mothballing Fulkerson isn’t realistic. Now if Barnes does sit Fulky that means BHH has to play more minutes because you aren’t going to play night in and night out with only two post players.
It will be interesting to see where the Fulkerson stuff goes from here. Now Fulkerson has to take more than one shot a game if he’s going to play.
But Tennessee can’t play a small line up and survive. They will get wore out on the glass. LSU had 14 offensive rebounds and 18 second chance points to go with 23 points off turnovers. A losing formula. The whole team has to rebound better and they gotta get more loose balls.
The other issue is Josiah James, who obviously can’t find the rim. He’s got to create some offense by going to the rim instead of just shooting threes. I know he hit a big one against Ole Miss, but he’s 14 of 62 on the year. The only guy on the team that’s shot more 3’s is Vescovi. James is made 3 more three’s on 40 more attempts than Olivier. James is shooting 50% inside the 3pt line but has only taken 20 shots inside the arc. At times, it feels like Olivier is more athletic away from the basket than James. James only has 10 free throw attempts this year. Everyone in this league is going to give him as many 3pt shots as he wants to take.
College basketball is not a one game press the panic button sport as we saw by who all lost today. But for the Vols there are some things they have to fix and fix quickly because this week we saw several concerns.
In 3 SEC games, they have given up 30 offensive rebounds and they are 23 of 87 beyond the 3 point line (26%). Inside the arc, they are 47 of 84 (56%) in SEC play. Attack the rim is where it has to start in my opinion.
This team is 2-4 when they score less than 70 points so they have to find more offensive production. Defense travels I get that, but on Saturday, Tennessee was the only team in the league to not score 70 points. You have to be able to put the ball in the basket.
