The Official Tennessee @ Arkansas Game Thread, 8:30 PM ET, SEC Network

#602
#602
JMO....UCLA offered him a lot of money and he'd have a 2-3 year honeymoon period....Going into year 5 here his honeymoon period was pretty much over. UT threw a wrench in Barnes gear when we pretty much matched UCLA money.
 
#603
#603
I know people don't like how this season has gone but it will benefit us long term. A lot of guys got experience and know what they need to work on to get better.

We will be a deep, experienced and well rounded team. Just think about what you have seen out of the team this year....now imagine them with a year of improvement, remove Bowden, add a very solid transfer and add 3 top 40 freshmen.

That will be a dangerous team that will challenge for an SEC title and be built to compete in the tournament.
 
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#604
#604
VolunteerCeltic said:
I think coaches that are Barnes age still view UCLA as one of the pinnacle programs of college basketball, and I think he is weary of coaching Tennessee
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I don’t think he was getting the support he wanted either. Kind of telling when he took his staff to see Kennedy Chandler play immediately after the Memphis game this year, and I don’t recall them getting that benefit previously.
 
#605
#605
VolunteerCeltic said:
They are entitled to their opinions, I dont want him fired, I want him to reload his program, not rebuild it
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They are entitled to those opinions, as ignorant as they may be
And we all want 25-30 wins a year, of course. But you’re gonna have down years, it happens. Doesn’t mean the coach is bad. Doesn’t mean the program is unhealthy. Roy Williams and UNC are going to miss the tourney by a long shot this year. It happens. Barnes is not perfect, I have an issue with his in game decision making sometimes, but he has been very successful here relative to the programs history, and has done so while maintaining what appears to be a very clean program, and it’s tiring reading him be thrashed by people endlessly.
 
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#606
#606
VolGee4 said:
I don’t think he was getting the support he wanted either. Kind of telling when he took his staff to see Kennedy Chandler play immediately after the Memphis game this year, and I don’t recall them getting that benefit previously.
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Yes, either the AD is all in on the basketball program or they are not. Barnes should not have to be asking for anything!
 
#608
#608
Turner would of really helped be the glue guy. Help settle this group down and make plays when you need them. Was shoting a ton of free throws for us and averaging I think 7 or 8 assists a game.
 
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#610
#610
Tennessee will not face a better guard tandem than Joe and Jones for the rest of the season.

Solid game by Bowden and Fulkerson in the 2nd half.

Gaines and Plavsic made some good contributions tonight.

Vescovi looked like he hit a wall tonight with the turnovers and lackadasical play.

Tennessee needs to win both home games against Florida and Auburn to keep a possible NIT bid alive.
 
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#611
#611
VolGee4 said:
I don’t think he was getting the support he wanted either. Kind of telling when he took his staff to see Kennedy Chandler play immediately after the Memphis game this year, and I don’t recall them getting that benefit previously.
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I don’t think he was ever happy with financial support for his assistants until this year. Recall that he once got a minor NCAA violation for paying Desmond Oliver extra money under the table out of his own pocket. (It’s kind of dumb that you can’t do that though.)
 
#614
#614
VFL49er said:
They are entitled to those opinions, as ignorant as they may be
And we all want 25-30 wins a year, of course. But you’re gonna have down years, it happens. Doesn’t mean the coach is bad. Doesn’t mean the program is unhealthy. Roy Williams and UNC are going to miss the tourney by a long shot this year. It happens. Barnes is not perfect, I have an issue with his in game decision making sometimes, but he has been very successful here relative to the programs history, and has done so while maintaining what appears to be a very clean program, and it’s tiring reading him be thrashed by people endlessly.
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The mens basketball team saw a resurgence the past two years with PB&J and the others, so expectations are going to be high. But you have to peel back all the layers and see what is actually going on with the program. Barnes lack of recruiting in 2017 and 2018 and the misses on the recruits he did get are very telling. After the UCLA job dance he had last spring, he got off his ass and recruited some really highly rated players, although none of them are a true PG. But as Vol fans, we need to temper our expectations next season as well, there will be a lot of growing pains and the team will need to mesh. I do not think that the UT fan base (as volatile as it is) will have patient if UT starts out in the first 15 games with a .500 record or so. Just my opinion, good and great programs reload after they have their systems in place, they rarely have to rebuild.
 
