Tennessee Vols Basketball Recruiting

[LeannaVol]

My starting 5 would be :
PG C.J. WATSON
SG ALLAN HOUSTON
SF DALE ELLIS
PF BERNARD KING
C STEVE HAMER
2nd 5
Johnny Darden
Chris Lofton
Ernie Grunfeld
Reggie Johnson
Grant Williams

I was at UT with Hamer and he was a good player and a great guy but if he is our best center that just makes me think we have not had very many good bigs on campus. I am sure the old timers will say Boerwinkle is the best center but he was before my time.

 

[berryvol]

2022 NBA mock draft: Who has the inside track to go No. 1?

KC mocking at 10 for the 2022 draft. JJJ getting some first round love at the 28th pick.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I was at UT with Hamer and he was a good player and a great guy but if he is our best center that just makes me think we have not had very many good bigs on campus. I am sure the old timers will say Boerwinkle is the best center but he was before my time.

I saw Boerwinkle play and wasn't that impressed. He was drafted by the Bulls, I think, and played a few years pro, so what do I know?

 

[johnfnkelly]

I was at UT with Hamer and he was a good player and a great guy but if he is our best center that just makes me think we have not had very many good bigs on campus. I am sure the old timers will say Boerwinkle is the best center but he was before my time.

I'd rather put Stokes at the 5.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Reggie Johnson wasn’t necessarily exclusively a 4 or a 5 but he’s in the the mix as the 5 in the all-time starting 5.

1 Rodney Woods or CJ or Darden
2 Allan Houston or Grunfeld
3 Dale Ellis
4 Bernard King
5 Reggie Johnson or Kosmalski or Boerwinkle

 

[johnfnkelly]

Reggie Johnson wasn’t necessarily exclusively a 4 or a 5 but he’s in the the mix as the 5 in the all-time starting 5.

1 Rodney Woods or CJ or Darden
2 Allan Houston or Grunfeld
3 Dale Ellis
4 Bernard King
5 Reggie Johnson or Kosmalski or Boerwinkle

How does Bone stack up against Woods, CJ, Darden? Woods and Darden were before my time and I was a child when CJ was playing.

 

[AngryButchJones]

2022 NBA mock draft: Who has the inside track to go No. 1?

KC mocking at 10 for the 2022 draft. JJJ getting some first round love at the 28th pick.

Interesting to see JJJ at the tail end of the 1st round there. Also not entirely sure if JJJ goes pro after this upcoming season. I could see him being a 4 year guy, but I also understand if he leaves after this year

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

How does Bone stack up against Woods, CJ, Darden? Woods and Darden were before my time and I was a child when CJ was playing.

I think that had Bone returned for his senior year he might have ended up as the GOAT PG. I almost wrote that. Bone pushed the ball up the court as quickly as anybody ever. Woods was fundamentally a great PG. Great distributor. Very good at not turning the ball over. Great shooter. He was a great baseball player as well. Danny Shultz was before my time but he was another great PG. Houston was a shooting guard but he was more than capable of also running point. He’d maybe be my PG in an all-time starting 5: Houston, Grunfeld, Ellis, King, Reggie.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Must have forgotten about Dale Ellis who is easily the the 2nd best Vol of all time

Extremely accurate 3 point shooter. Player on ahold tournament on the Atlanta area 3-4 years ago. He is also a pretty good golfer.

 

[VolArmy74]

My all time 10 using each position based on just how good they were and not how they would work together to form a team are;

1st team.

PG - Tony White
SG - Allan Houston
SF - Ernie Grunfeld
PF - Bernard King
C - Reggie Johnson

2nd Team

PG - CJ Watson
SG- Chris Lofton
SF - Dale Ellis
PF - Grant Williams
C - Len Kosmalski

 

[Stoerner Fumbles]

Should we create a Basketball Superheroes thread? None of the players discussed in the last few pages are recruits.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

My all time 10 using each position based on just how good they were and not how they would work together to form a team are;

1st team.

PG - Tony White
SG - Allan Houston
SF - Ernie Grunfeld
PF - Bernard King
C - Reggie Johnson

2nd Team

PG - CJ Watson
SG- Chris Lofton
SF - Dale Ellis
PF - Grant Williams
C - Len Kosmalski

Tony White is a good one to include. If the shooting guard only had to shoot and not play defense, rebound, or distribute it would be hard to not add Michael Brooks. I’d pay to watch Brooks and Houston play a game of H-O-R-S-E. Lofton is another.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Should we create a Basketball Superheroes thread? None of the players discussed in the last few pages are recruits.

They once were recruits.

 

[VolArmy74]

Tony White is a good one to include. If the shooting guard only had to shoot and not play defense, rebound, or distribute it would be hard to not add Michael Brooks. I’d pay to watch Brooks and Houston play a game of H-O-R-S-E. Lofton is another.

Brooks had nearly unlimited range. His career PPG probably go up by 6+ if there'd been a 3 point line. Him shooting .498 in his career is darn impressive because of the number of 20+ footers he took. He was a pretty good passer too, he averaged over 3 assists per game for his career. Worked well to have Dale Ellis to pass it to.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Loving the names and lists!

I wish I had gotten to watch that late 70s era, seems like there were some great ballers there.

