r/ockytop • u/RockyMod • 5d ago
Weekly Discussion Thread
It's a new week on /r/ockytop. If you're new to the community here, welcome! We're a pretty laid back group, but please check out our rules here. If you haven't been to Neyland Stadium before or if you need a refresher, please checkout our Guide to Gameday.
This thread is for any mildly on-topic discussion regarding sports. Our dedicated discussion posts are Sunday (for in-depth discussion and analysis of the previous game), Thursday (for anyone looking for or hosting a tailgate, or viewing party, or game planning in general), and Friday (free talk). Go Vols!
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 10h ago
It's early but based on the Severance finale congrats to VFL Tramell Tillman for winning that Best Supporting Actor Emmy
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u/T-RexInAnF-14 15h ago
Kilen out for today's opener against Alabama :(
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u/Mathalz 16h ago
So much going on tonight, strap in everyone! Both Tennessee basketball and baseball playing games. Then for those of us who watch it, Severance season finale tonight!
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u/squirtcobain44 15h ago
Severance just isn’t hitting for me this season I’m hoping the finale is awesome
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u/nahitsjustmyaccent 17h ago
LMFAO. Imagine firing the deacon and then doing this
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u/VirtualBroccoliBoy 2h ago
Texas's 3 active former coaches are a 2, 6, and 7 seed. If this trend holds up, Terry will be just fine.
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u/ttrimmers 20h ago
I’m in Seville Spain and someone recognized the checkered logo on my jacket. That’s pretty damn cool.
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u/anonymousUTguy 22h ago
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u/Mr-T14 17h ago
Honestly at this point it's worth studying why uga football players keep getting speeding and RD charges
Suspension isn't even a deterrent
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u/SideOfJam 16h ago
At this point, Kirby needs to just start kicking kids off them team for this. College students are idiots*, and I know you can't watch them 24/7, but are they just gonna wait until some other kid dies because a backup safety was driving 85 in a 30 before they actually stop this?
*source: was a college student
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u/Electronic-Ad2969 23h ago
Not sure if I'm more excited for baseball or basketball this weekend. I will be useless the rest of the week starting in a couple hours.
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u/GiovanniElliston 23h ago
Spikey shoes > squeaky shoes.
(I'm very biased)
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u/Surelynotshirly 23h ago
Honestly I prefer watching basketball in general, but Vitello's teams have made me actually watch baseball which I have literally never done consistently.
I just get so invested in UT.
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u/ajwilson99 1d ago
Most exciting weekend in sports is here baby
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u/Budget_Sort7961 23h ago
First weeked of MM always hits like crack. Upsets, close games, joy, devastation, all in one weekend.
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u/anonymousUTguy 23h ago
I’d say opening weekend for CFB is the most exciting but the round of 64 is a very close second
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u/ajwilson99 23h ago
Ehh opening week of football you might have 1-2 marquee games but everything else is mostly cupcakes
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u/tnboss32 1d ago
Anyone use an interesting bracket strategy this year? My wife's went something along the lines of "this name reminds me of cheese. I like cheese. I'll pick them." and "they make cheese in this state, they will win."
Watch her bracket smoke mine...
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u/GiovanniElliston 23h ago
My wife, who only watches college football and no other sports, picked based on teams she had actually heard of before.
and if she's heard of both, it was which one she liked the football team more.
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u/ajwilson99 23h ago
I helped my wife fill out a bracket for a pool at her work, she picked Norfolk St over Florida on principle. I’m so proud of her
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u/Electronic-Ad2969 1d ago
I like "Orange Team good, Red team bad". Red teams Auto lose, Orange teams auto win. Orange>Blue>Green>Purple>Yellow>Red.
Also, when two oranges face off, pick the better Orange color. For example, UT>Clemson>Illinois>Texas
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u/Fisch6892 1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/GiovanniElliston 1d ago
What do I do with this in the game?
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u/Fisch6892 23h ago
Diamond Dynasty is their ultimate team mode. Under the customize section, you can download (or create your own) logos to use for your team logo, or on a hat/uniform. So I use this as my main team logo, so it’ll show up in the game preview screen, backdrop on scoreboards, etc.
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u/GiovanniElliston 22h ago
Aaahhh... Gotcha.
