Honestly haven't watched them enough to have an opinion. KenPom metrics do say they are pretty close though.
The SEC is shaping up to be a tough Conference
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That loss stinks for the 1 seed potential but oh well. I don't think we were holding off UF anyway and needed to do something in tourney to solidify it regardless. Not sure if it makes a difference in conference seeding anyway. Think they're a 3 seed regardless, most likely.
Florida won't get overall 1 seed. If we get a 1 seed it will be in the West unless someone ahead of us chokes. The definition of Quad one games has hurt us this year on technicalities. We have 9 quad 2 wins and a lot of them just miss out on the BS quad 1 definition.
I'm literally on my final nerve with Clemson fans. I literally lost my mind with one tonight and told him he was fcking piece of shit
You would think the NCAA committee would see why Duke wins by 30 and Auburn doesn’t but who knows.
Ole Miss played great especially Brakefield, no points 1st half and 19 second. Ole Miss came out determined and UT not so much.
Matchups matter. Just ask Tennessee about one of those teams sitting at the bottom of that steep drop off.
I would put Tennessee and Alabama a notch below the top 4 though.
I recall the 2017 season where it was the direct opposite. SEC refs set records for how many fouls they called. It was crazy.
Then the tournament started and the refs allowed teams like South Carolina to play physical and they did that all the way to the FF.
I remember the game they played against Duke. I'm surprised the Duke players had any skin left. South Carolina muscled them at every turn.
The refs can definitely control games, we've all seen it happen.
You can do that, but it doesn't make it right. UT got blown out by UF and then blew out UF. UT beat bama, but the game could have easily gone the other way. UT lost to Auburn at Auburn by two, but if the buzzer beater goes in does that make UT better than Auburn, probably not. All the said teams can beat each other. There is no clear super team that will run through without a struggle this year. IMO.
Your two biggest wins were at home.
Problem with Tennessee is they struggle to score too much. Y'all have 1 true scorer and if he goes cold, or someone takes him out, you guys are in trouble.
Yeah, y'all played Auburn tough, but so did South Carolina.
I'm not saying Tennessee can't win it all, I just think they are a notch below the top 4.
Here’s how I would rank the SEC going into the last game of the year
1. Auburn
2. Florida
3. Bama
4. Tennessee
5. Texas AM
6. Missouri
7. Kentucky
8. Ole Miss
Fair or unfair?
1. Auburn
2. Florida
3. Bama
4. Tennessee
5. Texas AM
6. Missouri
7. Kentucky
8. Ole Miss
Fair or unfair?
Tennessee's defense will keep you in every game. Not scoring enough will always be Tennessee's challenge as your offense isnt as explosive as other teams at times
Matchups matter, Ohio State very well could beat UK if they met again. They were good enough to win at Purdue too.
UK got swept by Alabama, Tennessee beat Alabama, but UK swept Tennessee. Matchups matter and UK is a really bad matchup for Tennessee.
If you want to get to a FF, you have to have a good offense based on what I have seen.
It’s just my opinion, I'm not cutting UT down, heck, those top 4 teams are elite on both sides of the ball.
I'd put Tennessee ahead of Bama tbh.
I think Bama is getting extra credit for their FF run last year.
I don’t dispute that at all. Matchups absolutely matter, but in my opinion, the bad matchup gives a team the chance to beat a team that better than them that 2 times out out of 10 that they pull it off. Doesn’t mean over all they are a better team. If Ky and Oakland played 10 times last year, I think Ky wins 8 or 9. You just have those nights that everything lines up correctly for the upset. Bad matchup, your team has a bad shooting night, the other team shoots is well above their average, etc. what I do put a lot of stock in is KenPom. I know a lot of people think it’s way overblown, and maybe not accurate but to me, there is no bias and no human opinion. It’s not perfect without everyone playing the exact same schedule, but Vegas uses it regularly to set opening lines. And Vegas’s opinion means more to me than the opinion of biased fans. Didn’t mean that to get so long but anyway, I agree, matchups are very important, however losing a game to a team that was a bad matchup doesn’t mean that team is better. Duke is better than Clemson, Ky is better than Arkansas.
I would probably flip Bama and Tennessee and my only reasoning for that is that I think Bama is better offensively and Tenn is better defensively and there is a bigger likelihood of offense having a bad night than defense having one. I think it’s so close though that neither order is clearly the wrong way to rank them
I worry a bit about location after last year. The first round of games are the most sketch because the officials are spread so thin. We had a Pac 12 ref officiating our game vs a Pac12 team. We got cheated about as bad as I've seen and banning some shitty ref doesn't make it any better.
UK 2024 would lose to Oakland a lot more than once out of 10 times.
What I saw in that game was a team that knew they were going to win vs a team that put zero effort into preparing for the opponent.
maybe I'm off base here but UT as the top 2 seed getting to play in Houston's bracket and the regional in Indianapolis seems like a lot better situation than being a 1 seed and shipped to San Francisco
@RetirementRickBarnes there are several idiots on line that want Barnes fired. I blame this on Vitello being so good they think Tennessee basketball should win every game
