Josiah-Jordan James returning to Tennessee

#126
#126
walkenvol said:
Can’t wait to hear BTO’s 7-8 man rotation
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Me too! Although I know that he will give us 9-10 to start the year. :^) It is not till February that his 'shorten the rotation kicks in. :^)

bleedingTNorange said:
Think it’ll be bigger than that, barring injury, but just like last year it’ll shrink come February/March 👍🏻
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I certainly hope you are pessimistically wrong.

bleedingTNorange said:
JJJ willing to come here as a walk on should tell you all you need to know about his mindset, he knows his knee is an issue and he won’t be demanding minutes. He wants to provide a role on a roster he really likes the makeup of.
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I think we wants it all ... the whole thing. He wants to cut down nets in the NCAA Finals.
This is one of the greatest commendations of a player ever ... that he is willing to walk on for a final year.

Since BTO did not offer any fodder ... I will offer a WAY TO EARLY version:
(Starters are listed first, but I am really only confident about 3. As far as ZZ - I expect him to not be 100% in the fall and the team will take their time to make absolutely sure that he is ready)
Dilione - Zeigler - Carr/Mashack (Edwards saw the writing on the wall)
Santi - Gainey - Mashack/Carr
Knecht - Mashack - JJJ
Ledlum - Jefferson - Phillips (RS)
Aidoo - Awaka - Estrella

Too early to be thinking about minutes, but I will offer that Santi does not average over 30 mpg. Yep! I am going out on the limb. Here's your saw. :^)
 
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#128
#128
It also helps with the answer to ballhandling in the short term if ZZ is out a bit early. Between him and Santi we are decent even if ZZ is out a few games.
 
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#129
#129
SN-A-C Orange said:
If there are lessons to be learned ... then the messages from San Diego State's (SDS) trip to the final four ...
  1. Defensive is a huge part of the equation ... in that regard ... Barnes is on the right track. SDS has a 94 feet emphasis on defense - Barnes teams focus on just the half court ... more on this later.
  2. Offensively, SDS is far from a juggernaut. Interestingly they rank 265 in the number of 3s they took per game! Only 1 player averaged more than 10 points per game.
  3. SDS spreads their mpg out among a large swath of players - 9. Nine players AVERAGED more that 15 mpg! In fact, the only other team that did that was FAU!!!
  4. No player on SDS averaged more than 28 mpg!!! THIS is what allowed them to play a more frantic full court defense.
Analysis:
SDS full court defense was NOT more productive in producing more steals than Barnes defense ... but it may have worn on the other teams physical stamina over the course of the game.
The persistent rotation of players MAY HAVE allowed SDS to be less physically 'tired' over the course of the season. Thus, not leg weary going into the NCAA tournament.

Propositions:
Coaches/Teams tend to put the best players on the floor for the most amount of time.
Deeper teams can give players MORE minutes and NOT rely on one or two players (to play 30 minutes).
With the addition of JJJ, this is by far, the deepest AND most experienced team I have seen in Orange. WELCOME BACK, JJJ!!!!
If we can steer clear of injuries and get 9 to 11 players contributing 15 minutes per game ... we could see a very special season in 2023-2024
By the way, we were not far from the SDS metrics, but we had a couple of players who were VERY one dimensional. Those players dramatically affected the overall effectiveness of the team.
Finally, I still believe that Rick would prefer NOT to put players on the floor for more that 25-27 minutes per game. However, imho, I think he does have the team to accomplish this feat in the fall.
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Lesson 1 from last season....we need more guys who can score the ball consistently.
 
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#130
#130
SN-A-C Orange said:
If there are lessons to be learned ... then the messages from San Diego State's (SDS) trip to the final four ...
  1. Defensive is a huge part of the equation ... in that regard ... Barnes is on the right track. SDS has a 94 feet emphasis on defense - Barnes teams focus on just the half court ... more on this later.
  2. Offensively, SDS is far from a juggernaut. Interestingly they rank 265 in the number of 3s they took per game! Only 1 player averaged more than 10 points per game.
  3. SDS spreads their mpg out among a large swath of players - 9. Nine players AVERAGED more that 15 mpg! In fact, the only other team that did that was FAU!!!
  4. No player on SDS averaged more than 28 mpg!!! THIS is what allowed them to play a more frantic full court defense.
Analysis:
SDS full court defense was NOT more productive in producing more steals than Barnes defense ... but it may have worn on the other teams physical stamina over the course of the game.
The persistent rotation of players MAY HAVE allowed SDS to be less physically 'tired' over the course of the season. Thus, not leg weary going into the NCAA tournament.

