Georgia Tech @ Tennessee

ramblinwreck1378

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Our Jackets head to Knoxville tomorrow night to take on Tennessee. I'd love to avenge the loss from last season, but the Vols will be an even tougher test this time around. They return reigning SEC POY Grant Williams along with All-SEC performer Admiral Schofield. Williams, while known for his finesse and creativity around the basket, seems to have enhanced his offensive skill set in the off-season, adding efficient perimeter shooting to his arsenal. Still, Tennessee's calling card is its high-pressure, on-ball defense, which, when coupled with a hostile road environment, will prove to be a significant challenge for Georgia Tech's young backcourt.

The Vols are still working to get completely healthy and will likely be without 2018 SEC Co-Sixth Man of the Year Lamonte Turner tomorrow night. Turner is one of only three guards expected to receive significant playing time this season, which could hamper Tennessee's ability to apply as much pressure defensively as they would like.

In many respects, Tennessee embodies the type of team Josh Pastner is working to build. They are led by a combination of five Juniors/Seniors, which fits the 'get old, stay old' model. They are also ranked in the top 10 in KenPom's defensive efficiency rankings. Tomorrow night will no doubt be a tough test for the Jackets, but an area of depth for Tech is the backcourt where the Vols are spread fairly thin as I mentioned earlier. There may be an opportunity for Alvarado and company to push the ball and force Tennessee to play a more up-tempo style, something they're not exactly dying to do, as they rank 266th in KenPom's adjusted tempo.

I'm hoping the Jackets keep the game close, but it could spell trouble if the Vols find their stroke from deep. They're shooting around 40% from 3-pt range this season, with Schofield, one of their better shooters from last season, only hitting at a 25% clip.

Should be a fun one to watch - looking forward to seeing how our boys handle the challenge!
 

YlJacket

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Their 40% from 3 point shooting is definitely concerning - so don't want that to get going for sure.

Overall though they are shooting >50% from the field. Their 2 "bigs", Grant and Alexander are both shooting around 65%. Grant at 22 PPG and Alexander at 13 PPG. Even recognizing they have not played anyone really good, I have bad visions of UT getting the ball to these 2 guys and watching them foul out everyone we have over 6'5". If AD and Ogbondo can't play without fouling I expect these 2 good offensive players will make their day really short. Cole and Wright will likely get a ton of minutes and we'll see what improvement they have made.

While not overwhelming UT is also +8 per game on the boards. That has to get cleaned up with the wings.

And not sure if it is competition or their defense, but UT opponents are shooting 25% from 3. We do that and we are toast.

I do like your comparison of UT to where we want to be.
 

RamblinRed

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I'm expecting A 20+ point loss.

After the first game I have some optimism of the season going similar to season 1 with Pastner. But that would mean some really exciting wins and at least a few real blowout losses. This one feels like a likely blowout loss.
 

YlJacket

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RamblinRed said:
I'm expecting A 20+ point loss.

After the first game I have some optimism of the season going similar to season 1 with Pastner. But that would mean some really exciting wins and at least a few real blowout losses. This one feels like a likely blowout loss.
Click to expand...

Yep - I am holding out hope for the exciting wins but this one ain't it.
 

up state jacket

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slugboy said:
There's got to be a first big win for these guys. Hope it's here.
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That's right. It's got to start sometime. Why not now? There is no reason we can't get hot tomorrow night and break these a holes heart. We owe them one from that last second heave they won at the ga dome.
 
Peacone36

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We had a big guy foul out in 12 minutes and another foul out in 23 ..... against Lamar

Grant Williams is probably the best player in the country that no one ever talks about. He is going to make life ...difficult...for AD and Vess.

Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone are two very good players no one ever talks about.

This is going to be bad.
 
okiemon

okiemon

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Peacone36 said:
We had a big guy foul out in 12 minutes and another foul out in 23 ..... against Lamar

Grant Williams is probably the best player in the country that no one ever talks about. He is going to make life ...difficult...for AD and Vess.

Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone are two very good players no one ever talks about.

This is going to be bad.
Click to expand...

I don't like this, but I agree with it.
 
Connell62

Connell62

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This is the type of game where knocking down a crazy amount of three's could keep us in the game, but it's not difficult to see that this is going to be a tough one.

There are several reasons to be concerned:

1. Tennessee is a damn good team returning their best guys from a year ago.
2. We're the first major conference team that they're playing, they'll be focused.
3. We've had a lot of new parts still trying to figure out how to play with each other.
4. We have no depth in the front court, and our guys love to foul.

Hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.
 

lv20gt

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We're facing a top 5 team on the road with a very young team. I expect to get trounced. I do think we can get some insight into how the rest of the season will play out. First off is how do our guards look. If Jose, Haywood, Devoe, and Phillips, look like they could play with Tenn then it's a good sign. Basically, if we are going to lose, lose because of our bigs, not because of our guards. Similarly, was the first game just Alston playing against weaker comp, or can he actually be valuable against better teams. I'm also looking to see how can Wright/Cole defend against quality bigs.

In terms of the chance of actually winning, the 3 ball is a great equalizer. We have to have an on night shooting to have a chance. And not just a good night. A great night. Defensively, we need our guards to make it hard for theirs to get the ball to their bigs. We also need our bigs to play smart. We also need to rely on length to defend their bigs. Don't swat. Make their 6-6 and 6-7 shoot over 6-9 with 7 foot wingspans. Now they will certainly still hit some, but better than fouling. Also really need team rebounding.
 
slugboy

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I understand that the KenPom #11 team (Tennessee) against the KenPom #90 team (us) isn't a likely win. I still hope we win.
 
AE 87

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I watched a good bit of their gave vs. LALa. Now, I don't claim to have the expertise that others here have shown, so take my observations fwiw.

Tenn doesn't seem to miss when their shots are uncontested. They ran some ball screens, but not all that complicated. LALa was just slow getting on D, and UT made them pay for it.

UT was also really able to rely on their jump shots for much of the game. They rebounded well and posted up some, but that wasn't a big part of their game early on. They did have a big guy who started trying to attack the rim more in the second half it seemed, but even that was mostly with his face to the basket, iirc.

Both teams were really pushing a fast pace.

On D, UT guarded the perimeter fairly well but seemed to me to be susceptible to the fast-cuts to the basket the few times that LALa tried it, especially in the first half. LALa's guards made several almost uncontested drives to the rim for easy layups. UT seemed to tighten their D a bit once they got the lead in the second half, but it didn't look that great to me.

So, I think a lot will depend on how well we defend the perimeter and how well we shoot. If we defend the 3 as poorly as in previous years, I agree that it could be a big loss, but I think that we should play better D than LALa, and if we can hit 3's of our own, we might hang in and put some pressure on them.
 

smathis30

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Tennessee was what, a 3 seed last year? They aren;t a bad team right now. My model currently has Tennessee as a 7 point favorite at 75-82, but well see how things shake out
 
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