[Post Game Thread] 24 Tennessee beats Texas A&M 87-82 in 2OT

Box score. This game, for about 38 minutes, felt like a good microcosm of every game we’ve seen this far except for Louisville, Houston and Texas. Their basketball IQ and inability to not turn the ball over allowed a team to keep a game close. One thing that was different from most games this year is resolve and bounce back. Some sequences that almost assuredly would’ve resulted in a loss as early as last week: Tennessee down two points early in the second half, then turned it over 3 straight possessions and hound themselves down 9. Tennessee was down 2 with about 12 minutes left, JG missed an open three and A&M hit one, back down 5. 7:50 left in the game, Tennessee goes down 3, gets caught napping and gives up a foul, fall back down 5. Tennessee gets it down to 1, makes a huge defensive stand, Bishop Boswell steps out of bounds and gives it back. I have watched 17 games this year. I don’t know who the leader is. I know who they run the offense through, or try to. But I don’t know who the leader is. I will say, Felix Okpara and Bishop Boswell really, really tried to step into that role and take it. Yelling on the court. Aggressive as all hell. It was cool to see. I also don’t know what the best lineup is. Will Warren could probably tell us via data and metrics (shout out Will Warren) but from a look and feel I have no clue what the best lineup is. All that to say, Im really happy they won because 1-3 in SEC play would’ve sucked hot liquid ass. Shoutout the underclassmen. Anyway, let’s go beat Kentucky on Saturday. Here we go.

The Good:

• Felix Okpara was great man. That guy just played his ass off. Played so god damn hard. I don’t think he’s a good rebounder, I think he’s just very tall and lanky. But he was a pretty good defender in space, he made the most of his offensive opportunities and he played with the most intensity on the team. Seems like he’s a game-to-game kinda guy this year. So I’m going to take his good performances in stride.

• Troy fucking Henderson. Bb bubba. Is he a good guard? No not yet. Does he come in and play with absurd confidence and do his best to make shit happen? You better believe it. His defense wasn’t bad at all, in fact I’d say it was good. He got to the rim, he hit two big 3s. He gave them some life off the bench. Give him more minutes. Someone should need to take them from him. He shouldn’t have to earn more. Not with how inconsistent the guard play on this team is.

• Rebounding. They absolutely dominated the boards. It never should have been this fucking close. Ever. This led to an unreal second chance points margin. Again, shouldn’t have been a close game.

• Bishop Boswell is what he is. And what he is, is the best rebounder on the roster despite being a 6’4” guard. I do wish he was more consistently aggressive in the paint and hunted his shot, abut his defense is usually pretty stout, when he’s not committing fouls and he really helped extend the game tonight.

• Nate Ament. Nate Ament grew up in front of our very eyes. Best game of his season so far. It was like watching a newborn deer try to walk. Stupid turnovers and not hunting his shot. Whining. My dick was soft. Then, out of nowhere. Hunting shots. Battling on the glass. Demanding the ball late when the senior guard diarrhea’d down his leg every goddamn possession. He wasn’t crazy efficient but for the last 25 minutes of this game he played winning basketball. This is two games in a row now that show he’s starting to put it together. They just have to limit being soft with the ball and panicking. Will we ever get the polished version, I don’t know. But I can at least hope after the last two games, especially.

• 74% is actually much better than their season average. I kinda compare it to Tennessee pizza. If you’ve had good pizza in Tennessee, it’s probably just average pizza. If this team had a good free throw shooting night, it’s probably an average night for other teams.

The Average:

• Jaylen Carey was a defensive liability early in the game but he was really big in overtime and found a way to make a positive impact on the game.

• I still stand on the fact that Amaree Abram deserves more minutes. If for no other reason than he creates tempo and is usually good for a couple of steals. Tonight was a limited minutes kinda night but I certainly wasn’t as frustrated with him as some others.

The Bad:

• Don’t ever let Nate Ament inbound the ball ever, on any press break or anything. Even in practice. Don’t let him do it. If there’s a shred of defense he will panic, let it go to five seconds or turn it over. It was infuriating to watch.

• Nothing to do with his overall play, but every time Bishop Boswell gets fouled or commits a foul he acts like he just got through a 15-round prize fight. It’s fucking annoying.

• Ja’kobi Gillespie. The last minute of regulation from him was: tie game, heat check three (when 2-9), miss, defensive foul, turnover, turnover, great hustle play, missed fade away 3 (in a tie game). I mean Jesus fucking Christ. He shot like shit. He has costly turnovers. I understand he doesn’t have much help. I get it. But let’s call a spade a spade. This kid is a volume scorer better suited as a two guard that can have games like he did against Rutgers and Texas but can also shoot you out of a basketball game like nobody’s business. His effort was always there, his ability and execution was simply not. He gets beaten on defense a lot (albeit he had quite a few steals tonight). And he fouled out.

• The worst player for Tennessee tonight was JP Estrella and it wasn’t particularly close. He was lost defensively. Couldn’t finish around the rim at all. Was sloppy with the basketball. Just looked totally overmatched against a really shooter team.

• A disgusting amount of turnovers, especially in regulation. They could beat anyone if they just didn’t turn the ball over at an alarming rate. The points off turnovers is the only thing that kept this fucking game close. I don’t know how they fix it, but they need to fix it. They need to fix it so fucking badly.

• DeWayne Brown was totally overmatched. I thought he was going to build off the Florida performance but I was wrong. Oh well, freshman growing pains.

• Amari Evans - offense just completely stalled when he was out there. I don’t know his +/- but I’d bet it wasn’t very good.

• Shooting. This is largely a JP and Gillespie stat. Those two combined were. 5-24 from the field and 2-11 from three. The rest of the team was 20-43 from the field and 4-13 from three.

• I hate Pop Isaacs.