Propositions:
Coaches/Teams tend to put the best players on the floor for the most amount of time.
Deeper teams can give players MORE minutes and NOT rely on one or two players (to play 30 minutes).
With the addition of JJJ, this is by far, the deepest AND most experienced team I have seen in Orange. WELCOME BACK, JJJ!!!!
If we can steer clear of injuries and get 9 to 11 players contributing 15 minutes per game ... we could see a very special season in 2023-2024
By the way, we were not far from the SDS metrics, but we had a couple of players who were VERY one dimensional. Those players dramatically affected the overall effectiveness of the team.
Finally, I still believe that Rick would prefer NOT to put players on the floor for more that 25-27 minutes per game. However, imho, I think he does have the team to accomplish this feat in the fall.
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Good comparison. Much like SDS last year we will have a strong 9 man rotation and each player is going to be getting 15-30 minutes per game. With JJJ back, even if he only gets 20 minutes per game some guys won't be playing much, which is why I hope we push tempo more and really defend aggressively for an entire game. We have the bodies for it. Just speculating:

Aidoo/Awaka
Ledlum / JJJ
Knecht / JJJ
Vescovi / Mashack
Dilione/Zeigler

Estrella, Gainey probably the next 2 up. Jefferson, Carr, Phillips, not sure where I see minutes from them unless we are destroying some opponents
 
#131
#131
Basilio reported that the coaches had no idea that JJJ was about to announce that he is returning. TB said that CRB met with each of the seniors after the season and told everyone except for SV that they need to move on. Basilio also said that there was not a plan with NIL money in place to compensate JJJ for being a walk-on.

This is what he said on the radio. Maybe he’ll write it up in his blog for tomorrow.
 
#132
#132
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Basilio reported that the coaches had no idea that JJJ was about to announce that he is returning. TB said that CRB met with each of the seniors after the season and told everyone except for SV that they need to move on. Basilio also said that there was not a plan with NIL money in place to compensate JJJ for being a walk-on.

This is what he said on the radio. Maybe he’ll write it up in his blog for tomorrow.
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I like Basilio but I question some of this.
If CRB told them to move on I can't imagine JJJ not discussing a return with the staff.
 
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#133
#133
No one will ever confirm anything. JJJ had to cut ties with the team in order to do the NIL walkon from what I have read. You don't throw it around or in others face so you shut up.
 
#134
#134
Zues1 said:
I like Basilio but I question some of this.
If CRB told them to move on I can't imagine JJJ not discussing a return with the staff.
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“Moving on” wasn’t necessarily the exact reporting by TB or exactly what he claims CRB said. I was paraphrasing. It could have been that they were told that they wouldn’t be given another year under scholarship (and therefore that they could walk-on).

The part that is odd is that Basilio reported that the coaches were caught off guard by JJJ’s announcement. But Basilio’s sources are his D-list donor contacts. They can be played by the AD.
 
#135
#135
Basilio: CRB told Uros, JJJ, and ORN to “get on with your life’s work”.

Basilio: the staff was shocked yesterday when JJJ announced that he was returning.

It’s at the beginning of the 6/1/2023 TB show. The podcast is posted on tonybasilio dot com.
 
#137
#137
TheMookieMonster said:
Basilio has some occasional information, I’ll admit it. But this one is hard for me to believe. CRB and JJJ are about as close as any player CRB has ever coached. I just can’t buy the idea that CRB was “shocked” that JJJ announced his return without it being approved first.
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CRB had probably approved JJJ returning as a walk-on long ago. He just didn’t expect JJJ to take that option.
 
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#138
#138
It is actually also on Basilio’s 6/1 blog that was posted Wednesday evening (5/31):

Inside Triple J's Surprising Walk-On Bombshell:
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It's no shock that Josiah-Jordan James pulled his name out of the NBA draft hat yesterday. It IS SURPRISING THAT TRIPLE J IS WALKING ON FOR TENNESSEE this season. Despite the portal craziness and draft entry deadline madness throughout the college basketball universe over the past two months, Tennessee’s program had a very quiet 30 day period before Wednesday. Outside of maneuvering to find BJ Edwards a soft landing spot at SMU in early May (which allowed them to get back under the 13 man scholarship limit) they have been completely quiet since Dalton Knecht committed in mid April.
​
There was zero expectation within the program that any of the departing seniors outside of Vescovi would be back. No additional NIL fundraising was done for those guys and no scholarships were kept open for any of them.

