This one could have easily turned out differently. After blowing another early lead, Vandy was playing with fire and believed they were going to get a 3rd top 5 win in the last few weeks. After Vandy got the lead early in the 2nd half, the guys did a great job of trading blows and not letting Vandy go on a run to build a lead. From around the 17:30 to 12:30 mark, the game hung in the balance until Chaney took over. It wasn't pretty much of the time, but we found a way to win a tough game against a solid team in their weird gym in front of thousands of fired-up nerds. If we go on to win the SEC regular season title, this won't be the game we remember the most, but it will be one of the most significant wins of the year. Coming off a tough loss at home, we easily could have lost confidence when things were not going our way. If we lose this one, our chances at the regular season would have taken a huge hit.
Chaney gets my nod for the MVP tonight. This aggressive version of Chaney takes us from being a great team to nearly unstoppable on offense. His offensive game is brute force and extremely difficult to counter when he plays the way he did tonight. Unlike this past weekend, he didn't try to do things where he does not excel by ISOing from the top of the key. Tonight he got passes near the high post and made one aggressive move to get into his comfort zone for an open look and nailed them repeatedly. Between the 16:30 and 11:30 mark of the 2nd half, he had 11 points and completely dominated the game. With Broome struggling to get rolling, its brutal for other teams to have to face another power forward who is capable of that kind of offensive outburst.
Ole Zep Denver was a close 2nd for our best performance with his best game of the year. Phenomenal shooting night for Denver going 7/10 and 5/7 deep. About the most efficient 21 points as we will ever see. The coaching staff challenged Denver to be more aggressive and he stepped up in a huge way. Denver has been extremely solid this year, but if he could take his offensive game to the next level consistently, our already historically great offense is that much better.
Broome struggled to find a groove tonight, but demonstrated why he's one of the best college players ever from an advanced metrics standpoint. His final line ended up near his average points per game at 17. He also led the team with 30 minutes played. That's not surprising given he's been playing 30+ minutes per game since coming back from the ankle injury, but it is still remarkable. He's a warrior and wants to carry this team to victory after victory as he continues to work back towards being 100%.
The first game after a loss at the end of a long winning streak is telling. We did not allow the loss to UF to snowball into a 2nd loss tonight. With the toughest game of the season since the trip to Durham coming up this weekend, we needed to get this W to regain confidence. Win this weekend and we are in control of the SEC. Lose, and thanks to the win tonight, we are not on a losing streak and we're only 1 game out of first with lots of games left to go.
Chaney gets my nod for the MVP tonight. This aggressive version of Chaney takes us from being a great team to nearly unstoppable on offense. His offensive game is brute force and extremely difficult to counter when he plays the way he did tonight. Unlike this past weekend, he didn't try to do things where he does not excel by ISOing from the top of the key. Tonight he got passes near the high post and made one aggressive move to get into his comfort zone for an open look and nailed them repeatedly. Between the 16:30 and 11:30 mark of the 2nd half, he had 11 points and completely dominated the game. With Broome struggling to get rolling, its brutal for other teams to have to face another power forward who is capable of that kind of offensive outburst.
Ole Zep Denver was a close 2nd for our best performance with his best game of the year. Phenomenal shooting night for Denver going 7/10 and 5/7 deep. About the most efficient 21 points as we will ever see. The coaching staff challenged Denver to be more aggressive and he stepped up in a huge way. Denver has been extremely solid this year, but if he could take his offensive game to the next level consistently, our already historically great offense is that much better.
Broome struggled to find a groove tonight, but demonstrated why he's one of the best college players ever from an advanced metrics standpoint. His final line ended up near his average points per game at 17. He also led the team with 30 minutes played. That's not surprising given he's been playing 30+ minutes per game since coming back from the ankle injury, but it is still remarkable. He's a warrior and wants to carry this team to victory after victory as he continues to work back towards being 100%.
The first game after a loss at the end of a long winning streak is telling. We did not allow the loss to UF to snowball into a 2nd loss tonight. With the toughest game of the season since the trip to Durham coming up this weekend, we needed to get this W to regain confidence. Win this weekend and we are in control of the SEC. Lose, and thanks to the win tonight, we are not on a losing streak and we're only 1 game out of first with lots of games left to go.
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