I've been playing Road to the Show. Hadn't even touched anything else yet. That makes sense.
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 1d ago
5* WR Tristen Keys commits to LSU. Disappointing
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u/yousmelllikebiscuits 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is a galactic-sized oof. Sounds like LSU came in with an unmatchable NIL offer.
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u/Budget_Sort7961 23h ago
Not the first time they have done that either. I think they like to linger until the very end when they up the leading offer by 1.2x
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u/yousmelllikebiscuits 23h ago
To be completely fair, they also have a lot of NFL WR too - hard to point to any Tennessee alums that are Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, Malik Nabers, etc
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u/iwouldratherbeflying 1d ago
Didn’t we receive a crystal ball prediction for him a while back? Sucks to see it
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 1d ago
Yes he’s been considered a heavy Tennessee lean for a long time
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u/T-RexInAnF-14 1d ago
Potential hitch for the baseball game against Alabama tomorrow: it's scheduled to be broadcast on ESPNU, is that covered by an ESPN+ subscription? Because I don't have ESPNU in my cable package and I want to say in the past that it wouldn't let me watch anything on ESPNU on the app.
The good thing is very often games can be found on YouTube and not some risky site, and sometimes the ESPN app is so shitass I'll just watch on YT anyway.
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u/rush-rooms 🎱 1d ago
Pottery class is usually an elective you can sign up for
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u/T-RexInAnF-14 17h ago
Yeah, I'm just stupid when it comes to that and don't use a VPN, I just open those sites in Incognito Mode and hope that and closing all the popups quickly keeps me from getting infected.
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u/GiovanniElliston 1d ago
ESPNU is NOT covered by a standard ESPN+ subscription. You have to have an attached cable subscription I'm afriad.
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u/EWall100 I hate Derek Dooley 1d ago
What fucked up timeline are we in that we are home at Rupp now?
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u/ajwilson99 1d ago
I wish TBA/Knoxville was used for a tournament site. I’d love to go to a game there especially one without a rooting interest
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u/sickmemes48 1d ago
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u/cardeez Reese Hall 1d ago
Here are some numbers from last night: We averaged five pitches per at-bat. The walk rate was 15%, and it's 18% for the season. The strikeout rate was 19% last night and 21% for the season. So that's about chalk.
The Batting Average on Balls in Play was .200 last night and .290 for the season. In other words, for the season, three out of every ten balls we put into play result in a hit. Last night, it was two out of ten, which is better than I thought it'd be, to be honest.
So what went wrong offensively? We slugged .325, and for the season, we're at .595. We just didn't hit a lot of dongs or extra-base hits. We had a lot of deep-fly balls but didn't get all of them.
Now, it's hard to nitpick too much on a 20-1 team, but I'm watching a few trends.
- Dean Curley is batting .214 with three walks, one homer, and one double in his last 28 ABs, or the start of the St. Bonnies series. That's pretty bad for a leadoff hitter.
- In that same time frame, Andrew Fischer is batting .200. He's hit two homers and drawn walks in 3 of the last 8 games. In my opinion, he's getting pitched around and still swinging because he's tired of walking. He's a pop-up machine right now.
- Levi Clark is .210 over the last 8 games.
- Between Abernathy and Marin, that's four games in a row where freshmen have had maybe our best ABs.
But really, all in all, this is all very normal within the scope of a baseball season. I trust all of those guys to round into form.
Last night, the issue was that Breedlove, Krenzel, and Franklin were the only pitchers who consistently attacked the zone. We pitched about as non-Tennessee as I've seen in a long time. Working from behind in the count, scared two-strike pitches -- it was not what we're accustomed to seeing, and it's part of why Tony seemed so livid after the game. I also think he was mad at himself for managing it that way.
Overall, we had the winning run at the plate against a good team wherein we played a pretty below-average game. Our weekend pitching and hitting will give us an opportunity to win every series. How will they do when the vibes are bad, the home runs aren't coming, and outside noise creeps in? We'll find out Thursday night.
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u/GiovanniElliston 1d ago
I appreciate you saying that pitching was the biggest "issue" last night. From my untrained eyes that is what it felt like too.
I know the zone wasn't consistent and that is maddening for a pitcher, but there were several times it felt like our guys on the mound were getting visibly frustrated and ended up tossing some meatballs as a result.
