2026 Vols Transfer Portal Thread

#12,126
#12,126
Willy14 said:
Sounds like Rubin either is taking some time to get adjusted to the system or the staff views Washington as better at this point in time (maybe a little of both)?
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I think it’s probably more an upgrade from Fermin, essentially you’re raising your floor. Not to say Washington isn’t better than Rubin, but both are gonna play still, this add likely cuts into Fermin’s PT much more than Rubin’s imo
 
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#12,128
#12,128
I’m enjoying hearing all the thoughts on how the new players will shape up as a team. I’m still waiting to see how CRB gets 12+ guys to learn their roles and then function together in an ever changing lineup on the floor. Seems like a huge challenge to get them to gel as a team. Will be an interesting season.
 
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#12,129
#12,129
walkenvol said:
I’m enjoying hearing all the thoughts on how the new players will shape up as a team. I’m still waiting to see how CRB gets 12+ guys to learn their roles and then function together in an ever changing lineup on the floor. Seems like a huge challenge to get them to gel as a team. Will be an interesting season.
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Last year it was 10 and people were saying the same thing, idk how much different 10 is than 12 but I guess we’re gonna find out.
 
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#12,130
#12,130
bleedingTNorange said:
Last year it was 10 and people were saying the same thing, idk how much different 10 is than 12 but I guess we’re gonna find out.
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As of now, I'm thinking the pieces fall as they often do:

1. It's the offseason, so every player is looking fantastic and expected to immediately contribute.

2. We look really good against the cupcakes of the early schedule, and everything is awesome. Bonus points if we beat Duke in the exh.

3. Fast forward to tougher competition, we see some separation between the top dogs of the team vs everyone else. An 8-man rotation becomes apparent. We probably see issues or weaknesses with certain players that only come to light against better comp. We probably point to a player or two being disappointing and make every effort to chalk it up to injury or anything else aside from them not being as good as we thought.

4. Maybe after a few SEC games (or perhaps before), we feel the lack of the depth at PG and lack of size in the post. We accept that the team is not as deep as we once thought. However, we largely make up for it with it great individual talent (especially Harris), defense, and schemes created to compensate for our deficiencies.

5. We float around the middle of the top 20 all season, have some great performances, exciting wins, a headscratching loss or two, finish top 2-4 in the SEC, get to SEC tournament champ game, make the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Probably two or three players on the all conference teams.

That's my best effort at applying the law of averages, and that's a pretty high floor. Ftr, I am notoriously bad at preseason predictions, so I hope this post conjures a trip to the Final 4. In any case, I think we're in for another exciting season of UT bball.
 
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#12,131
#12,131
Chris4Vols22 said:
As of now, I'm thinking the pieces fall as they often do:

1. It's the offseason, so every player is looking fantastic and expected to immediately contribute.

2. We look really good against the cupcakes of the early schedule, and everything is awesome. Bonus points if we beat Duke in the exh.

3. Fast forward to tougher competition, we see some separation between the top dogs of the team vs everyone else. An 8-man rotation becomes apparent. We probably see issues or weaknesses with certain players that only come to light against better comp. We probably point to a player or two being disappointing and make every effort to chalk it up to injury or anything else aside from them not being as good as we thought.

4. Maybe after a few SEC games (or perhaps before), we feel the lack of the depth at PG and lack of size in the post. We accept that the team is not as deep as we once thought. However, we largely make up for it with it great individual talent (especially Harris), defense, and schemes created to compensate for our deficiencies.

5. We float around the middle of the top 20 all season, have some great performances, exciting wins, a headscratching loss or two, finish top 2-4 in the SEC, get to SEC tournament champ game, make the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Probably two or three players on the all conference teams.

That's my best effort at applying the law of averages, and that's a pretty high floor. Ftr, I am notoriously bad at preseason predictions, so I hope this post conjures a trip to the Final 4. In any case, I think we're in for another exciting season of UT bball.
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Making a 4th straight Elite 8 is insanely difficult to do and the law of averages says we won’t. A one and done tourney is so hard to predict. I’m not quite ready to throw out a prediction but right now I do believe we will be better than 20th all season and I would guess we do make the EE. Formal predictions will come a little later, maybe late Sept/early Oct. I can’t wait to see us beat those Spartans down though. Definitely going to that one!
 
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#12,132
#12,132
Chris4Vols22 said:
As of now, I'm thinking the pieces fall as they often do:

1. It's the offseason, so every player is looking fantastic and expected to immediately contribute.

2. We look really good against the cupcakes of the early schedule, and everything is awesome. Bonus points if we beat Duke in the exh.