Instead I cut my teeth in the Green era and hold special bias towards those guys. CJ Black, Vincent, Victor, Higgins, Harris, etc. still chaps me a guy with 4 20 win seasons is replaced by Buzz Peterson...ugh

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Brooks had nearly unlimited range. His career PPG probably go up by 6+ if there'd been a 3 point line. Him shooting .498 in his career is darn impressive because of the number of 20+ footers he took. He was a pretty good passer too, he averaged over 3 assists per game for his career. Worked well to have Dale Ellis to pass it to.

He wasn’t just a catch and shoot threat either. He wasn’t really a huge drive to the hoop threat, but he could fake a shot, get his defender to leave their feet, take a step or two laterally, and fill it up. Tyrone Beaman and Brooks were a pretty good guard combination. So were Tony White and Fred Jenkins a few years later.

I remember a KY game at Stokely when Brooks knocked down about 3 or 4 straight down the stretch from the top of the key. Each shot was a step deeper than the previous one. MB is one of my favorite TN shooters along with Houston and Mike Edwards. Lofton and White are actually my 4a and 4b picks. Houston and Brooks had the silkiest stroke of them all.

Tony Harris with more discipline or commitment could have been far and away TN’s greatest PG ever. I loved his fire though. The original balled up fist guy on TN’s bench.

 

[cncchris33]

I think that had Bone returned for his senior year he might have ended up as the GOAT PG. I almost wrote that. Bone pushed the ball up the court as quickly as anybody ever. Woods was fundamentally a great PG. Great distributor. Very good at not turning the ball over. Great shooter. He was a great baseball player as well. Danny Shultz was before my time but he was another great PG. Houston was a shooting guard but he was more than capable of also running point. He’d maybe be my PG in an all-time starting 5: Houston, Grunfeld, Ellis, King, Reggie.

I had a lot of this post typed out almost verbatim, this morning, particularly the Bone commentary and the Houston commentary and had to scrap it because I got a phone call.

Had Bone stayed, he’d have had as good, or better numbers than CJW, and Houston certainly played on the ball a lot during his time.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

The Dog needs to burn one in honor of Drunkle Jerry and his 4 20s today.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Allan Houston wasn’t a great defender but he certainly wasn’t a liability either. What hurt his career at TN was that the recruiting while his Dad was coach wasn’t very good. Great players probably didn’t want to come to a program where the coach’s son was the featured player. Plus Wade was lazy as UT’s coach and seemed distracted splitting his time as the owner of a successful trucking company.

 

[SlyStone]

Brooks had nearly unlimited range. His career PPG probably go up by 6+ if there'd been a 3 point line. Him shooting .498 in his career is darn impressive because of the number of 20+ footers he took. He was a pretty good passer too, he averaged over 3 assists per game for his career. Worked well to have Dale Ellis to pass it to.

Had a chance to see Brooks in HS at Memphis Melrose. The kid had range then that was unreal. Of course those Memphis Melrose teams were always loaded with talent.

 

[VolArmy74]

Allan Houston wasn’t a great defender but he certainly wasn’t a liability either. What hurt his career at TN was that the recruiting while his Dad was coach wasn’t very good. Great players probably didn’t want to come to a program where the coach’s son was the featured player. Plus Wade was lazy as UT’s coach and seemed distracted splitting his time as the owner of a successful trucking company.

Houston is still the highest rated recruit we ever signed I believe. Ernie and Bernard would have been up there too but that wasn't really a thing then. Back at that time being All City in NYC was as highly touted as it could get. Seems like NYC doesn't really produce a ton of talent like it used to produce. No idea how that is even possible give the 30 million people that live in the metro area. The biggest thing about Houston being so good was defenses knew he was the only option and it didn't matter.

 

[i2amavol]

I think that had Bone returned for his senior year he might have ended up as the GOAT PG. I almost wrote that. Bone pushed the ball up the court as quickly as anybody ever. Woods was fundamentally a great PG. Great distributor. Very good at not turning the ball over. Great shooter. He was a great baseball player as well. Danny Shultz was before my time but he was another great PG. Houston was a shooting guard but he was more than capable of also running point. He’d maybe be my PG in an all-time starting 5: Houston, Grunfeld, Ellis, King, Reggie.

This would probably be my starting five. I think Earnie Grunfeld is underrated by a lot of people. He averaged 22.3 points and 6.6 rebounds for his college career. His scoring record was not beaten until Houston came along, and all that was without the luxury of a 3 point shot.

It would be very hard to pick a second five. There are just so many to choose from, that I wouldn't know where to start... OK, maybe Tony White, Chris Lofton... I loved Michael Brooks' long range shooting in the last 5 minutes of a game, but I think it was before the 3 point line. Would love to have seen him work with that! Tobias Harris, Jarnell Stokes, Grant Williams...Mike Edwards (with the 3 point shot), Len Kosmalski...

 

[SlyStone]

I'd rather put Stokes at the 5.

One thing about Jarnell is he would rebound his azz off for you, but at 6'8" he still gave up some length. But made up for it in strength. Once his paws were on the ball you weren't getting it away from him.

 

[VolArmy74]

Had a chance to see Brooks in HS at Memphis Melrose. The kid had range then that was unreal. Of course those Memphis Melrose teams were always loaded with talent.

Brooks had range from Johnson City or Memphis and I don't mean in each city, I mean he could shoot from the state mid court logo from either city and drain it.

 

[Stoerner Fumbles]

They once were recruits.

I’ll tell you who was a great outside shooter: Aaron Burr.