Did you guys catch Jerry Meyer with Basilio today? Shooooweee. I’m paraphrasing here: Meyer, who in years past has been brutally honest about our basketball recruiting, explained how different things are now for the Vols. In the past Tony B would ask about top recruits and Meyer would say, “Not much chance of landing him.” Over and over.
Meyer said Barnes has helped Tennessee carve out a niche and we have an identity. Our reputation is now a school where top recruits can go if they want to work hard and develop. No surprise right? When you recruit guys who don’t look like good college players and then you get them drafted it changes things.
Now Tony is asking about our chances with specific elite recruits and Meyer responds, “It’s boring to keep answering the same way about each recruit. Tennessee has as good a chance as any school in being in the top 5 for any player.” He went on to describe that most elite players will have 1 or 2 local schools in the top, as well as 1 or 2 blue bloods, then the other spot is for teams like the Vols. Said if we really want to get in with any recruit we now can.
The discussion moved on to Pruitt and callers were saying that we need to give Pruitt the time to do the same exact model. We have to keep developing good players and start getting guys drafted again.