2021 Lady Vol Recruiting Thread

People don't realize how many weaknesses Davis covered up with her play this past season that are about to get exposed.

Ideally Horston, not Rae, would be the preseason All-American go-to player heading into next season. She's easily the best talent on the team, but nobody is talking about her because she has never proven she can be that player due to... whatever issues.

God, another tragic failure for Kellie. The LVs have an all-american preseason candidate but not the IDEAL one. Can it get any worse?? Woe is Us
 
Who knew Pete Buttigieg knew anything about basketball ;)

Close.....
merlin_89586193.0.jpg
 
There are situations where a PG is essential to a team, such as breaking a press or taking control of the game when things are getting too helter skelter (something that was a problem last season in a few melt down games). But in this era of point forward and post players who shoot 3s and distribute the ball from the top of the key and so on, we have to recognize that many of the traditional PG responsibilities are now diffused across different positions.
IMO its just semantics. Its cool now to say no PG or a fluid offense but fact is we still need, and lack, someone who can consistently bring the ball up against pressure, fairly reliably get the team into an efficient offense, and for God's sake, hit the occasional 3. You can call that position whatever, but we need it filled.

Horston has played two seasons now. Walker has played three, two of them at a lower level. In those five seasons, neither of them have ever shot about the 30's so your 45% target seems overly ambitious, to say the least...
Yes, that much shooting improvement this deep into both careers seems unlikely. IMO, Horston is much more likely to make the leap, especially if she plays off the ball. Walker may improve her shot some, but probably not by 10 percentage points. But if Horston could, Walker wouldn't need to. I'd love to see Walker improve the handle and the decision making so JH could play off ball more. Then we would still need someone, possibly but not likely one of the frosh or Darby, to be a 3 pt threat.

Dang, see how much easier this would all be if we had gotten a guard who could handle and shoot? Walker would be an awesome back up for that.
 
God, another tragic failure for Kellie. The LVs have an all-american preseason candidate but not the IDEAL one. Can it get any worse?? Woe is Us
To be fair, we should have 2 preseason AA candidates and Rae should be the surprise one. I really hope JH has a transformative offseason and makes us all eat crow. I've said before, whether she effectively develops into her potential is going to have a big impact on future recruiting. The LVs must shed the image of Wasted Career U.
 
To be fair, we should have 2 preseason AA candidates and Rae should be the surprise one. I really hope JH has a transformative offseason and makes us all eat crow. I've said before, whether she effectively develops into her potential is going to have a big impact on future recruiting. The LVs must shed the image of Wasted Career U.
To be fair, neither of them (assuming you mean Jordan and Rae) will/or should be pre-season All Americans. Having said that, if Rae repeats her performance from last year, she could make the final HM list.
 
I went back and looked at a lot of Horston's high school video's to see what her game was like then.....The girl mostly drove to the basket and over powered the defender with her superior athleticism...If she missed the lay up, she often got the rebound and put it back in...

She did shoot some outside shots, but she was not real accurate, at least the 7-8 video's I saw did not show a skilled outside shooter....She did not have great handles then either...She made some of those quick passes she is known for...Sometimes her teammates caught them, other times it was a TO.

The girl does play very good D, but unless a shooting coach can help this girl find a dependable stroke, she may not reach her potential....

I have a very good idea how to help her become a much better shooter...
 
To be fair, neither of them (assuming you mean Jordan and Rae) will/or should be pre-season All Americans. Having said that, if Rae repeats her performance from last year, she could make the final HM list.

This is truth Rae will probably be HM. They have those lists and all americans already picked out... after Rennia getting shafted this year those all american lists ain’t SH!T. I mean that PERIOD!

This aggression isn’t towards you but Re got the shaft this year. Rae got shafted for 1st team All SEC...

I’m done and yes i feel better
 
To be fair, neither of them (assuming you mean Jordan and Rae) will/or should be pre-season All Americans. Having said that, if Rae repeats her performance from last year, she could make the final HM list.
Depends on what the definition of "should" is. Should they, in accordance with their on court performances so far? Rae possibily on a preseason list. Should they, in accordance with their recruiting ranking and apparent potential? I don't think it's unreasonable to think a recruit as highly ranked as JH was would get AA noise halfway thru her career. That's what I meant. If you had to pick which one a couple of years ago Rae might have been the surprise.
 
