In-State Center to Take Official Visit to Vols

I think your last sentence is maybe key as to why we haven’t landed many top targets.

To Leanna’s point though, I believe he/she is simply making the point of why can’t it be both? Why can’t we win AND do it with top shelf talent rather than hoping that we find the underrated guys and that those players take it upon themselves to get better with the coaching they receive? And if so, I can see her point. Ziti beat the same dead horse for years, only a lot less politely and with more attitude and arrogance.

To this I would say...like what Barnes did his last few years at Texas? He recruited the 4&5 star guys, he’s mentioned how they hurt his program and they helped sign his ticket out of town...so again, there’s no guarantee that a slight uptick in recruiting stars automatically means more success.
 
  • Like
Reactions: i2amavol
I'm not Senior Drill. I am a Barnes fan. Just disappointed our on court success has so far not translated into more recruiting success. I think it is okay to question why recruiting is not better and still recognize that Barmes has done a great job.
I was just kidding with the SD remark. New posters often get that dig. I believe it will take at least this season to finally convince recruits that this is a new and solid basketball culture. Sustained performance should overcome the doubt, hopefully sooner than later.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LeannaVol
To this I would say...like what Barnes did his last few years at Texas? He recruited the 4&5 star guys, he’s mentioned how they hurt his program and they helped sign his ticket out of town...so again, there’s no guarantee that a slight uptick in recruiting stars automatically means more success.
Then why is he continuing to recruit similar players? If having too much talent was a problem, then I wouldn’t expect him to waste his time on guys like Anfernee Simons, Josiah James, Kira Lewis, and Tre Mann when he could focus his entire efforts on the Isaac McBrides and Drew Pembers of the world.

My guess is that the aforementioned 4-5* players are still his preference if they aren’t openly looking to bail after a year in most cases and are willing to work their butts off. There is an entire faction of talented 3-4 year players that fall comfortably between James Wiseman and Davonte Gaines. We just rarely seem to land them. Wondering why that is, and not being particularly thrilled with the idea of it doesn’t strike me as being irrational or contrarian, especially in a sport like basketball where one elite player makes up 20% of your starting lineup. How much better would you feel about our upcoming season with Anfernee Simons on the team, even if only for one season?

I just think it is possible to recognize that Barnes has done a great job with the guys he has brought in and still wonder if landing just one or two top 50 players would push us over the hump.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LeannaVol
Then why is he continuing to recruit similar players? If having too much talent was a problem, then I wouldn’t expect him to waste his time on guys like Anfernee Simons, Josiah James, Kira Lewis, and Tre Mann when he could focus his entire efforts on the Isaac McBrides and Drew Pembers of the world.

My guess is that the aforementioned 4-5* players are still his preference if they aren’t openly looking to bail after a year in most cases and are willing to work their butts off. There is an entire faction of talented 3-4 year players that fall comfortably between James Wiseman and Davonte Gaines. We just rarely seem to land them. Wondering why that is, and not being particularly thrilled with the idea of it doesn’t strike me as being irrational or contrarian, especially in a sport like basketball where one elite player makes up 20% of your starting lineup. How much better would you feel about our upcoming season with Anfernee Simons on the team, even if only for one season?

I just think it is possible to recognize that Barnes has done a great job with the guys he has brought in and still wonder if landing just one or two top 50 players would push us over the hump.

He has targeted top talent in every class though, that’s my point, this isn’t a new development with the 2019 class. He has tried to land some higher ranked guys since day 1, but he’s not going to take them just to take them, which somewhat seemed to be the case at Texas. Again sure he targeted Mann, but even with Mann 2/3 of this class would have been guys not ranked in the Top 150, so not some big philosophical change.

Yes I do wonder what last years team maybe would have looked like had it had Omer Yurtseven, or wonder how this years squad would have looked if it had Anfernee Simons. It’s fair to ask that, but it’s also possible those guys wouldn’t have gelled or chemistry could have been different, there’s no way to know. I’m sure there’s guys we could look back on like Josh Selby and ask how much better Tennessee would have been with him?

What hump though? Making the tourney, we’ve done that. Being ranked all season? Done that. Preseason Top 10 ranking? Done that. Making E8? There’s plenty of uber talented teams that don’t do that so I’m not sure if that’s what you mean? What if this years squad makes it over this “hump”?
 
He has targeted top talent in every class though, that’s my point, this isn’t a new development with the 2019 class. He has tried to land some higher ranked guys since day 1, but he’s not going to take them just to take them, which somewhat seemed to be the case at Texas. Again sure he targeted Mann, but even with Mann 2/3 of this class would have been guys not ranked in the Top 150, so not some big philosophical change.

