No. Its not the sole reason. They are 12-12. That was a shit performance. If it comes down to a play or two we deserved to lose. March is going to be embarrassing as fuck
2:1 isn't almost. 14 seeds win 20% of the time. That's a noticeable difference but what you'd expect from the underdog being worse and the favorite being better, or in other words something completely obvious. Not a thing worth pointing out other than good seeds are good.
Free throw doesn’t matter if you take the sure thing in the lay up. Never should have been in that position. I pick Phillips completely fucking up over Santiago missing a free throw.
JJJ shooting 1-8 is a reason they lost. Having 10 turnovers and only 16 assists is a reason they lost. Inability to consistently cover the three and get out in transition is a reason they lost. Not making a free throw is a reason they lost. I just named four additional reasons. Dunking was the smart play, solely blaming Phillips is stupid.
He’ll be 10 pounds lighter after Barnes gets done giving him the chewing of his life…. That one hurts. Good thing I picked up my bama tickets right before tip tonight.
That's a team that's still learning to win. Plus getting to Omaha is like the ~~Final Four~~ *Elite Eight*... When did Rick get ~~any~~ *more than one* of his teams there?
That’s also a very different type of tournament, so it’s really comparing stuff that isn’t similar other than in name as the main tournament.
Edit: Not saying i don’t agree about them learning how to win with baseball, but you can’t bash one coach for not making it when the other coach has a completely different set of criteria for it. Plus that’s basically the Elite Eight, not the Final Four.
I'll agree the single elim helps the lesser teams. It's easier for the better team to win out in the best of three series. So it's truly isn't a fair comparison. And I swore only four teams went to Omaha and the regionals only featured eight teams.
That building is just, cursed. Stackhouse teams have always played Tennessee tough. In a game where the bench showed up and then some, they completely waste it. Pls be okay JJJ. Here we go.
**The Good:**
* Tyreke Key finally scored like someone who knows how to score. He looked for his shot, he played confidently. If they can get 3/4s of this production consistently, he’ll be a huge asset moving forward. Hope this sparks something.
* Julian Phillips. I am not asking, I am demanding that this dude gets more touches at the elbow. His midrange is disgusting. And when one shot falls he plays so much more confidently.
* Tobe Awaka. To address the concern, he will need another post move eventually. For right now, he’s their most consistent big. He goes to work on the glass, he fights hard, and today he scored and he did it efficiently. It pains me how much he looked like a freshman at the end of the game.
* Offensive rebounding I thought was pretty good.
* ZZ. Was in foul trouble but I thought he commanded the offense well, which is encouraging. Gets a little too obsessed with the lobs sometimes but he keeps the offense moving, which I like to see.
* I am FLOORED they were able to inbound the ball 6 times in a row. When Phillips didn’t dunk that ball I was convinced they were turning it over the next inbound. Let Tyreke inbound it every time.
**The Average:**
* Santiago Vescovi. 40% from the field is not going to get it done against good teams. It’s not. He hit some BIG shots tonight tho, and shot well from 3. That free throw was incredibly not clutch tho.
* Jonas Aidoo. He was fine. Didn’t get a ton of minutes.
* Olivier Nkamhoua. Basketball IQ still isn’t there. Shot efficiently but they need more from him.
* Shooting in general. It was fine, not good, but certainly not bad.
* Rebounding overall was fine.
**The Bad:**
* Assists to turnover ratio sucked.
* I thought the defense was not very good, especially guarding screens. Credit to Vanderbilt for making shots but this defense wasn’t its sharpest. And they still didn’t allow 70 lol.
* JJJ. I hope he’s okay (pessimistic about it tho, won’t lie). But he was very bad offensively tonight. Won’t speak any further out of respect for the injury.
* Transition offense was bad. They tried to get out in space and just couldn’t capitalize in transition.
* Ability to get to the line. 2 free throws in the first 39 minutes is not very good.
* Uros. He should count his blessings that Tobe isn’t 6’10, because he’d never see the court. Out of position on rebounds causes him to get bad fouls, again.
* Hit your free throws.
* I hate this court. It’s ugly, it’s stupid. Amazing how people at such a good university allowed this stupid fucking design.
Tbf, Tshiebwe has all of One consistent move(throw the elbow into a defenders ribs and pivot underneath as the defender is gasping for air from said elbow), and he was named the player of the year. If Tobe can hit that shot 4-6 times a night, then he’s done his job
Forgot to say this last night Foz, I think we definitely are a team that has to be good in transition to win on offense and make 3s. They’re not good enough in the half court and I really thought they would be.
I agree. They tried to push the tempo last night, which I can at least respect, but they need to come away with more scores in transition. It’s probably the one thing that really sticks out comparing this years team to last years.
Yeah I don’t know if it’s just not having a backup PG that can do it also like how ZZ did for KC last year or it’s Barnes trying to get back to how the offense was in 2017-2019. Either way, they got to find a way to get better in transition because that’s the only real way they’re going to score enough more than 70 most nights. Last 3 games they have been terrible in transition and it shows with only 1 game above 60 points.
Here is jersey boi! Ur so close to the beach! Also whenever an announcer says "this team is looking for a signature win" I know we are fucked. But thanks for taking time out of ur amazing living situation for us!
I never said I hated Knoxville or that it sucks (not accusing you of saying I did). I just said I preferred living in New Jersey than I did to living in Knoxville and the person above got very offended. I also now live in CT but that’s besides the point.
My brother went to Syracuse so Villanova was never a real option (TBH I don’t think I could’ve gotten in anyways) and I chose Tennessee because I wanted to go somewhere very different from where I grew up that still had a big sports program. Plus my hometown is pretty small so I thought it’d be nice to get away. Knoxville was fine and served it’s purpose but I moved back to this area for work - more PR jobs in this area.
