Brad Shepard

Getting back to .500 is a tough putt. Sure wins: ETSU, UTEP, Charlotte. Sure losses: West VA, Florida (7), Georgia (10.5), Auburn (9), Bama (10.5), Sakerlina (7). Win Some/Lose Some: Kentucky (6), Missouri (6.5), Vandy (5).

Vegas says 5.5 over/under for the Vols; the other SEC teams’ Over/Under wins are in ( ). But to me it feels like 4.5 wins is the number at this way-too-early, post-Spring Game juncture.

https://247sports.com/ContentGallery/Vegas-releases-2018-win-total-for-every-SEC-team-117451338

“But he’s proved before that he can identify talent, recruit it, and develop it.”

Just because I’m in full-on editing mode, I have to say I was really glad to see your Oxford comma there. 🙂

The cupboard is fairly empty. We were 0-8 in the SEC because we had an intern coaching and developing players.

For those expecting a bowl with a 6-6 record, I’d make a straight up bet against it. Doesn’t mean we can’t get to 500 – it just looks pretty dadgum unlikely.

So, about basketball…

Well, from my perspective it was about as boring as most of the games last year. Nothing really exciting happened. Just some ho-hum football that left me wanting more (which don’t get me wrong – I will take for now – because I love football).

As for Pruitt, hard to get a read on him but he was intense on the field!! Doesn’t seem to be one that excepts mediocrity or taking plays off. I saw him and other coaches light-a-fire under a couple of players and I trust this will serve us well in the future. Have to say, he seems to speak his mind – which I like.

Looking forward to next season!!

I seem to recall a handful of stories about Kirby Smart being surprised at some cultural things in Athens in year one because he was used to Alabama/Saban.

Nebraska hired the coach that their entire fanbase unanimously wanted. Not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Regardless, we had the third-highest (announced) spring game attendance in the SEC, behind only the two teams that played in the National Championship Game. Ours was the fifth-highest in the country, ahead of programs like FSU, Clemson, and Ohio State. Complaining about the fans at this point is just silly.

Yes please

Good article Brad. Very relevant too as far as the size of the team. NBA is moving to smaller, faster players and everybody wanted Oregon East with the change, but it would look the same as far as smaller, faster guys. The thing that makes the SEC stand out is size AND speed. I always tweaked the Big10 fans “you guys are just like us, just without the speed or talent”. “We’re smarter” was all they could come back with. 🙂

Brad, I don’t think Cincy is a good match up for us. KenPom has Cincy as the fourth best team overall in the country. They have the second best defense. Of the other two’s, I’d rather have another shot at Carolina or even a streaky Duke. I want no part of Purdue.

As a grad student at Cincinnati, I’m pumped by the idea of getting to play them in the Sweet 16. Not because I’m disputing Pete’s point that they are a tough match-up for us, but just because victory would be so sweet, I’d wear orange to teach that Friday 🙂

Here’s a link to a great article in The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/269948?shared_by=181394

Thank you Rick Barnes and the Vols for having such a great season and allowing the Vol faithful to share in this championship! It couldn’t be understated how much Vol Nation needed this.

“Pruitt entered his first [mini] recruiting cycle swinging for the fences, aiming at marquee players who were unsigned, hell-bent on bringing at least a couple of them to Knoxville. None of those materialized in commitments.

Zero. Zilch. Nada.”

I think JJ Peterson would count as a marquee player who was unsigned that materialized in a commitment, right?

Honest assessment and good (though sobering) write-up, Brad.

What do we expect? 0-8 SEC team with almost no time to build relationships with kids going up against National Champions, ACC Champs and SEC East winner with great recruiters and two years of history. To end up with a top 25 class and several 4 stars is really a testament to UT’s brand…Should have been much worse.

Damn. That is a fantastic read. Always appreciate your work/insight here and on other sites. Thanks Brad. And go Vols.

Good read Brad. I just moved to Houston area a couple of months ago (used to be IndyVolFan). I know we’re on a Katy kid and one from Oak Ridge which is 5 minutes from my work in Woodlands. I’ll go see them this fall and report what they look like in person. On a basketball note, I wish Barnes could have gotten in on Quentin Grimes (#8 I think in 24/7 and Kansas commit). He’s the best kid I’ve ever seen at this level (in person) and the smoothest player since Alan Houston (my UT days). I’ve seen most of the top Indiana kids over the last several years and they don’t touch this kid (Conley, Oden, George Hill, Bluitt, Jaren Jackson – he was in our conference b4 transferring to Lumierre). Absolutely amazing ball player.