#617
#617
VolunteerCeltic said:
The mens basketball team saw a resurgence the past two years with PB&J and the others, so expectations are going to be high. But you have to peel back all the layers and see what is actually going on with the program. Barnes lack of recruiting in 2017 and 2018 and the misses on the recruits he did get are very telling. After the UCLA job dance he had last spring, he got off his ass and recruited some really highly rated players, although none of them are a true PG. But as Vol fans, we need to temper our expectations next season as well, there will be a lot of growing pains and the team will need to mesh. I do not think that the UT fan base (as volatile as it is) will have patience if UT starts out in the first 15 games with a .500 record or so. Just my opinion, good and great programs reload after they have their systems in place, they rarely have to rebuild.
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It’s important to remember Barnes is the one responsible for getting Grant here and developing him and Admiral. I don’t know if it was your intention but if you were trying to imply the success was on them entirely and not Barnes at all, that’s misguided.
But the idea that he didn’t “get off his ass” and start recruiting until after the UCLA thing is ridiculous. You don’t sign three kids that sought after with weeks or even months of effort, it’s a years long process, he has been working on them for years. He has had some recruiting misses but I don’t expect a 100% hit rate, he has also found some great diamonds in the rough. The fact is that his success should be judged in the context of the school’s basketball history, and no one has won more games in a season or in a two season stretch than he has here.
If he were to miss the tourney next year, it would be reasonable to be upset with him. But to miss it this year after losing all five starters? Not really surprising at all.
To be completely truthful I think a lot of people on here (and it should be stressed that the complainers of VN are NOT representative of the fan base at large, most fans appreciate Barnes) had their feelings hurt when Barnes flirted with UCLA and then got a big paycheck. I don’t know what to say about that other than grow up and realize it’s a business, the coaches want to make money and have acclaim, and I don’t personally fault them for that. I don’t expect them to completely bleed orange and forever be blindly loyal to UT like I am, I expect them to win games and run a clean program, and Barnes has done both of those things better than the majority of basketball coaches who have been at UT. And also don’t be jealous of another person’s money perhaps
 
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#618
#618
VolunteerCeltic said:
You dont have to be Duke or KY, Pearl seemed to reload pretty well in the 6 years he was here, made the tourney every single year!! Why cant Barnes do that?
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Because Barnes didn't inherit Chris Lofton, CJ Watson, and Jajuan Smith. It took Pearl 4 years to even make one tournament at Auburn because he didn't get that head start there.
 
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#619
#619
VFL49er said:
It’s important to remember Barnes is the one responsible for getting Grant here and developing him and Admiral. I don’t know if it was your intention but if you were trying to imply the success was on them entirely and not Barnes at all, that’s misguided.
But the idea that he didn’t “get off his ass” and start recruiting until after the UCLA thing is ridiculous. You don’t sign three kids that sought after with weeks or even months of effort, it’s a years long process, he has been working on them for years. He has had some recruiting misses but I don’t expect a 100% hit rate, he has also found some great diamonds in the rough. The fact is that his success should be judged in the context of the school’s basketball history, and no one has won more games in a season or in a two season stretch than he has here.
If he were to miss the tourney next year, it would be reasonable to be upset with him. But to miss it this year after losing all five starters? Not really surprising at all.
To be completely truthful I think a lot of people on here (and it should be stressed that the complainers of VN are NOT representative of the fan base at large, most fans appreciate Barnes) had their feelings hurt when Barnes flirted with UCLA and then got a big paycheck. I don’t know what to say about that other than grow up and realize it’s a business, the coaches want to make money and have acclaim, and I don’t personally fault them for that. I don’t expect them to completely bleed orange and forever be blindly loyal to UT like I am, I expect them to win games and run a clean program, and Barnes has done both of those things better than the majority of basketball coaches who have been at UT. And also don’t be jealous of another person’s money perhaps
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I hope none of our fans have ever accepted a big raise at work and then ever did their jobs less than 100% perfectly.
 
