Zaay Green

[ffitxela]

Stay positive

Nothing to be positive about.. Like Alabama football team.. They went thru many mediocre coaches before they finally saw the light and hired Nick Saban. A real coach

 

[Vols2015]

I wish all players the best, but I really hope we have no more heartbreaking news this offseason.

 

[mike099]

I wish all players the best, but I really hope we have no more heartbreaking news this offseason.

As long as that portal is open more players will decide to transfer nationwide. Is the proposed one time transfer rule without sitting out effective this coming season, if it passes and if there is a season.

 

[Roustabout]

When I say surprised or not surprised, that's not an indictment on the kid or the program, there are just a lot of factors that go into it. I don't think the coaches and the player were on the same page regarding the PG position. But I do believe that it is a very amicable departure for both sides and there are no hard feelings.

As far as being active, Tennessee is looking for players in the portal to fill some needs. Harper knows that the roster she inherited didn't have enough SEC-caliber players and she wants to build it quickly. And I think (and it seems she does as well) that they are going to have to win some games to pull the type of recruiting classes that are going to scare the South Carolinas and UConns of the world. It's the chicken and the egg for building a program and I think she's going to have to acquire some chickens.

What in the hell are you talking about? The class with Green and Mass was a top five class and both five star prospects. Just how much better recruits do they need? The fact is, they were recruited under Holly, stayed to give Harper a chance, and left. Kelly inherited more talent than she’s ever had as a coach, period, and it’s not close. The team fell apart and got worse as the year went along.

The year before they were rated the #1 class by many. The issue hasn’t been talent level, but coaching.

Anyone who wants to try painting the loss of two 5 star starters as no big deal, or a move to get “better” players, is out of their frigging mind. Maybe Kellie can talk to her husband. If you want to know what to expect just look at her record at NC State. 70-64 in four years and fired. That’s horrible and it’s pretty sad that at this stage that’s all UT can get.

 

[Bballnut1952]

The question is not if there are equal/superior talent in the portal, but if Kellie would be able to sign them. She will have lots of competition.

I think both are questions. I’d bet that Jazz and Zaay will be at the top of the transfer list when all is said and done.

and it to true, Kellie is not recruiting these players in a vacuum. Lots of good coaches and programs looking for the same kind of players.

 

[creekdipper]

Prediction:

When Harper and staff...including her husband... rebuild the program into a national contender within a few seasons, not one of the drive-by critics will be here admitting that they were wrong.

It's just not in their nature.

 

[PG1]

This past season lots of members were stating that the loss of ZG was huge and we would have been contending for championships if she was playing now it’s “oh well she was not very good anyway”

 

[Volfan2012]

According to what is being reported looks like Zaay was not being allowed to return because of breaking of team rules. Best of luck to her in the future hope she gets everything in order in her life.

 

[glv98]

This past season lots of members were stating that the loss of ZG was huge and we would have been contending for championships if she was playing now it’s “oh well she was not very good anyway”

Fan board maxim: Whoever is not playing is better than whoever is playing. Double that if the player not playing is unavailable due to injury.

Maxim 2 works in reverse: Whoever transfers is suddenly no good, a quitter, and can be easily replaced by almost anyone in the bball universe.

Maxim 3 works for the future: any prospective recruit with the slightest interest in the LVs is the magic cure for everything that ails us.

 

[creekdipper]

This past season lots of members were stating that the loss of ZG was huge and we would have been contending for championships if she was playing now it’s “oh well she was not very good anyway”

Seriously, now...have "lots" of members been saying the part I bolded above?

I've seen one or two at most who have indicated that she wasn't very good. Most have said that she was a really talented player.

Even then, I don't remember many of those saying that we would be contending for championships any time soon, unless it was maybe to appear in the SEC championship game.

 

[stlvolsfan]

First, Green was not convicted of anything, yet she gets dismissed. Horston, on the other hand, is a self-professed convicted criminal, and she gets to stay. Why is the coach so inconsistent in meting out punishments? With all the talk of the team holding players to a higher standard, why is Horston still on the roster?

I get so sick of people and their holier than thou attitudes. Who among us haven’t made mistakes? Horston was wrong, but let’s not act like she’s the only kid who made a poor choice. I’m sure there are reasons behind decisions that we frankly shouldn’t know about.

 

[Voltopia]

I very much doubt that teams and athletic departments are as stupid as many people make them out to be. Well, hold on, not necessarily stupid - what I mean is, I doubt that these coaches and their athletic departments sit around saying "oh man that really talented player made a mistake, we need to cut them loose immediately" all the time. If anything, athletic departments usually -- usually -- seem to be all about finding ways to make things work with kids up until the moment they have reason to think they cannot salvage the situation. And more often than not, they seem to err on the side of justifying keeping a kid on the team beyond what is normally considered acceptable behavior, rather than less. Which makes sense, they commit to these young people and want to do everything they can to help them succeed. At least, that's what it seems like to me.

