[Post Game Thread] 4 Tennessee beats 15 Missouri 85-81
Something about that Tennessee-Mizzou heat always produces close fucking games. Some really good performances. Some atrocious late game management. Some great fight to go on a run after being down 11. Hope you all have great evenings. Here we go.
The Good:
Fans in this subreddit have been tennessee fans longer than I have. You’ve seen some great performances. Igor Milicic played one of the more brilliant games I’ve seen a Tennessee Volunteer play. His passing was superb. Effort on the defensive end was class. Cleanse up the rebounds. Anything else? Oh yeah. He was a fucking sniper from three and the mid range game. His last two games he’s been wildly efficient and he’s done it against two very good teams. Hats off to you, Igor.
ZZ. Maybe not his best game of the year, but certainly his best offensive performance. Entered 2 for his last 20 from three and was 4-4 today at the time I’m typing this. Basketball is a funny game sometimes. Very nice job passing the ball as well. Limited turnovers. A great performance from the senior point guard.
Jahmai Mashack. He didn’t play for majority of the second half (probably because of his miserable turnover then foul a three point shooter sequence), but I actually thought he gave them good minutes out there. 60% from the field. Defense was good as always. Tough to complain.
3pt shooting was just stupid. I guess they were due after their last four performances. I’m not going to complain, they needed just about every one of them.
They blocked 7 shots. That’s pretty cool.
The Average
Felix Okpara. Too many missed layups to be in the good. 4/10 from the field when every shot comes at the rim is unacceptable. But his defense was very good considering he was put in a tough position to guard a much faster player on the perimeter. Had some cool dunks.
Chaz Lanier. You know, I teetered with putting him in the good because he did some things well tonight. Quieter on the scoring end but they didn’t need him to score a ton of points. I’d like to see him run much stronger on off-ball screens. It’s usually so much of our offense. Given his recent performances tho, it could have certainly been worse.
Jordan Gainey. Wasn’t very efficient. Had some big moments - made nice passes but he was out of position quite a bit on defense. Not his best game. Not his worst.
Cade Phillips. Things Cade does well: energy, dunks, help defense blocks. Things Cade doesn’t do well: rebound with strong hands, communicating on screens, any defense outside of the paint. This game was a microcosm of that.
Rebounding. They won the rebounding margin, but they gave up so many rebounds off of missed free throws.
Free throw shooting - 72.7% as I’m typing. That’s fine.
Turnovers. Putrid in the first half, very good in the second half.
Rick Barnes. Rick drew up really nice offensive plays and was brilliant out of timeouts. Very nice job there. Letting the air out of the ball in the final four minutes was dumb and stupid and I, for a second, thought it would bite them. Was very frustrating.
The Bad:
Darlinstone Dubar. He was out of control, in the worst way. Undisciplined fouls, bad around the rim, missed free throws. I respect the aggression sometimes but this is one to forget.
Backboard on the right side (if you’re watching on TV). Three banked in free throws and a banked three for Mizzou. Unacceptable treachery from that hoop.
I fucking hate Caleb Grill. He’s a 6th year senior that wants you to forget he’s a 6th year senior and I hate watching him play basketball.
College basketball reviews are atrocious. Absolute atrocious.
They kept fouling late when they shouldn’t have and it was fucking frustrating as hell. Speaking of, the first half had 9 total fouls. The second half didn’t. Consistency please.
They should have covered and didn’t cause of atrocious end of game management.
Shoutout Dennis Gates for the troll job timeout with one second left. Fucking prick.