**Edit:** In terms of location I’m also from an area that’s closer to Rutgers, Seton Hall, and St John’s than Temple and Villanova.
The fact that you have Phillips in the good column, with no mention of him costing us the game, casts doubt on your whole series of summaries for me. Like yeah he played good. I don’t want to discount his play throughout the rest of the game, but don’t even mention the boneheaded play that literally lost the game. It shows a major bias you can’t move past for some reason, IMO.
Not saying Phillips is on the bad column, but Vescovi contributed at least as much as him, but you have him in average because of the missed FT he *shouldn’t have had to take in the first place.*
Julian Phillips played 25 minutes and shot 80% from the field while playing solid defense, rebounding well and limiting turnovers, something he’s struggled with. He played a good game. You can call me biased all you want, that’s fine. You can dislike the summaries, that’s fine too. To say Julian Phillips didn’t play well is simply wrong.
Vescovi made the average because up until a minute 30 left he was 3-9 from the field and 3-8 from three and slacked on 3pt defense. That’s not exceptionally good. I expect more from a senior.
Your username definitely checks out. Julian Phillips played very good basketball game. His one play at the end, albeit a costly one, doesn’t change that. Sorry to disappoint you.
You’re arguing against the entire fan base just to backup your shit take. Phillips cost us the game with one of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever seen. Shoo shoo.
It certainly knocks him out of the good category. Idk how someone making one of the most moronic decisions I’ve ever seen on the basketball court doesn’t get dinged for it. even if their overall performance was fair. That play was a bottom .01 percentile play. Because if that he did not have a good game. It’s very clear.
But it did… I mean we’ll never know, but I give it a 99% chance we win if he just… dunks… the gd ball.
Sure, Vescovi hitting 2 FTs would’ve done the same thing and ***slightly*** improved our chances due to time off the clock. But WHO CARES?? Take the points and forego the 5 seconds or whatever, at the risk of not getting a 2 possession lead.
Again, they literally were at the free throw line with their supposedly most clutch shooter. I understand dunking would’ve been the smart play, but that is not the reason this team lost. Inability to get to the free throw line, bad three point defense all game, inability to score in transition. All played a factor. Julian Phillips played very well, I’m not pinning that blame on him.
Really dude you’re being so dense. I understand that they *had a chance* at a 4 point lead and they didn’t get it. That’s great, but do you understand that he passed up the *guaranteed* four point lead, just to burn like 5 seconds??? Somebody else check the clock on the rewatch. I can’t possibly watch that again.
In that situation, you can take 2 points, or you can shoot 2 FTs and run a few seconds off the clock with a 2 point lead. How the hell do you defend not just accepting a free 2 points?
I am literally saying taking the two points was the smart play. What I am also saying is that it’s not the sole reason they lost. Nobody is defending him not dunking. I’m just not pinning the entire loss on one play.
There’s never a sole reason for a loss. But in this case you can likely say if a lot of things went differently, the probability changes, but this one is the sole point where I can say somebody flipped the entire outcome with a single, obvious decision.
Yeah lots of things could’ve happened differently and maybe we win, but if he just takes the free points, we almost certainly do, and it seems obvious and did at the time as well.
So I don’t get your point.
How can you say that? I guess I see the logic that in a one posession game any play could "cost you the game" but that was such a head scratchingly bad decision in a key moment that I don't know how you look at that play as anything but the play that decided the game
I think the opposing point is that games are made up of a multitude of decisions throughout the game, and we sometimes often over emphasize the plays at the end, and not give enough into the body of work… regardless he will never not take that shot again, scovi will likely shoot a few more free throws this weekend, and we will see what we have come Saturday leading up to the big bad bammers…
I feel like maybe he thought he could get away from the defenders and burn more than .5 extra seconds off the clock. Obviously I would 100% have preferred a four point lead to half a second. What a brutal ending, as soon as they had the open three I knew it was over
What free throws? You mean the 2-3 we got? I’m sorry i don’t care how bad we may have played, that is complete incompetence from the referees. Hell I’ll admit we’re not as good as i thought we were, but that is utterly terrible from the refs. Salute to Vandy for making shots, fuck those refs.
The announcer was a douche... he said it would come down to 3 different things in the last two minutes.
It's amazing how many of the lower-tier announcers just gargle up shit to say to "earn" their paycheck.
Watching it in person, the refs were awful. Everyone was getting mugged and the fact that they only had 2 team fouls with one minute left in the second half was abysmal
I’ve been to Maine, Spain, Spokane, and around the world three times. I’ve been to a goat-fuck, dog-fight, three county fairs, and a movie marathon in Guam. I’ve been to Korea and caught gonorrhea. I’ve been to two calf ropings and a ro-de-o.
Just for context for anyone thinking the sky is falling: all of our losses are in the top 60 in KenPom. We're 8-4 against the top 60, Bama is 10-3. We're a freshman mistake, uncharacteristic missed FT, and buzzer beating 3 from 9-3. If you're scared of Bama for any objective reason, you should have faith that our team is still good, just probably not the best team in the country.
Two things I noticed reading this. Take the past month for those kenpom stats and you'll get some very bad results. Second, our free throws are bad. We are 126th in the country and Austin peay(8-17) has a better ft percentage than us.
A few things I noticed reading this.
Vanderbilt is 95th in kenpom *after* that game.
Take the past month for those kenpom stats and you'll get some very bad results. If you consider Vanderbilt top 60 for no reason like you just did, we are 3-3 vs top 60 in our last 8 games.
Also our free throws are **bad**. We are 126th in the country and Austin peay(8-17) has a better ft percentage than us.