3. Fast forward to tougher competition, we see some separation between the top dogs of the team vs everyone else. An 8-man rotation becomes apparent. We probably see issues or weaknesses with certain players that only come to light against better comp. We probably point to a player or two being disappointing and make every effort to chalk it up to injury or anything else aside from them not being as good as we thought.

4. Maybe after a few SEC games (or perhaps before), we feel the lack of the depth at PG and lack of size in the post. We accept that the team is not as deep as we once thought. However, we largely make up for it with it great individual talent (especially Harris), defense, and schemes created to compensate for our deficiencies.

5. We float around the middle of the top 20 all season, have some great performances, exciting wins, a headscratching loss or two, finish top 2-4 in the SEC, get to SEC tournament champ game, make the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Probably two or three players on the all conference teams.

That's my best effort at applying the law of averages, and that's a pretty high floor. Ftr, I am notoriously bad at preseason predictions, so I hope this post conjures a trip to the Final 4. In any case, I think we're in for another exciting season of UT bball.
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Right now, I view this as extremely pessimistic. On paper, we are better than that. Yes, I know I said, "On paper".

Things may play out as you said, but I am now firmly in the camp of believing that this addition was what the doctor ordered. At first, I was like, "So, we get another Vandy guy who got 8 points and 6 rebounds? Big deal!" but when you look at the big picture, he got those numbers in 20 minutes of play. Put that in terms of 30 minutes, and you get 12 and 9. You also get a big bodied guy who can hopefully play against the biggest, baddest guy the other team can throw at us. That is exactly what we needed the most.

Is he a 7 footer? No, but most 7 footers spend most of their time on the bench. This guy can give us big minutes, game after game.

Now, back to the season. Sure, we may be overestimating our talent level, and some deficiencies will certainly show up, but for the most part, I think we have all the pieces in place. No gaping holes, that we have almost always had. No team should be able to game plan against our deficiencies, and we should be able to either out-talent, out-hustle (fresh legs), or out-last (fouls to give) just about anyone out there.

If coach Barnes can put all this together, into a team, and not just a collection of players, this will be a team with one of the very best records we have ever had, and one with the best odds of winning, come tourney time. No reason to believe that the past is the best predictor of what we will get this year. This team is truly built different.
 
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#12,136
#12,136
Franklin_Vol09 said:
Coach Barnes is gonna take a page out of the Caldwell playbook and send 5 new players in like hockey shifts. lol
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Wow, that was supposed to be kept secret and you let the cat out of the bag. 2 rotations with the other 5 subbing in for both situationally to go big or small.
 
#12,140
#12,140
i2amavol said:
Right now, I view this as extremely pessimistic. On paper, we are better than that. Yes, I know I said, "On paper".

Things may play out as you said, but I am now firmly in the camp of believing that this addition was what the doctor ordered. At first, I was like, "So, we get another Vandy guy who got 8 points and 6 rebounds? Big deal!" but when you look at the big picture, he got those numbers in 20 minutes of play. Put that in terms of 30 minutes, and you get 12 and 9. You also get a big bodied guy who can hopefully play against the biggest, baddest guy the other team can throw at us. That is exactly what we needed the most.

Is he a 7 footer? No, but most 7 footers spend most of their time on the bench. This guy can give us big minutes, game after game.

Now, back to the season. Sure, we may be overestimating our talent level, and some deficiencies will certainly show up, but for the most part, I think we have all the pieces in place. No gaping holes, that we have almost always had. No team should be able to game plan against our deficiencies, and we should be able to either out-talent, out-hustle (fresh legs), or out-last (fouls to give) just about anyone out there.

If coach Barnes can put all this together, into a team, and not just a collection of players, this will be a team with one of the very best records we have ever had, and one with the best odds of winning, come tourney time. No reason to believe that the past is the best predictor of what we will get this year. This team is truly built different.
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What I love is that 3 years ago some said old Regular Season Rick can’t win in March. We made the Elite 8 and the narrative turned to it took a generational talent to get him there and he still didn’t shake the RSR narrative. Then we made it to the Elite 8 again and that narrative was switched to, “he can’t beat better seeded teams”. Now we’ve made 3 straight Elite 8s and we went through 2 better seeded teams to do it last year. I can’t wait to hear the next knock on Barnes as we will be in uncharted territory when he proves that one wrong too.
 
