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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 28, 2020 16:37:08 GMT -5
Now that we are fishing in the rarefied recruiting waters with the likes of the Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas crowd and starting to land guys that at least project as possible one and done type players, do you think that Rick Barnes can have success getting us to a Final Four or even a national championship? I certainly don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I do wonder if a team that has multiple guys on board for only a single season can really develop the overall team chemistry to beat a team of really good players who have been together for at least a couple of seasons or more. I think of Wisconsin knocking off Kentucky, Duke getting knocked out last year with a lineup that screamed "banner", etc.
I'd rather have this problem than not having enough talent to even get into the NCAAT, but I do wonder if Barnes can shake off his March reputation and bring at least a Final Four banner to TBA. It just KILLS me that a basketball desert like Auburn now has a Final Four and UT doesn't.
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Post by afvolunteer on Jun 28, 2020 20:06:46 GMT -5
I hate that Auburn is so successful, but I think my hate mostly stems from the fact that we caused their good fortune with the way Pearl's whole thing was handled. That's what makes it so tough to swallow. The good news for me is, the better Auburn becomes, the worse I want to beat the ever-loving out of Pearl and them when we play.
As to Barnes, I have no idea, but we still haven't had any 1-and-dones yet. And soon (I can't remember when?) kids can go straight back to the NBA again right? What Barnes does have going for him is he and his staff seem to target hard working kids that I don't think will just go pro after a year unless they're absolutely ready for it and it makes the most sense in their situation.
I was a pretty big critic of Barnes and his under the radar recruiting when he first arrived. And I was a pretty big critic of hiring him in the first place. So I've been proven to not know what the heck I'm talking about. That said, my goal is just to always get to the tourney. I know we'll need to shift the expectations needle with increased success (and with Barnes' increased salary), but I've been a Vol fan for long enough to where I'm at the point that going to the NCAAT most years is plenty good for me. Everything else is gravy to me, and if we consistently get there (just like consistently fishing in the right waters), the ball will bounce our way sooner than later I think.
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Post by pdlglm on Jun 28, 2020 20:17:21 GMT -5
Hard for me to even talk about such, seems like the kind of thing that would result in an immediate kick in the... if I even began to talk such talk.
Come to think of it, the last time I said out loud...'we didnt make it this year but we will in the next 10' we immediately lost our coach, got saddled with Cuonzo Martin and spent 5 years in purgatory and then Aubern went to the FF.
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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 28, 2020 20:21:50 GMT -5
I hate that Auburn is so successful, but I think my hate mostly stems from the fact that we caused their good fortune with the way Pearl's whole thing was handled. That's what makes it so tough to swallow. The good news for me is, the better Auburn becomes, the worse I want to beat the ever-loving out of Pearl and them when we play. As to Barnes, I have no idea, but we still haven't had any 1-and-dones yet. And soon (I can't remember when?) kids can go straight back to the NBA again right? What Barnes does have going for him is he and his staff seem to target hard working kids that I don't think will just go pro after a year unless they're absolutely ready for it and it makes the most sense in their situation. I was a pretty big critic of Barnes and his under the radar recruiting when he first arrived. And I was a pretty big critic of hiring him in the first place. So I've been proven to not know what the heck I'm talking about. That said, my goal is just to always get to the tourney. I know we'll need to shift the expectations needle with increased success (and with Barnes' increased salary), but I've been a Vol fan for long enough to where I'm at the point that going to the NCAAT most years is plenty good for me. Everything else is gravy to me, and if we consistently get there (just like consistently fishing in the right waters), the ball will bounce our way sooner than later I think. I hope you're right - UT seems snake-bit when it comes to the postseason. Much of the really good success we had was under Pearl, who just missed by one second and two free throws of taking UT to the FF. And I am very similar to you in that my initial thought on the Barnes hire was that it was a solid stop-gap to stop the hemorrhaging after the Pearl fiasco/Cuonzo/Tyndall spiral of absurdity. But I felt like he wouldn't stick around long - just stop the bleeding, maybe get us to the tourney a few times by pulling in some big talents, and then we'd be able to land a longer term coach on more favorable terms once the program was no longer taking on water. Instead, his recruiting had me scratching my head and I will concede that after his second season I really felt like he had decided to use UT as a soft landing spot to close out his career before retiring back in Carolina. His reputation seemed to be a guy who wins consistently with superior talent and is nothing extraordinary as a gameday/sideline coach - certainly not terrible, but it wasn't supposed to be his strength exactly. So in summary, I realize it probably now seems ridiculous that my new "complaint" (it's not a complaint, really, but a question) is that he's recruiting "too" good and we won't develop the chemistry we had when he was recruiting players that I was skeptical of our future with at that time. So to summarize my previous summary, my simple and quite reasonable expectations are that Barnes recruit players who are not bad, but not too good, and that he win a national championship at a school that has never been to a Final Four. And if he could do that in the next 1-2 seasons then I will admit he was a good hire...  |