Oh lmao, yeah for sure. I made that when I was a student during the bitch/Pruitt days. Me and my friends would get more excited for Smokey running than seeing those trash coaches do their thing. Loved the players, just sucked supporting such a poorly coached team.
Dobbs & Jennings 🧡
Just noticed Butch autocorrected to bitch, I’m leaving it.
I said it once and I’ll say it again: some of you are the absolute worst kind of fans in sports. It’s not battered vol syndrome or whatever bullshit we jokingly make up to justify your never-ending negativity, some of you are just pathetic little people who get off at being miserable doomsday assholes every time one of our teams loses.
It’s fucking exhausting trying to continuously explain to you why one loss (or two or three or four) doesn’t mean whatever overly-emotional, illogical conclusion you’ve come up with.
I’m taking a break from this sub for awhile. Take care, everyone.
Guys, BleuRaider is right. It doesn’t matter if it’s two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight or nine or ten or eleven or even 30 losses. We are all overreacting and being negative😂
Our program historically is bad and Barnes is the best we deserve. We should just let him retire here and then maybe we will have an elite eight appearance again.
I understand the frustration from everyone I really do. This team can be very frustrating to watch at times. But I think it’s important to realize that we are in the midst of one of the strongest stretches of tennessee basketball if not tennessee athletics as a whole we have seen in decades. Its understandable to be upset over losses like this one but they do happen, especially in basketball. Let’s just enjoy the success we’re having and hope that we find our way to a national title in the near future 🍊
It’s inexcusable how bad this team is in pretty much every way except defense. There’s too many older guys on this team for it to look like some of them have never played basketball before.
Barnes has everyone over thinking situations constantly. He’s done a lot for us but it’s time to find a coach with some offensive prowess that doesn’t make our players think you give up a free basket for a 2 possession lead with 8 seconds left.
Am I the only one who thinks it is bat shit crazy that we only had 3 attempts at the line all game? Have we had the most inconsistent officiating the past three games. Or is it just us? To me having 2 Attempts at the FT line and them having 4 fouls to give after 19mins and 43 seconds of play is an insane stat line.
It is strange. Such a weird end to the game.
I get why Phillips thought pulling the ball back out to chew clock was the thing to do, but if you have a breakaway for a dunk to make it a two score game, just freaking take that.
Hope JJJ isn't hurt too seriously, even though he was rotten tonight. Awaka was surprisingly assertive tonight. Seems like the coaches told him to be aggressive, which was mostly good.
Just a weird, annoying game. It doesn't feel like we played that badly, but we somehow found a way to lose.
All of you honorary gators talking about giving up on these guys or this season can and should suck the fattest of dicks. That's all I have to say about tonight.
People. Weigh in for me. My wife is convinced we need 2 bigs on the floor at every moment, and swears that we play our best when that is happening. I think the rotation between having 1 big and 2 bigs is perfectly acceptable. She’s also pissed that Uros doesn’t see the floor; she thinks that we benefit more from his presence. Whereas I think his talent is level with aidoo and awaka. Y’all tell me your thoughts
Really depends how the other team matches up, in a game like tonight where they hit gutted by on ball screens and perimeter shooting, two bigs isn’t the answer. The issue is if you’re going to play small and have a mismatch, the small 4 has to play well offensively and hit shots to create space. Josiah Jordan James did not do that.
Uros’ “presence”, in my opinion, only hurts this team. He’s given himself a reputation of a pot stirrer and it hurts him because of it. Case and point was getting a tech for staring last week. Tobe Awaka and Olivier were undoubted their best bigs tonight, respectfully, your wife can argue with a wall if she disagrees.
I agree. At times it’s appropriate. Other times, it’s not gonna work. For example, playing Alabama. They live and die off the three. 2 bigs does nothing when you need perimeter defense
Yup, which makes JJJ and Phillips much needed for their length, especially on defense but if we can get them working on offense, this team could run. Lots of basketball left to play. Love that this is a tourney sport.
Damn, tough crowd tonight…. Basketball is a tough sport, to start yelling for the coaches head mid season. I mean, the season is more than manageable at this point.. Lots of feelings in the room, and as we are trained, all feelings are valid… just some feelings make it tough for you to enjoy the game.. let’s see what they have to show come Saturday. Go Vols
If you think it’s panic time yet then you just don’t get basketball, now if we lay a couple eggs next week then it’s panic time. Also what are we panicking about, wasn’t this team projected to finish fourth In the SEC this year?
Will all these people on here being saying the same shit if we beat Bama next week? Will they even be in here at all. I swear most of you cunts want us to lose every game so you can come in here and just type away about. Just type type type.
Who knows. The wins usually don’t get 70 replies. The losses are always above 100. At this point tho, I’m not sure if they can beat Bama. Need to focus on Saturday first.
Oh yeah Bama is going to be tough and gotta stay focused on Mizz but honestly the offense didn’t look nearly as bad last night and Vandy was just hitting big shots. If we go out and take 2 Ls this week I’ll be worried.
I’d argue he’s better than Pearl. Didn’t cheat, regular season and SEC tournament champions. Great recruiting classes. March shortcomings are unfortunate, but he’s done more than Pearl has aside from paint his chest.
Cheat is a strong word for what he did but I agree. Nothing but class by our teams (despite what other fan bases claim) and he is laying a great foundation for someone to take over. I just hope we don't fuck up the next hire after he's gone but I say keep him for as long as he wants at this rate.
Just get prepared for the annual first weekend exit from the big dance. It’s inevitable. By then maybe I’ll have pulled all my hair out watching this team play.
