Georgia 57 Tennessee 53 (OT) - Defense Only Does So Much

and I’m sorry. but here’s the reason:

I’ve been hanging out on Canes Country a lot since I moved to North Carolina. The Canes have been in last place in the Eastern Conference for most of the year and are lightyears out of a playoff spot. But in mid-November, they beat the Penguins 5-3 and everybody starts saying “wow, we keep playing like that, we get ourselves back in contention, we could be one of the top four teams in the league, it’s gonna be great.” The Hurricanes proceed to go 2-10 in their next twelve games, firing their coach late in that stretch. Then they beat defending Western Conference champion Vancouver Canucks at home 4-3 (I was at that game. It was fantastic). And people start talking about how they’ve turned the corner and are ready to start competing with the league’s elite. They subsequently lose seven of their next eleven. Then they beat the reigning Stanley Cup champions this Saturday (Carolina is actually 3-0 against Boston—the only conference team with a record of .500 or better against the Bruins) and the talk begins again. Since then, they’ve lost two straight.

It’s like clockwork. Bad teams will play well against good teams and then have a game (or stretch of games) where it looks like they throw all their progress away. That doesn’t mean the team isn’t progressing. Carolina was 3-12 between the Pittsburgh win and the Vancouver win. They were 5-7 between the Vancouver win and the Boston win. That’s progress. But it happens in fits and starts. And at every peak, the fans all start expecting a smooth curve of improvement. And the improvement curve is never smooth.

I will be very surprised if Tennessee doesn’t knock off one of the upper echelon in the SEC this season (again). But I’ll also be very surprised if we don’t lose to another team that’s pretty bad. We will be good at basketball, and I think we’ll be good soon (perhaps next year). But in the interim, we’re going to have games like this

It’s possible that Kentucky will go 16-0, South Carolina 0-16, and the rest of us just go 8-8

Am I the only one that continues to wonder why Skylar gets so many minutes? I mean he is obviously a hard worker and you can’t knock the guy for that and as far as i know, he probably lights it up in practice, and while he has shot better this year compared to the past, he stills struggles and doesnt shoot it as well as a “3 point specialist” should, not to mention, he still isnt very quick and hurts us on defense. This was especially apparent tonight when he killed us numerous times in the clutch. Considering he only hit that one three, which seemed to be huge at the time, he missed the rest of his shots, and when he doesnt make his shots, he is almost nothing more than a defensive liability. i almost like our chance with richardson playing those minutes with maybe mcrae splitting some of those too. Am i just frustrated at the moment, or is there any validity in what I am saying?