Let's have a show of hands. How many of you expected the Cuonzo Martin Era to be lighting up scoreboards right out of the gate?
Not me, I confess.
Six games in, Tennessee is averaging 84.7 points a game. UT has fallen short of 80 only once, in a 77-67 loss to Duke.
Silly us, we were wondering where the points were going to come from this winter after Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris checked out early.
But that's only half the story. The other side of the scoreboard is lighting up, too.
The Vols rank 268th out of 338 Division I teams in scoring defense — and that
was before Oakland's 89 points Monday night.
UT has lost 99-97 in overtime to Memphis and 89-81 to Oakland.
In 102 games as a head coach at Missouri State, opponents scored 80 points six times on Martin's teams. They've done it twice in six games at UT.
"We've scored a lot,'' Martin said Wednesday, "and we're 3-3. Now the guys understand we can score.
"But let's defend at a high level.''
That, after all, was going to be Martin's trademark, based on his three seasons at Missouri State. Virtually the first words in UT's new basketball media brochure are "smothering defense.''
When the media was allowed to view individual workouts in September, I don't recall anyone attempting a shot. All the drills were about defense.
Let me point out that I don't hear anyone complaining about the early-season performance. The scoring has been impressive, the tempo entertaining and the effort commendable.
It's just a different look than what was expected.
That goes for Martin, too, to an extent.
"I'm fine with it, that we have guys that can score the ball,'' he said. "Our programs have always scored ...
"Offensively, 80 to 90 is great, but defensively, we need to keep that thing right around the 60s.''
Martin is going with what works. He realized his perimeter players especially are "built to score,'' and haven't developed a defensive focus yet.
He can live with it for now, because it's early. But one-on-one defense has to improve. Oakland guard Reggie Hamilton scored 35 points primarily because no UT defender could stay in front of him.
Martin hopes Hamilton's exhibition will appeal to the Vols' sense of pride.
"The last thing you want to do,'' he said, "is go into the locker room and have guys teasing you about a guy scoring 30-plus points on us.''
The teacher in Martin — and the motivator — believes progress will come. The tools are there. It's about the want-to.
As a player at Purdue and as a pro, Martin wanted to. Knee surgery took a step off his quickness but he said he was still a good defender.
"I understood angles,'' he said. "I was where I was supposed to be all the time.''
Junior Dwight Miller said Wednesday he's pondered after every game why the Vols allowed so many baskets.
"We definitely have to fix it,'' said Miller, "to accomplish the goals we set in the beginning of the season.''
Martin will be watching for the fix with great interest.
"If you have pride,'' he said, "somewhat of an ego as a competitor, you'll do something about it.''
Mike Strange may be reached at strangem@knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/strangemike44 and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/strange.
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Comments » 11
VolinCalif writes:
You can just bet the defense will catch up pretty fast. after all they play against a pretty good Offence every day.
VolunteerLifer writes:
I'm a fan of CCM, and he knows much more than I ever will about coaching, but I am not comfortable with his apparent strategy of assuming that player pride will take care of this. I would think that a coach would demand that his players improve on the most important aspect of the game - defense. And if they don't, then they sit. Duke's and Memphis's guards had their way with us, as did the kid from Oakland. Obviously, we have no defensive stopper playing the guard position, and obviously our guards are poor defenders. However, all of our guards save McBee are underclassmen, so maybe this is just a matter of experience. Maybe.
BolivrBob writes:
Looking forward to Pitt
VolinCalif writes:
Yes that will be a real tester. But I look forward to Jan and the open against Fl. So lets get good before that game and take a little of Bodeanevol's fore skin. They didn't do that much better than than us in football but Bodeane will swear they are NC contenders so lets just chop off a little in Jan. If we can do that maybe he'll change his name to Fodeanevol
GoVols
1volk-nowi-tall writes:
One thing I think is apparent with Martin is that he will coach in the gym and the locker room. He will not use the news media to berate players or call out individuals for their mistakes. This takes real caracter and maturity in a coach. This quality in and of itself will go a long way toward good recruiting years, IMO. I admire this quality in Coach Martin and hope that our other coaches can learn from his example. The critique of the individuals quality of play by a coach does no good when plastered across the news outlets. unless it is one giving praise. Coach Martin seems willing and determined to take the responsibility for the performance of his - OUR- team on his own shoulders and that is a quality that most of us lack in our own lives. We love to play the blame game... Go Big Orange!!!
