Potential Starting Line up and Rotation 2019-2020

I'm not going to search my DVR, but there absolutely was a game away from TBA where Turner did his best impression of Tony Harris. I was real concerned about him getting T'd up in a close game. And I don't remember Admiral necessarily getting in an opponent's face and about coming to blows. But if that did happen it's a good thing that Grant was there to be a diffuser.

Hey, maybe it would be a good season to knock some opponents on their asses.
The only time Turner seemed to lose control, imo, was on one of those stupid 3 point fouls called on him, in the NCAA Tourney (Iowa game) and I thought it was justified. Barnes quickly calmed him down and he drilled a huge 3, a minute later.
 
The only time Turner seemed to lose control, imo, was on one of those stupid 3 point fouls called on him, in the NCAA Tourney (Iowa game) and I thought it was justified. Barnes quickly calmed him down and he drilled a huge 3, a minute later.

Depends how you want to define losing control. Did Grant lose control when he was bit••••g at refs over calls? I don't know if I'd consider getting in an opponents face during a dust up (as long as no punches were thrown) as losing control. But as a senior leader he needs to be able to calm his teammates down when their behavior can hurt the outcome rather than fan the flames. Or we can just be the Bad Boys Light this year. Might be fun to slam Rambus to the court. I think that was Kevin McHale though rather than Bill Laimbeer.
 
Depends how you want to define losing control. Did Grant lose control when he was bit••••g at refs over calls? I don't know if I'd consider getting in an opponents face during a dust up (as long as no punches were thrown) as losing control. But as a senior leader he needs to be able to calm his teammates down when their behavior can hurt the outcome rather than fan the flames. Or we can just be the Bad Boys Light this year. Might be fun to slam Rambus to the court. I think that was Kevin McHale though rather than Bill Laimbeer.
Love me some Bad Boys Pistons. Isiah Thomas was probably my all-time favorite non-UT player. Tony White takes #1, to me. But, I've loved Isiah since he carried that '80 Indiana team to a National Championship. As soon as Detroit drafted him, they became my favorite team, still to this day
 
James 30/Turner 10
Turner 20/Johnson 20
Bowden 30/Gaines 10
Pons 25/ORN 15
Fulkerson 25/Kent 15

That’s not good
Will be fun to watch all the back trackers and excuse makers if he makes the Tourney with that roster though. Is that roster 4 wins better than his 15-16?
 
Will be fun to watch all the back trackers and excuse makers if he makes the Tourney with that roster though. Is that roster 4 wins better than his 15-16?

What about if he misses the tourney for the third time in five years? I don’t think that’s good.

Right now, I’d say yes that roster is better than 15-16 but if somebody gets hurt they won’t be. Kent has to be at least average now. They have no depth. We have no inside scoring and only two proven shooters. Oh and we would have ten scholarship players eligible. That’s bad
 
What about if he misses the tourney for the third time in five years? I don’t think that’s good.

Right now, I’d say yes that roster is better than 15-16 but if somebody gets hurt they won’t be. Kent has to be at least average now. They have no depth. We have no inside scoring and only two proven shooters. Oh and we would have ten scholarship players eligible. That’s bad
I'd really like to see them bring in a Grad guard at this point. wondering if they've considered the kid at Tenn St. fitzpatrick-Dorsey. Kid's from Memphis.
Started out at Ole Miss so he's had SEC experience. Had pretty good games against KY and Vandy last season.
 
What about if he misses the tourney for the third time in five years? I don’t think that’s good.

Right now, I’d say yes that roster is better than 15-16 but if somebody gets hurt they won’t be. Kent has to be at least average now. They have no depth. We have no inside scoring and only two proven shooters. Oh and we would have ten scholarship players eligible. That’s bad
I think we would have made the tourney in 2017 if Fulkerson and Hubbs don't get hurt. Also we don't know yet if we have any inside scoring or not and we won't know until games start being played.
 
What about if he misses the tourney for the third time in five years? I don’t think that’s good.

Right now, I’d say yes that roster is better than 15-16 but if somebody gets hurt they won’t be. Kent has to be at least average now. They have no depth. We have no inside scoring and only two proven shooters. Oh and we would have ten scholarship players eligible. That’s bad
I don’t think holding the first two years against him is fair at all.
 
I'd really like to see them bring in a Grad guard at this point. wondering if they've considered the kid at Tenn St. fitzpatrick-Dorsey. Kid's from Memphis.
Started out at Ole Miss so he's had SEC experience. Had pretty good games against KY and Vandy last season.

Maybe they just embrace small ball and grab another guard and go Pons/ORN at the 4. Never been something Barnes has done however.

I’d still prefer a center. Asking Fulk to play 30 minutes is too much.
 
I don’t think holding the first two years against him is fair at all.

Fair point but missing the tourney in year with the last two seasons of regular season success would not be good.
 
I don’t think holding the first two years against him is fair at all.

THIS...Barnes is becoming a touchstone for fair-minded fans to see who among us is either ignorant or simply unreasonable (I suspect some of this stems from certain posters not liking the hire to begin with so they are on a crusade "to be right" that spans one or more of the many disparaging narratives from the original "Barnes came here to retire and is just collecting a payccheck" to "Barnes cannot win or build a program with 3* recruits" and the more recent "...he is getting paid $5 MM so anything that does not go our way is his fault").

It is more than fair to question how we will play and who will be able to contribute (and maybe even some of the decisions although all we have is speculation vs. facts) but you would think a coach who rapidly rebuilds our program to prominence and relevancy by his 3rd season would have earned more trust and respect.
 
Fair point but missing the tourney in year with the last two seasons of regular season success would not be good.