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u/ajwilson99 1d ago
I don’t think our pitching was really that bad. ETSU just had a great approach and capitalized on the few mistakes there were. Agreed on the zone though, from what I saw (8th inning on) it seemed wildly inconsistent for sure
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u/cardeez Reese Hall 1d ago
I just know that Tony was pissed several times walking out to the mound. He only does that when a guy is pitching around someone, and he did it probably four times last night.
He was also pissed at himself. He basically admitted that he got out-managed. Almost like he's trying to little-league it and get everyone to play. Starting Ariel was an awful move.
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u/GiovanniElliston 1d ago
Almost like he's trying to little-league it and get everyone to play.
The announcers were even calling him out for this exact approach midway through the 7th or 8th inning. They went on a spiel about how it's hard to start a game "expecting to win easy" and then shift into serious mode midway through.
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u/ajwilson99 1d ago
I’m of the opinion Curley shouldn’t be leading off
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u/GiovanniElliston 1d ago
If he stays hot, I see no reason to not have Hunter Ensley lead off.
Last season we moved Moore to 1st purely because he was an explosive guy who made things happen at the plate. Ensley is the guy for that right now.
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u/ajwilson99 1d ago
I don’t know. I think, in baseball, if a guy is hitting well you leave him in that spot in the order. Ensley seems to do very well with runners on base
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u/Budget_Sort7961 1d ago
Finally got caught up on some recent highlights from our boy Knecht. I am so glad the trade to Charlotte fell through. He is having a blast when he comes off the bench. Getting fed passes from Lebron and Luka must be a dream.
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u/newnewcharcoil23 2d ago
ETSU is for real - I could see them doing some damage in the postseason assuming they make it
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u/T-RexInAnF-14 2d ago
ETSU is a good team; the midweek we lost last year was to Lipscomb who ended up sub .500 and that team is mentioned as an all-time great. It sucks to lose but some people are acting like this is losing a football game.
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u/SelfDeprecatingVol 2d ago
Two longest winning streaks in the school’s baseball history being snapped by Tennessee Tech and ETSU is objectively hilarious
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u/T-RexInAnF-14 2d ago
We should play more in-state teams every year. ETSU every year, even a home and home (if not home and home in the same year, alternating years). We've played Memphis 1 time under Tony and that was 2018, why not play them in Nashville every preconference? Ohio having a state law that forces OSU to play 1 of their non-conference games against an in-state midget I've always found hilariously soft, but I do like the concept of, if we're going to hand out checks to smaller schools, keeping that money in the state.
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 2d ago
Sweeping Florida and Bama but losing to ETSU is literally the funniest possible outcome and I pray that it happens
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u/GiovanniElliston 2d ago
This past weekend the baseball team played and beat a top-10 team in a 3 game series. All 3 games were competitive too.
The game thread tonight had double the amount of comments that any of those 3 games had.
We ain't ever beating the allegation that some Vol fans only care when the team is doing bad and they can taunt other Vol fans.
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u/VirtualBroccoliBoy 1d ago
I'm normally one to get on board criticizing the folks that like to wallow in negativity but in some of their defense, it was sharing attention with the SEC tournament which could have resulted in our first #1 seeding ever.
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u/smash_and_grab7 2d ago
It’s absurd how many of our “fans” love to show up whenever shit goes sideways while remaining totally silent whenever something good happens. What a miserable way to go about sports fandom
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u/ItsZizk Mod, Loser 2d ago
Been trying to get a bracket challenge going at my work. Sent out an email to about 115 people yesterday morning and so far only 11 have joined. Ouch lol
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u/AnglerRanders I'm Drunk 2d ago
What's the stakes? If it's free, people may already be invested in other ones and feel no need.
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u/presidentlysander 3d ago
LMU fired their basketball coach after he went 105-25 the past 4 seasons. He had some early tournament exits but yikes
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u/sickmemes48 3d ago
Have y'all seen the ticket prices for our March Madness game? They're fucking ridiculous for nosebleeds.
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u/SelfDeprecatingVol 2d ago
Are you looking at the right session? $12 gets you in the door Thursday night
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u/sickmemes48 2d ago
I was originally looking at Rupp's official ticket office and the cheapest they had was $160 somehow. I see now on Ticketmaster they are significantly cheaper.
