Wow. Just got to finish watching the game a few minutes ago (9:10 p.m.). What a great win, and just a gutsy, gritty effort from the team. Just some random ruminations:
1. Kornet was amazing tonight. That was some serious heart and effort from the big man. One of the things that I appreciated the most from him was the fact that he took only four 3's on the night, making one. Tennessee was not going to give him clean looks tonight out there, and he didn't force it. I think he attempted maybe just one 3 pointer in the second half. Instead, he played nearer the basket. Of course, defensively he was incredible; 11 boards, 7 blocks, and at least that many altered shots. Fantastic display.
2. Roberson with just a solid, all-round game. Pretty unfortunate to have gotten a couple of those fouls called on him, but he didn't lose his cool or composure; just two rebounds off a double-double. Played hard all night long. The monster jam was so sweet.
3. LaChance was so impressive to me tonight. Gritty, hard-nosed. Dealt with the Tennessee pressure, both in the back court and the front-court, extremely well. He wasn't going to get many looks due to the overplaying by UT's defenders, but boy he made them pay by driving and dishing to open teammates, particularly when the game was on the line, and then iced things at the charity stripe. With how chippy it had gotten out there, and with the way the crowd was behaving, I was very happy to see him take it to the goal with the game already over, and normally I'm one of those "just dribble it out" kind of guys. Of course, the play of the night was when UT stole the in bounds pass late, attempted to pass it across court, and LaChance intercepted it and threw it back in to Roberson before he went out of bounds. Talk about effort!
4. Cressler started quietly, but delivered big in the second half. He has definitely surprised me with how much he has contributed to the team, and I am really happy to see that for him. Three coaches in three seasons is not easy to deal with, but he has flourished under CBD. Plays as hard as anybody out there.
5. I like MFD coming in off the bench. He can provide instant offense. There are several good options on the offensive side of the ball in the starting line up without him, but if he started, we would have very little consistent offense coming in off the bench. I don't know what he did to draw the delay of game warning, but that kind of stuff just drives me nuts; must drive CBD nuts as well, as MFD stayed on the bench after that until Toye fouled out, if I remember correctly. He has got to mature and make better decisions; the other thing is he is developing a reputation, and officials are going to be well aware of it, and will be watching to see what he does.
6. Outside of MFD, our bench offered very little; Willis really seems to have hit a major freshman wall; hopefully he can get through it; Brown is always hit and miss at this stage of his career; tonight was a miss; Baptiste is improving, but this was a bad match-up for him tonight.
7. Tennessee really got after it on the glass in the second half; a lot of nights when you give up 16 offensive rebounds in a half, you are going to get smoked; however, Tennessee couldn't finish around the rim very much, mainly due to Kornet's presence; VU also only had 5 turnovers the entire game; I've seen games this season where we would have that many between TV timeouts. Excellent care of the ball. One of the things that really caught my eye tonight was how hard VU worked to get back on defense; they just refused to let UT get out and run, and that helped to keep UT's offense stymied; excellent effort by the team.
8. Finally, I love me some CBD; he impresses me so much with how he has adjusted to the players available to him, and how he is getting these guys to buy into tenacious defense. So impressed with what he is putting together at Vanderbilt, and really glad he sees Vanderbilt as a "destination" job.
1. Kornet was amazing tonight. That was some serious heart and effort from the big man. One of the things that I appreciated the most from him was the fact that he took only four 3's on the night, making one. Tennessee was not going to give him clean looks tonight out there, and he didn't force it. I think he attempted maybe just one 3 pointer in the second half. Instead, he played nearer the basket. Of course, defensively he was incredible; 11 boards, 7 blocks, and at least that many altered shots. Fantastic display.
2. Roberson with just a solid, all-round game. Pretty unfortunate to have gotten a couple of those fouls called on him, but he didn't lose his cool or composure; just two rebounds off a double-double. Played hard all night long. The monster jam was so sweet.
3. LaChance was so impressive to me tonight. Gritty, hard-nosed. Dealt with the Tennessee pressure, both in the back court and the front-court, extremely well. He wasn't going to get many looks due to the overplaying by UT's defenders, but boy he made them pay by driving and dishing to open teammates, particularly when the game was on the line, and then iced things at the charity stripe. With how chippy it had gotten out there, and with the way the crowd was behaving, I was very happy to see him take it to the goal with the game already over, and normally I'm one of those "just dribble it out" kind of guys. Of course, the play of the night was when UT stole the in bounds pass late, attempted to pass it across court, and LaChance intercepted it and threw it back in to Roberson before he went out of bounds. Talk about effort!
4. Cressler started quietly, but delivered big in the second half. He has definitely surprised me with how much he has contributed to the team, and I am really happy to see that for him. Three coaches in three seasons is not easy to deal with, but he has flourished under CBD. Plays as hard as anybody out there.
5. I like MFD coming in off the bench. He can provide instant offense. There are several good options on the offensive side of the ball in the starting line up without him, but if he started, we would have very little consistent offense coming in off the bench. I don't know what he did to draw the delay of game warning, but that kind of stuff just drives me nuts; must drive CBD nuts as well, as MFD stayed on the bench after that until Toye fouled out, if I remember correctly. He has got to mature and make better decisions; the other thing is he is developing a reputation, and officials are going to be well aware of it, and will be watching to see what he does.
6. Outside of MFD, our bench offered very little; Willis really seems to have hit a major freshman wall; hopefully he can get through it; Brown is always hit and miss at this stage of his career; tonight was a miss; Baptiste is improving, but this was a bad match-up for him tonight.
7. Tennessee really got after it on the glass in the second half; a lot of nights when you give up 16 offensive rebounds in a half, you are going to get smoked; however, Tennessee couldn't finish around the rim very much, mainly due to Kornet's presence; VU also only had 5 turnovers the entire game; I've seen games this season where we would have that many between TV timeouts. Excellent care of the ball. One of the things that really caught my eye tonight was how hard VU worked to get back on defense; they just refused to let UT get out and run, and that helped to keep UT's offense stymied; excellent effort by the team.
8. Finally, I love me some CBD; he impresses me so much with how he has adjusted to the players available to him, and how he is getting these guys to buy into tenacious defense. So impressed with what he is putting together at Vanderbilt, and really glad he sees Vanderbilt as a "destination" job.
