The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

[UneducatedGuess]

What is going on with the Lady Vols? This is very troubling. CKC seems like a good coach. This seems to be the first time facing adversity in her coaching career. The Vols program curse?

I’ll probably be crucified for it, but Kim’s system demands extreme effort, accountability, and intensity.

It results in wins, but it comes at the expense of traditional understanding of the game.

In many ways it’s the “Heupels offense doesn’t translate to the NFL” argument. Except Kim Caldwell doesn’t have a resume of producing players to the next level.

Kim is refreshingly candid. Unapologetic in her assessments. I think her system is built for underdogs and not all tops dogs. You’ve got to want to work.

In today’s day and age …. I don’t know how you get players to work when the exit is lucrative.

Barnes is also a notoriously challenging coach to play for. But he built his resume of growing players and producing NBA talent in ways that were non traditional at the time (PJ Tucker style).

But he forged those results when scholarships and playing time could be held hostage. Gone are those days.

Kim’s team did quit this year. She owns part of that by not forcing full commitment to her system. But she seemed stuck in appeasing recruiting stars and her system.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens

 

[Vols410]

Faith in Barnes here.

View attachment 824816

No Kentucky in a way too early basketball top 25 is beautiful

 

[omghulkhands]

Great game on NBC if you wanna watch elite offense.

Hornets Vs Celtics

And Grant Williams as a bonus

 

[sami]

I'd be willing to bet that whoever he goes to will turn him into a stretch 5. To me, that was always going to be his ticket to the next level.

 

[Volprofch05]

Here's the athletic's prediction for us:

25. Tennessee​

Starters: Portal TBD, Portal TBD, Tyler Lundblade, Portal TBD, DeWayne Brown

Notable returners: Ethan Burg, Torey Henderson (Yes, they spelled this wrong), Clarence Massamba

Newcomers: Ralph Scott (No. 53, 6-8 SF), Manny Green (No. 137, 6-6 PF), Marquis Clark (No. 253, 6-1 PG)

The Vols already signed one of the portal’s best shooters in Tyler Lundblade, who averaged 15.6 points and shot 40.6 percent from 3 this past season for Belmont, the Missouri Valley champions. Usually the best players in the MVC are up-transfer success stories. The loss of JP Estrella is a big one. He had the potential to be one of the best bigs in the SEC. The Vols have some options in-house to take his starting spot — DeWayne Brown, who is undersized as a center, could be that guy — but they likely need to explore the portal market for another big and a starting point guard.

Need to explore the portal? You don't say...

 

[VolXr1]

Kennedy Chandler having a helluva game for the Jazz tonight. 29pts 7assist 8 boards

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

If he remains healthy is the key word there.

I think most of us understand he is an super talented offensive big and has elite upside there.

But if you pay him 25% of your budget and he doesn't play, you essentially throw away your season. So it'd be pretty results oriented to use hindsight like that after the fact.

Yep...which is why I wasn't surprised by our risk/reward assessment vs. other program who don't have all the info and badly need a player like JP

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

It would also require a big improvement in several other areas. His foul numbers are atrocious and cap his minutes. His career average is 5.2 fouls per 40 minutes. So he's generally always going to be either on the bench in foul trouble or on the verge of fouling out if he plays big minutes. His free throw shooting has gotten worse each year of his career so far. His block numbers are low/bad for a college 6'11 player. Okpara averaged 5x the blocks per game in his career than JP has so far. To put it in perspective, ZZ averaged about the same number of bpg that JP has in his career. JP has a good 6-8 foot jump hook and he's a decent rebounder. His year 4 would have to be very healthy, and he'd have to take a leap in several areas to make posters look foolish. Right now, he's closer to fools gold, in that people think he's way better than he's shown himself to be thus far.

Don't disagree with your points but there is quite a bit of context here. He had to deal with a near career-ending foot injury and, after playing his 1st real season, will now get his first real offseason to get stronger, quicker and a higher vert - I would bet a decent amount of money that he improves greatly in these areas barring reoccurrence of his foot problem which is a risk. Also, he was getting pushed hard by our staff to have Uros-level physicality which he had to try to figure out in real-time playing...my guess is this will work itself out as he learns how to play more physical w/o fouling plus I would bet his next team will be more willing to trade offense for defense.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Don't disagree with your points but there is quite a bit of context here. He had to deal with a near career-ending foot injury and, after playing his 1st real season, will now get his first real offseason to get stronger, quicker and a higher vert - I would bet a decent amount of money that he improves greatly in these areas barring reoccurrence of his foot problem which is a risk. Also, he was getting pushed hard by our staff to have Uros-level physicality which he had to try to figure out in real-time playing...my guess is this will work itself out as he learns how to play more physical w/o fouling plus I would bet his next team will be more willing to trade offense for defense.