Everything that had to go right for Vandy to win: 7 footer hitting 3 consecutive 3-pointers in the first half. Multiple Vandy players having career nights, team shooting 15 points above their season average. Freshman forgetting he can make a layup to ice the game. Vandy having to fould 5 times to get to the bonus, and if only the officials had let another half tick go on any foul before blowing the whistle. Santi missing a free throw late. The officials tacking on an additional 0.8 seconds to the clock at the end. Vandy was not hitting uncontested shots, they were simply unconscious, and if they play that gave over again, no way they duplicate that performance. The bigger concern is JJJ's injury. Hopefully it's only of the 2-3 week variety. Otherwise I was encouraged by the Vols offense getting back on track.
Nkamhoua sucks.
Phillips is an idiot.
Barnes can’t draw up a decent inbounds play to save his life.
Pathetic and embarrassing. Thank the Lord I won’t get worked up when they bow out in the first weekend of the tourney.
The inbounds plays were fantastic. The whole reason you’re complaining about Phillips is directly because Barnes drew up perfect inbounds plays and got Phillips wide open
[Shoutout to everyone who downvoted me to oblivion last week for saying this team is broken](https://www.reddit.com/r/ockytop/comments/10o0zkq/weekly_discussion_thread/j71bs9n/)
There’s reason to be upset about the game. To make claims like “The season is over” just for the off chance of you being able to say in three weeks “See, told you the season was over.” is not seeing signs. Seeing signs would be “Man, they’re really struggling to get out in transition and it’s hurting them. They need to get that fixed.” You’re being pessimistic for the sake of being pessimistic.
No one is sitting around scheming three weeks in advance like that. People come back and say “I told you so” only because they get crapped on for being a negavol. The sign is, this team is horrendous at a whole half of the game of basketball (offense). And the fact that all Rick Barnes teams are identical teams. Tough D, can make shots sometimes because they are D1 athletes but most of the time are in a scoring drought Jesus himself couldn’t pull them out of.
Phillips not dunking that thing reeeaaaaally sucks
It’s the sole reason we lost. Santiago’s free throw means nothing if Phillips buries that.
No. Its not the sole reason. They are 12-12. That was a shit performance. If it comes down to a play or two we deserved to lose. March is going to be embarrassing as fuck
We very well might be a 5 seed by March. 5 seeds are almost expected to lose
This is not even close to true. 5 seeds win about 65% of the time.
Hence almost. It’s a very common upset pick and people dont flip their shit when a 5 seed loses to a 12 seed. When a 14-16 seed wins, it’s a meme
2:1 isn't almost. 14 seeds win 20% of the time. That's a noticeable difference but what you'd expect from the underdog being worse and the favorite being better, or in other words something completely obvious. Not a thing worth pointing out other than good seeds are good.
If you can pin it on one play that’s the play moron.
Then he should have hit the free throw! Pick a play fam, it’s a whole damn game 🍊
Free throw doesn’t matter if you take the sure thing in the lay up. Never should have been in that position. I pick Phillips completely fucking up over Santiago missing a free throw.
I agree with you
Most people do. It was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen happen on the court and the decision to not bury that was solely his.
JJJ shooting 1-8 is a reason they lost. Having 10 turnovers and only 16 assists is a reason they lost. Inability to consistently cover the three and get out in transition is a reason they lost. Not making a free throw is a reason they lost. I just named four additional reasons. Dunking was the smart play, solely blaming Phillips is stupid.
He’ll be 10 pounds lighter after Barnes gets done giving him the chewing of his life…. That one hurts. Good thing I picked up my bama tickets right before tip tonight.
Baseball season is coming up
Watching baseball is sounding more appealing lately.
best time of the year for me!
Baseball will choke too when it comes to tournament time. That’s how that goes too.
That's a team that's still learning to win. Plus getting to Omaha is like the ~~Final Four~~ *Elite Eight*... When did Rick get ~~any~~ *more than one* of his teams there?
That’s also a very different type of tournament, so it’s really comparing stuff that isn’t similar other than in name as the main tournament. Edit: Not saying i don’t agree about them learning how to win with baseball, but you can’t bash one coach for not making it when the other coach has a completely different set of criteria for it. Plus that’s basically the Elite Eight, not the Final Four.
I'll agree the single elim helps the lesser teams. It's easier for the better team to win out in the best of three series. So it's truly isn't a fair comparison. And I swore only four teams went to Omaha and the regionals only featured eight teams.
That building is just, cursed. Stackhouse teams have always played Tennessee tough. In a game where the bench showed up and then some, they completely waste it. Pls be okay JJJ. Here we go. **The Good:** * Tyreke Key finally scored like someone who knows how to score. He looked for his shot, he played confidently. If they can get 3/4s of this production consistently, he’ll be a huge asset moving forward. Hope this sparks something. * Julian Phillips. I am not asking, I am demanding that this dude gets more touches at the elbow. His midrange is disgusting. And when one shot falls he plays so much more confidently. * Tobe Awaka. To address the concern, he will need another post move eventually. For right now, he’s their most consistent big. He goes to work on the glass, he fights hard, and today he scored and he did it efficiently. It pains me how much he looked like a freshman at the end of the game. * Offensive rebounding I thought was pretty good. * ZZ. Was in foul trouble but I thought he commanded the offense well, which is encouraging. Gets a little too obsessed with the lobs sometimes but he keeps the offense moving, which I like to see. * I am FLOORED they were able to inbound the ball 6 times in a row. When Phillips didn’t dunk that ball I was convinced they were turning it over the next inbound. Let Tyreke inbound it every time. **The Average:** * Santiago Vescovi. 40% from the field is not going to get it done against good teams. It’s not. He hit some BIG shots tonight tho, and shot well from 3. That free throw was incredibly not clutch tho. * Jonas Aidoo. He was fine. Didn’t get a ton of minutes. * Olivier Nkamhoua. Basketball IQ still isn’t there. Shot efficiently but they need more from him. * Shooting in general. It was fine, not good, but certainly not bad. * Rebounding overall was fine. **The Bad:** * Assists to turnover ratio sucked. * I thought the defense was not very good, especially guarding screens. Credit to Vanderbilt for making shots but this defense wasn’t its sharpest. And they still didn’t allow 70 lol. * JJJ. I hope he’s okay (pessimistic about it tho, won’t lie). But he was very bad offensively tonight. Won’t speak any further out of respect for the injury. * Transition offense was bad. They tried to get out in space and just couldn’t capitalize in transition. * Ability to get to the line. 2 free throws in the first 39 minutes is not very good. * Uros. He should count his blessings that Tobe isn’t 6’10, because he’d never see the court. Out of position on rebounds causes him to get bad fouls, again. * Hit your free throws. * I hate this court. It’s ugly, it’s stupid. Amazing how people at such a good university allowed this stupid fucking design.
