re: Excited for our matchup in February Tigers

Appreciate the kind words but Tennessee has to get much better defensively over the next month or so. The offense is so explosive that we have often times let up defensively, especially late in games. It’s been overlooked because we’ve won every game except Gonzaga by double digits but we are going through too many 5 minute stretches where we are letting shooters go or not finishing possessions on the defensive boards. We won tonight 106-87 but allowed 53 second half points. Barnes was rightfully livid after the game.

Our defensive efficiency has dropped all the way to 22nd nationally after being top 5 last season. We have a stretch of games coming up against some opponents that will likely struggle to stop us, but the key long term will be how much can we improve defensively in this stretch before the UK/LSU/Ole Miss/UK/MSU/AU gauntlet hits us in about a month. We must work our way back in to the top 10 nationally in defensive efficiency if we want to make a deep run in March.