Lets talk point guard play

I was high on Bobby Maze over the summer and early in this season. Guess what I still am. I think that the style of play and substitution patterns that Bruce and Company have implemented are not suited to Maze’s game. Back when Maze was playing over 30 minutes a game Tennessee looked like a different team to me. The flow was there the pace was up and our transition game was much more effective. I am a firm believer that the Point position is so important that it takes playing a lot of minutes to run it effectively. So what happens when your minutes drop to around 20-25 minutes? Well you get out of the flow, you lose your rhythm. 25 minutes a game for a point guard? that 15 minutes on the bench(or basically an entire half of play). That’s like benching your QB halfway through the third quarter. Its just a insane strategy with the Vols style of play this year. Lets compare to others in the SEC: Meeks-Kentucky 34.7 mpg(39 vs. Vols), Calathes-Florida 32.9 mpg(28 vs. Vols), Beal-Vandy 32.8 mpg(34 vs Vols), Fortson-Ark. 32.6 mpg(37 vs. Vols), Huertas-Ole Miss 32.3 mpg(white 32 vs. Vols), Downy-SC 32.2 mpg(37 vs. Vols), Gee-Ala. 32.0 mpg, Stewart-Miss St. 31.3 mpg, Reed-Aub. 31.1 mpg(37 vs. Vols), Thorton, LSU 30.6 mpg(37 vs. Vols),—-> MAZE 25.8 that ranks 41st in mpg among SEC players and he is a starting Point Guard. I for one think this is a huge mistake. With the opponents averaging around 35 mpg I don’t think our style of play is Waring anybody down and neither is our 1-2 punch at point guard even landing many jabs. Also it seems like almost every game the other teams Guard goes off for a career game. So why is Maze losing minutes? In a attempt to get Josh Tabb minutes? We needed a PG to relieve Maze when necessary not to split time with him at a seemingly 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off pattern. Maze leads Tabb in practically every stat, including steals and blocks. I don’t know why everybody Touts Tabb as a lock down defender. I don’t see it. I would rather see Tabb get his minutes back at the two or Three and give him a chance to do what he has admitted he is more comfortable with. I know some people will argue that Maze isn’t playing good enough to play more then he is. I say you don’t know what he might do if he didn’t have to sit every four-five minutes. Sometimes you have to consider what could be happening instead of focusing on what is happening now. I would also say I could see the point of the Tabb/Maze combination if I could see where it has helped us at all on either side of the ball, in my opinion it has not helped us it has hurt us. Substitutions have frustrated me all year. Sometimes you have to go with the hot players and not just substitute religiously by the clock. Another example of this was the LSU game when Chism and Negedu were the hot players and Chism was sat at the six minute mark just after he led the Vols back from a 12 point deficit and did not return until the 3 minute mark Tennessee could not build a lead with Chism on the bench. Negedu sat the final 3 minutes. That game was won in the final two minutes. Sorry for the ranting, but the good news is that the Vols are still tied for the SEC East. But I wouldn’t be logging onto Vegas.com and placing any big wagers. I love the Vols and I love what Pearl has done, I hope it gets it back on track. Go Vols Beat Kentucky