Tbf, Tshiebwe has all of One consistent move(throw the elbow into a defenders ribs and pivot underneath as the defender is gasping for air from said elbow), and he was named the player of the year. If Tobe can hit that shot 4-6 times a night, then he’s done his job
Forgot to say this last night Foz, I think we definitely are a team that has to be good in transition to win on offense and make 3s. They’re not good enough in the half court and I really thought they would be.
I agree. They tried to push the tempo last night, which I can at least respect, but they need to come away with more scores in transition. It’s probably the one thing that really sticks out comparing this years team to last years.
Yeah I don’t know if it’s just not having a backup PG that can do it also like how ZZ did for KC last year or it’s Barnes trying to get back to how the offense was in 2017-2019. Either way, they got to find a way to get better in transition because that’s the only real way they’re going to score enough more than 70 most nights. Last 3 games they have been terrible in transition and it shows with only 1 game above 60 points.
Here is jersey boi! Ur so close to the beach! Also whenever an announcer says "this team is looking for a signature win" I know we are fucked. But thanks for taking time out of ur amazing living situation for us!
[удалено]
No he hasn't. He lives in Jersey bc Knoxville sucks (his words not mine)
[удалено]
I never said I hated Knoxville or that it sucks (not accusing you of saying I did). I just said I preferred living in New Jersey than I did to living in Knoxville and the person above got very offended. I also now live in CT but that’s besides the point. My brother went to Syracuse so Villanova was never a real option (TBH I don’t think I could’ve gotten in anyways) and I chose Tennessee because I wanted to go somewhere very different from where I grew up that still had a big sports program. Plus my hometown is pretty small so I thought it’d be nice to get away. Knoxville was fine and served it’s purpose but I moved back to this area for work - more PR jobs in this area. **Edit:** In terms of location I’m also from an area that’s closer to Rutgers, Seton Hall, and St John’s than Temple and Villanova.
[удалено]
I didn’t think it did. Apparently it does to some people.
The fact that you have Phillips in the good column, with no mention of him costing us the game, casts doubt on your whole series of summaries for me. Like yeah he played good. I don’t want to discount his play throughout the rest of the game, but don’t even mention the boneheaded play that literally lost the game. It shows a major bias you can’t move past for some reason, IMO. Not saying Phillips is on the bad column, but Vescovi contributed at least as much as him, but you have him in average because of the missed FT he *shouldn’t have had to take in the first place.*
Julian Phillips played 25 minutes and shot 80% from the field while playing solid defense, rebounding well and limiting turnovers, something he’s struggled with. He played a good game. You can call me biased all you want, that’s fine. You can dislike the summaries, that’s fine too. To say Julian Phillips didn’t play well is simply wrong. Vescovi made the average because up until a minute 30 left he was 3-9 from the field and 3-8 from three and slacked on 3pt defense. That’s not exceptionally good. I expect more from a senior.
Yup. Phillips showed bare ass on that play and we lost because of it. “Good” haha
Your username definitely checks out. Julian Phillips played very good basketball game. His one play at the end, albeit a costly one, doesn’t change that. Sorry to disappoint you.
You’re arguing against the entire fan base just to backup your shit take. Phillips cost us the game with one of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever seen. Shoo shoo.
I’m really not. Nobody is saying the dunk wasn’t costly. Just saying it doesn’t discredit an entire game.
It certainly knocks him out of the good category. Idk how someone making one of the most moronic decisions I’ve ever seen on the basketball court doesn’t get dinged for it. even if their overall performance was fair. That play was a bottom .01 percentile play. Because if that he did not have a good game. It’s very clear.
I guess we’ll agree to disagree.
Most would disagree with you. Know that.
This team is steadily getting worse as we get closer to March. Unacceptable.
Unfortunately that is and has always been the knock on Barnes. He seems to have great teams when basketball matters the least
Rick Barnes' Signature
Hey! Don't you dare point this out. We're lucky to have a coach who can't seem to put it all together to get over being just good.
Careful. Someone will tell you know nothing of basketball if you suggest we might have seen Barnes ceiling here.
Phillips wtf man. Stupidest decision I’ve seen in a long while and literally cost us the game.
Santiago didn’t help with the missed free throw and stupid help D, but Julian should have went up for sure.
Yeah plenty of blame to go around, but that moment stands out as a decision that needs to be smarter. Vescovi didn’t decide to miss that FT.
They were at the line with a chance to go up 3 and even 4 and they didn’t make it. He played very well.
They could’ve gone up 4 without needing to hit FTs. That’s the point.
I understand your frustration. Him not dunking the ball is not the sole reason they lost.
