The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#5,227
#5,227
White was Hart's first choice to replace Martin and he seems to be Jones 2.0.

The foundation looks great but the interior needs a whole lot of work.
 
#5,228
#5,228
BruinVol said:
So was Mears stepping down a surprise?

Only think I know is he had some health issues
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I think he suffered from depression, but I also thought that he had an alcohol problem. Someone can correct me if I am wrong. (As a young person, I knew nothing of his problems. I can't speak for other fans.)

Also, I think that King had a few legal issues in Knoxville, and it was probably good that he left when he did.

Don't get me wrong, these were some of the biggest disappointments of my life, when they left.
 
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#5,229
#5,229
i2amavol said:
I think he suffered from depression, but I also thought that he had an alcohol problem. Someone can correct me if I am wrong. (As a young person, I knew nothing of his problems. I can't speak for other fans.)

Also, I think that King had a few legal issues in Knoxville, and it was probably good that he left when he did.

Don't get me wrong, these were some of the biggest disappointments of my life, when they left.
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I've never heard a thing about Mears having an alcohol problem.

I think that King might have had 2 arrests. The first when he was "borrowing" a TV and VCR from Stokely to show a lady friend some of his games. The 2nd was a substance abuse issue that was probably escalated by Knoxville police. He was hiding in a breezeway of a west Knoxville apartment complex. The 2nd was after he had already declared for the draft.
 
#5,230
#5,230
Thunder Good-Oil said:
I've never heard a thing about Mears having an alcohol problem.

I think that King might have had 2 arrests. The first when he was "borrowing" a TV and VCR from Stokely to show a lady friend some of his games. The 2nd was a substance abuse issue that was probably escalated by Knoxville police. He was hiding in a breezeway of a west Knoxville apartment complex. The 2nd was after he had already declared for the draft.
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You are probably right. I'm sure my information was very far from being good sources.
 
#5,236
#5,236
BruinVol said:
But has way way more success than butch. One could argue he’s had more success than Barnes
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I know this is just another case of you taking the contrarian approach, but if you credit Mike White with having more overall success at Florida than Barnes at Tennessee, you have to also admit that they didn't exactly share the same starting line, either.

White was a perceived ascending talent who took over a Florida program that had won two national titles in the previous decade and followed a future HOF coach who left to go to the NBA.

Barnes had been freshly fired from Texas and took over a Tennessee program that was on its 4th coach in a decade and followed a coach who had found himself facing a show-cause penalty (our second in 5 years).

By comparison, White started out on 3rd base but let's not pretend he hit a triple. He walked into a great situation. Even with Billy Donovan's final season flop, White was left with a really nice program base to start with. Barnes walked into a complete and total rebuild and has done a much better job developing his lesser rated talent to get there while White has mostly squandered rather elite talent. At this point, it certainly seems that Barnes has Tennessee's arrow pointing up, while White may be squarely on the hot seat.
 
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#5,237
#5,237
BruinVol said:
But has way way more success than butch. One could argue he’s had more success than Barnes
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And I'd argue that outside of White's 2nd season, his success is actually pretty close to Butch's level. Butch found, and won, 3 bowl games in 5 years and had a 56% winning percentage. Admittedly, White has that 1 Elite Eight which surpasses any single season success Butch had, but his overall winning percentage at UF is 62%. I wouldn't call that "way way more success". I'd call it a fairly similar path buoyed by one highly successful season that may be the outlier.
 
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#5,238
#5,238
cncchris33 said:
And I'd argue that outside of White's 2nd season, his success is actually pretty close to Butch's level. Butch found, and won, 3 bowl games in 5 years and had a 56% winning percentage. Admittedly, White has that 1 Elite Eight which surpasses any single season success Butch had, but his overall winning percentage at UF is 62%. I wouldn't call that "way way more success". I'd call it a fairly similar path buoyed by one highly successful season that may be the outlier.
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I said it could be argued.
I don’t believe White has had more success than Barnes because I don’t put as much value on the post season as some do. An elite 8 run after a mediocre regular season doesn’t impress me as much as a great regular season and sweet 16 run but for many they would argue against that
 
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#5,239
#5,239
BruinVol said:
I said it could be argued.
I don’t believe White has had more success than Barnes because I don’t put as much value on the post season as some do. An elite 8 run after a mediocre regular season doesn’t impress me as much as a great regular season and sweet 16 run but for many they would argue against that
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I hold a similar opinion. I think too much weight is put on the NCAAT, though I understand why, because it is the determining factor for championships. But, it seems like not enough emphasis is placed on the regular season by many people.

As you said, going 24-13 and getting hot at the right time, and perhaps a little lucky, and making the E8 isn’t (in my mind) necessarily a more successful season than a 26-9 season that ends in a S16.
 
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#5,240
#5,240
Thunder Good-Oil said:
It wasn't publicly expected. It was also very unusual for players to skip their senior year as King did. It was actually declaring "Hardship" to be in the draft. Maybe it was an NBA requirement and players leaving had to petition that their family needed the financial support.