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#12,141
#12,141
hUTch2002 said:
What I love is that 3 years ago some said old Regular Season Rick can’t win in March. We made the Elite 8 and the narrative turned to it took a generational talent to get him there and he still didn’t shake the RSR narrative. Then we made it to the Elite 8 again and that narrative was switched to, “he can’t beat better seeded teams”. Now we’ve made 3 straight Elite 8s and we went through 2 better seeded teams to do it last year. I can’t wait to hear the next knock on Barnes as we will be in uncharted territory when he proves that one wrong too.
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Don't get me wrong, I loved the 1998 football championship, but it would be a new high for me if we could win a basketball championship with Rick here
 
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#12,142
#12,142
BernardKingGOAT said:
Don't get me wrong, I loved the 1998 football championship, but it would be a new high for me if we could win a basketball championship with Rick here
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Give me that Final 4 and National Championship for the Vols and Barnes, then I can die. One in football and baseball in my lifetime and I was 27 in '98/99, so I was old enough to really enjoy (in fact, I cried) it. I just need that basketball NC or at the least a Final 4. I was 8 when Magic and Bird played, I even remember the 3rd place game, DePaul (who I watched on WGN, all the time,back then) beat the Penn Quakers, of all teams. Anyway, I think this team may have IT. We will see, soon.

My bad, high and rambling
 
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#12,143
#12,143
The Dog said:
Give me that Final 4 and National Championship for the Vols and Barnes, then I can die. One in football and baseball in my lifetime and I was 27 in '98/99, so I was old enough to really enjoy (in fact, I cried) it. I just need that basketball NC or at the least a Final 4. I was 8 when Magic and Bird played, I even remember the 3rd place game, DePaul (who I watched on WGN, all the time,back then) beat the Penn Quakers, of all teams. Anyway, I think this team may have IT. We will see, soon.

My bad, high and rambling
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👍
 
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#12,144
#12,144
hUTch2002 said:
What I love is that 3 years ago some said old Regular Season Rick can’t win in March. We made the Elite 8 and the narrative turned to it took a generational talent to get him there and he still didn’t shake the RSR narrative. Then we made it to the Elite 8 again and that narrative was switched to, “he can’t beat better seeded teams”. Now we’ve made 3 straight Elite 8s and we went through 2 better seeded teams to do it last year. I can’t wait to hear the next knock on Barnes as we will be in uncharted territory when he proves that one wrong too.
Click to expand...

If nothing else NEGAs are versatile.
 
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#12,148
#12,148
The Dog said:
What about the poster that said the Vols should run their offense through Carey ?
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That’s nonsense… but If “through” meant around screens and seal offs he sets.. then mop up. maybe.

He just struggled to get that mean-on every game. The games he’s did, he stuck out. But too much Moss and not enough Mashack. Imo
 
#12,149
#12,149
Chris4Vols22 said:
As of now, I'm thinking the pieces fall as they often do:

1. It's the offseason, so every player is looking fantastic and expected to immediately contribute.

2. We look really good against the cupcakes of the early schedule, and everything is awesome. Bonus points if we beat Duke in the exh.

3. Fast forward to tougher competition, we see some separation between the top dogs of the team vs everyone else. An 8-man rotation becomes apparent. We probably see issues or weaknesses with certain players that only come to light against better comp. We probably point to a player or two being disappointing and make every effort to chalk it up to injury or anything else aside from them not being as good as we thought.

4. Maybe after a few SEC games (or perhaps before), we feel the lack of the depth at PG and lack of size in the post. We accept that the team is not as deep as we once thought. However, we largely make up for it with it great individual talent (especially Harris), defense, and schemes created to compensate for our deficiencies.

5. We float around the middle of the top 20 all season, have some great performances, exciting wins, a headscratching loss or two, finish top 2-4 in the SEC, get to SEC tournament champ game, make the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Probably two or three players on the all conference teams.

That's my best effort at applying the law of averages, and that's a pretty high floor. Ftr, I am notoriously bad at preseason predictions, so I hope this post conjures a trip to the Final 4. In any case, I think we're in for another exciting season of UT bball.
Click to expand...
I believe he will play more than an eighth man rotation. He now has the man power to play flat out offense and defense the entire game. He has already changed his mold from previous years by recruiting goys who can put the ball in the hole.. He is going whole hog this year and that is a good thing. If he doesn't, he will lose at lot of talent in the portal next Spring.
 
#12,150
#12,150
VOLINVONORE said:
I believe he will play more than an eighth man rotation. He now has the man power to play flat out offense and defense the entire game. He has already changed his mold from previous years by recruiting goys who can put the ball in the hole.. He is going whole hog this year and that is a good thing. If he doesn't, he will lose at lot of talent in the portal next Spring.
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Regardless of the size of CRB’s rotation for this season, he will lose a lot of talent to the portal. It’s the new normal.
 
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