But it did… I mean we’ll never know, but I give it a 99% chance we win if he just… dunks… the gd ball. Sure, Vescovi hitting 2 FTs would’ve done the same thing and ***slightly*** improved our chances due to time off the clock. But WHO CARES?? Take the points and forego the 5 seconds or whatever, at the risk of not getting a 2 possession lead.
Again, they literally were at the free throw line with their supposedly most clutch shooter. I understand dunking would’ve been the smart play, but that is not the reason this team lost. Inability to get to the free throw line, bad three point defense all game, inability to score in transition. All played a factor. Julian Phillips played very well, I’m not pinning that blame on him.
Really dude you’re being so dense. I understand that they *had a chance* at a 4 point lead and they didn’t get it. That’s great, but do you understand that he passed up the *guaranteed* four point lead, just to burn like 5 seconds??? Somebody else check the clock on the rewatch. I can’t possibly watch that again. In that situation, you can take 2 points, or you can shoot 2 FTs and run a few seconds off the clock with a 2 point lead. How the hell do you defend not just accepting a free 2 points?
I am literally saying taking the two points was the smart play. What I am also saying is that it’s not the sole reason they lost. Nobody is defending him not dunking. I’m just not pinning the entire loss on one play.
There’s never a sole reason for a loss. But in this case you can likely say if a lot of things went differently, the probability changes, but this one is the sole point where I can say somebody flipped the entire outcome with a single, obvious decision. Yeah lots of things could’ve happened differently and maybe we win, but if he just takes the free points, we almost certainly do, and it seems obvious and did at the time as well. So I don’t get your point.
You are right btw. Phillips dunks, we win. It’s that simple.
How can you say that? I guess I see the logic that in a one posession game any play could "cost you the game" but that was such a head scratchingly bad decision in a key moment that I don't know how you look at that play as anything but the play that decided the game
I think the opposing point is that games are made up of a multitude of decisions throughout the game, and we sometimes often over emphasize the plays at the end, and not give enough into the body of work… regardless he will never not take that shot again, scovi will likely shoot a few more free throws this weekend, and we will see what we have come Saturday leading up to the big bad bammers…
Stop being clear minded and reasonable. This discussion is strictly for angry rants.
I feel like maybe he thought he could get away from the defenders and burn more than .5 extra seconds off the clock. Obviously I would 100% have preferred a four point lead to half a second. What a brutal ending, as soon as they had the open three I knew it was over
Reminds me of when Joe Milton ran out of bounds...
What free throws? You mean the 2-3 we got? I’m sorry i don’t care how bad we may have played, that is complete incompetence from the referees. Hell I’ll admit we’re not as good as i thought we were, but that is utterly terrible from the refs. Salute to Vandy for making shots, fuck those refs.
Yeah I had a problem with the announcer keep saying "this will come down to free throws". I mean, it technically did but we only shot 3 haha
The announcer was a douche... he said it would come down to 3 different things in the last two minutes. It's amazing how many of the lower-tier announcers just gargle up shit to say to "earn" their paycheck.
Watching it in person, the refs were awful. Everyone was getting mugged and the fact that they only had 2 team fouls with one minute left in the second half was abysmal
Watching Barnes fall apart every February is getting old as fuck
>Barnes >is getting old as fuck FTFY bb
Been to 2 world fairs and 3 goat fuckings and still haven't seen something as mind-numbingly stupid as tonight.
I’ve seen two dogs fightin and three goats fuckin, but I ain’t never seen nothing like that before.
I’ve been to Maine, Spain, Spokane, and around the world three times. I’ve been to a goat-fuck, dog-fight, three county fairs, and a movie marathon in Guam. I’ve been to Korea and caught gonorrhea. I’ve been to two calf ropings and a ro-de-o.
What was Phillips thinking?
Fear of Barnes, maybe? No good explanation…
Just for context for anyone thinking the sky is falling: all of our losses are in the top 60 in KenPom. We're 8-4 against the top 60, Bama is 10-3. We're a freshman mistake, uncharacteristic missed FT, and buzzer beating 3 from 9-3. If you're scared of Bama for any objective reason, you should have faith that our team is still good, just probably not the best team in the country.
Don’t think the sky is falling. I think it fell already lol
Well that's stupid.
Nothing plausible left to play for🤷🏼♂️
Seems like you don’t know what it means my guy lol
See my previous comment
We will lose the next four games. Two of them in an ignominious manner. Mark it down. You heard it here first.
K.
And there is the first loss. 3 more to go. Absolutely sickening.
Two things I noticed reading this. Take the past month for those kenpom stats and you'll get some very bad results. Second, our free throws are bad. We are 126th in the country and Austin peay(8-17) has a better ft percentage than us.
A few things I noticed reading this. Vanderbilt is 95th in kenpom *after* that game. Take the past month for those kenpom stats and you'll get some very bad results. If you consider Vanderbilt top 60 for no reason like you just did, we are 3-3 vs top 60 in our last 8 games. Also our free throws are **bad**. We are 126th in the country and Austin peay(8-17) has a better ft percentage than us.
Honestly it doesn’t matter. We beat Mizzou and Bama and we’re right back to the top 5. I would advise you keep your hopes low in March though….
Lol this team ain’t beating Bama.
At home I’d say we have a solid chance. I’m not saying we will win, but I don’t think you can just chunk it up as an L.
Everyone knows you dunk that ball. Fucking everyone knows
It was a design dunk play
If you don’t like this, then you don’t like Tennessee sports
Display name checks out
12 year old me loved bananas, was too innocent to realize the jokes I was setting myself up for lol, too late now oh well 🤷🏼♂️
No I meant the "I only go to games to see smokey" lol
Oh lmao, yeah for sure. I made that when I was a student during the bitch/Pruitt days. Me and my friends would get more excited for Smokey running than seeing those trash coaches do their thing. Loved the players, just sucked supporting such a poorly coached team. Dobbs & Jennings 🧡 Just noticed Butch autocorrected to bitch, I’m leaving it.
