2026 Vols Transfer Portal Thread

#2,202
#2,202
It's funny the way too early top 25s are out when our current starting lineup:

Pg- burg
Sg- lundblade
Sf- Evans (holding on for dear life)
Pf- One of the freshmen
Center- brown
 
#2,203
#2,203
sami said:
For a long time college sports fan it's less a matter of 'not flinching' at the losses of kids like Boswell, Phillips, and Estrella because of what they offered as players, but at the elimination of what college ball was all about - watching a group of kids that are part of the school grow into a unit over 3-4 years and leave as VFL's, and the continual passing of the torch to new blood while keeping the established culture alive. Now the culture is dead and needs to be recreated every season.

As the tired cliche goes, it is what it is. But just simply 'rooting for the jersey' is a big reason I lost interest in pro sports years ago, and sadly that mentality is now what following college sports has become.
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My son had a Bishop Boswell custom jersey before most knew who he was...I really do hate it for the kids that just want to be fans of these players. I dont blame the players, but will be hard to cut a fat check for season tickets in June
 
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#2,207
#2,207
Some dude on X tweeted out that Najai Hines is a target.

Anyone know if that’s true? I guess I could’ve missed that.
 
#2,208
#2,208
b_gann said:
Correct - I'm saying the same thing really. They misjudged the market last year. I just hope we aren't looking around in a week at the scrap pile of what is left due to missing on the ones we wanted due to cost.
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Question...after how things fell this year with us making another EE how exactly do you mean they misjudged the market?

Not overpaying for Rice ended up being the right move...McKneely ended up at Louisville where his stats all went down from the previous season at Virginia and his former team won 30 games without him...so another bullet dodged I think as he was demanding a high price for little return.
 
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#2,209
#2,209
MoCo_Vol said:
I'm curious to see if some of these portal entries withdraw once they realize Barnes & staff had pretty accurate evaluations when real money is supposed to exchange hands.
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Most will probably be gone. "The grass is always greener" applies both ways. The schools always think they are getting a player upgrade and the player always thinks he's getting a better deal for a bigger role. Reality can be much different.
 
#2,211
#2,211
MoCo_Vol said:
I'm curious to see if some of these portal entries withdraw once they realize Barnes & staff had pretty accurate evaluations when real money is supposed to exchange hands.
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I'm surprised how much Barnes is overturning the roster. Like virtually everyone with experience who could be culture guys.

Evans and Brown are just freshman who haven't really been in the system long.
 
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#2,212
#2,212
JMSqb11 said:
I'm surprised how much Barnes is overturning the roster. Like virtually everyone with experience who could be culture guys.

Evans and Brown are just freshman who haven't really been in the system long.
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You just watched a team mainly dominate with 4 new starters and I guy who transferred in a year earlier… with the right coach and buy in anything is possible these days and all you have to do is find your best game in march (and not sh** the bed in the regular season)
 
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#2,213
#2,213
MoCo_Vol said:
Question...after how things fell this year with us making another EE how exactly do you mean they misjudged the market?

Not overpaying for Rice ended up being the right move...McKneely ended up at Louisville where his stats all went down from the previous season at Virginia and his former team won 30 games without him...so another bullet dodged I think as he was demanding a high price for little return.
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Rice had a freak injury and was playing really well before it.
 
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#2,214
#2,214
Feels like a higher risk/higher reward portal season. Barnes and staff have done really good job building a culture and supplementing those returning pieces with 2-3 contributors from the portal. The way it stands today, we’re looking at an overhaul. That can obviously work, but makes evaluations in talent and character vital. When you have culture guys returning, new players tend to mesh into the culture. When you bring in a whole new roster, you also have to rebuild the locker room. Hopefully we hit on the right guys.
 
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#2,215
#2,215
TheMookieMonster said:
Again, semantics. Was he the primary contributor or one of our go-to scorers? No, but when healthy he was a starter and absolutely an impact player and one of the more valuable assets on the team outside of the trio of Okpara, Gillespie, and Ament.

His MPG were affected by his inability to stay healthy early in the year. I think it’s fine to be okay with him leaving, but I’m not sure why people are trying to argue he wasn’t a big contributor to this most recent team.
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Agree and, I'll add, they are completely ignoring what his stats say he will be if given more than a couple paint touches per half.
 