Or, put more simply, I doubt we know the entire story of Zaay Green's time with Tennessee and everything that contributed to her departing -- but I imagine there's going to be more to her moving on than just this most recent incident.

 

[Roustabout]

Prediction:

When Harper and staff...including her husband... rebuild the program into a national contender within a few seasons, not one of the drive-by critics will be here admitting that they were wrong.

It's just not in their nature.

Really? That’s your best come back? I’ll gladly eat crow if she does it. There is NoTHING in her resume to indicate she will.

 

[gule]

post your resume, lets see whose is better.

 

[stlvolsfan]

I wish all players the best, but I really hope we have no more heartbreaking news this offseason.

Amen

 

[Lucy]

So I am all behind Coach Kellie and generally try to be positive. But, we will not replace Zay and Jaz talentwise out of the transfer portal. I wish these kids well with all my heart but goodness we will miss them next year. I believe our team will play better next year for many reasons but it will not be because we picked up transfers that are superior to these two. Please no more kids leaving!

 

[NeedOrange]

Not that my opinion matters, but I agree 100%.

Losing Sabally is a huge blow for Oregon. Losing Walker is a huge blow for UCONN. Losing Carter is a huge blow for Tex AM. Losing Austin is a huge blow for Maryland. The list goes on and on. Losing Green AND Massengill is a huge blow for Tennessee.

And to say or insinuate that Harper was telling players, metaphorically speaking, to poop or get off the pot is also silly. She inherited what she got. It was a roster brimming with high school AA's. I don't dispute that she runs more disciplined offense and defense than Holly. She's probably more disciplined off court as well. But to think she would come in and drive away 4 incredibly important players (Collins, Westbrook, Massengill, Greene) - well, I just don't get statements like that.

Of course Kellie will recruit players that fit her mold, but she inherited a core group with lots of talent. An intelligent coach would make as many changes as possible without decimating the program. Then again, maybe she's crazy like a fox and has a host of AA's ready to commit next year.

I'm hugely disappointed. The first recruiting class Kellie has coming in is average at best. Yeah I know people say the pair are better than their rankings, but one is barely top 60, the other not even top 100. If she doesn't knock it out of the park in 2021, I worry she will never build any momentum and doom us to mediocrity. Striplin is a nice start but she's #50+.

her 2021 class is already better than 2020

 

[NeedOrange]

Kellie needs,to get some players or we will be Ole Miss soon

Oh how quick we forget

Karoline Striplin
FORWARD
CLASS: 2021 92 SCOUTS GRADE

• Hartford, ALHOMETOWN
• Geneva CountyHIGH SCHOOL
• 6-2HEIGHT
• —WEIGHT
• 53OVERALL RANK
• 9POSITION RANK

STATUSVerbal


JLE 160-September 2019: Physical interior performer with skilled footwork, efficiently finishes plays in the paint; defends in the block, mobile in uptempo game; emerging face up game; a stock-riser in the class of 2021. (Olson)

EGB-April 2017: Versatile interior prospect pounds glass, rebounds and finishes plays in traffic; developing offensive game arsenal. (Olson)

 

[djtee]

her 2021 class is already better than 2020

Right now 2020 and 2021 are very weak and that`s the truth.

 

[DeerPark12]

What in the hell are you talking about? The class with Green and Mass was a top five class and both five star prospects. Just how much better recruits do they need? The fact is, they were recruited under Holly, stayed to give Harper a chance, and left. Kelly inherited more talent than she’s ever had as a coach, period, and it’s not close. The team fell apart and got worse as the year went along.

The year before they were rated the #1 class by many. The issue hasn’t been talent level, but coaching.

Anyone who wants to try painting the loss of two 5 star starters as no big deal, or a move to get “better” players, is out of their frigging mind. Maybe Kellie can talk to her husband. If you want to know what to expect just look at her record at NC State. 70-64 in four years and fired. That’s horrible and it’s pretty sad that at this stage that’s all UT can get.

You completely missed the point of my post that you quoted. That's not what I was saying at all. The fact is the roster did not, and still does not, have enough SEC-caliber players on it. Green and Massengale were both SEC-caliber players. Losing them hurts immensely. Earlier in this thread I said that Green was, before her injury, the most talented player on the team.

How much more talent do they need? I don't think you understand how little they had. There were 6 players on the roster that could have singed with any SEC team. 6 isn't enough, not even close. Bless the hearts of Harris, Brown, and KK, but what other team in the top half of the SEC do they see minutes on? That's my point. These players leaving is a big hit to Tennessee from a talent standpoint. They will have to work very hard to find players in the transfer portal that will come close to replacing their production.