I went back and looked at a lot of Horston's high school video's to see what her game was like then.....The girl mostly drove to the basket and over powered the defender with her superior athleticism...If she missed the lay up, she often got the rebound and put it back in...

She did shoot some outside shots, but she was not real accurate, at least the 7-8 video's I saw did not show a skilled outside shooter....She did not have great handles then either...She made some of those quick passes she is known for...Sometimes her teammates caught them, other times it was a TO.

The girl does play very good D, but unless a shooting coach can help this girl find a dependable stroke, she may not reach her potential....

I have a very good idea how to help her become a much better shooter...
Well don't leave us in suspense. Unless it involves Coach you know who.

On the one hand, that's a discouraging report. On the other hand, I see zero reason JH cannot become a markedly better shooter. She's certainly athletically skilled, terrifically motivated, surrounded by professional coaches, and given unlimited opportunities to improve her shot. I don't see any huge mechanical hitches in her current shot. More rushing and indecision, and those damn floaters. I say she shoots at least high 30s next year: anything 40 or above would be golden for us.
 
I can already see the negativity....This takes a brave man...

OK guys...Let me reveal my "proven technique" for improving the proficiency of shooting a basketball through an iron hoop.

When Dr. Naismith invented basketball in 1891, he nailed up that famous peach basket 10 feet high, and it has remained that height for over 130 years....

Years ago, when I was a young man, through a variety of changing attitudes and latitudes, I found myself working for a carnival that traveled throughout southern California....

The owner of one of the Carney games, which was the basketball shoot, felt I could bring in enough midway suckers/customers to make his hiring me profitable...And he was right too.

The midway basketball rims are set at 12 feet high, and the rims are not completely round...The ball the barker uses to bring in the dollars is overinflated and is almost always rubber, not leather...(Don't shoot with the ball they give you to shoot, use the extra ball in the netting)

In order to make the 12 feet high shot, the shooter must put a nice high arc on the ball....It usually took the shooter/customer a number of dollars to realize this....Most quit in disgust, but a few would pay 10-20 dollars, or more, just to hopefully win a teddy bear for their girl...The cost of love can be frightful.

When business was slow, the boss had me and his daughter act like we were customers, and I would make a few baskets to bring in the chumps/customers...I even dressed the part...It was so slick....She and I would walk around the midway carrying large teddy bears....I would tell the folks about how easy the basketball shoot was..."It's just down the midway on the right hand side...They're giving away teddy bears."

Now here's the interesting part....After that job, whenever I shot a 10 foot rim, that was totally round, with a quality leather ball, it was just too easy.....The 10 foot rim felt like it was too low, it was too simple...

I had developed a nice high arc, and body lift, and follow through from shooting the 12 foot rims, that made the 10 foot rims feel like child's play....

If a player could practice some on a portable rim, and set the position of the the rim at 12 feet, they would develop the higher arc, and follow through, that in turn, would improve their shooting when playing on the correct 10 foot rim...

I know this works...When my Carney days were over and I joined a men's basketball league for weekend fun, I never lost a game of HORSE, or lost a shooting bet among the guys...
 
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I can already see the negativity....This takes a brave man...

OK guys...Let me reveal my "proven technique" for improving the proficiency of shooting a basketball through an iron hoop.

When Dr. Naismith invented basketball in 1891, he nailed up that famous peach basket 10 feet high, and it has remained that height for over 130 years....

Years ago, when I was a young man, through a variety of changing attitudes and latitudes, I found myself working for a carnival that traveled throughout southern California....

The owner of one of the Carney games, which was the basketball shoot, felt I could bring in enough midway suckers/customers to make his hiring me profitable...And he was right too.

The midway basketball rims are set at 12 feet high, and the rims are not completely round...The ball the barker uses to bring in the dollars is overinflated and is almost always rubber, not leather...(Don't shoot with the ball they give you to shoot, use the extra ball in the netting)

In order to make the 12 feet high shot, the shooter must put a nice high arc on the ball....It usually took the shooter/customer a number of dollars to realize this....Most quit in disgust, but a few would pay 10-20 dollars, or more, just to hopefully win a teddy bear for their girl...The cost of love can be frightful.

When business was slow, the boss had me and his daughter act like we were customers, and I would make a few baskets to bring in the chumps/customers...I even dressed the part...It was so slick....She and I would walk around the midway carrying large teddy bears....I would tell the folks about how easy the basketball shoot was..."It's just down the midway on the right hand side...They're giving away teddy bears."