Plavsic and JJJ entered the draft and Nkamhoua entered the draft and portal. With Wednesday being the deadline for players to withdraw from the draft, JJJ began more seriously discussing the possibility of coming back with Tennessee’s coaching staff over the past day or so. It caught the staff off guard under the circumstances, but the decision was made that a player with his experience level and versatility shouldn’t be turned away if he’s willing to make serious concessions.

Tennessee is not going to do anymore roster maneuvering to create an extra scholarship and JJJ was aware of that. He decided to come back knowing that there’s a very good chance his current NIL deals will also need to cover his scholarship. It isn’t 100% clear if that will be feasible given his past scholarship status, but it is the hope and plan. Jordan Gainey is the son of Tennessee assistant Justin Gainey and it’s also possible he could be the walk on if Tennessee can’t make it work with JJJ walking on.
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He will also need to prove he’s healthy and more productive than he was towards the end of last season to have a significant role. As of now, he’s certainly not going to be penciled in as a starter. We should get a better idea of how healthy he is and how his minutes stack up against the newcomers at his position in early August when Tennessee plays a 3 game exhibition tour in Italy. Their first game will be August 3rd in Florence.

Tennessee also felt better about his return due to the depth at his position. As we’ve seen with his injury history, there may be weeks or months where he simply isn’t able to play. With the roster Tennessee’s built that should be much easier to withstand over the course of a 5 month season
 
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#139
#139
was looking a JJJ vs Phillips

He averaged a point less and a board more as a freshman..

one is going to the NBA one is returning for year 6

wild to me
 
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#140
#140
Thunder Good-Oil said:
It is actually also on Basilio’s 6/1 blog that was posted Wednesday evening (5/31):

Inside Triple J's Surprising Walk-On Bombshell:
spacer.gif
It's no shock that Josiah-Jordan James pulled his name out of the NBA draft hat yesterday. It IS SURPRISING THAT TRIPLE J IS WALKING ON FOR TENNESSEE this season.
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This doesn’t make sense to me. TB didn’t expect him back (reasonable, nobody did), but he also expected Josiah to pull his name out of the draft? Why would he do that, even with the extremely small chance of being drafted, if not to return? Seems like a TN and a Barnes man, couldn’t see him transferring to another school (obv evidenced by him returning as a walk on, but even before that)
 
#141
#141
Pardon me if i am not excited. Great guy but completely disappears in March. Stats from our last 3 NCAA losses:

OSU- 2-10 0-5
Michigan 5-13 0-6
Florida Atlantic 3-11 2-6

Total in the 3 losses - 10-34 and 2-17

Certainly he is not the only one to blame but 5 stars are supposed to step up in March, not disappear.
 
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#142
#142
Savannahbayvol said:
Pardon me if i am not excited. Great guy but completely disappears in March. Stats from our last 3 NCAA losses:

OSU- 2-10 0-5
Michigan 5-13 0-6
Florida Atlantic 3-11 2-6

Total in the 3 losses - 10-34 and 2-17

Certainly he is not the only one to blame but 5 stars are supposed to step up in March, not disappear.
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You only did the losses. How about the postseason wins? Besides, he'll have to share minutes this year, and won't be counted on so much to win crucial games.
 
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#145
#145
RockyTopTexas said:
was looking a JJJ vs Phillips

He averaged a point less and a board more as a freshman..

one is going to the NBA one is returning for year 6

wild to me
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JJJ was listed on some draft boards following his freshman year if I remember correctly. The issue for JJJ is the knee and other injuries. Where Phillips is considered an elite athlete even though he was not very impressive as a freshman.
 
#147
#147
#149
#149
rdk4121 said:
A little funny they put Duke ahead of us even though we did beat them head to head in the tournament. We bring almost everyone back with JJJ back, and now add Knecht, Ledlum, and Gainey, which easily makes up for the losses of ON and Uros.
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Blue Blood bias
 
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