I don't know exactly when Mears officially stepped down. Cliff Wettig was the "interim" coach in 1977-78 so maybe Mears stayed on as the official head coach for much longer than "a few weeks". I suppose it's possible that he was technically still the head coach into 77-78 and was taking a leave of absence.

There wasn't nearly as much information made public at that time and his illness was a taboo subject. If Prozac was around in 1977 he could have become as legendary as Knight, Dean Smith, and many others. He was only 50 or 51 years old and had 399 wins iirc.

Stu Aberdeen was part of the whole package and left for, I think, Marshall. I don't know if his departure was imminent or was a result of Mears stepping down.
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I agree, if Coach Mears hadn't have to retire due to health problems, he could have gone down as one of the all time great college basketball coaches. The Ernie and Bernie show had the Vols rolling. He was one of the early coaches in the SEC to break the color barrier and recruit black athletes. He and Stu opened the recruiting pipeline to New York, Atlanta and Nashville. He at least got to finish his career as Athletic Director at UT Martin and has a banner hanging in TBA.
 
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#5,241
#5,241
cncchris33 said:
I hold a similar opinion. I think too much weight is put on the NCAAT, though I understand why, because it is the determining factor for championships. But, it seems like not enough emphasis is placed on the regular season by many people.

As you said, going 24-13 and getting hot at the right time, and perhaps a little lucky, and making the E8 isn’t (in my mind) necessarily a more successful season than a 26-9 season that ends in a S16.
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This...one off night or a bad match-up and you go home in the tourney. I think many get caught up in the hype to a degree (hey, it's what sports media does, we have far more sports media than anytime in history and it is exciting) and there is also the backdrop of historical precedence which says the best coaches/teams make it to the E8 or better on somewhat of a routine basis which I believe fails to recognize to a degree the new normal of today's crazy parity (I remember how years ago picking your bracket was relatively easy up until the E8).

Having said all that you play for championships and the tourney is the king of those (and rightfully so) but I do wish more credit was given to regular season championships by some.
 
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#5,242
#5,242
MinisterofDef#92 said:
This...one off night or a bad match-up and you go home in the tourney. I think many get caught up in the hype to a degree (hey, it's what sports media does, we have far more sports media than anytime in history and it is exciting) and there is also the backdrop of historical precedence which says the best coaches/teams make it to the E8 or better on somewhat of a routine basis which I believe fails to recognize to a degree the new normal of today's crazy parity (I remember how years ago picking your bracket was relatively easy up until the E8).

Having said all that you play for championships and the tourney is the king of those (and rightfully so) but I do wish more credit was given to regular season championships by some.
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I agree on reg season success vs tourney success but it's more so based off of national perception which is why the tourney is portrayed as more important. In 15 years, no one across the country is going to be saying "Remember when the Vols were ranked #1 for a 3rd of the season?" outside of UT fans. So yeah, when it comes to your closely followed home (and some other local) programs, regular season is valued much more because we were there and following it. But nationally, the tourney is so much easier to remember success/failure in; thus it's treated that way.
 
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#5,244
#5,244
Mullins2010 said:
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I think I recall some speculation about this a couple of months ago. That hurts some of their recruiting because Mike had been involved in AAU before he became an assistant. His son is a HS senior at my high school alma mater and is a 4 star. I wonder if this frees him up to watch him and maybe go somewhere else.
 
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#5,245
#5,245
VolGee4 said:
I think I recall some speculation about this a couple of months ago. That hurts some of their recruiting because Mike had been involved in AAU before he became an assistant. His son is a HS senior at my high school alma mater and is a 4 star. I wonder if this frees him up to watch him and maybe go somewhere else.
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Does this affect his son's commitment to UofM, I wonder?
 
#5,248
#5,248
JelloPuddinPup said:
I agree on reg season success vs tourney success but it's more so based off of national perception which is why the tourney is portrayed as more important. In 15 years, no one across the country is going to be saying "Remember when the Vols were ranked #1 for a 3rd of the season?" outside of UT fans. So yeah, when it comes to your closely followed home (and some other local) programs, regular season is valued much more because we were there and following it. But nationally, the tourney is so much easier to remember success/failure in; thus it's treated that way.
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Nobody will remember when TN was #1 for a third of one year, but the number of weeks at #1 will certainly be recognized. TN was never #1 before Pearl won at Memphis. That run a year or two ago moved TN way up the list of teams with the most number of weeks ranked #1. Nobody remembers when TN was in the EE, but anybody interested will see that there is only one of those.
 
#5,249
#5,249
VolGee4 said:
I don’t believe he’s committed, but I would think it certainly could affect his decision to go there.
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bleedingTNorange said:
He’s actually not committed to Memphis...interestingly though Corey Evans switched his forecast for him from Memphis to Indiana today.
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Oh yeah, that's right. My bad. I think I just made that connection based on assumption.
 
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