I just got back from the first summer league game at Bearden

#1
Bill Walton

Bill Walton

Bill Walton
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#1
I could only make it to the first game over at Bearden tonight, but was glad I did.

In the game I watched, Tyler Smith was far and away the best player on the court. Smith and J.P. Prince pretty much dominated the game for their team. They are going to work great together for the Vols. Prince might be the quickest 6'8" guy I have ever seen. He isn't a great outside shooter, but he was consistently blowing by people to get to the basket.

Tyler Smith will be in the NBA in the not too distant future. If he is eligible this year, I can see us going all the way. He was knocking down three's, and also threw down some crazy dunks.

My favorite play of the night was a 2 on 1 fastbreak with Tyler dribbling the ball down the court, bouncing the ball off the backboard, and J.P. Prince flying in and throwing down a NASTY dunk.

Duke Crews dominated for his team, as he pretty much scored when he wanted to. He had some big time dunks, and also hit a 3 pointer.

Cameron Tatum played, but didn't really do a whole lot. I actually got to talk to Wayne Chism for a few minutes, and he told me that Tatum has been sick all day.

Brian Williams played, but to be honest with you didn't look good at all. I am sure he will improve under Pearl, but right now he is too slow to play in the SEC. It would shock me if he didn't redshirt this year.

Oh yeah, there was one scary moment. J.P. Prince went came down funny at one point and fell to the ground in obvious pain. He was clutching his knee which made you worry that it was an ACL or something. Luckily it seemed to only be a cramp. About 5 minutes later Prince came back into the game and almost immediately slammed down another dunk.

Needless to say, the season can not get here soon enough.
 
#2
#2
Bill Walton said:
I could only make it to the first game over at Bearden tonight, but was glad I did.

In the game I watched, Tyler Smith was far and away the best player on the court. Smith and J.P. Prince pretty much dominated the game for their team. They are going to work great together for the Vols. Prince might be the quickest 6'8" guy I have ever seen. He isn't a great outside shooter, but he was consistently blowing by people to get to the basket.

Tyler Smith will be in the NBA in the not too distant future. If he is eligible this year, I can see us going all the way. He was knocking down three's, and also threw down some crazy dunks.

My favorite play of the night was a 2 on 1 fastbreak with Tyler dribbling the ball down the court, bouncing the ball off the backboard, and J.P. Prince flying in and throwing down a NASTY dunk.

Duke Crews dominated for his team, as he pretty much scored when he wanted to. He had some big time dunks, and also hit a 3 pointer.

Cameron Tatum played, but didn't really do a whole lot. I actually got to talk to Wayne Chism for a few minutes, and he told me that Tatum has been sick all day.

Brian Williams played, but to be honest with you didn't look good at all. I am sure he will improve under Pearl, but right now he is too slow to play in the SEC. It would shock me if he didn't redshirt this year.

Oh yeah, there was one scary moment. J.P. Prince went came down funny at one point and fell to the ground in obvious pain. He was clutching his knee which made you worry that it was an ACL or something. Luckily it seemed to only be a cramp. About 5 minutes later Prince came back into the game and almost immediately slammed down another dunk.

Needless to say, the season can not get here soon enough.
Click to expand...

Did Jajuan or Lofton play today?
 
#7
#7
Fellas, I know the phrase is being thrown around alot on this board, but I have never been so excited and anxious for basketball season to get here. With the excitement and the quality of basketball Pearl has brought to Knoxville, there is nothing better in K-Town these days than TBA packed to the top going crazy as the boys come down the aisles. As if that wasn't enough, we have a "new" arena this year!

I can not wait!!
 
#8
#8
Some criticized Pearl for taking J.P. I think he'll end up being a solid player in the SEC and a big contributor to the Vols future successes. Good to hear he is playing well in the summer league.
 
#9
#9
J.P. is going to be great. The entire UT team is going to be like 10 deep. I will be disappointed if TN does not make it to the final 4 in the next 3 years. Even when Loften is gone, I think TN is going to be a rock solid basketball team.
 
#10
#10
what are the directions to watch them play at bearden and what are the times and days that they play....thanks
 
#12
#12
Here's when the following players will be able to play

Prince- Middle of December

Smith- Beginning of the season or next year depending on hardship
 
#14
#14
Stanley Asumnu has some freakin GUNS and he was throwing down the nastiest dunks of the night.

As far as the newcomers...Tyler looks unreal. Reminds me a lot of a Ron Artest type.

Cam Tatum....is definetly athletic and has a decent looking shot. Hearing that he wasn't feeling well makes sense considering his subpar performance.

Brian Williams....Dude has slimmed down a lot and is pretty mobile. He has nice spin moves around the basket, but just needs to learn how to finish more. He seems like he is gonna be a very good rebounder and had some pretty good blocked shots as well.

JP Prince....He is a very versatile and smooth player. I really can't think of anyone we've ever had that can really compare to his game really. Silky smooth and suprisingly strong and very athletic. He is gonna be a baller in this system.

Wayne has really been working on his outside shot and he was probably about 8-14 or so from the 3point line and also had an awesome blocked shot that got the second biggest ovation of the night.

Chris was just Chris. Nuff said.

JaJuan seemed to have put in some work in the weight room and has added probably 10 lbs or so.

Duke at times can be a man possessed, but I hope he doesn't dog it at times like he did last year.

Ramar....wow.....this man will soon be wearing an NBA jersey before anyone but Lofton.