Now here's the interesting part....After that job, whenever I shot a 10 foot rim, that was totally round, with a quality leather ball, it was just too easy.....The 10 foot rim felt like it was too low, it was too simple...

I had developed a nice high arc, and body lift, and follow through from shooting the 12 foot rims, that made the 10 foot rims feel like child's play....

If a player could practice some on a portable rim, and set the position of the the rim at 12 feet, they would develop the higher arc, and follow through, that in turn, would improve their shooting when playing on the correct 10 foot rim...

I know this works...When my Carney days were over and I joined a men's basketball league for weekend fun, I never lost a game of HORSE, or lost a shooting bet among the guys...
I love these stories! Ever consider a writing a book?
 
I love these stories! Ever consider a writing a book?

For the book Lucy......

For the last few days that fall, I had been playing the shill to the max....It was really a thing of beauty...I had changed my clothes at least five times that day, so the rubes would not know I was the same guy winning all the teddy bears.....Sometimes I lost (on purpose) and I would complain loudly, while walking away, just like a regular Carney going enthusiast.

The barker always gave me the good ball, not the overinflated rubber balls we gave to the paying public.....Julie (the bosses daughter) was always "dressed to impress"...She kept the guys eyes on her, while I casually switched basketballs......While the guys were putting an eye on Julie, their girlfriends would be putting an eye on them, to make sure they didn't stare to hard at Julie and what she was almost exposing......We made a great team.

On this day, which was University Day, our basketball shoot was practically overran with members of the local college basketball team...They were determined to win every bear we had....These guys not only brought their girlfriends, but they brought their own basketballs....They meant business.

Several of them had individually lost before to us, so this time they found strength in unity...They brought their top gunners to close us down...These guys sole purpose was to end us....Not even sweet Julie, shaking all of her God given talents, could get their mind off of our destruction...

I had been playing the Carney rube, with the midway public, when these guys rolled up on us...I quickly saw if I didn't act fast this might have an ugly ending...I went to the back trailer and changed from my rube clothes, into my "sparkling working clothes" and made my entrance...Every eye turned toward my sparkling pants..

I made my typical small talk with these guys, all the while figuring out which ones were pretenders, and which one guy needed to be beaten first to discourage the rest...

Once I had him spotted, it was just a matter of weaving the web and inviting him in....He was a rather tall guy, with very quick twitch muscles...He looked like he could slam dunk a 14 foot rim, but I doubted his shooting abilities....

I told the guy no dunking, and they had to use our basketballs, no substitutes...No more than 2 teddy bears to a customer...These are the house rules, and I am the house...I told them it's normally 2 balls for a dollar, but just for you guys, it's only 4 bits a ball...He did give me a rather quizzical look...

The tall guy took his shots, and as expected, he missed badly, and then he missed again...Another guy stepped up and shot and he missed, and missed again....One by one these guys were all failing...

But then this little guy steps up and wants his turn to shoot....He had been standing to the side and studying the different parameters of why these guys were missing so badly....It was his mathematical calculations the guys were shooting the ball, without enough arc, to open the full circumference of the elevated rim...

This guy was one of their team managers, not even a player....Tonight he was sort of a chaperone, to keep the guys out of trouble...He paid his dollar and knocked down his first of 2 shots, and then a dollar or more later, did it again.

I gave the guy his 2 teddy bears, and then all the guys that had lost before wanted to shoot again...They could not be outdone by their manager...But this time they put a higher arc on the ball and won about a dozen teddy bears that night.....

We lost a few bears to that California team, but we made the money back quickly...These guys, walking the midway, were a walking advertisement for us...Go to the basketball shoot and win a teddy bear or two...It's easy.
 
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For the book Lucy......

For the last few days that fall, I had been playing the shill to the max....It was really a thing of beauty...I had changed my clothes at least five times that day, so the rubes would not know I was the same guy winning all the teddy bears.....Sometimes I lost (on purpose) and I would complain loudly, while walking away, just like a regular Carney going enthusiast.

The barker always gave me the good ball, not the overinflated rubber balls we gave to the paying public.....Julie (the bosses daughter) was always "dressed to impress"...She kept the guys eyes on her, while I casually switched basketballs......While the guys were putting an eye on Julie, their girlfriends would be putting an eye on them, to make sure they didn't stare to hard at Julie and what she was almost exposing......We made a great team.

