Tennessee Postgame Luau

[ThundrTroll]

A loss to #7 that some blame on poor foul shooting?
Keeping it close for most of the game while our lauded backcourt was AWOL going 8/27?
That says something positive IMO.
Some ugly shots, lack of rebounding/etc, but kept the pressure on TN for most of the game.
Basically SU was competing for a win -appreciated seeing them compete vs my fear of getting rolled.

Lots of room for improvement, but an engaged team generally put in the effort today.
If they stick together and stay engaged and work to improve, could be a fun season to watch as the team and coach grow into their roles.
May have something to be excited about come March Madness.

Just like with college basketball, I take college rankings this early in the season with a grain of salt.

 

[CardiacCuse]

There was an article that came out today about Knecht being a first rounder if he continues to play this well. Draft picks in college don’t mean much lately. Sanogo was the MOP of last years tournament and wasn’t drafted. Veterans win and the Vols have a lot of them.

might not mean quite as much as they used to but they still mean a lot: 2023 first rounders from: Houston(x2), Kentucky, Alabama, Michigan, Duke, Kansas etc...go down the list...uconn and kansas both had multiple draft picks...weird hill to die on...

the good teams still have NBAers in NCAABB

 

[Cusefan0307]

might not mean quite as much as they used to but they still mean a lot: 2023 first rounders from: Houston(x2), Kentucky, Alabama, Michigan, Duke, Kansas etc...go down the list...uconn and kansas both had multiple draft picks...weird hill to die on...

the good teams still have NBAers in NCAABB

So Tennessee wasn’t good last year when they we’re in the top 10 most of this season with most of this same roster?

 

[Todoubled23]

I don’t believe that to be true at all. Judah jumped right into him, elbow first

Yeah I saw him try and contest the pump fake and then Judah moving into him, but I didn't see a clear elbow to the face.

Granted I was watching on my phone at the time at my doctor's office so maybe I didn't get as clear of a view as I thought.

 

[Todoubled23]

Who are you calling our best player? Mintz? We have no best player at this point. Quickest maybe, but overall Mintz is a ball hogging hot dog who fails to run the offense or distribute to others. Point guards should make others on the team look good, and can not miss that many foul shots. He has potential but all unrealised.

Mintz coming back and auditioning for the league was a fear I think many here had when he announced his decision.

Let's hope the staff can guide him back to where he was for stretches of last season. A pretty good facilitator and a slasher. He had a good balance to his game at times last year.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

So Tennessee wasn’t good last year when they we’re in the top 10 most of this season with most of this same roster?

And they all have like 5 years NCAA hall under their belt.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Mintz coming back and auditioning for the league was a fear I think many here had when he announced his decision.

Let's hope the staff can guide him back to where he was for stretches of last season. A pretty good facilitator and a slasher. He had a good balance to his game at times last year.

It’s sucks that every good freshman that doesn’t stink gets the same treatment and it ruins their game.

7th year Quincy Guerrer still dealing with it on his 4th school.

Unique to us sadly.

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

You cannot sit your best player for 10 minutes and then refuse to call time out and get him in when the game is slipping away. Red goofed, big time and I hope it’s not a conservative mindset that is etched in his style going forward.

JT needs twice as many shots, not enough team assists today, in general. Share the ball fellas

 

[CardiacCuse]

So Tennessee wasn’t good last year when they we’re in the top 10 most of this season with most of this same roster?

i didnt watch them last year. i only watch SU.

this was a totally winnable game, imo

they are very very confident, phyiscal and play good defense...

no way they are a natty contender as i read about before this game, though

 

[Orangeman]

No one wants to rebound. On the offensive end, a jump shot goes up and there are no SU players within 15 feet of the basket. They have the size and athleticism to really hit the boards, but apparently, not the desire to get in there and mix it up. This has to be fixed.

It's insanity.

What this team seems to lack is basketball awareness.

Rebounding. Inbounding. Getting open when teammate picked up dribble. The rebounding is crazy.

But overall I left the game pleased because there is hope.

I don't like much college basketball as it has become, but this is it and Tennessee is good at it and we led them for much of the 1H and were down like 4 points and with some 6 mins left.

If Tennessee is great at Basketball now, boy I don't know, but here we are...

