Tennessee, Kentucky, Kim Pom discussed on CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Is it a bigger deal? What's the bigger story coming out of that? Is it connected to Kentucky or connected to Tennessee? Yeah, I'll run with the theme of the episode and I just, I feel it is Kentucky because Kentucky is now removed drama from its circumstances for the time being. Go win at Florida on Wednesday night and even further put yourself in the field and then this won't be an every game kind of live or die situation there to get the season sweet but Tennessee is significant, not just because Kentucky now can be projected comfortably in this field and improve its situation while cats feel like a strong 11 to me at the moment, I guess. But even more than that, if it gets back into the group of the four to 6 teams that feel like they've got the most viscosity to their at large viability, then Tennessee's sweep will amount to I'm thinking it's got to amount to something that no other team in that hypothetical hypothetical would have GP. Two wins over a team that will be probably on the three line or the four line at that point. So I think it's a bigger deal for Kentucky for Tennessee. It's coming off an interesting week. It wins at home, clearly against Alabama does so shorthanded. And then again, goes to Kentucky shorthanded, no Josiah Jordan James is available. Tennessee fans know, although he is not the outright stud that was at some time thought he could be. He's a very good role player and then Julian Phillips, who's a starter, also not available. You know, you trade it off. You didn't need him to beat Bama. You needed them to be Kentucky and you didn't get it done. Tennessee is now lost three of its past four. Four of its past 6, if you enjoyed our Saturday quickie response pod to the bracket, we both thought the Tennessee was too high on the overall seed line. I think it's particularly too high now. I know Tennessee fans have a little bit of an issue with that. It's not that against your team. I'm just looking at the overall resume here. And the fact that the offense simply, it's interesting what Baylor is seemingly showing us on the defensive end. And it's major holes. Tennessee is the opposite of that on offense and it's shown itself plenty of times there. And now it's got to turn around and go play against the team that's looking right up at him and one game behind him in the right below them. No, right up at it. I'm sorry. A and M is second in the SEC. Tennessee because of the loss is now three games behind. Like, it's almost unthinkable here that the vols are in a spot where they would be three games behind the team in second place, but that's where we are. Good job by Kentucky to get itself just in a little bit better of a spot, but both of these teams are going to follow up that game with roadies in the next two to three days. Yeah, I want to be clear. I'm not speaking for all Tennessee fans. But some Tennessee fans with Twitter accounts. They point to their big wins because they have big wins. I mean, they got one over Alabama went over Kansas in a win over Texas. They've got three wins over projected top two seeds according to the selection committee. As of yesterday. And then they look at third in the net and fit that Ken palm. So they say we're fit to Kim pom third in the net and we've got three massive wins, maybe nobody's got three wins as good as those. So what are you telling us? We're not a top ten team or even at least according to the top 25 and one as of right now, top 15 Tim. The problem is the other stuff. Like your Kim pom number and net number, that's part of the evaluation process. I guess your big wins definitely part of the evaluation process. But just part, there are other parts. And the lost column is a big part. How about this? Tennessee is now three and four in quadrant two games. Under 500 in quarter two, just scrolling through it. They are the only top 40 net team in the country. Below 500 in quadrant two. And if you just look at some of the other teams that Tennessee fans have been comparing themselves to, like, the best teams in the country. Let's just go through the bracket reveal seating. Alabama. Zero quadrant two wins. I mean, I'm sorry, zero quadrant two losses. Houston, zero quadrant, two losses, although Houston does have a quadrant three. Kansas, zero quadrant two losses, perdue, zero quadrant two losses. Baylor, zero quadrant two losses, Texas, zero quadrant two losses. Virginia, zero quadrant two losses. Arizona, one quadrant two. You get the point. All these other teams have zero or one, Tennessee has four. Quadrant two losses. This changed overnight when the net rankings update him, but at the time that Tennessee Kentucky game went final, Tennessee had 6 losses to sub 35 net teams. And that's at least two more than literally everybody else in the 8 people. Now, because Kentucky moved into the top 35, it's now four, but that's still just as many as anybody else in the a people and more than almost everybody in the 8 people. So that lost column is becoming problematic. And like I wrote in the top 25 and one on Sunday morning, if you're trying to figure out because Kentucky's Tennessee probably has the most all over the place resume in the country right now in terms of great wins, but head scratching losses. What it tells me and a lot of this stuff is they're great defensively and not so great offensively. And do you see they like four or 14 from the free throw line? Yeah. Shot it terribly from the field, terribly from three and it was imaginable. But they do this all the time. They do this all the time. And what it tells me is that Tennessee is good enough when it plays well to beat anybody. It's not hard to imagine Tennessee being in the final four.