UT had the better talent and but if we dont make bone headed plays, short arm the last put back, and worst yet spot them 8 minutes to start the game - Vandy was the better coached team and actually loved seeing the effort from Josh.  Still not high on him as any savior but he made the big difference tonight with his size and work horse effort.  Coaching has to be a concern at UT right now in MBB as many has our recruiting aspect of our coaching a huge concern - but tonight we were so close to pulling this game out and wish it would have been Jeter on the putback because of athletics but hey, we had 2 great looks and after replaying it KJ was fouled (grabbed his left arm just before he started the shot) but not getting this call doesnt bother me and do feel good about the effort tonight after the start!

Still discouraged by Moats effort for multi games now since his UK best hustle-fest!  JH showed effort tonight and to hear ex-WFU coach talk about recruiting at VU / WFU and basically saying we have to settle - hey Dino, this is why you are a color analyst vs coach because you killed WFU with no recruiting.  I dont get how Franklin can get the big recruits in large numbers for football and we had that one recruiting class and then added JJ (only recruit that yr) but now it is talked as though we cant do this on a consistent basis....  I so disagree because there are too many qualified studs out there perfect for VU like AP was that type and are top 15 talents - we just have to close the deals...

Yeah I was thinking I might have liked to see Jeter coming in for a rebound putback, although Jeter did have a case of fumble fingers a couple of times tonight after grabbing rebounds, but in this case he would have just been muscling up for a putback and he might have been more capable of that than Rod, who knows. No telling. Of course it's impossible to know and i just wish we could have won but it was nice it was close. I plan to watch it one more time on the VCR because it was so close. Usually I delete them unless we win but I'll watch this again and look for the foul you mentioned. I also want to hear the play where I thought at the end Joe Fisher indicated there was a bit of an acting job by UT (maybe McBee) on an end of the game foul but of course none of these things made the game - falling behind did that. You expect those sorts of things in any game, but I'd still just like to witness it since I was doing other things a lot and listening to the radio more than watching half the time.

vusportsfan wrote: ...but tonight we were so close to pulling this game out and wish it would have been Jeter on the putback because of athletics but hey, we had 2 great looks and after replaying it KJ was fouled (grabbed his left arm just before he started the shot) but not getting this call doesnt bother me ...

...... we have KJ and he doesn't. UT has no real pg, so they can't get into an offense and have little ability to attack the basket 1 on 1. That was our entire offense the last 5-6 min. They're decent inside (better than us), but golden seems to have regressed, although he was always really slow.

So CM may be a good enough coach given what he's working with (or without). If he had a true pg, they might be really good. If he doesn't find one quickly on the recruiting trail, then he'll be in trouble.

Another topic, but is it just me or us or the SEC or is college bball hard to watch with poor shooting, foulfests, etc. every team seems to have 3-4 6.5 to 6.9 guys who are athletic but not much else. Ugh.

luvemboth wrote: ...... we have KJ and he doesn't. UT has no real pg, so they can't get into an offense and have little ability to attack the basket 1 on 1. That was our entire offense the last 5-6 min. They're decent inside (better than us), but golden seems to have regressed, although he was always really slow.

This is a spot-on point. UT has major point guard problems. Golden is the only real point guard on the roster and something's wrong with him mentally this year. He's been mostly bad, although he'd played well the past couple games. Then last night he gets hurt in the first half and misses the whole second half. It's a big problem.

Next year on paper UT should be quite good with Stokes, Maymon, McRae, Robert Hubbs, and a bunch of solid athletes off the bench (Richardson/Moore/Makanjuola/Reese). But unless Trae Golden rediscovers himself, the team won't live up to it's potential.

Can't believe CM can't attract a real pg.  Vols are symptomatic of a lot of college teams today - a bunch of 6.5 to 6.9 "athletes" who can't shoot at all and are fundamentally bad.

luvemboth wrote: Can't believe CM can't attract a real pg.  Vols are symptomatic of a lot of college teams today - a bunch of 6.5 to 6.9 "athletes" who can't shoot at all and are fundamentally bad.

Bruce Pearl had the exact same problem. Other than a year of CJ Watson and the second of Bobby Maze's two years on campus, PG was a major issue for his teams. Of course, Pearl usually at least had a decent "point forward" in a Dane Bradshaw, Tyler Smith, JP Prince, or Tobias Harris that could mask some of those problems. But it still reared it's head more consistently than any other issue.