Could be the biggest underachieving team in UT history

#251
#251
Sudden Impact said:
Seriously, the most underachieving team? In volunteer history? Give it a break we may never know but I'm sure there are more in the past I have been underachieving. Even Ernie and Bernie could be classified as an underachieving team
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Yeah Ernie and Bernie I don’t think ever won a NCAA game. Obviously different time and number of invites. But regardless, Wade Houston’s last squad won a grand total of 5 games. Wade’s tenure, Kevin O’Neil’s tenure, Buzz Peterson, etc....and anyone that thinks this year is the most underachieving team in UT basketball history lacks perspective and must not have followed the program very long.

Disappointing thus far sure, but we have seen pretty horrific basketball over the years. Anytime you can make the tournament something has gone right. Preseason projections are worthless and for whatever reason this group just doesn’t have any chemistry and clearly has missed on some players who should at least be providing some depth.
 
#252
#252
volbound1700 said:
They were not loaded with talent and frankly Tennessee played and beat stronger opponents earlier in the year. This is why Purdue got stomped by Virginia in the next game. (Granted, I doubt Tennessee would have beaten Virginia either but then again Auburn gave Virginia fits).

IMO, Tennessee had more talent than Purdue and should have beaten them. We entered the tournament playing terrible. We barely got by 10 seed Iowa.
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Purdue vs. Virginia - Game Summary - March 30, 2019 - ESPN

Do you want to just STFU now and admit you don't know WTF you're talking about, or would you like to keep demonstrating how much you don't know?
 
#254
#254
livefaith said:
I don't think we're actually as good as we originally thought. Obviously the W-L v Pre-season ranking. But, remember, last year we were not even an NCAAT team, The addition of 2 stud FR + 1 transfer guard and loss of 2 seasoned SEC guards does not compute into elite status on paper. Maybe Top25, top20?
But with JJJ out recently, Fulky in a regression, and Pons in and out of injury, we are just not consistently good. Even when JJJ was live, we have a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde consistency. Our vets have not made enough progression. Out FR are just that, so theyre up and down.
I got goo-goo eyed early at this team bc of the lockdown D, and figured w the FR progressing and vets stepping up a yr of maturity, and with possibly 10 deep on playing time ... that we could be special. Reality is the FR ARE getting it, vets as a whole average no real improvement, depth is not real (Ticket, Anosike, Pember non-factors), and D can be exposed to 3pt barrages etc.
We're just a slightly above avg SEC team it appears. When we decide to get in a funk, we got serious unity doing it!
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They were overrated this year
and despite the recruiting success with Johnson and Springer, recruiting has not been that successful. Lots of misses with key big man targets, either not getting them or getting wrong ones going back to Burns and Walker. Those spots would have been upper classmen this year I believe, at least the Walker spot.

On offense. Not enough guys with a scoring mentality and no true point. JJJ was a 5 star and often doesnt even look to score. Maybe he has the talent to do so. Just be more aggressive. Should be the team leader but I dont see it on the court yet. Maybe next year. Fulk has always been deferential and now without an offense designed exclusively to feed him in the post, he dissappears. Perhaps health related but also not an alpha. Vescovi's loose handle scares me. Seems "leave it to the freshmen" is the mentality.

Defensively, Vescovi, Bailey, and Fulk (as a center) are not really consistent factors. We are getting dominated by more athletic, bigger teams. Auburn, LSU, Old Miss, Missouri, Kentucky. Heck, just about every team in SEC play is bigger than us on the inside.

Barns has a very flawed team here. Mostly, his inability to recruit impactful inside players with size has held back his team's success on the court.
 
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#255
#255
BeAllEndAll said:
They were overrated this year
and despite the recruiting success with Johnson and Springer, recruiting has not been that successful. Lots of misses with key big man targets, either not getting them or getting wrong ones going back to Burns and Walker. Those spots would have been upper classmen this year I believe, at least the Walker spot.

