UT Game Thread
- Thread starter Beanerball
- Start date
Great insight. Truly top notch.
We lost to a #1/2 tournament seed at home tonight. Tell me where UGA and LSU are predicted?
We've had a great season. I'll celebrate the success, but if we end up a game outside first place it's because we lost to irrelevant teams -not UT- despite us playing them late in the schedule.
Dumb post. By this logic UT could argue they should’ve wrapped up the league title last week having lost to TAMU and MSU and not even had to worry about this game. Teams lose to inferior teams. It happens to most, not just us.
Yep, those last 2 minutes of the first half killed us. We were down five with just a little over 2 minutes in the half, then they scored 8 more while we scored 2.
For sure, UT deserves some credit. When we cut it to 6, then 4, then 3 there near the end, the place got loud and a lot of teams would have panicked. But they made good plays and good shots when they needed to.
WTF are you talking about?
I'm defending OUR team against the negative posters throwing the whole season (conference title) away for losing to a team that's a consensus top pick in the tournament. We either deserved to be in the position to challenge for a title, or we didn't. If we did, we probably shouldn't have lost to middling teams at home. If we didn't ( based on preseason expectations ) I'd argue we'd all be thrilled with a 12-5 record at this point. FAR exceeding expectations.
We got their absolute best shot. Knowing they could claim the SEC title, having lost to us at home earlier in the season. They did not hold anything back, and to see our guys battle the way they did and have it at a 3 point game with under a minute to go tells you all you need to know. Nothing at all to be ashamed of after this game.
This team has one glaring weakness: we are horrible at the free throw line. We would have only lost one game all season if we could perform at the line. Surprised that this hasn't been cured by now. This problem continually comes up.
I don’t think I’m alone in interpreting your posts from before as belittling the team because they lost to LSU and UGA. Maybe you didn’t mean it that way but that’s how it came across.
I'm not crying at all. You're the one histrionic that our (predicted) last place team didn't get it done tonight against a top-5 team.
Those losses were belittling, especially UGA. I don't thereby discount the season, however. It constituted an impressive advancement.
Not belittling at all. We just happened to lose to a far better opponent tonight (when the stakes were at their highest) than when we lost to UGA and LSU which "should" have been no-doubters. Again, under the revised expectations of the season based on our over-achievements.
If you're disappointed we didn't win the SEC look elsewhere from tonight. If you're just happy to be here (which most of us should) tonight should just roll off your shoulder.
Out.
I’m just confused why the LSU and GA losses were even brought up then. I am proud of this team. I posted above that we showed an incredible amount of fight against one of the best teams in the country when we were getting their absolute best shot. Why couldn’t you just have said that? Why bring up the losses at all if you’re trying to tell everyone they should just have been happy to be here?
Well, to be fair, we do have a few more weaknesses than just FT shooting. lol.
I don't disagree that the FT shooting failed us in some key moments, but we also made some key foul shots late in a few close games.
If I were filling out a wish-list for next season, I'd like a couple of guys who could play above the rim to improve our offensive rebounding and underneath scoring.
Simply to prevent against the notion that we somehow choked the league title away against UT. We lost but, again, I'd argue the critical loss(es) didn't happen tonight. Scheduling just made tonight more pronounced.
We've had a tremendous season and this evening doesn't diminish that fact.
Thank you and goodnight.
I think we’re about even. We beat them by 4 at their place, they beat us by 7 at our place. UT never lead in the 2nd half of our W, we never lead in the 2nd half of their win. I think we have a better overall team, but they have the best player on the court. Outside of Knecht, I don’t know who I’d take over our guys.
They're a little more solid, unless they also had a game as bad as we had at Auburn or a half as bad as we had at Bama.
Also more talented than our team is, which speaks to the coaching Paris has done this year. For example their last class (2023) was 18 ours was 49. Their 1 transfer Knecht had some daggers for us tonight unfortunately.
One thing some fans have to keep in mind is that the margin for error for this team is not large despite the wildly successful season we have had. We are not uber athletic and have only two players that shoot +35% from 3. We can look very good one minute, and very bad the next. You have to credit Paris on really maximizing with this group. Our one big strength is our experience. Our players have played a lot of basketball and usually do a good job of taking what Paris wants to the floor.