Not many players that exit have gone on to play bigger roles elsewhere...especially bigs. May not always "hit" on incoming HS talent or portal additions, but this staff has been pretty great at evaluating the existing talent after a full year with them.

 

[knoxvol52]

Here you go ...you guys need to buy one...

 

[kckempf]

All the complaints about the game changing cracks me up. It used to be only coaches got paid stupid big contracts and could leave on a whim. Suddenly it's a problem when players can do the same. We've got people pining for a time when a million dollar superstar could be had for $50k and free car rentals by a local car dealer.

 

[volinexile17]

Nobody was happy about when coaches did it either.

When pro teams have more continuity than college teams, there is a problem. It sucks for a fan base to get excited about a group of guys, only to watch everyone leave after 1-2 seasons.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Nobody was happy about when coaches did it either.

When pro teams have more continuity than college teams, there is a problem. It sucks for a fan base to get excited about a group of guys, only to watch everyone leave after 1-2 seasons.

Yeah...it's like the mattress burning after Kiffin was forgotten.

Go ask the LV forum what they think about Kellie being fired...still a torn fanbase over there and some still pining for Holly even.


Also with players it's just a crazy volume all at once that's making it wild. I mean at most a few dozen coaching changes in an off season...thousands of players are in the portal, over 50% of the entire pool of college basketball players quite a few are kids that were injured or just riding the bench as they're being developed to take over for upperclassmen. It's the wild west and there seems to be no way to regulate it at all.

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Not many players that exit have gone on to play bigger roles elsewhere...especially bigs. May not always "hit" on incoming HS talent or portal additions, but this staff has been pretty great at evaluating the existing talent after a full year with them.

Agree but none of those bigs were rated by Evan Miya as the #1 player in the SEC (4 and 5) for scoring efficiency.

 

[knoxvol52]

 

[knoxvol52]

First year I've really followed along in portal thread and we have some real nut cases in this fan base... Carry on.

 

[sami]

First year I've really followed along in portal thread and we have some real nut cases in this fan base... Carry on.

Yeah, that thread makes you want to jump off a bridge. The daily life and death struggle over where some kids decide to get paid to play some hoops.

 

[VolArmy74]

I'm not close to concerned about the next edition of the team. Barnes knows how to construct the roster he wants and he wins big with those rosters. People cliff diving makes no sense to me.

 

[OrangeInKy]

First year I've really followed along in portal thread and we have some real nut cases in this fan base... Carry on.

How dare you, sir.

 

[Ace]

Mashack with quadruple double:
13 points
14 rebounds
11 assists
10 turnovers

 

[knoxvol52]

How dare you, sir.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Nobody was happy about when coaches did it either.

When pro teams have more continuity than college teams, there is a problem. It sucks for a fan base to get excited about a group of guys, only to watch everyone leave after 1-2 seasons.

I never saw remotely close to the uproar about coaches' salaries skyrocketing as I have players getting paid. To be fair, that all ramped up before social media so maybe there might have been more chatter out in the open.

I agree about the second part and honestly that's what I Think everyone has a problem with; the average fan I don't think really cares that they get paid, probably have been expecting it a long time.

 

[omghulkhands]

Yeah, that thread makes you want to jump off a bridge. The daily life and death struggle over where some kids decide to get paid to play some hoops.

It’s odd because the board is filled with people that fancy themselves as free market capitalists. But you wouldn’t be able to tell they are by how they react to free market invading their sports.

 

[knoxvol52]

I'm all for these guys getting paid by gripe is when the fans who screams" pay the guy" , starts pissing and moaning about how much the guy gets paid, when the player aren't producing on the court like they think the player should.


That's one hell of a run on sentence...

 

[sami]

It’s odd because the board is filled with people that fancy themselves as free market capitalists. But you wouldn’t be able to tell they are by how they react to free market invading their sports.

I'm old school, and loved watching a group of kids get recruited and developed into a unit, but you either have to accept the new way and embrace it, or just step away. Posting in a portal thread about how much you hate it and that it ruined the game is kind of bizarre.