On offense. Not enough guys with a scoring mentality and no true point. JJJ was a 5 star and often doesnt even look to score. Maybe he has the talent to do so. Just be more aggressive. Should be the team leader but I dont see it on the court yet. Maybe next year. Fulk has always been deferential and now without an offense designed exclusively to feed him in the post, he dissappears. Perhaps health related but also not an alpha. Vescovi's loose handle scares me. Seems "leave it to the freshmen" is the mentality.

Defensively, Vescovi, Bailey, and Fulk (as a center) are not really consistent factors. We are getting dominated by more athletic, bigger teams. Auburn, LSU, Old Miss, Missouri, Kentucky. Heck, just about every team in SEC play is bigger than us on the inside.

Barns has a very flawed team here. Mostly, his inability to recruit impactful inside players with size has held back his team's success on the court.
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The fact that we have three five stars is incredible. I thought I would never see that in my lifetime. The problem is these three are all wings and the roster is stocked with mediocre recruiting everywhere else. Lets face it, one of these three had no business being ranked that high.
 
#256
#256
This thread is hilarious... last year pons did not show us any scoring hardly, Fulk looked fair most of the time (and amazing only a few times). Vescovi looked raw...
insert two 5-star freshman...
we aren’t underachieving...
 
#257
#257
Bruce Pearl > Rick Barnes, by a lot. We could have protected him and there was no need for him to lose his job here. Tennessee deserves to get smoked by him every time. When Barnes’ contract expires, let’s bring Pearl home.
 
#259
#259
Vol737 said:
Bruce Pearl > Rick Barnes, by a lot. We could have protected him and there was no need for him to lose his job here. Tennessee deserves to get smoked by him every time. When Barnes’ contract expires, let’s bring Pearl home.
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That may happen in YOUR dreams, but I guarantee that you will be mighty disappointed.
 
#261
#261
Vol737 said:
Bruce Pearl > Rick Barnes, by a lot. We could have protected him and there was no need for him to lose his job here. Tennessee deserves to get smoked by him every time. When Barnes’ contract expires, let’s bring Pearl home.
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You don’t have a clue what happened behind the scenes.
 
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#263
#263
cardvolfan said:
That may happen in YOUR dreams, but I guarantee that you will be mighty disappointed.
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I’m sure I will. We’ve been dealing with absolute failures by administrations for the past 10+ years. I have no doubt they would never even look at pearl again. I just happen to think that’s a mistake.
 
#266
#266
I loved Pearl's time here, he is probably the best coach in the SEC right now overall. He's the best we've ever had here, the NCAA penalty was a complete joke and we should have told the NCAA to take a flying leap, and he should have sued them. But he won't be back here, unfortunately. I'd say Barnes coaches for 3-5 more years, maybe more. Making 5 million a year, I wouldn't blame him if he stayed longer. Hopefully he keeps recruiting well, keeps us in the NCAA tournament and there's a great mid-major guy available at the time and we actually hire him. Until then the Sweet 16 is probably the ceiling.
 
#267
#267
VolArmy74 said:
I loved Pearl's time here, he is probably the best coach in the SEC right now overall. He's the best we've ever had here, the NCAA penalty was a complete joke and we should have told the NCAA to take a flying leap, and he should have sued them. But he won't be back here, unfortunately. I'd say Barnes coaches for 3-5 more years, maybe more. Making 5 million a year, I wouldn't blame him if he stayed longer. Hopefully he keeps recruiting well, keeps us in the NCAA tournament and there's a great mid-major guy available at the time and we actually hire him. Until then the Sweet 16 is probably the ceiling.
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The SEC is littered with great coaches. I might agree he's the best motivator. Not so sure he's the best we've had here
 
#271
#271
USAFgolferVol said:
I would put Mears ahead of him
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I wouldn't. Honestly, having lived through Mears time, he underachieved vs the talent he had on campus. Especially in the post-season. Mears had a lot of very good teams here but never a really great one, even though he had great talent. Bruce was more successful in the lower ranks, had a higher peak at Tennessee and has worked miracles at Auburn. The SEC is more competitive in this era than it was in the Mears era too. Mears was 0-4 in the big tournament and 4-8 overall here in the post season. Ernie and Bernie losing to VMI hurts to this day.
 
