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Tide&True

Tide&True

Hall of Fame
Sep 24, 2004
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Murfreesboro, TN
It has been like a roller coaster this year...but I get a sense that the team is starting to jell. I've seen much better effort the last two games. I know the enemy to the north will have a packed house waiting on us. I think we have a chance to win this game if our intensity stays where it has been lately. Tennessee plays well at home and Lofton (when healthy) is a great player. This game may come down to who wants it the most.
 
Tide&True said:
It has been like a roller coaster this year...but I get a sense that the team is starting to jell. I've seen much better effort the last two games. I know the enemy to the north will have a packed house waiting on us. I think we have a chance to win this game if our intensity stays where it has been lately. Tennessee plays well at home and Lofton (when healthy) is a great player. This game may come down to who wants it the most.
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You're right man...if Steele can play the way he played against UK I think we should handle them. One of the things that has killed us this year is pressure defense, Ronald Steele broke UK's press AT LEAST 4 or 5 times Saturday so if he can just handle that for us...I see our season turning around at just the right moment!
 
One concern I have is that Lofton can kill you from behind the line single-handedly on some nights. It's unfortunate that defending the trey is our weak point so far. Maybe RS will make giant strides between the last game and tomorrow. Of course, they can't handle us down low. All we need is for RH to be himself and JD to play within himself...
 
I hope we can get this one tomorrow night. UT certainly has a lot of "bulletin board material" such as snapping the 7 game lossing streak they currently have to Bama and also they are coming off a 25 point loss at South Carolina this past Saturday and also a 13 point point loss to us last year and plus they still have some work to do and their remaining schedule consists of
@ ARK, UF@home, @ UGA
so they have to make them all count at this point. I hope we can pull it out. I think our zone Defense has improved and with Tubbs playing defense anything is possible so hopefully we can slow down the league's leading scorer in Lofton. I dont think UT will have quite the size we have either, but with the scrappy D they play and since they are at home i imagine we wont be getting too many calls. This would be a HUGE W if we could find a way to get it!
 
I feel that tubbs is a key in this game. I think that he will be on Lofton for a good portion of the game. It will be between him, hollinger, and steele to help cover him. I was at the kentucky game and i felt that we did better against the press. I think that we match up great against them on our offensive end, it will just depend on how many turnovers we have on the way to our offensive end. I think we have been slowly getting better and i dont think it ends now.
 
Isn't it funny how the SEC is so hard to figure out? Early in the year, Florida and Kentucky beat South Carolina at South Carolina by 30+ points. Now, Tennessee loses at South Carolina by 17. It makes me wonder about where Tennessee is right now even though I know South Carolina has improved.

I think this game comes down to the injury situation. If Ronald Steele is semi-healthy and plays like he did Saturday and handles the press, Bama can win fairly comfortably (8 to 12 points). If Lofton is totally healthy (and I don't know if he is) and Steele is hampered, it could be a long night for Bama. The Tide needs this one. They don't have a great win on the road yet. This would not only ensure them of a tournament bid (with winnable games coming up at home) but they could start playing for a decent seed. And couple that with Steele's seemingly improving health and the tendency of Gottfried's teams to kind of play over their heads lately in the tournament, watch out!
 
I think we will be in a similar situation with this game as the ones before... we will have the lead with about 5 minutes to go and UT will make a run with the crowd going nuts. We've shown on the road that in these situations we fall apart. This time around though I see Ronald Steele nailing a clutch three or making a great assist to quiet the crowd and finish the Vols off. RTR!
 
mjstide said:
I feel that tubbs is a key in this game. I think that he will be on Lofton for a good portion of the game. It will be between him, hollinger, and steele to help cover him. I was at the kentucky game and i felt that we did better against the press. I think that we match up great against them on our offensive end, it will just depend on how many turnovers we have on the way to our offensive end. I think we have been slowly getting better and i dont think it ends now.
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No doubt Tubbs has been playing good defense but if we are depending on a true freshman to shut down Lofton (a junior or senior) then we are really in trouble. Tubbs is not ready for what Lofton can bring. This is no knock on Tubbs. Lofton is one of those special shooters that don't need much if any space to get off his shot. We need Steele to be at his best against him or Hollinger to stick to his jersey wherever he goes.

I know that if we keep trying to go around picks and not fight through them he will torch us for 20+. He is too good a shooter for us to give him any room at all if we hope to contain him.

This is going to be a tough game because of their style of play, their aggressiveness and being at their place. We are going to have to play our best game of the season to win at UT. If it were at Tuscaloosa this would be a very winnable game. Being at UT, in my mind, makes it doable but very difficult.
 
i see steele playing better than he did against ky. i also see hendrix having a big game. it has been a long, long time since tennessee has beaten us. they are having a long win streak at home. it will make for a good game, but we'll shut down lofton and bama takes the win.
 
The 3's the keys. Ky couldn't hit them ( maybe our D contributed). They still shot a lot of them. If Lofton gets hot we'll lose. CMG needs to fashion a D to stop him.
 
Not trying to trash talk too much, but it will be very hard for Bama to pull out a win at Knoxville. This Tennessee team is Jekyll at home, and Hyde on the road, no matter what opponent. Everyone here in Knoxville knows this is a must win, and that emotion at home will have a factor, but I know that might not to be able to top the talent of the Crimson Tide. I expect a great game, and best of luck to y'all but...

GO VOLS!
 
It's hard for any team in the SEC west to pull out a win on the road. Hell, hard for any SEC team, period. Over the past several years, we've had better luck at UTK than almost anywhere else...
 
Bama Ben said:
No doubt Tubbs has been playing good defense but if we are depending on a true freshman to shut down Lofton (a junior or senior) then we are really in trouble. Tubbs is not ready for what Lofton can bring. This is no knock on Tubbs. Lofton is one of those special shooters that don't need much if any space to get off his shot. We need Steele to be at his best against him or Hollinger to stick to his jersey wherever he goes.

I know that if we keep trying to go around picks and not fight through them he will torch us for 20+. He is too good a shooter for us to give him any room at all if we hope to contain him.

This is going to be a tough game because of their style of play, their aggressiveness and being at their place. We are going to have to play our best game of the season to win at UT. If it were at Tuscaloosa this would be a very winnable game. Being at UT, in my mind, makes it doable but very difficult.
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All i was saying was that anytime someone has been lazy on defense or one player has been killing us this year it seems as if we send tubbs in to fire up the D. I dont feel that he will be on him for a majority of the game i just think that the minutes he does have will be important. Freshmen cover seniors (or juniors in Lofton's case) all the time. I agree that hollinger will log a lot of minutes against Lofton.
 
IF this team is beginning to 'gel' and play like they are capable then this could wind up being a good season. I see better hustle & effort but I am not ready to say they are 'gelling' (I'm gelling are you gelling :-)).

If they are then this is the right time to do it -

correct me if my memory is wrong but don't we usually start 'un-gelling' this time of year. It seems in the past we play well/peak early then teeter out in Feb.....Is that just my imagination or poor memory

Anyway we may be peaking at the right time this year or maybe not
 
mjstide said:
All i was saying was that anytime someone has been lazy on defense or one player has been killing us this year it seems as if we send tubbs in to fire up the D. I dont feel that he will be on him for a majority of the game i just think that the minutes he does have will be important. Freshmen cover seniors (or juniors in Lofton's case) all the time. I agree that hollinger will log a lot of minutes against Lofton.
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I see what you are saying. He has definitely provided a spark since MG started playing him.

That three he hit against Kentucky was ridiculous. That really fired the crowd up and man, was he deep when he shot that ball. It was beautiful. Hopefully he can spark us to a win tonight.
 
Tubbs is not as quick as Hollinger, so I think that Hollinger will guard Lofton. Now Tubbs might give Hollinger a breather, but other than that it should be Hollinger. I think this game will not be close, but it could go either way.
 
They have been playing with more intensity...........I'll be watching and pulling hard. Roll Tide!!!!!!!

I hope we give Coach Pearl a reason to scream tonight; he is so passionate I'm afraid he is going to explode watching him.

:BigA: :BigA: :BigA: :BigA:
 
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