Aggies fall to the Volunteers 73-63

The Aggies had a great opportunity in a winnable SEC home opener against Tennessee. They did in fact play that game, but they only appeared to be on the court for about 14 of the 40 game minutes. The Aggies got out-hustled, out-coached, and out-everythinged tonight. And no, that sentence was not copied and pasted from a recap article of the football game last night. The final score, 73-63, makes this one look just a tad better than the moldy pile of dog shit this game was. Fresh off a wet fart football game last night, Aggies fans just needed a glimpse of excitement to keep the fans behind the program. Instead they got a reminder to “manage expectations”.

Alright, here we go.

1. Describe the mentality of this team

Because I can’t. Confused? Kinda-sorta into it? I really could not tell you what the identity of this team is. That’s a problem. That problem started when Kennedy decided to roll out one of the worst end of game strategies in recent Aggie hoops memory to completely give away the game to USC back in November. If the coach is going to fold against pressure like that and set that kind of example for the team, what can anyone really expect from the players?

2. Okay, now to the players

When you are let someone 5 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than you bully you around on the court, you have a problem. At least Hogg was aggressive tonight, and it was needed. His 21 points are the only thing that stopped this from being more of a disaster than it was. Davis hesitated nearly every time he had the ball on the blocks, and Trocha is in a nasty regression. We had 16 turnovers tonight, and 14 came from starters. Yes the coaching and gameplan was terrible from Kennedy, but 14 turnovers from your starters is just awful basketball.

3. Who the hell is this guy?

No kidding it wasn’t effective. It took anyone watching the game about 1.5 possessions to realize it wasn’t going to work. But Coach Kennedy let the Tennessee lead grow to 14 before doing anything about it. Anything, like a timeout or a substitution or throwing a chair or even blinking an eyelid. Kennedy has a bit of an ugly track record of throwing players under the bus, but can somebody help this guy look in the mirror from time to time? It’s almost like two start transfers and Rick Stansbury helped him stay afloat last season.

4. Where do we go from here?

The Aggies need a prayer answered. They now hit the road to take on the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena on January 3rd, in a national primetime game on ESPN. Yep, yep. Then they stay on the road to play a South Carolina team that is about ten times as aggressive and tough as the Aggies were tonight. Bottom line, they have to win one of those two road games to salvage the season.

A team with no identity, a terrible offensive strategy, and only playing three players off the bench? #SECBasketballFever may have found a new host. I hope I’m wrong.