#2,216
#2,216
ndubvols said:
Feels like a higher risk/higher reward portal season. Barnes and staff have done really good job building a culture and supplementing those returning pieces with 2-3 contributors from the portal. The way it stands today, we’re looking at an overhaul. That can obviously work, but makes evaluations in talent and character vital. When you have culture guys returning, new players tend to mesh into the culture. When you bring in a whole new roster, you also have to rebuild the locker room. Hopefully we hit on the right guys.
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Michigan says hello
 
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#2,217
#2,217
rockytop36 said:
You just watched a team mainly dominate with 4 new starters and I guy who transferred in a year earlier… with the right coach and buy in anything is possible these days and all you have to do is find your best game in march (and not sh** the bed in the regular season)
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I don't disagree, but there is a reason why the really great coaches are far and few in between. Barnes is chasing another Final Four appearance before he retires, nothing wrong with that. But if he is going to chase the Dusty May method, That seems to be a very abrupt change for him. Like even if Evans and Brown stay, they aren't going to be the voices in the locker room. Just wild that Barnes is doing this abrupt shift. Him evolving in his thinking this late is interesting. Would have loved to see this happen a few years ago.
 
#2,218
#2,218
johnfnkelly said:
Rice had a freak injury and was playing really well before it.
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Right, and had he been here and gotten that same injury you'd be one of the first ones to bitch and moan about wasting NIL $ on him. Even without the injury, his price tag would have prevented us from landing Nate. So healthy or not with the hindsight of us reaching the EE without him it was still the right move.

USC threw all the money in the world at portal players...and went 18-14
 
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#2,220
#2,220
JMSqb11 said:
I'm surprised how much Barnes is overturning the roster. Like virtually everyone with experience who could be culture guys.

Evans and Brown are just freshman who haven't really been in the system long.
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Both played 500 minutes this season though...more than JP and Bishop had before this season. I think culture guys are important, but if they're demanding too much as if they're starter level talent then so be it.

Like someone else pointed out before...Barnes took this team to the EE with only 2 stars and a lot of role player type production.

Michigan had 3 or 4 stars that they were able to convince to play smaller roles to win a championship.
 
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#2,223
#2,223
TheMookieMonster said:
Oof. Wouldn’t have phased me if we kept Estrella, but the hits keep coming. I liked the idea of some roster continuity.
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I don't think that continuity doesn't matter anymore. All of the teams in the KenPom top 10 ranked in the top half of college basketball in terms of continuity. Michigan was still in the top 3rd in terms of continuity. Among the power conferences there is a perceivable trend

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#2,224
#2,224
MoCo_Vol said:
Right, and had he been here and gotten that same injury you'd be one of the first ones to bitch and moan about wasting NIL $ on him. Even without the injury, his price tag would have prevent us from landing Nate. So healthy or not with the hindsight of us reaching the EE without him it was still the right move.

USC threw all the money in the world at portal players...and went 18-14
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I don’t think Rice proves anything either way. Using his injury to justify not paying him is outcome bias. At the time, nobody passed on him because they expected him to get injured. Once he gets hurt, you can’t evaluate his ROI vs his NIL anymore, so he’s basically a non-factor in judging that decision.

You can say the allocation worked out in our favor with Ament, but you can’t use Rice's injury as proof he wasn’t worth it.
 
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#2,225
#2,225
JMSqb11 said:
I don't disagree, but there is a reason why the really great coaches are far and few in between. Barnes is chasing another Final Four appearance before he retires, nothing wrong with that. But if he is going to chase the Dusty May method, That seems to be a very abrupt change for him. Like even if Evans and Brown stay, they aren't going to be the voices in the locker room. Just wild that Barnes is doing this abrupt shift. Him evolving in his thinking this late is interesting. Would have loved to see this happen a few years ago.
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It will be very interesting to see how many portal studs are open to CRB's method of coaching players hard, as Nate and Jakobe were. He has definitely proven with those two as well as Knecht and Lanier that he can produce 1st round picks after a season in his system, which bodes very well in this brave new world.

Barnes has clearly accepted the new way of team building, but it remains to be seen how successful he will be with players here and gone every season, a huge departure for the way he likes to build a program.
 
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