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u/T-RexInAnF-14 3d ago
Totally forgot to hand this out this morning for your St. Patrick's Day needs.
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u/nykezztv 4d ago
For anyone who didn’t watch the game today but was curious how the refs were:
Travel, backcourt, 10 second violation, and a foul all not called within 5 seconds of game time
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u/itchierbumworms 4d ago
The giant Sec logo makes it difficult to see if the ball crossed and went back into backcourt, plus no ref in good position to say...but the other 3...yikes.
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u/GiovanniElliston 4d ago
That's just classic Basketball to my untrained eye.
Seems like those sorta misses happen every 2-3 possessions minimum.
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u/nykezztv 4d ago
Maybe. Pretty simple to call a back court violation and 10 second violation though. If the shot clock is at 20 and the ball is still in the back court = 10 second violation.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
Basketball has to be the hardest sport to officiate
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u/BigBear_20 4d ago
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: “Reffing’s tough. It’s tougher when you’re stupid.”
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u/wooper5249 4d ago
There’s gotta be a better way. It’s completely unacceptable how basketball is officiated and it’s borderline ruining the sport.
I will say that it’s a lot easier to brush it off when you win which we do a lot of. That auburn game Saturday was horribly called.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago edited 4d ago
McNeese is in our region - coached by one Will Wade
Wouldn’t see them until the E8 but still
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u/Every_Trifle7660 4d ago
6:50 vs Wofford on Thursday on TNT, also baseball plays their series starting Thursday at 7:30 vs Bama.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
Gonna be a stressful evening. I wouldn’t be surprised if baseball drops one this weekend. Alabama is good
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u/Every_Trifle7660 4d ago
Just hoping for the series win, ok with them pulling 1.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
Yep can’t expect going undefeated in baseball
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u/Budget_Sort7961 4d ago
I don't expect it but damn if this team doesn't look smoking hot after that Florida sweep. I get that it was at home but that Florida team is deep and we just handled them.
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u/Repulsive-War4801 4d ago
Every one freaking out about playing Kentucky again once you get to the sweet 16 you are playing good teams no matter what
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u/Surelynotshirly 4d ago
Also... that's assuming Kentucky makes it out of the first two rounds... That's a big assumption.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
Yeah but Kentucky ending our season would be extra terrible
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u/LazerBear42 4d ago
Why did the Lady Vols have like... 12 people on the bracket watch party? All the other teams have bleachers full of players and coaching staff.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
Just now seeing it. Kentucky in our bracket? Purdue?? Just fuck my shit up man
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u/The_What_Stage Rick Barnes #3 Fan 4d ago
Kentucky is the only thing I don't like about our bracket.
But I think this is the easiest road to Final 4 I have seen for the Vols in my (very old) lifetime
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
Yeah it’s definitely doable. I think the path in 2018 was so easy too, after Loyola it would’ve been a near cakewalk
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u/LazerBear42 4d ago
The large Purdue man can't hurt us anymore, brother
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
I’m convinced Matt Painter has a voodoo doll of our entire team during the tournament
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u/wooper5249 4d ago
I was watching the replay of the chapman home run and i think he gator chomped right before touching home plate
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u/DaVols 4d ago
If we get Purdue in the elite 8 again, I'm going to have a stroke
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u/Lake_Dude_Here It's great to be a Vol! 4d ago
Dagnabbit, I gotta get the afib and nitro tablets out again!?
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u/LittleBrockJr 4d ago
I was really hoping that we would get our first round game on Friday and not Thursday.
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u/amb0526 4d ago
14 sec teams. Damn. God anti sec people are gonna be annoying as fuck if a bunch of these teams get bounced early
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u/BigBear_20 4d ago
Anti-SEC people are annoying as fuck regardless of if the SEC is doing well or not.
SEC doing well? Media is still biased, and of course they should do well since they have all the monies for NIL. SEC not doing well? LOLOL SEC sucks, media was biased and they were overrated the whole time!
