Apologies if already posted, fun to see the energy though!
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Hyped for tonight’s game.
And just a reminder, one year ago today was the official announcement of Ryan Odom’s hiring. Regardless of the outcome of tonight’s game, let’s remember what an incredible year it’s been.
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Tennessee has won alot in March the past few years. 8 wins total in the 3 seasons prior to this one. I think it’ll be similar to the acc champ game against Duke but I expect us to make a couple more plays at the end this time
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LOVE that we’re in this position - Thank You CRO for an INCREDIBLE season. Not only the product on the court…he’s brought us tons of great off the court content, press conferences, viral videos, Sabre Series, it’s been so fun to be a HOOS fan this year. Can’t wait to see how far we go, and also grateful for how far we’ve come. 
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Do you think a UVA team is going to lose in Philadelphia?
https://x.com/BleacherReport/status/1115464682964377600?s=20
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Good example of this. Jacari’s teammates imitating the Jacari shooting form.
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Reviewing this further, they love to try to get a seal down low with one big while the other sets a ball screen; wonder if there’s an argument for having TDR on the screener, switch that ball screen, and then keep a center down low to battle for position. Or maybe it’s just TDR needing to scrap down low so we can stay in drop coverage on the screen, since their bigs aren’t really pop-3 threats.
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Mini reunion today: Bryce Crawford was like a special assistant (what Kyle Guy was last year for us) for Rick Barnes when he was at Texas I believe.
Q. I was wondering, Ryan coached at your alma mater and you had Bryce Crawford on your staff at Texas. What do you remember about talking to those guys and obviously working with Bryce?
BARNES: It goes back even further than that. Dave Odom, Ryan’s father and I have known each other for a long time, and his wife, Lynn, being in the ACC for that long, we all, myself, Dave, Kelvin Sampson and Tubby Smith, we all played in the same league in the Carolinas back in the day. So I feel like I have known Ryan forever. He’s done a terrific job. He was only at Lenoir-Rhyne for a year, but was terrific. He really did a great job.
Then Bryce, somebody that I have the utmost respect for, he loves the Lord, happy for he – I’m happy for all of him because I know how hard they’ve worked in this business and Ryan going from UMBC, coming up the way I think coaches probably should to understand every level of it, and Virginia did a great job of hiring him as their head coach, and obviously, bringing Bryce is something that Ryan’s always been very loyal to his staff.
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And they don’t have the best player in the country who can apparently play center and PG at the same time
I’m extremely nervous about today, but I’m mostly stoked we’re in a position to have meaningful games against good teams again.
Hoos by 8, Thijs returns to form and we have 7 blocks between our centers.
Guessing which of our wings or centers will be the hero of the game these days is a fool’s errand, but one is gonna pop off.
The boards will be the real battle. If we can keep it close to 50-50 I think we win.
Let’s win today and then play with some house money next weekend.
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We can do to Tennessee what we did to teams like Miami Texas and even Duke in stretches (when we aren’t turning the ball over 1 million time). Does last game’s performance inspire confidence that we will? Not really but it could also be a wake up call and I do believe we are a team that plays up and down to our competition.
Jakobi Gillipsie is the engine, everyone else on their team outside of Ament is kinda reliant on his playmaking and direction to score. Dallin and Chance need to be aggressive with him and trust the bigs to bail them out at times. We need them to also drive aggressively on switches or if their bigs drop on screens and create inside out. Also feed De Ridder with the intention to contract their defense and kick out (not sure he’s scoring much on their size tonight).
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Just run him off the damn line and do t go under screens. If he hits a bunch of floaters and mid range shots so be it. Force him to and force him to make the right passes.
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Any thoughts on crowd today. Assuming pro Tennessee due to how they travel?
This is money @Foresthoo. Fighting over screens is maybe the biggest key today. Stay tight on Gillespie or as my old (football) coach would say if he goes to get a hot dog put mustard on it for him. Lol
This is such a huge game for us. I don’t think there are any real negatives going forward from a loss (don’t get blown out), but man is there a lot to gain from a win…
A Sweet 16 would be HUGE for the next recruiting wave. Let’s get it done.
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Miami coming out very aggressive on offense. Need to see that from us. Attack attack attack. Our first offensive possession is usually awful.
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Shootaround at the Palestra this morning.
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Will Warren preview. Tennessee alum, but smart guy. I believe it’s $$
Key parts:
- Hedge v drop coverage decision (we hedged v NCSU, Will says)
- “Other key question here: is Tennessee really going to try and pound the post against arguably the best 1-on-1 post defense left in the field? I wouldn’t advise it, but Tennessee has to attack the lane somehow, and as gawky as he looks sometimes JP Estrella is putting up 1.21 PPP on post-ups this year, complete with the arm length to get his shot up over UVA’s frontcourt.”
- “…Gillespie’s performance against drop has been an adventure this year, shooting 29% off the dribble (25% from deep).”
- “… while the Hoos are actually dramatically in efficient when playing through the post, their big-to-big passing and frontcourt passing in general will be up there with the best Tennessee’s seen this year:”
- “[UVa] offer[s] a pretty good mix of ball screens and off-ball motion on the average night, but either Tennessee or Michigan (depending on your preference) is the best team left in the Tournament at denying off-ball motion, routinely shutting down dribble handoffs before they happen and forcing long, fruitless possessions… That’s probably going to make UVA more ball-screen reliant in this game, which could be good or bad depending on your purview.” Good: Vols are not an elite PNR defense. Bad: Hoos have struggled (in very small sample size) v. good switchy defense
- Against good defense, UVa turns it over more and shoots more from outside.
- TLDR: “Lean Tennessee by a hair, maybe a 55/45 coin flip, and as with literally any NCAA Tournament game this can be decided by threes alone.”
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I’ve always thought Jacari’s shot was Staples-esque. Not quite as quick a release, but close. And maximum effort on the jump.
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Definitely. In game chat has had a lot of poor performances and meltdowns this year, but now is the time to step up and show we can handle a little adversity.
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