Yes I do wonder what last years team maybe would have looked like had it had Omer Yurtseven, or wonder how this years squad would have looked if it had Anfernee Simons. It’s fair to ask that, but it’s also possible those guys wouldn’t have gelled or chemistry could have been different, there’s no way to know. I’m sure there’s guys we could look back on like Josh Selby and ask how much better Tennessee would have been with him?
You didn’t really address my point, though. You mentioned how recruiting 4-5* players helped usher out Barnes’ tenure at Texas, so I think it’s fair to wonder why he continues to pursue similarly elite talent at Tennessee. Doesn’t that seem counterintuitive? So, my point is that he seems to still prefer the upper-level talent, but unlike at Texas, he is struggling to land it here at Tennessee. There are several theories floating around as to why. No one seems to be claiming this is new to the 2019 class, though. In fact, just the opposite. Like those other classes, we recruited some highly ranked guys in 2019, yet landed none (so far) in a year where, unlike those other years, we should have had an advantage and been a “hotter” name.

I can, and have, excused an inability to coax higher-rated talent previously, but this class should have been the one where we broke thru the glass ceiling, IMO. To say it’s possible that higher-rated talent might not have jelled or that chemistry may have been affected is purely speculative. I doubt if Barnes would have pursued anyone he could have foreseen affecting team chemistry.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LeannaVol
You didn’t really address my point, though. You mentioned how recruiting 4-5* players helped usher out Barnes’ tenure at Texas, so I think it’s fair to wonder why he continues to pursue similarly elite talent at Tennessee. Doesn’t that seem counterintuitive? So, my point is that he seems to still prefer the upper-level talent, but unlike at Texas, he is struggling to land it here at Tennessee.

At Texas he could not spend a single day recruiting and still have 4 & 5 stars crawling to Austin, that’s not the case at Tennessee. Imo his last 3-4 years at Texas had a lot of guys who simply put he wouldn’t take here now at Tennessee. I don’t think he was very picky at Texas towards the end, I think he let his assistants do a lot of it and there’s a reason 1 of those guys didn’t follow him here. Could Tennessee likely have landed a couple of higher ranked guys? Sure, but there’s quite a few examples of kids this staff chose not to pursue or stop pursuing.

If the staff was simply looking to upgrade talent they’d be offering every top 100 guy and bringing them all in on OV’s, they’re selective on who they elect to pursue and they won’t simply add a guy because of his ranking and disregard his character/attitude. They missed on Deriante Jenkins early, Josh Okogie, Lance Thomas, Filip Petrusev, Anfernee Simons and now Tre Mann...there’s definitely higher ranked guys they’ve pursued and missed on so sure we can wonder how it may be different if they’d have landed any of those guys, but my point is they’re being very selective on which guys they pursue and I’m not sure that was the case at Texas late.
 
Last edited:

Looks like a talented kid and local to boot but his highlight reel is hilarious. They should have just played the clips but since they labeled them I couldn't help laughing. Passing.. 1 play. Jump shots 1 play... Dunks like 2. Not making fun of the kid, just whoever edited that reel. It made it seem like those are obvious weaknesses in his game by the lack Whether is truly a weaknesses in his game I dunno but ya can't bring it up and just show me 1 or 2 really bad examples.
 
I haven't read the entire thread but Tennessee has got to find away to get into Hamilton Heights that school has become a basketball factory for both Boys & Girls basketball over the last 3 to 5 years and seems to be having more and more ranked players each year.

Coach Warlick finally got a player out of there this spring and I think HH has two of the Top 10 girls in the country over the next three years.
 
At Texas he could not spend a single day recruiting and still have 4 & 5 stars crawling to Austin, that’s not the case at Tennessee. Imo his last 3-4 years at Texas had a lot of guys who simply put he wouldn’t take here now at Tennessee. I don’t think he was very picky at Texas towards the end, I think he let his assistants do a lot of it and there’s a reason 1 of those guys didn’t follow him here. Could Tennessee likely have landed a couple of higher ranked guys? Sure, but there’s quite a few examples of kids this staff chose not to pursue or stop pursuing.

If the staff was simply looking to upgrade talent they’d be offering every top 100 guy and bringing them all in on OV’s, they’re selective on who they elect to pursue and they won’t simply add a guy because of his ranking and disregard his character/attitude. They missed on Deriante Jenkins early, Josh Okogie, Lance Thomas, Filip Petrusev, Anfernee Simons and now Tre Mann...there’s definitely higher ranked guys they’ve pursued and missed on so sure we can wonder how it may be different if they’d have landed any of those guys, but my point is they’re being very selective on which guys they pursue and I’m not sure that was the case at Texas late.
Texas has a greater basketball tradition and reputation than Tennessee?
 
I like the way this kid blocks shots. He usually tries to do it in a manner where he or one of his teammates can get control of the ball and cause a turnover. One thing I've noticed about these big African centers over the years, they take it personally when someone drives the ball to the hoop.
Looks like he could not jump.
 

VN Store



Back
Top