On this day, which was University Day, our basketball shoot was practically overran with members of the local college basketball team...They were determined to win every bear we had....These guys not only brought their girlfriends, but they brought their own basketballs....They meant business.

Several of them had individually lost before to us, so this time they found strength in unity...They brought their top gunners to close us down...These guys sole purpose was to end us....Not even sweet Julie, shaking all of her God given talents, could get their mind off of our destruction...

I had been playing the Carney rube, with the midway public, when these guys rolled up on us...I quickly saw if I didn't act fast this might have an ugly ending...I went to the back trailer and changed from my rube clothes, into my "sparkling working clothes" and made my entrance...Every eye turned toward my sparkling pants..

I made my typical small talk with these guys, all the while figuring out which ones were pretenders, and which one guy needed to be beaten first to discourage the rest...

Once I had him spotted, it was just a matter of weaving the web and inviting him in....He was a rather tall guy, with very quick twitch muscles...He looked like he could slam dunk a 14 foot rim, but I doubted his shooting abilities....

I told the guy no dunking, and they had to use our basketballs, no substitutes...No more than 2 teddy bears to a customer...These are the house rules, and I am the house...I told them it's normally 2 balls for a dollar, but just for you guys, it's only 4 bits a ball...He did give me a rather quizzical look...

The tall guy took his shots, and as expected, he missed badly, and then he missed again...Another guy stepped up and shot and he missed, and missed again....One by one these guys were all failing...

But then this little guy steps up and wants his turn to shoot....He had been standing to the side and studying the different parameters of why these guys were missing so badly....It was his mathematical calculations the guys were shooting the ball, without enough arc, to open the full circumference of the elevated rim...

This guy was one of their team managers, not even a player....Tonight he was sort of a chaperone, to keep the guys out of trouble...He paid his dollar and knocked down his first 2 shots, and then a dollar or more later, did it again.

I gave the guy his 2 teddy bears, and then all the guys that had lost before wanted to shoot again...They could not be outdone by their manager...But this time they put a higher arc on the ball and won about a dozen teddy bears that night.....

We lost a few bears to that California team, but we made the money back quickly...These guys, walking the midway, were a walking advertisement for us...Go to the basketball shoot and win a teddy bear or two...It's easy.
So fun to hear about for those of us who had a more “directed” youth!
The one I always wondered about was the wooden rings thrown over soda bottles!
 
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So fun to hear about for those of us who had a more “directed” youth!
The one I always wondered about was the wooden rings thrown over soda bottles!

Failed many times at that bottle toss....Spoke often with the couple that ran the ring/bottle toss, they said very few people ever won... The attraction to the game is the appearance of it's simplicity...How hard can it be? Yeah, right....LOL
 
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Interesting some people were downplaying our recruits but Coach Williams was recruiting three of them at an early age while at Louisville

Williams also already knows Tennessee’s four incoming freshmen: guards Brooklynn Miles and Kaiya Wynn and forward/posts Sara Puckett and Karoline Striplin.

“I had already met Kaiya when she came on an unofficial to Louisville,” Williams said. “And we were recruiting Sara and Karoline at Louisville. I’ve been watching them for years. I was very familiar with all four.”
 
The 6-foot-3 Striplin, a versatile player who played guard, forward and center during the season, averaged 26.8 points, 16.8 rebounds, 6.2 blocks, 5.6 assists and 4.2 steals a game in helping the Lady Dawgs to a 20-7 record and to the Class 2A regional tournament. She also earned 10 triple-doubles, one quadruple-double plus a handful of double-doubles out of 25 games played (two games were forfeited by opponents).

full article:
Geneva County's Karoline Striplin is presented with Miss Basketball award

She's the real deal folks!
 
The 6-foot-3 Striplin, a versatile player who played guard, forward and center during the season, averaged 26.8 points, 16.8 rebounds, 6.2 blocks, 5.6 assists and 4.2 steals a game in helping the Lady Dawgs to a 20-7 record and to the Class 2A regional tournament. She also earned 10 triple-doubles, one quadruple-double plus a handful of double-doubles out of 25 games played (two games were forfeited by opponents).

full article:
Geneva County's Karoline Striplin is presented with Miss Basketball award

She's the real deal folks!
Karoline is only the second Grassroots player in Alabama to win Miss Basketball. The first was former Lady Vol Gwen Jackson 🍊
 

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