A thought about shooting next year

There will be a few games we struggle. If Milan is off a night, I would label the rest of the team, at least coming into the year, as streaky shooters.

KYAnywhereEverywhere said:

With Milan on the team you very likely are never going to have a bad shooting night. I think he's just that consistent. His threes plus only a couple more from the entire rest of the team equates to at least a good enough shooting night.

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I have never seen a team play the entire year without a few bad shooting nights! Not saying it can't happen, but even Steph has his off nights!

feel like those things are never consistent with any team.

You just hope that on the bad shooting nights, you do enough other things well enough to win the game.

I think thats why Mitchell was such a key add. Mitchell is a dude who can just go get a bucket when you need it

KYAnywhereEverywhere said:

With Milan on the team you very likely are never going to have a bad shooting night. I think he's just that consistent. His threes plus only a couple more from the entire rest of the team equates to at least a good enough shooting night.

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Great, great shooter, but he is going to draw serious defensive focus every minute, especially in the big games. Just take a look at the Tennessee game to end his season last year. He is human. He will have off-nights ... hopefully, very few. The hope is that our talent depth is more than enough to make up the difference. I think it is, but I still expect and want Moncilovic to take close to ten (10) threes a game.

We have a lot of mid-range shooters.

megablue said:

Great, great shooter, but he is going to draw serious defensive focus every minute, especially in the big games. Just take a look at the Tennessee game to end his season last year. He is human. He will have off-nights ... hopefully, very few. The hope is that our talent depth is more than enough to make up the difference. I think it is, but I still expect and want Moncilovic to take close to ten (10) threes a game.

Tennessee 76-62 Iowa State (Mar 27, 2026) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Tennessee Volunteers vs. Iowa State Cyclones NCAAM game from March 27, 2026 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.

www.espn.com

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Jefferson was out - he was basically a point forward, best player on the team, averaged almost 5 assists a game. Make no mistake, Milan does not create his own shot. Pope is going to have to coach. This isn't a roster where you can just roll the ball out and say go, ala Calipari. He's going to have to run sets, build spacing, find catalysts.

I really wish we had at least one more knockdown shooter. But, I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal next season. We have several guys who have the potential to take a leap & become a consistent shooter. And, most everyone should be at least good enough to keep defenses honest.

Plus, the depth will be insane & the odds are better that at least 1-2 guys can get hot & compensate for off nights from everyone else. And, with all the talent on the floor there should be no shortage of open looks. Playing 3 guys together who are capable of averaging around 4 apg, or better, won’t hurt either.

Typically, I’d be really worried about it & saying it’ll be our undoing. And, it feels strange for me to even think otherwise bc I, admittedly, way overvalue shooting. But, with the overall talent, depth & positional versatility this team should have, scoring shouldn’t be a huge problem, even on cold shooting nights. And, again, safety in numbers; the odds of everyone being off on the same night lessen greatly when you can go a legit 12-13 deep.

We need Kam to be really good this year

I don’t think Kam or Hawthorne have the ability to be more than a bench player.
Zoom and Wilkins are key to our success. If either of those guys prove to not be SEC caliber guards, it will be a long season.