Germanicus writes:
While true Mo State only gave up 80 twice in those 102 games, but they scored over 80 only 8 times in those 102 games as well. Coach Martin's Tennessee defense is tracking pretty closely with his Mo State defenses when you factor in pace. This Tennessee team is just playing way faster than his Mo State teams. He preaches defense and I'm sure works hard on it, but his teams haven't reflected it, yet.
On the other hand, his Mo State teams were extremely efficient on offense, as is this Tennessee team.
FeelVol writes:
I'm afraid some of our players haven't completely bought in to Coach Martins' ideas and seen some of that in the Oakland game alittle bit of selfish play I thought.Lets clamp down and beat Pitt.Go Vols!!!!
westknoxrepub writes:
I'm sure Pearl's guys will improve defensivly, but since 8 of the 12 teams are more talented than we are, it's not going to be a pretty SEC season, and we're not beating Pittsburgh on Saturday. You might excuse this season were it not for the fact that next year we will be less talented than we are this year because Martin's recruiting style is akin to Mike Hamilton's coach hiring style. . .maybe that's why Hamilton hired him.
johnlg00 writes:
A new coach can usually only go one of two ways in instilling a new philosophy in a program. The more "dictatorial" types, such as a Bob Knight or a Kevin O'Neill, may choose to clean house, dump anyone who doesn't immediately buy in to the total program, and completely start over with all new guys. Martin seems to be adopting a more measured course, though he clearly has his own strong philosophy of the game. This approach sizes up the talent on hand and adapts the team to his way of thinking in relatively small steps. He takes advantage of the things the players naturally do well and gradually grafts on the aspects which will move them toward a new way of thinking and playing, while seeking to recruit players who will buy in from the beginning.
Perhaps somewhat to everyone's surprise, Martin found a squad whose core was an offensive-minded group which had had little opportunity to show their offensive ability. Perhaps one reason why some of these guys didn't play more previously may be because Pearl didn't think they were playing up to par on defense and they weren't enough if any better on offense than the group he already had--Hopson, Harris, Tatum, et.al.--to warrant more playing time.
However, Pearl's teams were generally deficient on the defensive boards, and while Pearl was good at devising specific defensive game plans for some opponents, not many of his players were outstanding individual defenders. Martin seems to want to have a defensive-minded team that can adapt a basic defense to fit various opponents, but with many common features that the players can and must internalize. Hopefully, the experience of giving up tons of points to a number of opponents with mixed results in the win-loss column will make the players more receptive to taking ownership of the defense to a greater extent than they have so far. If they can do this without losing their offensive abilities and mindset, this team could have a very successful season and lay the foundation for more success in the future.
FanNotSheep writes:
I lived through decades of horrible basketball that started with a bad decision to sign a top-5 player by hiring his dad to coach the team.
Then we finally hired a real basketball coach, only to swerve at the last minute in a game of chicken with the NCAA, which was so determined to drum Pearl out of the game they made up rules to get it done. (Go ahead, look for the rule about juniors being allowed to be at a coach's barbecue, and while you're at it, check to see if any of the secondary violations they trumped up into "major" violations are listed as major now. Hint: they aren't).
Now we have a coach who so far hasn't signed anyone with even two stars beside their name. And all the Pearl-haters and Cuonzo-lovers are swooning over his loss by only 10 to a great Duke team (which got blown off the court by Ohio State).
Remember the last time a new coach was facing a top team on the road and the fans hoped we could get a moral victory if we kept it within 15 points? I do. Pearl took his team to Texas and won by 17.
Pearl signed a top-5 player. Tobias Harris is beginning his NBA career. I sure wish he and Pearl were still here. Wonder how many decades I will have to live to see our next top-5 signee?
johnlg00 writes:
So what's your point? Fire Martin before he finishes his first year? I too was a Pearl fan, but rightly or wrongly the NCAA was GOING to get him and if we had tried to keep him, they would have "gotten" the program for years to come.
Pearl's first UT team was VASTLY more experienced than this year's UT team. UT's loss to Duke was at a tournament Duke has dominated; Duke's loss was to one of the favorites for the NCAA championship on their home court.
I like 5-star TALENT as much as anyone; I am less interested in having a series of one-and-dones who see their college "career" as a mere stepping-stone to something bigger and better and rarely stay around long enough to learn the game well enough to win championships and build programs. Pearl's first recruit was Ryan Childress; it took him three years to get Hopson and five years to get Harris.
Martin wasn't my first choice either but it does neither him nor us any good to put him down before he has a chance to show what he can do. A fan, which you at least imply you are despite your negative tone, would at the very least wait to see what we have before withholding support and/or throwing stones.
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