On the offensive side of the ball, to be specific. Hear me out. Brainstorm for a second and think of as many reasons as you can that the BasketVols are struggling this year. Tons of possible reasons will pop in your head. Lack of toughness; need for leadership; off-court distractions; lack of focus; etc. But in reality, I think it all boils down to the simple fact that our offensive execution in halfcourt sets is rather clunky. If our team is a machine, then it is not a well oiled one. The inconsistency that you're seeing in the results flows completely naturally from the idea that all your games are going to be tight if you lack the ability to dependably score in the halfcourt set.
- Randy Moore of Inside Tennessee ($) does not pull any punches in his description of this team's halfcourt offense
Watching Tennessee trying to play halfcourt offense is kind of like watching a one-armed guy trying to put together a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle ... wearing a boxing glove ... in the dark.
See, isn't it nicer to say that our offense just needs a touch of lubrication?
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Mike Griffith writes an article about leadership as it relates to the BasketVols. And another one about inconsistency. Silly Silly Griff. He's using the wrong L word. It all comes down halfcourt execution, ladies and gentlemen. We need lubrication. If we were able to fluidly execute halfcourt sets, we don't lose to the Mississippi States of the world, and subsequent soul searching sessions are therefore rendered completely unnecessary. I'm telling y'all it's all crystal clear in my head now. Lubrication.
- Time has helped to heal these wounds just a little: Chad Millman of ESPN.com, who writes a column about sports betting, has pegged the Music City Bowl as the "worst beat" of the year. He is referring of course to the fact that the Vols were favored by 2.5 points and so anybody who had money on the Vols thought it was safe as time expired with us up by 3. Of course, we also lost the game, which made it mightily suck even if no money was involved (and I don't bet on the Vols). Here is the vid: