Have you ever been preoccupied with an intriguing but meaningless inner monologue?
A fascinating question popped into this tiny little mind throughout most of Tennessee’s 77-56 win over LSU at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge on Saturday. That question got stuck. It’s still stuck. That’s interesting. It’s pointless too.
Question: Can the Tennessee basketball team of the century beat these current Vols in a 7-game series?
That’s interesting. It’s pointless too. The college basketball postseason isn’t made up of series, and he’s home after one loss in a conference tournament. If he loses one time in the NCAA Tournament, he goes home.
There are too many college basketball teams to let the postseason play in a series format, so sacrifices have to be made. What we get is March Madness. This is he one of the most exciting tournaments in world sports. Nor is it the best way to determine which team is the best. Doesn’t mean it’s bad. not bad. It’s great. This is the professional highlight of this sportswriter’s year, year after year. Not the best way to determine which basketball team is actually the best.
In many sports, including basketball, the best way to determine which team is actually the best is a 7-game series. Playing seven games on a neutral floor would be ideal, but that doesn’t happen, so we play at home or on the go.
Besides, there’s obviously no way the 2022-23 Vols would play the 2018-19 Vols or the 2007-08 Vols when those teams were all the same age. Lacking theoretical astrophysics from interstellar To bend space and time to our will.
What we have is a fictional war game that makes no sense in our own eyes.
Still, it’s funny. No doubt about it. And that’s more interesting than trying to compare the size and strength of the average modern athlete to the size and strength of the average athlete of more distant generations. Empty eyes never lie. Modern athletes are in another class. It’s not about desires or fundamentals or anything else. It’s size, strength and speed.
You can’t compare today’s athletes with athletes from the pre-color TV era, or the HD era. That’s not how sports science works. But what within the last few decades? It’s fair game.
To that end, there’s an opinion that seems reasonable to this idea, but doesn’t necessarily have a high approval rating: These current Vols are the other Tennessee team of the century in a 7-game series. will probably defeat the
A discussion on that topic will haunt some – it’s not the intention, but it’s still inevitable. The love people felt under the 2018-19 Vols Rick Burns and early team blues pearl The times in Tennessee were real, and it’s hard to imagine anything that would erase them. Nothing to yum yum. And that’s perfectly fine. These eyes looked at both teams, assessing nearly every moment of their play and their impact on this state of affairs. good stuff. really good stuff.
But this Tennessee team looks deeper, more complete, and more physically dominant. He’s ridiculously good on defense, and the number of scorers he can explode on offense makes for a nightmare scouting task.
For example this week.These Vols had to go to Mississippi on Tuesday and play without their two best shooters — Sr. Santiago Vescovi (shoulder) and Tyreek Quay (sick) — and they got off to the poorest possible start, but then played great, scoring 60 points in the final 25 minutes and winning double digits.
Four days later these Vols played at LSU without a senior forward Uros Pravsic — the only player to ever do anything offensive against Kentucky — and if Tennessee stayed on the gas, they completely wiped out the Tigers in the game.The Vols led by nearly 30 points midway through the second half. After that, I stepped back a little. This is all your opponent needs to get their head out of the mud at this level.
But that’s not all. Most of this Tennessee team has been hit by bad weather for at least part of the last two weeks, but you won’t know that except for their heavy blow at home against Kentucky. Multiple players were reluctant to get out of bed at the Bayou on Saturday, but their performances didn’t reflect that.
If you take a two-game road trip in this league and finish in double digits in both games, you’ve accomplished something. No matter what anyone says, they rarely walk into the homes of SEC opponents and gut them. For his final 25 minutes at Starkville and most of his 40 minutes at Button his Rouge, the Vols did just that. Don’t build statues or anything like that. It’s been a good week, and a great week under these circumstances — especially after a shock loss to Kentucky.
Offenses change fast these days, and the best offenses are certainly more fun to watch than the best defenses. But what this Tennessee team is doing on defense is incredible, especially given the evolution of offensive basketball, giving these Vols the edge in every game against every opponent in every arena. It gives you a chance.
Combine this Tennessee defense with the type of Vols attack in the first half hour at Baton Rouge on Saturday, and the team is undefeated. A team has not lost if it has achieved his 12 of his 23 attempts on the first from his range of three points. Even if that team has above-average offensive outings, they probably haven’t lost.when Josiah-Jordan James When Zacai Ziegler If played that way, the team probably hasn’t lost.
If all you need to win nearly any game is decent-not-so-good, not-good, just-decent-aggressive production, it’s set to a low enough bar to actually get past it .
The problem, of course, is the same problem that has existed for much of Barnes’ Hall of Fame coaching career. NCAA tournaments are not series. One bad night or even one unlucky night is all it takes to go home with the square root of junk. Too often, Burns’ team lost the “it” factor when it mattered most in a one-off tournament. That’s the destiny of his life, and unless or until he changes it, it will be the rain that follows him like Eeyore.
Especially with this Tennessee team, problems can be discovered from space. These Vols aren’t usually bad offensively, but they can be terrifying when they’re bad. That doesn’t matter in a 7-game series, but for college basketball teams, it’s a question of survival, even if that team historically has a dominant defense. This is especially a big concern in an era filled with chuck-and-duck offenses that can rampage from his three shots at any moment. That’s a big concern. It cannot be denied.
But let’s say the world was different. Let’s say college basketball ended the season with his NBA-style playoff format.
The 2018-19 Vols finished the season ranked 10th overall in the KenPom rankings despite a 31-6 record. They finished 3rd nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, but finished 42nd nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, ranking +26.24 overall.
The 2007-08 Vols finished the season ranked 13th overall in the KenPom rankings despite a 31-5 record. They finished 15th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and 28th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, earning an overall ranking of +22.17.
The 2022-23 Vols are currently ranked #2 in KenPom’s ranking. They rank 33rd nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, but rank first nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, with an overall ranking of +29.01.
In other words, it’s not even that close at this point. If these Vols played any of these Vols in his 7-game series, and everyone on both teams was at least reasonably healthy, his current Vols would have won that series. Their defense, its depth, and the number of potential 20-point scorers would be too much to overcome.
Will these numbers look the same in a few months? Either way, does it matter? No, it won’t.
But if you’re into perhaps the best Tennessee basketball team of the century, these Vols.
