*** Official #23 Tennessee vs #6 IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***

bingo. The number of people acting like every Sweet 16 team can’t keep one shooter quiet is baffling. Everything on every offense has to work in tandem. Lipsey isn’t the same without Jefferson’s post presence. Momcilovic isn’t the same without Lipsey’s driving and Jefferson’s passing. Jefferson wasn’t the same when Toure, Heise, and Lipsey couldn’t hit a shot. Take what may be the best team in the country—people think Burries would be the same player if Bradley were out? Smith would not be the same without Cluff. And so on
For sure, the offense was at its best with Lipsey and Toure as a driving threat with a dish to JJ and if that was defended, a pass back out to Milan to hit a 3. ISU was very successful as an inside out threat. Primary goal of points in the paint, but second option was Milan sniping a sagging defense - it got him open looks.
 
He was saying Milan disappears and belongs in Europe and Jefferson wouldn’t have made a difference. Thats absolutely false.

Milan can’t carry the team without another weapon. He never has and never will. It’s not his skill set. He needs a Jefferson to at least take the main focus off him. Even if Jefferson isn’t hitting his shots, he still demands defenses to adjust. He’s also our leading rebounder in a game we got out rebounded by a metric **** ton. Jefferson is a position player and he can break down defenses.
I’ll never know if I was right, but my deep dive into Tennessee suggested they would not have struggled with Jefferson. They would have locked down on him the way they did Milan, and he turned the ball over quite a bit in those type of games. Really wish he’d gotten one more game though. Still crazy how he rolled that ankle. Didn’t step on anyone, wasn’t working around anyone…just a normal layup…
 
You should keep cheering for mediocrity while our rival is in an elite 8 and we just got embarrassed yet again in a sweet 16
I mean, this is far from mediocrity…but if I can cheer for 2-22 I can cheer for mediocrity.

If there has been a better 5 year run of ISU basketball I wasn’t around for it.

No reason to think playing at this level can’t produce a Final Four eventually.
 
I mean, this is far from mediocrity…but if I can cheer for 2-22 I can cheer for mediocrity.

If there has been a better 5 year run of ISU basketball I wasn’t around for it.

No reason to think playing at this level can’t produce a Final Four eventually.

My childhood was filled with memories of 8 or 9 seed type of ISU teams and it was a blast.
 
Jefferson just said he wasn't even close to being able to play today and probably not Sunday either had we advanced.
That's exactly what I figured. Most medical experts were saying even on here that the way he rolled that ankle, it would be several weeks at the earliest he could be playing the sport of basketball at any kind of level, much less an elite level.

But yet... ISU tried to make other teams believe there was a chance, so they would have to prepare for him... and then all the average Joe's on here saying stupid s**t like... "I sprained my ankle once... and I was able to play in my adult men's league less than a week later... so I'm sure he can!!". That was one of the worst threads on here EVER! Nobody had a clue... but everyone thought they were a medical expert.
 
I’ll never know if I was right, but my deep dive into Tennessee suggested they would not have struggled with Jefferson. They would have locked down on him the way they did Milan, and he turned the ball over quite a bit in those type of games. Really wish he’d gotten one more game though. Still crazy how he rolled that ankle. Didn’t step on anyone, wasn’t working around anyone…just a normal layup…

They wouldn’t have had the ability to lock down on everyone on the court with the way Heise, Lipsey and even Toure had been scoring. I feel very confident they would have stepped up if Tennessee was overplaying both Milan and Jefferson.

We needed another big to pull the defense from cheating the guards on our pick and rolls. Our offense was absolutely humming before he went down.
 
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They wouldn’t have had the ability to lock down on everyone on the court with the way Heise, Lipsey and eve Toure had been scoring. I feel very confident they would have stepped up if Tennessee was overplaying both Milan and Jefferson.

We needed another big to pull the defense from cheating the guards on our pick and rolls.
You may be right. It certainly would have been a different game. I just honestly liked our matchup with what we had. I’m surprised thy were able to guard the perimeter as well as they did, and I don’t know how thy lost twice to Kentucky.
 
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Disagree. Against equally or more talented teams, if we couldn’t turn the over, we really struggled on offense.
Our half court offense remains to be not great.....we truly are one of the best teams in the country when we're forcing live ball turnovers and getting out in transition....but when we're not forcing as many and especially when they're dead ball turnovers, it usually doesn't go well for us against really talented teams.