Great read, Brad. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again. We finally have us a football coach.

This showed up in my Facebook “On This Day” today and while there are a variety of emotions it brings out, I am mainly looking at it as a reminder not to get too ________ (too excited, too upset, too whatever) about NSD: http://grantland.com/features/tennessee-volunteers-butch-jones-signing-day-2014/

He was a second team all Georgia WR not sure how everyone just missed on him but I am glad they did now that he is a Vol

This seems like excellent evaluation. A top 20 recruiting class so far is pretty amazing.

Good stuff Dylan. Just will have to see it to believe it when it comes to us pulling “elite” talent from LA.

Another great article about the final piece of the staff puzzle. Great job Brad!

He looks like he some DOG in him. I think unlike resent all hype recruits his attitude might actually appear on the field.

This is probably not the place to discuss this, but maybe it is as good a place as any since injuries were mentioned again here. Writers, fans, butch jones etc often talk about all of the injuries the Vols have had over the last couple of years. I’ve begun to wonder if some, or maybe many of them may have been players who just didnt want to play for Butch. Obviously you cant go with a broken limb, but there are a lot of guys who play through less significant injuries all the time and linemen are basically hurt from start of the season to finish. Concussion symptoms could easily be played up. I’m not accusing anyone of anything sinister, it just seems like a tempting and viable out if you wanted out. My kids fake sickness and injury all the time to get out of work. 🙂

Give it to me straight, I can take it. Am I way off base?

Not sure if this will help with the injuries…
https://sportsnaut.com/2017/12/texans-used-record-number-players-2017/

I listened to this on the way home from Nashville, so I can’t speak for the visuals or the correctness of the foul calls.

However, I do think the “can’t close” stuff needs context. Tennessee closed against Purdue on a neutral floor, in regulation and in overtime. Purdue is currently #4 in KenPom.

Villanova wasn’t a closing issue. They had the lead five minutes into the second half and never gave it up. Also, Nova is the best team in the country by a healthy margin. I’m not nitpicking that one.

North Carolina and Arkansas do both feature preventable turnovers at crucial moments. Those need to be teachable, correctable moments. But UNC is ninth in KenPom, Arkansas 22nd and playing at home with, as Brad noted, two of our three best options fouled out.

If we’re as good as we think we are, I don’t think this was a game Tennessee “needed” to win. We’ll see how they respond against Auburn, but I still find more validation in today’s performance than disappointment beyond the moment.

A more important takeaway than what we do or don’t do in the last couple minutes, to me: we’ve got an issue dealing with great guard play. Villanova hurt us there, Joel Berry hurt us, and Arkansas got what they wanted from their guards too. We won’t see this level of talent in every backcourt, and we still almost won all three games anyway. But defending a great backcourt is red flag number one for us right now.

Will is right. This isn’t about Barnes inability to coach or to lead us properly to close out games. This whole theme is a bit ridiculous.

We’ve lost 3 games this year – all to top 10 RPI teams. The players (not Barnes) went mental in the UNC game and blew the lead under pressure. At Arkansas, an incredibly difficult place to win, the Hogs got hot and we also went mental with our two best players on the bench. When you end up with 4 players unavailable in OT due to fouls, we should talk about the zebras’ influence on the game, not Barnes’. Even still, we closed OT really well – after digging a huge 11 point hole as Arkansas lit us up from 3 and we did nothing on offense for 3 and half minutes of OT. And we closed without experienced leadership on the floor.

We have had ZERO bad losses and have won every game we’re supposed to. When was the last time we had a coach do that? (It’s the main reason Cuonzo was fired….)

Several of those wins required closing out the game against pesky and/or quality opponents -Top 50 RPI Furman and Purdue in OT come to mind. Btw, that Purdue win will look pretty good at year end.

This is coming form a team that’s ranked in the top 25 and was a preseason pick at 13th in the SEC.

In spite of your protestations, I’m still hot under the collar about that foul call on Grant Williams when we were up by 9 late. That was not a foul, and it changed the trajectory of the game, both in the moment and subsequently when Williams fouled out earlier than he should have.

Good catch on Daniels’ bad 3 starting the run. With 3:30 to go, we were up 8 and had the ball. 24 seconds later, it was a 3-point game.

Though it wasn’t a “bad” loss, it was incredibly frustrating and ramps up the pressure tonight and the next few games to claw back a win that we had in our hands.