As far as non-Vols, I was really suprised by Ogelsby. Dude has crazy range. Reminds me a lot of Jordan Howell, but more consistant and quicker. Also, Peagram was lightning quick and there is no one on the floor who can keep up with him but possibly JaJaun.

That's all I got for now. It was so damned hot in that gym I had to keep walking outside to get some air.
 
#15
#15
No1UtFanJmAn147 said:
Here's when the following players will be able to play

Prince- Middle of December

Smith- Beginning of the season or next year depending on hardship
Click to expand...

How freaking long does it take the NCAA to give word if the man can play or not... it seems like an easy decision to make for them... Either he can or he can't.. how freakin hard is that?
 
#17
#17
ut 4 me said:
asumnu was my favorite player a few years ago
Click to expand...

Asumnu got on my bad list when he had a wide open fast break one game and dribbled it off his shoe, tried to recover it, but then kicked it about 20 feet out of bounds under the basket... I was so mad that day
 
#19
#19
ut 4 me said:
just one mistake and he's on the bad list? no body is perfect! :p
Click to expand...

well yea, but man if u would have seen how this went down u would have had a bad day too... i think we were playing Arkansas and we just needed some sort of big play to take control of the game, and had Asumnu finished that play off with a dunk we probably would have stolen momentum and went on to win.. but noooo.. Asumnu decided he was gonna dribble of his foot and then punt it out of bounds and that led to a loss that day for the vols and ofcourse when the vols lose i have a bad day..
 
#21
#21
i saw tyler play in high school he can really ball im glad he finally decided to come here it may be just for one year but that one yr beats him not playing for ut at all
 
#22
#22
I still just sit in awe of the job Pearl has done. It wasnt so long ago that Tennessee basketball was a corpse.
 
#23
#23
Tyler Smith excited about UT career

Says he recruited Vols for transfer

By CHRIS LOW
Staff Writer


KNOXVILLE — Tyler Smith had already been received with open arms by the Tennessee coaches and his new teammates.
On Monday night, he welcomed himself to the Tennessee fans with a 33-point performance in the debut of the Pilot Rocky Top Summer League. The new venture features all of the current Vols' players, as well as several former players such as Ron Slay, Vincent Yarbrough, Damon Johnson and Dane Bradshaw.
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"Being a home-state kid, it's great to be back. It's like I never left," the former Giles County High star said in his first comments about the situation since enrolling at UT.
He signed with Tennessee in November 2004 before spending a year at Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy and then last season at Iowa before deciding to transfer to Tennessee to be closer to his father, Billy, who's battling lung cancer.
"God puts us through things that we've got to go through. He put me through that whole situation, but now I'm back home where I want to be."
Smith hopes to hear sometime in July whether he will be able to play this season. An appeal was filed by UT officials two weeks ago to keep him from sitting out a year based on his father's failing health. Billy now lives in McMinnville.
"If I play, we're going for the national championship," said Smith, who has three years of eligibility remaining. "If I don't play, we're still going for the national championship."
Always a Vol
Smith also emphasized that any hard feelings that might have existed when Coach Bruce Pearl first took over for the fired Buzz Peterson have long since evaporated. Smith and his father asked to be released from the scholarship, but Pearl refused to grant that release. Smith wound up not qualifying academically and going to prep school, which voided his letter-of-intent.
"I knew this was the spot for me since Day One," Smith said. "I took a different route to get here, but now I'm back. When I came out of high school, I was looking for a relationship with a coach. But I grew up and realized it's not always about that. Coaches are going to change. You've just got to learn to adapt to new people."
Once Smith received his release from Iowa in late April, he said the only school he considered was Tennessee. If anything, he joked that he was the one recruiting the Vols.
"Really, (Pearl) didn't have to recruit me at all," Smith said. "As soon as I found out I could talk to him, that's when I talked to him. I told him, 'Coach, if you're willing to have me back, I'll come.'
"He welcomed me. The team welcomed me. It's been great."
Debut is strong
With a packed gym watching at Bearden High School, Smith led his Knoxville News-Sentinel team to a 107-102 victory over the Duke Crews-led HT Group team.
Similar to his freshman season at Iowa, where he earned third-team All-Big Ten honors, Smith did a little bit of everything.
He hit 3-pointers, raced the length of the court for high-flying dunks, bounced passes off the backboard for teammate and fellow transfer J.P. Prince to dunk back home and generally made everybody else around him a better player.
He and Crews squared off several times in some intriguing one-on-one matchups, and a slimmed-down Crews more than held his own with 44 points. But the combination of Smith and Prince was too much.
"Tyler is what Tyler is, a great player and I always thought he was a great player dating back to his junior year in high school," said Crews, who's down from 242 to 230 pounds. "I'm just happy to have him on our team. He adds so much in all the things he can do. It's almost scary how athletic we're going to be."
The hardest part for Pearl might be finding enough minutes to keep everybody happy next season. Prince, who transferred in from Arizona last year and will be eligible in January, scored 30 points. He's gained 25 pounds and now weighs 205.
"It's great to have the flexibility. Both are guys (Smith and Prince) who can play big and small," Pearl said. "One of the issues you like to have as a coach is how are you going to keep all these guys happy.
"Winning will keep everybody happy."
Childress out: Junior forward Ryan Childress is not playing in the summer league and has been out for the last month with a tendon problem in his ankle.
 
#25
#25
Winning might keep everyone happy, only 5 guys can play at a time, someone is going to lose minutes.
 
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