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Post by afvolunteer on Jun 29, 2020 9:19:34 GMT -5
Hard for me to even talk about such, seems like the kind of thing that would result in an immediate kick in the... if I even began to talk such talk. Come to think of it, the last time I said out loud...'we didnt make it this year but we will in the next 10' we immediately lost our coach, got saddled with Cuonzo Martin and spent 5 years in purgatory and then Aubern went to the FF. With what, on paper, appears to be arguably our best signing class in history showing up for us this year, itās almost a foregone conclusion that this season will be cancelled entirely. We all joke like this, but Iād say there is at least a decent shot of this happening. Right after our message board was cancelled. All of it is just so āTennessee basketball fan.ā |
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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 29, 2020 12:00:40 GMT -5
Hard for me to even talk about such, seems like the kind of thing that would result in an immediate kick in the... if I even began to talk such talk. Come to think of it, the last time I said out loud...'we didnt make it this year but we will in the next 10' we immediately lost our coach, got saddled with Cuonzo Martin and spent 5 years in purgatory and then Aubern went to the FF. With what, on paper, appears to be arguably our best signing class in history showing up for us this year, itās almost a foregone conclusion that this season will be cancelled entirely. We all joke like this, but Iād say there is at least a decent shot of this happening. Right after our message board was cancelled. All of it is just so āTennessee basketball fan.ā And keep in mind also that this past spring UT was in the midst of a great start to a baseball season with a good shot of a strong SEC showing and a shot at hosting a super regional - then COVID, and fast forward a couple of months to see our top pitcher (Crochet) get drafted at #11 in the first round, our best all around player (Solarie) get taken in the 2nd round, and Zach Daniels get picked in the 4th round. We had put together the pieces for a really good team, so of course it was short-circuited and then gutted. |
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Post by pdlglm on Jun 29, 2020 12:22:22 GMT -5
With what, on paper, appears to be arguably our best signing class in history showing up for us this year, itās almost a foregone conclusion that this season will be cancelled entirely. We all joke like this, but Iād say there is at least a decent shot of this happening. Right after our message board was cancelled. All of it is just so āTennessee basketball fan.ā And keep in mind also that this past spring UT was in the midst of a great start to a baseball season with a good shot of a strong SEC showing and a shot at hosting a super regional - then COVID, and fast forward a couple of months to see our top pitcher (Crochet) get drafted at #11 in the first round, our best all around player (Solarie) get taken in the 2nd round, and Zach Daniels get picked in the 4th round. We had put together the pieces for a really good team, so of course it was short-circuited and then gutted. really disappointed that this baseball team didn't get to play its season, could have been a turning point for the program. I would have said, just a couple weeks ago, that there was no way that football and basketball seasons would get cancelled but my social media feeds are looking very fearful and "judgey" again lately - so now I am not so sure. So i haven't really gotten excited about either football or basketball yet. Oh, love the avatar Cherokee.... |
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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 29, 2020 14:10:57 GMT -5
And keep in mind also that this past spring UT was in the midst of a great start to a baseball season with a good shot of a strong SEC showing and a shot at hosting a super regional - then COVID, and fast forward a couple of months to see our top pitcher (Crochet) get drafted at #11 in the first round, our best all around player (Solarie) get taken in the 2nd round, and Zach Daniels get picked in the 4th round. We had put together the pieces for a really good team, so of course it was short-circuited and then gutted. really disappointed that this baseball team didn't get to play its season, could have been a turning point for the program. I would have said, just a couple weeks ago, that there was no way that football and basketball seasons would get cancelled but my social media feeds are looking very fearful and "judgey" again lately - so now I am not so sure. So i haven't really gotten excited about either football or basketball yet. Oh, love the avatar Cherokee.... Yep, I know exactly what you mean on the "judgey" factor. The reporting/analysis of this is so polarized and politically-oriented that it's hard to know what to believe. But IMO I think the seasons should go forward. Granted, if I had a son playing I might feel differently, but I honestly believe the best thing to do may be to protect those who are vulnerable, allow those who are not comfortable playing to opt out without penalty, and then move on. In the absence of a vaccine, and with hammering our own economy (among other negative impacts) not being a tenable position to continue taking, living with a level of risk and hopefully seeing herd immunity kick in may be the best we can do. I was initially going to find a Dale Ellis pic for my avatar, but when I saw this classic pic and realized how well it fit the name of this site, it was a no-brainer. |
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