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#620
#620
Pearl only made it one round farther in the NCAA Tournament than Barnes did during his time at Tennessee with more talent.

He never did make it to the Final Four nor won a National Title here.
 
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#621
#621
VolFreakJosh said:
Pearl only made it one round farther in the NCAA Tournament than Barnes did during his time at Tennessee with more talent.

He never did make it to the Final Four nor won a National Title here.
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And he was never going to. He had already peaked here. The crown jewel of his last recruiting class had to go to JUCO because he couldn't get in school.
 
#622
#622
SGMVols said:
Because Barnes didn't inherit Chris Lofton, CJ Watson, and Jajuan Smith. It took Pearl 4 years to even make one tournament at Auburn because he didn't get that head start there.
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I would argue that Pearl took a 14-17 team from the previous year, put in a system they could have success with and won 22 games. CJ watson was an unknown 3star PG, JaJuan was walkon shooting guard and Lofton was a 3 star PG with two offers coming out of high school. Pearl moded them into a cohesive unit and developed them to bring some of the best years in mens basketball. Pearl had no head start, he had a team he motivated and developed.
 
#623
#623
VolunteerCeltic said:
I would argue that Pearl took a 14-17 team from the previous year, put in a system they could have success with and won 22 games. CJ watson was an unknown 3star PG, JaJuan was walkon shooting guard and Lofton was a 3 star PG with two offers coming out of high school. Pearl moded them into a cohesive unit and developed them to bring some of the best years in mens basketball. Pearl had no head start, he had a team he motivated and developed.
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CJ was a 4 star and CL was a third team All American as a freshman, before Pearl coached him. Everyone knew they were good even though their record under Buzz wasn't.
 
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#624
#624
VFL49er said:
It’s important to remember Barnes is the one responsible for getting Grant here and developing him and Admiral. I don’t know if it was your intention but if you were trying to imply the success was on them entirely and not Barnes at all, that’s misguided.
But the idea that he didn’t “get off his ass” and start recruiting until after the UCLA thing is ridiculous. You don’t sign three kids that sought after with weeks or even months of effort, it’s a years long process, he has been working on them for years. He has had some recruiting misses but I don’t expect a 100% hit rate, he has also found some great diamonds in the rough. The fact is that his success should be judged in the context of the school’s basketball history, and no one has won more games in a season or in a two season stretch than he has here.
If he were to miss the tourney next year, it would be reasonable to be upset with him. But to miss it this year after losing all five starters? Not really surprising at all.
To be completely truthful I think a lot of people on here (and it should be stressed that the complainers of VN are NOT representative of the fan base at large, most fans appreciate Barnes) had their feelings hurt when Barnes flirted with UCLA and then got a big paycheck. I don’t know what to say about that other than grow up and realize it’s a business, the coaches want to make money and have acclaim, and I don’t personally fault them for that. I don’t expect them to completely bleed orange and forever be blindly loyal to UT like I am, I expect them to win games and run a clean program, and Barnes has done both of those things better than the majority of basketball coaches who have been at UT. And also don’t be jealous of another person’s money perhaps
Click to expand...

All great points, I do believe it was Barnes and staff who developed PB&J into NBA players, they wanted it and he coached them hard and their success shows. The recruiting cycles that he missed on bother me, but it is what it is. Tennessee has all the resources to be a top 10-15 program in the country consistently, it just seems that they fall short so often.....the last two years were great, now followed by this year, the expectations I think were way too high especially after starting 7-1
 
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#625
#625
SGMVols said:
CJ was a 4 star and CL was a third team All American as a freshman, before Pearl coached him. Everyone knew they were good even though their record under Buzz wasn't.
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I only looked at rivals for star ratings for CJ, and no one knew they would be as good as they were going to be that year when Pearl took over. He caught lightening in a bottle because he developed and motivated that team to play above their skill levels. It was an awesome season.
 
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