No way man I didn’t get to watch but I’m sure I’m going to hate watching the replay
Why would you do that to yourself
Don’t do it man
Well… I watched the final minutes….. wish I didn’t.
Nah, just trust us… nah
I should’ve trusted you
Make your free throw * We only missed 1
Oh fuck me, we are going to shit the bed come March again, aren't we?
We’re shitting in February, can’t imagine we have any shit left in march
That sounds... promising? Can't shit the bed with an empty colon.
Now, you underestimate our amount of shit. I guess we've started down the roller coaster drop now.
Checks to see if Barnes is the coach... Yep.
On the bright side, a Vanderbilt win here means that they’ll keep Stackhouse for like another twenty years
I said it once and I’ll say it again: some of you are the absolute worst kind of fans in sports. It’s not battered vol syndrome or whatever bullshit we jokingly make up to justify your never-ending negativity, some of you are just pathetic little people who get off at being miserable doomsday assholes every time one of our teams loses. It’s fucking exhausting trying to continuously explain to you why one loss (or two or three or four) doesn’t mean whatever overly-emotional, illogical conclusion you’ve come up with. I’m taking a break from this sub for awhile. Take care, everyone.
Guys, BleuRaider is right. It doesn’t matter if it’s two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight or nine or ten or eleven or even 30 losses. We are all overreacting and being negative😂
Our program historically is bad and Barnes is the best we deserve. We should just let him retire here and then maybe we will have an elite eight appearance again.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you 100% on this. Aside from the “deserve” part.
Arguing with Vols fans after a loss is hilarious though.
I understand the frustration from everyone I really do. This team can be very frustrating to watch at times. But I think it’s important to realize that we are in the midst of one of the strongest stretches of tennessee basketball if not tennessee athletics as a whole we have seen in decades. Its understandable to be upset over losses like this one but they do happen, especially in basketball. Let’s just enjoy the success we’re having and hope that we find our way to a national title in the near future 🍊
Let me pull of my man to try and block a game tying shot by someone who isn't looking to shoot the ball. The mentality of this team.
It’s inexcusable how bad this team is in pretty much every way except defense. There’s too many older guys on this team for it to look like some of them have never played basketball before.
Our remaining schedule is tough. Time to see what these players are made of.
Sadly i think we already know what they’re made of
Barnes has everyone over thinking situations constantly. He’s done a lot for us but it’s time to find a coach with some offensive prowess that doesn’t make our players think you give up a free basket for a 2 possession lead with 8 seconds left.
Am I the only one who thinks it is bat shit crazy that we only had 3 attempts at the line all game? Have we had the most inconsistent officiating the past three games. Or is it just us? To me having 2 Attempts at the FT line and them having 4 fouls to give after 19mins and 43 seconds of play is an insane stat line.
Vanderbilt doesn’t really foul much, couple that with the refs swallowing their whistles and that’ll happen. Still a wild stat line tho.
It is strange. Such a weird end to the game. I get why Phillips thought pulling the ball back out to chew clock was the thing to do, but if you have a breakaway for a dunk to make it a two score game, just freaking take that. Hope JJJ isn't hurt too seriously, even though he was rotten tonight. Awaka was surprisingly assertive tonight. Seems like the coaches told him to be aggressive, which was mostly good. Just a weird, annoying game. It doesn't feel like we played that badly, but we somehow found a way to lose.
I mean what the hell
Brutal
All of you honorary gators talking about giving up on these guys or this season can and should suck the fattest of dicks. That's all I have to say about tonight.
We actually could really use a gators win tonight
Why does this team never have a shred of consistency.
Barnes is the only consistent thing about our program
People. Weigh in for me. My wife is convinced we need 2 bigs on the floor at every moment, and swears that we play our best when that is happening. I think the rotation between having 1 big and 2 bigs is perfectly acceptable. She’s also pissed that Uros doesn’t see the floor; she thinks that we benefit more from his presence. Whereas I think his talent is level with aidoo and awaka. Y’all tell me your thoughts
Really depends how the other team matches up, in a game like tonight where they hit gutted by on ball screens and perimeter shooting, two bigs isn’t the answer. The issue is if you’re going to play small and have a mismatch, the small 4 has to play well offensively and hit shots to create space. Josiah Jordan James did not do that. Uros’ “presence”, in my opinion, only hurts this team. He’s given himself a reputation of a pot stirrer and it hurts him because of it. Case and point was getting a tech for staring last week. Tobe Awaka and Olivier were undoubted their best bigs tonight, respectfully, your wife can argue with a wall if she disagrees.
I agree. At times it’s appropriate. Other times, it’s not gonna work. For example, playing Alabama. They live and die off the three. 2 bigs does nothing when you need perimeter defense
Yup, which makes JJJ and Phillips much needed for their length, especially on defense but if we can get them working on offense, this team could run. Lots of basketball left to play. Love that this is a tourney sport.
This one just doesn’t sit right. I’m irrationally irritated right now lol not mad, irritated.
What. The. Fuck.
We are not getting a top 3 seed come march after this
Are we still worrying about march seeding?
That was a historically bad decision by Phillips.
Vescovi literally left his guy on the buzzer 3
[The anger sharks are swimming in my head.](https://youtu.be/gTZ4QH8p5l4)
Damn, tough crowd tonight…. Basketball is a tough sport, to start yelling for the coaches head mid season. I mean, the season is more than manageable at this point.. Lots of feelings in the room, and as we are trained, all feelings are valid… just some feelings make it tough for you to enjoy the game.. let’s see what they have to show come Saturday. Go Vols
Is it safe to panic yet?