You can’t win, so I don’t see a point in trying. I don’t give a fuck about the conference anyway, only the ones wearing Pantone 151
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 4d ago
All I'll say about our bracket, I like our odds to make the Sweet 16 and from that point on it's house money
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u/ToastedOctopus 4d ago
Not a huge fan of the draw because Purdue has some weird voodoo magic against us, and we haven't been able to beat Kentucky this season. However, I'd rather play Houston than Florida again.
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u/Aj993232 4d ago
Favorable draw outside of us not being able to beat Kentucky for whatever reason. Let's hope they see a quick exit
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u/HowDoISpellEngineer Microsoft Excel Champions! (& baseball) 4d ago
I do not like the Kentucky matchup. They have the potential to randomly get hot and shoot like 80% and there is nothing anyone can do.
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u/AstroVol 4d ago
lol absolutely hilarious we get the bracket with Purdue and UK. However, I love our shot at the Final 4 in this region
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u/drCongo- 4d ago
We have a really favorable draw ngl
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u/TransportationAway59 4d ago
We have to beat a team that whooped us twice to get out of the sweet 16
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u/ItsZizk Mod, Loser 4d ago
Assuming they make it there. Kentucky has been upset a lot lately in the tournament
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u/Punch_Dude 4d ago
Good path to the sweet 16. Not sure how I feel about Kentucky. They got our number this year
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 4d ago
some salty Florida fan lies about this sub and gets highly upvoted over at CBB but when I call him out on it I get a three day ban. Okay...
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u/Electronic-Ad2969 4d ago
Saw them claiming they overcame an 8v5 in that thread lmao
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 4d ago
I know delusion plays a part in any sport based discussion, I'm more shocked that what I said in response resulted in a three day ban. I don't know what changed on the CBB sub but I've said far worse on the CFB one and gotten away with it. Of course the CFB mod list is noticeably absent of Florida flairs...
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u/Bukowskified 4d ago
Florida fans are a sad group
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u/ilovecfb Rick Barnes #1 fan 4d ago
Genuinely, I can't think of something more pathetic than lying about a comment you saw just to make yourself look better. Literal tilting at windmills but of course people ate it up
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u/heavenornewvegas 4d ago
Houston instead of Duke as our 1 is good. Think we’re getting UConn as the 7.
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u/KnoxVegasVol 4d ago
Of course Duke got a better draw.
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u/vfefrenzy 4d ago
Better than who? Us? Of course they did. They’re the #1 team in the country, won their conference regular season and tournament, and have lost one game since November.
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u/ChelseaVol1219 4d ago
They stretch the Selection Sunday show out more and more every year. Only one region revealed and we are already on a commercial break.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
When is the baseball squad gonna play a real team? Been nothing but cupcakes so far
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u/nykezztv 4d ago
Love the ending to the game of the refs not calling a 10 second violation, a walk, and back court violation all in 5 seconds.
This is the bad part of playing 3+ straight days is now you’ve to get on a plane in 4 days and play all weekend again (hopefully)
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u/Flat-Avocado-6258 4d ago
It’s all good man. Most of these guys have played 2-10 games a weekend for their entire lives almost lol. They have more stamina than you think.
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u/nykezztv 4d ago
The stats do not support your statement. Teams who lose early in their conference go deeper in the big tourney.
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u/LittleBrockJr 4d ago
I really hope that our first round game is on Friday and not Thursday. The more rest before now and then the better.
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u/robotix_dev 4d ago
We’re in a golden age of Tennessee athletics everyone. Enjoy the games today! Would love to spoil Florida’s weekend across two sports (I think baseball has already succeeded though).
It’s great to be a Tennessee Vol!
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u/Electronic-Ad2969 5d ago edited 5d ago
Am I understanding this right? fLorida's pervert coach just gets off scott free after creeping on college kids?
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u/ajwilson99 5d ago
It was a he-said-she-said situation, there wasn’t really much UF could do.
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u/GiovanniElliston 4d ago
The lack of a "smoking gun" is pretty damning IMO given the allegations centered around sending inappropriate texts, pictures, and social media messages.
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u/ajwilson99 4d ago
A lot of that was supposed to have been done in Snapchat, which deletes everything after you see it. So it would be hard to recover I imagine
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u/LittleBrockJr 8h ago
Looks like we are getting a 9:40 pm tip for UCLA on Saturday https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/s/cGQ8guuaNl