This is fair and would be disappointing but don't you think there is a context to this that Barnes and staff are "victims of their own success" to a large degree by developing Grant and Bone beyond what anyone ever imagined when they each signed?
 
This is fair and would be disappointing but don't you think there is a context to this that Barnes and staff are "victims of their own success" to a large degree by developing Grant and Bone beyond what anyone ever imagined when they each signed?

A little bit. Nobody expected Bone to get drafted this year. I remember pretty good chatter this could be Grant’s last year and by January it was pretty clear he’d go pro. Just seems that there was some poor planning this offseason. We took one guy who won’t play, one guy who has a 50/50 shot to be eligible, and three freshmen that need a year to develop, and lost six players. Not too mention we get literally zero contributions from the 2018 class. If Plavsic can’t play and we don’t add anyone (still early, so we could grab someone), then we go into the year with 10 eligible scholarship players. In year 5, that can’t happen.
 
A little bit. Nobody expected Bone to get drafted this year. I remember pretty good chatter this could be Grant’s last year and by January it was pretty clear he’d go pro. Just seems that there was some poor planning this offseason. We took one guy who won’t play, one guy who has a 50/50 shot to be eligible, and three freshmen that need a year to develop, and lost six players. Not too mention we get literally zero contributions from the 2018 class. If Plavsic can’t play and we don’t add anyone (still early, so we could grab someone), then we go into the year with 10 eligible scholarship players. In year 5, that can’t happen.

Agree one can question some of the moves (or lack thereof) over the last several months for sure. but, of course, it has been quite fluid..would be interesting to know the inside scoop on how all of this played out and the staff's plan/strategy along the way especially with regard to Walker and Burns transfers
 
A little bit. Nobody expected Bone to get drafted this year. I remember pretty good chatter this could be Grant’s last year and by January it was pretty clear he’d go pro. Just seems that there was some poor planning this offseason. We took one guy who won’t play, one guy who has a 50/50 shot to be eligible, and three freshmen that need a year to develop, and lost six players. Not too mention we get literally zero contributions from the 2018 class. If Plavsic can’t play and we don’t add anyone (still early, so we could grab someone), then we go into the year with 10 eligible scholarship players. In year 5, that can’t happen.
The problem was really all about timing. Even you admit, now, that it wasn’t clear Grant was seriously on the NBA radar and he was seriously considering leaving until January of this year. With 0 open spots at that time, I think we did very well to land a player as well thought of as ORN in the spring period. Most kids are signing in the fall, and you sometimes have to be lucky to have a 4* kid who remains uncommitted fall into your lap like he did.

Bone, as you also admitted, was extremely unforeseen. We sniffed around a couple places and found no one realistically worth taking on, apparently, so we settled on a kid who the staff could groom for a year (Bailey).
 
The problem was really all about timing. Even you admit, now, that it wasn’t clear Grant was seriously on the NBA radar and he was seriously considering leaving until January of this year. With 0 open spots at that time, I think we did very well to land a player as well thought of as ORN in the spring period. Most kids are signing in the fall, and you sometimes have to be lucky to have a 4* kid who remains uncommitted fall into your lap like he did.

Bone, as you also admitted, was extremely unforeseen. We sniffed around a couple places and found no one realistically worth taking on, apparently, so we settled on a kid who the staff could groom for a year (Bailey).

And I really like ORN. But I think it’s fair to say that the contingency plan outside ORN is suspect, to put it nicely.
 
And I really like ORN. But I think it’s fair to say that the contingency plan outside ORN is suspect, to put it nicely.
I don’t disagree, but I do question how much of a contingency we were realistically able to formulate with 0 open spots and no certainty about NBA effects and potential transfers as late as Spring 2019. We swung and missed on some nice players, Blackshear being the latest example. It hurts, certainly, but unlike the fall signing period, the spring is very much about opportunity, good fortune, and availability. Sometimes all three of those have to align perfectly just to land one guy. We found ourselves in a spot needing to land three guys. If Plavsic is eligible, it helps to soften the blow. If not, we’re fighting an uphill battle.
 
I don’t disagree, but I do question how much of a contingency we were realistically able to formulate with 0 open spots and no certainty about NBA effects and potential transfers as late as Spring 2019. We swung and missed on some nice players, Blackshear being the latest example. It hurts, certainly, but unlike the fall signing period, the spring is very much about opportunity, good fortune, and availability. Sometimes all three of those have to align perfectly just to land one guy. We found ourselves in a spot needing to land three guys. If Plavsic is eligible, it helps to soften the blow. If not, we’re fighting an uphill battle.

I think the problem most people have is not who we went after in the spring and who we ended up with. It's more who we took in the fall when we did have spots available (Pember & Gaines).Should have been able to build on last years' success to recruit a higher quality in the fall.
 
I think the problem most people have is not who we went after in the spring and who we ended up with. It's more who we took in the fall when we did have spots available (Pember & Gaines).Should have been able to build on last years' success to recruit a higher quality in the fall.
Gaines has been committed for 2 years, though. You could argue that perhaps they should have cut bait and went after a bigger name, but then some people would be complaining about that strategy, too.

Pember is a polarizing player. Some love him, some hate him. While I question how he fits, it is clear Barnes loves something about him as he targeted him early and signed him. He wasn’t some last second addition because we whiffed on a dozen other kids. I’ve said it a bunch, but I’ll roll with Barnes on that eval until it is clear it was the wrong decision.

I think the real issue is that both guys were taken at a point in time when they were viewed as longer term prospects and luxuries, at that. A year ago, the staff probably never envisioned a scenario where they might be counted upon to contribute immediately. Boom..Grant and Bone go pro, two guys transfer, and now we are thin in spots.

Just my opinion.
 

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