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Add this to “things I’ll never say again”
By rbk | January 14, 2009
Yesterday I said this about Jodie Meeks:
I think he’s going to need a huge game if Patterson can’t dominate the block.
Son of a . . .
Also, I’ll get the stats up tomorrow but I wanted to post this to put tonight in perspective. Kentucky’s eFG was 67.9%. Tennessee’s was 42.4%. If you want the bottom line in basketball, it’s putting the ball in the hole and stopping the opponent from doing that. We’re not a very good basketball team right now and those numbers make it pretty freaking clear.
Topic: Uncategorized |
January 14th, 2009 at 10:35 am
My emotions there year have been pretty muted. The first loss to Gonzaga - it was to a great team, we will be good this year. To Temple - aberration, we will bounce back. To Kansas - tough environment, we are improving. To Gonzaga a second time - tough game, good year, we are improving. And now this. Disgusting. Heartrenching. Unimaginable.
Bruce needs to take a good look at this team, and make tough choices. My massive adjustments:
1. Take away Chism’s green light for the 3 ball. Just like in the Kansas game, we get the game within our reach with 5 minutes to go, Patterson has 4 fouls, Stevenson has fouled out, Miller has 4 fouls, and he takes a 3. Unbelievable.
2. We can’t shoot the 3. Teams are clogging the middle like its a middle school game. And we are still playing a 3 wing offense. If we are going to be forced to pound it inside through a wall of bodies we need big bodies inside. That means putting Chism at the 4 fulltime and having Negadu and Williams at the 5 fulltime. Its unimaginable that Negadu did not play in this game. This moves Tyler out to the 3, and takes at least one of Woolridge/Prince out of the game. Prince is a great slashing and driving player, but it entirely ineffective when we have no player hitting 3s to spread the floor.
3. We need to take away Prince’s and Tatum’s license to help out other players on defense. At least 15 times last night they came over to double team Patterson down low or another player up top, only to have Meeks open for a 3 or great passing from Kentucky until Meeks was found open for a 3. Let Patterson score 7 times and take back the 15 threes from Kentucky.
4. Because the opposing team is clogging the middle, Tennessee has to push the ball up faster to set up a play before the defense sets. I thought we did a much better job of that against Georgia than we did against Kentucky.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I do wonder about Bruce’s rotation at times. To have Tabb, Prince and Williams on the court at one time doesnt seem to make much sense to me.
Also for a team that primarily relies on transition for their offense, they dont seem very interested in playing defense.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
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