 

[Cusefan0307]

i didnt watch them last year. i only watch SU.

this was a totally winnable game, imo

they are very very confident, phyiscal and play good defense...

no way they are a natty contender as i read about before this game, though

Well one thing is for certain. We will get that answer in the next two days when they play Purdue and Kansas/Marquette/UCLA.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

They looked like a team built to truck through the SEC or BIG but choke in March.

Like last year. Despite being older and experienced.

 

[ssbriefcase]

I don’t believe that to be true at all. Judah jumped right into him, elbow first

I'm with 2double on this one. I also rewound it twice and slo mo'd it, saw daylight between elbow and face, I didn't think he touched him with the elbow, dude acting like he got shot lol

 

[MGraves5]

I'm with 2double on this one. I also rewound it twice and slo mo'd it, saw daylight between elbow and face, I didn't think he touched him with the elbow, dude acting like he got shot lol

You can clearly see on the replay that his elbow didn't touch him. If it had, he probably would have been given a flagrant

 

[two3zone]

Bell has played 92 minutes the last three games and has 3 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals in that time.

 

[BomberOrange]

They looked like a team built to truck through the SEC or BIG but choke in March.

Like last year. Despite being older and experienced.

That’s a Rick Barnes team.

On another note, did he have the southern accent when at PC?? Seems fake

 

[BillSU]

Bell has played 92 minutes the last three games and has 3 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals in that time.

Not good. And, you are not going to beat a #7/8 Tennessee team if you can't make your shots - you're not going to beat anyone if you can't.

Our production today:
35% FG, 30% 3 PT, 47.1% FT!

Only Mintz and Bell in double figures. Maybe they should just skip the rest and hit the beach.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

That’s a Rick Barnes team.

On another note, did he have the southern accent when at PC?? Seems fake

 

[oTTo113445]

A bit of a head-scratcher to me.

Taylor/Bell the shooters pushed JJ/Judah/Copeland/maybe Benny the playmakers to the corner and were still not getting any surprise plays off it.

Like them or not, Tenn took away things like the drive and dish, high post pass, mid-post skip pass, low post skip pass, lob over the defense, back door cuts, all putbacks,. screen+ roll from anywhere. Is that bad? IDK. We still got good looks 85% of the time.

One of our play-makers needs to run a baseline circle or something and get back uptop once in awhile though. This is college ball.

 

[OptimusOtto]

Encouraged overall - excited to see how we show up tomorrow, will tell us a lot about the team.

 

[sufandu]

Bilas was unbearable today. I don’t know how or why people defend him. Jim’s not coaching anymore, he’s gotta let whatever new grudge he has against cuse go

Huh? He praised Mintz a ton. I didn't hear a hint of grudge today.

 

[sufandu]

I know a lot of people are worried about shooters, but I think our lack of a physical inside guy will hurt us more. A Rick Jackson type that we could dump the ball into could help stabilize us when we go into a shooting drought and get us some of the tough physical rebounds we need to be getting. I think we win today if we had that type of guy on this team. We're soft.

 

[CuseBlood44]

Some here need some perspective. This Cuse team got blown out by a mid Illinois team last year and now they’ve show they’re capable of playing close with the #7 in the nation for 37 minutes. We’re moving in the right direction.

Revisionist history right here. That “mid Illinois team” was ranked #16 in the nation ant 6-1 and it was a true road game. This is neutral court and we have no idea how well the rest of UT’s season will go (I don’t think they’re a final 4 contender based on what I’ve seen)

 

[CuseBlood44]

Wisconsin is blowing out Virginia at JPJ.

Why is that noteworthy? Well Tennessee went into Madison and beat the Badgers by double digits.

This could also be a signal that the ACC is “down” yet again, which means Cuse needs to start building the resume in non-conference and can’t wait until it’s too late

 

[Charbroil]

I do understand some of the negativity. There are definitely some real question marks with this squad. They certainly don’t look like a tournament team to me as of this moment.

But some of the over the top negative comments seem strange to me. Why are Syracuse fans saying things like “it would’ve been worse if Tennessee didn’t step out of bounds 5 times”?

I mean… Syracuse made unforced errors too. So it is strange to only focus on Tennessee’s mistakes. It almost seems like some fans (a small minority) enjoy being miserable.

I don’t expect Syracuse to win tomorrow. But hypothetically if they do, I expect the same commenters to focus on the team’s deficiencies, make excuses, talk about how it’s not sustainable, etc.