We Suck Offensively And I’m Over It
Image: knoxnews.com
By Cody McClure
Actually, I’m not over it.
I’m still bitching about it.
I knew we weren’t going to beat Auburn, and by the time Kentucky drained five or six threes, I knew we weren’t going to beat them either.
We just can’t hit shots.
It is absolutely embarrassing that a team ALLOWED us to shoot 45 threes and we missed 34 of them.
Of course it seemed like everything Kentucky jacked up went in. And they did it without one of their best players, Lamont Butler.
The most embarrassing part of this is that Kentucky’s Mark Pope knew what he was doing in letting us throw up 45 threes:
That’s a cold quote from Pope.
Yeah, go ahead boys. Shoot away. You ain’t gonna make ‘em.
ELEVEN of FORTY-FIVE.
He baited us into missing a bunch of shots, and we did.
We are just not good enough offensively. We don’t put any fear into our opponents when we shoot the basketball.
It’s been this way basically the entire tenure of Rick Barnes outside of a couple special seasons from Grant Williams and Dalton Knecht.
And look, I’m not overreacting and saying it’s time to fire Barnes. I know that’s the easy answer, especially once you realize this is just who we are.
It’s just the way it’s going to be. But still, being a top 10 program in college basketball holds a lot of value.
We’re always in the mix and we win a lot of big games. We’re a second weekend team. That’s who we are.
It’s who we’re going to be this year. Playing in this year’s SEC is tough, and I believe it will prepare us come time for the Big Dance. We’ll make the Sweet 16.
At that point, all you can do is roll the dice and hope your defense can carry you further. That’s what we’re going to try to do.
And I’ll sign up for it.
But we’re never going to be good enough to scare the other team with our shooting.
Credit Barnes for trying to evolve but we just don’t have the shooters to do it. Even though we think we’re getting the shooters.
Maybe they just have to play defense too hard and they’re tired. I don’t know the exact science behind it.
Why do they make shots other places and then come here and struggle? Tired legs? Maybe.
But we can forget Barnes’ teams not defending so hard to make the offense a little better. It’s not going to happen.
Let’s enjoy Barnes while we’ve got him, enjoy our Sweet 16, and roll the dice.
Maybe in the tournament we won’t miss THIRTY-FOUR THREES.