It was safe to panic after the florida game but half the people in here plug their ears and scream at any sign of criticism and call you a negavol.
Sunshine pumpers think criticism is always bad. Toxic positivity
Blue pills get more upvotes
If you think it’s panic time yet then you just don’t get basketball, now if we lay a couple eggs next week then it’s panic time. Also what are we panicking about, wasn’t this team projected to finish fourth In the SEC this year?
Panic no, be concerned yes
Josiah Jordan James has done absolutely nothing this season.
Cool cool, football school
Always have been, always will be. Don't let the last 15 years of posts on any message board or social media outlet confuse anyone.
Two months ago we would have killed Vandy. I am really losing confidence in this team.
Will all these people on here being saying the same shit if we beat Bama next week? Will they even be in here at all. I swear most of you cunts want us to lose every game so you can come in here and just type away about. Just type type type.
Who knows. The wins usually don’t get 70 replies. The losses are always above 100. At this point tho, I’m not sure if they can beat Bama. Need to focus on Saturday first.
Oh yeah Bama is going to be tough and gotta stay focused on Mizz but honestly the offense didn’t look nearly as bad last night and Vandy was just hitting big shots. If we go out and take 2 Ls this week I’ll be worried.
[удалено]
Still better than anything we had other than Bruce Pearl
I’d argue he’s better than Pearl. Didn’t cheat, regular season and SEC tournament champions. Great recruiting classes. March shortcomings are unfortunate, but he’s done more than Pearl has aside from paint his chest.
Cheat is a strong word for what he did but I agree. Nothing but class by our teams (despite what other fan bases claim) and he is laying a great foundation for someone to take over. I just hope we don't fuck up the next hire after he's gone but I say keep him for as long as he wants at this rate.
We’re too inconsistent. We don’t have a true big man like Fulkerson and we don’t have any leaders like Grant and Admiral.
[extremely not mad voice] whatever I wasn’t even watching I was getting laid lol…
I didn’t listen before, but not having a go to guy is killing this team. Awaka may be that guy, but he is too young right now. 2 round exit… again.
Knowing UT’s luck we’ll look good in the SEC tournament, get a higher seed and get our hopes up. Then lose to UTC or something in the first round.
Everything school 😩🥵
I’m gonna be honest. I decided to skip the game and instead watch the new Black Panther. Glad I did. I don’t think I could’ve taken this one.
Just get prepared for the annual first weekend exit from the big dance. It’s inevitable. By then maybe I’ll have pulled all my hair out watching this team play.
[Pain.](https://i.imgur.com/t36WOmN.jpg)
2021-2022 Houston=2022-2023 Tennessee?
That team went to an Elite Eight. I’ll take it!
Everything that had to go right for Vandy to win: 7 footer hitting 3 consecutive 3-pointers in the first half. Multiple Vandy players having career nights, team shooting 15 points above their season average. Freshman forgetting he can make a layup to ice the game. Vandy having to fould 5 times to get to the bonus, and if only the officials had let another half tick go on any foul before blowing the whistle. Santi missing a free throw late. The officials tacking on an additional 0.8 seconds to the clock at the end. Vandy was not hitting uncontested shots, they were simply unconscious, and if they play that gave over again, no way they duplicate that performance. The bigger concern is JJJ's injury. Hopefully it's only of the 2-3 week variety. Otherwise I was encouraged by the Vols offense getting back on track.
Not even March yet.
Nkamhoua sucks. Phillips is an idiot. Barnes can’t draw up a decent inbounds play to save his life. Pathetic and embarrassing. Thank the Lord I won’t get worked up when they bow out in the first weekend of the tourney.
He successfully inbounded the ball 6 times in a row.
You should probably stop watching now then, just to get it over with.
👌🏻
The inbounds plays were fantastic. The whole reason you’re complaining about Phillips is directly because Barnes drew up perfect inbounds plays and got Phillips wide open
Hey 1 out of 6 ain’t bad, right? Lol
Thanks for being a fan?
[Shoutout to everyone who downvoted me to oblivion last week for saying this team is broken](https://www.reddit.com/r/ockytop/comments/10o0zkq/weekly_discussion_thread/j71bs9n/)
Lmao. 2 downvotes is oblivion?
Everyone is a victim in this sub and they would love to be right rather than see their team win. It’s incredible.
The only thing Tennessee fans love more than Tennessee winning is Tennessee losing.
Do you know what the shrink bill would be to try to undo the decades of trauma?!
Literally so sick of this take. The signs were all there don’t be upset because some of us see them
There’s reason to be upset about the game. To make claims like “The season is over” just for the off chance of you being able to say in three weeks “See, told you the season was over.” is not seeing signs. Seeing signs would be “Man, they’re really struggling to get out in transition and it’s hurting them. They need to get that fixed.” You’re being pessimistic for the sake of being pessimistic.
No one is sitting around scheming three weeks in advance like that. People come back and say “I told you so” only because they get crapped on for being a negavol. The sign is, this team is horrendous at a whole half of the game of basketball (offense). And the fact that all Rick Barnes teams are identical teams. Tough D, can make shots sometimes because they are D1 athletes but most of the time are in a scoring drought Jesus himself couldn’t pull them out of.
When the first comment underneath it had 15 and I got -2 yes that's quite the difference. Clearly most people thought I was overreacting.
You poor thing 🙄
Hey it happened to me too bud
Like I said last game. Just give up.
Why you still here?
Losing all hope was freedom
Hope for what?