#272
#272
VolArmy74 said:
I wouldn't. Honestly, having lived through Mears time, he underachieved vs the talent he had on campus. Especially in the post-season. Mears had a lot of very good teams here but never a really great one, even though he had great talent. Bruce was more successful in the lower ranks, had a higher peak at Tennessee and has worked miracles at Auburn. The SEC is more competitive in this era than it was in the Mears era too. Mears was 0-4 in the big tournament and 4-8 overall here in the post season. Ernie and Bernie losing to VMI hurts to this day.
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In 21 years as a head coach, Mears had a national championship, 6 conference championships, 3 tournament championships, finished 1st or 2nd 11x in 15 years in the SEC (plus 3rd twice), 1st 3x, 2nd twice, and 3rd once in 6 years at his first stop, took TN to its first ever NCAA appearance (in an era when only one team per conference was invited) plus 2 more. Mears NEVER had a losing record in 21 years. He launched TN’s basketball program from scratch... they were 4-19 the year before he took the job.
 
#273
#273
Thunder Good-Oil said:
In 21 years as a head coach, Mears had a national championship, 6 conference championships, 3 tournament championships, finished 1st or 2nd 11x in 15 years in the SEC (plus 3rd twice), 1st 3x, 2nd twice, and 3rd once in 6 years at his first stop, took TN to its first ever NCAA appearance (in an era when only one team per conference was invited) plus 2 more. Mears NEVER had a losing record in 21 years. He launched TN’s basketball program from scratch... they were 4-19 the year before he took the job.
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Mears, as I said, was a good coach who underachieved his talent quite massively in the post-season at Tennessee. Pearl, to whom he was being compared has a lower division championship like Mears and a couple of lower division Final Fours. Has 15 NCAA tournament wins and a final 4 compared to 0 NCAA wins for Mears. Pearl has 600 career wins. Pearl has 11 combined tournament/regular season conference titles. Has one losing season in 26 years as a head coach. His resume is better than Mears on every level because basketball is a post-season sport. Pearl's ceiling at Tennessee was much higher while his worst year was on par with Mears worst seasons (19 wins, 1st round NCAA loss.) The SEC is vastly more competitive now than it was during the Mears era. Tennessee and Kentucky took basketball seriously. Very few others did. LSU ran it's program like the Harlem Globetrotters for instance just to showcase Pete Maravich with no concerns about winning basketball games. Most schools didn't even care if they had a basketball team.
 
#274
#274
VolArmy74 said:
Mears, as I said, was a good coach who underachieved his talent quite massively in the post-season at Tennessee. Pearl, to whom he was being compared has a lower division championship like Mears and a couple of lower division Final Fours. Has 15 NCAA tournament wins and a final 4 compared to 0 NCAA wins for Mears. Pearl has 600 career wins. Pearl has 11 combined tournament/regular season conference titles. Has one losing season in 26 years as a head coach. His resume is better than Mears on every level because basketball is a post-season sport. Pearl's ceiling at Tennessee was much higher while his worst year was on par with Mears worst seasons (19 wins, 1st round NCAA loss.) The SEC is vastly more competitive now than it was during the Mears era. Tennessee and Kentucky took basketball seriously. Very few others did. LSU ran it's program like the Harlem Globetrotters for instance just to showcase Pete Maravich with no concerns about winning basketball games. Most schools didn't even care if they had a basketball team.
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It’s a false narrative to suggest that KY and TN were the only SEC schools to take basketball seriously. And comparing NCAA records is being ignorant to the differences... not only was there only one bid per conference for most of Mears’ time at TN, but teams were not seeded at all. Games weren’t even televised. There are nearly twice as many teams in today’s NCAA field as were in the NCAA plus NIT in the 1960s. Mears was forced out as TN broke through onto the national stage while Pearl put TN even further back than where it was when he started. Mears was 50 years old when his career ended. He could have gone another 20.
 
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