Defense was actually a lot better last night

[Niels Boar]

..thanks primarily to incredible defensive rebounding.  We still gave up extremely high FG percentages.  However, in addition to forcing a good 17 TOs, we surrendered an incredibly low 2 offensive rebounds.  UT rebounded only about 7% of their misses, which is like holding a team to about 12% on shooting.  We actually got up 12 more shots than they did and shot more FTs.  That would normally mean a win, home or away.  UT only scored barely over 1 point per possession, as opposed to the 1.2+ we surrendered at Auburn.  That's a difference of about 14 points in a 70 possession game.

We are 236th in the nation in defensive rebounding on the season.  There is reason to believe Ratliffe could make a big difference next season.

Kudos to Pearl for intimidating the refs into giving UT makeup calls for proper fouls called on UT.

Unfortunately UT's D was better than ours.  Powell had trouble with their length and had his second worst game of the season, though he contributed mightily to the good rebounding.  An average game from him probably would have been enough to turn the tide.  Fortson gave back a lot of the TOs.  He had 6 assists and still managed a sub-1 A/TO ratio. Is it too much to ask that he have one game with fewer than 5 TOs?  He, however, did get to the line, which made his usual 33% shooting tolerable.  Our low FT percentage didn't help our cause.

Clarke missing open treys is a handicap that we can't overcome.  He had several good looks that could have put pressure on UT.  He's missing shots, usually short, that were money earlier in the season.  Booker mentioned that we looked like a tired team, and that may be a legitimate observation.  We are 24th in the nation in pace, higher than Missouri.  Clarke has played over 80% of available minutes on the season, Powell over 75%.  The main guys regularly play over 30 minutes.  Missouri has played at a slower pace and rarely plays any one player more than 25 minutes.  At some point a kid is going to lose his legs, no matter how good the conditioning.


Pel's teams have died four years in a row in February, two were postseason squads.  His last S. Alabama team didn't win a game after Feb. 14.   They lost their last 2 home games to teams that finished 5 games behind them in the Sun Belt.  I am wondering if this trend has something to do with the curiously erratic way he uses the bench.  Guys like Farmer and Nobles disappear for games at a time.  They then pop up for a game or two and look imminently useable, only to disappear again. 

[The Hogfather]

Kudos to Pearl for intimidating the refs into giving UT makeup calls for proper fouls called on UT.

This.  That was a horrible stretch of intentional suckage by the refs.  I hate when that crap happens....

[Niels Boar]

This.  That was a horrible stretch of intentional suckage by the refs.  I hate when that crap happens....

Yeah, that faux tantrum on calls that weren't that close stopped our best surge of the second half.  Good coaching by Pearl.  Crap officiating.

[mmhogs17]

I just saw the highlights on sportscenter and all they would show was a Tenn highlight and then the woman said Tenn dominated the game i was like ok? sure they did

But anyway yea the refs gave them a long strech of makeup calls after that technical but not making excuses.

[The Hogfather]

Yeah, that faux tantrum on calls that weren't that close stopped our best surge of the second half.  Good coaching by Pearl.  Crap officiating.

I agree.  It was a very good move for Pearl and equally crappy officiating.

[HogInThaGrove]

The early season suspensions hurt us in so many ways.  From losing the non-conf games that we would have won, to Clarke and Powell having to play extremely extended minutes early in the season, the suspensions/rehab killed us this year.  I know people are still pissed about Pel's coaching ability, and of course I have some questions as well, but for anybody to believe we wouldn't have won those non-conf games earlier this year. And with a full roster earlier this year, we could have had more rest for the "stars" on the team and we might not have experienced the lul at the end of the season.  I bet Clarke and Powell are super tired.  Wash is playing through super-pain.  I'm not making excuses per-se, but I do believe these are legitimate observations.  Feel free to disagree.

I believe we won the second half of:

Alabama at home
Miss St. at home
Ole Miss at Oxford
Georgia at Athens
2nd Half and overtime vs Auburn
LSU at Home
South Carolina at Home

I know we talk about Pel's inability to coach, but most of our conference wins (save lsu and south carolina) have been come from behind wins in the second half.  That gives me at least a little hope that there is some coaching going on at halftime and that we're able to diagnose and exploit what the other team is doing.  That's my thought anyway.

[TheShow]

The rebounding may have been better on defense, but it's nowhere to be found on offense.  I was there last night and I think they had 8 or so dunks in the second half alone.  Our guys looked completely lost in the second half.

[thirtythree]

The rebounding may have been better on defense, but it's nowhere to be found on offense.  I was there last night and I think they had 8 or so dunks in the second half alone.  Our guys looked completely lost in the second half.

Do you know how many offensive rebounds we had in the first half alone compared to Tennessee?

That will answer your post for you.