I would challenge your statement that the team "fell apart and got worse," I didn't see that happening at all. They did not improve throughout the season as much as I would have liked to see, but there's no doubt it was a better team at the end of the year than the beginning. They flogged a bunch of non-competitive teams that Holly had scheduled for this year at the beginning of the year, but that didn't mean that they were better then than at the end of the year.

 

[Voltopia]

How much more talent do they need? I don't think you understand how little they had. There were 6 players on the roster that could have singed with any SEC team. 6 isn't enough, not even close. Bless the hearts of Harris, Brown, and KK, but what other team in the top half of the SEC do they see minutes on? That's my point. These players leaving is a big hit to Tennessee from a talent standpoint. They will have to work very hard to find players in the transfer portal that will come close to replacing their production.

DeerPark, correct me if I'm wrong in this, but my impression over Holly's tenure was that as seasons passed we saw the Lady Vols take more "reaches," or maybe the right word is chances, with respect to both four year recruits and transfers, which put Tennessee in a hole that grew bigger with each passing year. Am I off on that one? I admit they did have a few decent recruiting years in the 2010's, including 2017 (I think?), and 2018, but it always seemed to me as many of their better ranked recruits would end up leaving (Westbrook, Hayes, Cooper, Middleton, etc.), or failing to improve -- which in turn would leave UT with a lot of decent players but lacking the top talent they needed to compete both in the SEC and the NCAA tournament. And, that's absolutely NOT meant as a a slight on anyone who plays for Tennessee -- if they want to compete for UT and UT brings them aboard then they are a Lady Vol and that's that. But even with that said, it still felt near the end of Holly's tenure that UT had a growing logjam of average and above average talent, but without much heavy weight punching power.

And I say that because to me it feels as if Harper is at the bottom of a hole that she did not dig (mainly), with players still leaving as part of the coaching transition, and needing to both (1) prove to recruits that Tennessee represents a good destination and (2) find a way to survive the expectations of a program that is accustomed to shrugging off McDonalds All-Americans who transfer out of the program. In other words, I feel like she's on the end of a very short stick. I certainly don't think there's ever a good excuse when a team fails to be competitive, just ... I have felt like Tennessee's roster and bench has been atrophying for a decade now and want to know if I'm totally off base or at least in the right ballpark with that feeling.

Not that there weren't some rough recruiting years at the end of Summitt's tenure either. I think her struggles had impacted a lot more than her on-court performance near the end; well, at least, it stands to reason that it did.

 

[Darth_Vol]

There were 6 players on the roster that could have singed with any SEC team. 6 isn't enough, not even close.

So to alleviate that Kellie recruited Tess Darby, a player no other SEC team wanted.

They did not improve throughout the season as much as I would have liked to see, but there's no doubt it was a better team at the end of the year than the beginning.

When you compare how they played teams early in the season versus rematches near the end of the season (Kentucky, LSU, Vandy, Ole Miss), that statement is actually very much in doubt...

 

[Rickster]

If anyone asks me, I say that recruiting has been unstable for many years now. It's really hard to find talent and commitment so there are going to be lean recruiting years. There is a lot of competition for the handful of great players. It can take years to catchup from a coaching change. There are several reasons the LV's are in the familiar position of rebuilding.

What is interesting is the new transfer rules and what effect recruiting from the portal will have on high school recruiting. Seems like the recruiting budgets are going to need increasing and can schools afford the cost of competition?

 

[MsSportsGuy]

Losing Greene hurts big time. I've regularly posted last year the only players I saw on the roster who would have been LVs of old were Davis, Westrbrook and Greene. This season Horston and Key were pretty good for freshmen, Davis had a monster year and Greene being out probably cost the team a game or two. I was actually thinking if Greene was healthy next year they could content for a top 3 or 4 SEC spot. Now I am not sure.

 

[Prophet1]

So it’s looking like Kellie didn’t just lose a talented player because she didn’t want to be here but some rules were broken I am proud of Zaay for saying this decision was “being made due to her actions, decisions, and coaches”. Sounds like she is saying some poor choices were made on her part and now both parties agree it’s best to part ways.

I really enjoyed her energy on the court. I just wonder what happened to the days that kids would sit out at that school as a punishment. I always go back to Lindsey Harding of Duke she had to sit out A WHOLE YEAR and didn’t transfer and eventually came back to be a national player of the year and lead her team to a national title game.

What are these dang freaky rules that core players like Hayes,Cooper, and Green are breaking that get your donkey ousted from the program. Hell, how do you get ousted when you're on the 'get well quick ' list. First Coop then Zaay.