They’re more consistent. I guess you could call that solid. But man, that late 4 point play was a back breaker.
Whether Cooper ‘got fouled’ is not the point. Tell me with a straight face had that been Ivan Drago in a reversed situation there would still have been a no-call. Everyone has seen that called a foul umpteen times in circumstances far less critical than that. Officiating bias is real.
Main difference in the game was FTs. Those were basically flipped between the 2 games, otherwise, the games were near mirrors of each other. Both teams shot in 30% range for both games. In both games Knecht got his. Game 1, though we went 15-18 from FT while UT was 12-20. Last night we were only 5-10 while UT was 19-22.
Unsurprisingly, the final scores were near mirrors of each other as well.
Unsurprisingly, the final scores were near mirrors of each other as well.
I thought the game was officiated well. They could have called about 5 fouls on Meechie for being out of control and throwing his body around on the offensive end.
That was not a foul on Coopers shot,
should not have been called a foul regardless of what was called in the past. One of the few poor decisions by Cooper. We were in need of a good shot. I believe Meechie made a poor decision on the prior possession. We panicked down the stretch.
We have bigger goals in front of us. Vamos, Vamos!
I don't think they panicked. Cooper did exactly what you're supposed to in that situation. Had his guy in the air, you try to go up and draw contact. That's probably called 75% of the time. He didn't get it. We were only in that game late bc of Meechie driving and Coop hitting a couple of big 3s. Not sure where the panicking was.
Yeah, I agree. This game and the LSU game ultimately comes down to FTs. Have to get that fixed next year.
Spot on, especially when you consider that last second dunk by CMB should have counted. It was through the net with .1 seconds left. Should have been a 5 point game. Doesn't really matter, other than being even closer to the first game.
I had 2 issues with officiating.
1. They were letting them play early. That part I love. I can't stand when the refs dictate the flow of the game. I was fine with Knecht getting into the chest of our guys to create space. Both teams were allowed to play free early. But then late in the game, there were a few weak reach in calls that went against us that were inconsistent with how it was called up until that point.
2. Seems like there was at least two missed called where the ball clearly went off of UT but they called it against us.
Overall, wasn't too bad, considering other games we've seen this year.
I did see a couple touch fouls called on us about 40 feet from the hoop but they also gave a couple to Meechie that should have been charges. They took advantage by making their FT. Meechie couldn't make them pay.
Yeah, there were two bad ones that stick out. The foul on Mack 40 feet away and CMB got called for one on the block that was very weak. Both calls were late in the game and lead to 4 points.
But they hit them and we didn't.
Meechie panicked on the prior possession. Put his head down and was 100% out of control. I didn't like Cooper's play. If the guys goes up in front of you and you jump into him, they normally call a foul. The defender was to his right and Cooper tried jumping sideways. I can't remember for sure but I think we were down 4 with plenty if time. That was a desperation play. We had time to run our offense and play for two scores. Just my opinion.
I know. I'm not saying they are way yonder better, just a little more developed as a program. How long has Barnes been there? They should be farther along.
That's what I meant by wherewithal. In days gone by, the term was confined to finances. Its use has been expanded in recent times. It's what you need to do what you do.
Have to agree with Vienna, here. It was a poor attempt at drawing contact by Cooper. It was one of those plays where he was trying to channel his inner James Harden and Steph Curry and failed miserably. An example of these are professionals, don't try this at home folks. You have to make a subtle move into the contact. You don't get to hurl your body to the right just because the man is in the air. When cooler heads prevail, he will realize that the play was an escape dribble to the left for an uncontested 3.
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Lamont said as much in his postgame. Said we had a few instances where guys tried to make a superstar play when the simple play was there.
No doubt. Meechie tried to take the game over. He was successful on a good many drives but failed miserably on others. I like his aggressiveness on the drives but he was drawing 2-3 defenders at times. Someone has to be open.
He hit a couple of big shots, but I agree with LPs assessment. I'm very happy with his production. Dude had 23 points on 23 FG attempts. He wasn't nearly the savant some are making him out to be. It was very similar to the first game we played them when he had 25 points on 24 shots. Shooting 39% isn't great...not even good.
Our issue was ourselves (particularly the last 2 minutes of the 1st half)....not Dalton Knecht. We got exactly what we wanted out of him.