Awaka Cleaning the Glass

#3
#3
WiseOlVol said:
Has 12 Rebounds at 13:00 in 2H.

How come we didn't pay him to stay?

Lots of Big Men in the Vols' future this week and next.
Click to expand...

Because Aidoo did a 180 after indicating he was returning. Awaka didn’t want to wait for Aidoo to run out of eligibility to free up significant playing time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: snarcks, volunator, Stoked and 3 others
#5
#5
Vfl2407 said:
It sure seemed odd the way they both left. Losing them both really hurt especially when Estrella went down.
Click to expand...

Yep. Aidoo said he was returning.
Awaka left.
Cal went to Arkansas.
Aidoo left.

But Felix was a nice addition. Awaka and Aidoo leaving wouldn’t have mattered much had JP not needed season ending surgery.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I4Vols, 67Vol, snarcks and 9 others
#11
#11
Who was it that acted like they were trying to kiss Awaka in that game? That would have been one of the funniest beat downs of all time for announcers to have to explain to the "modern" audience.
 
#13
#13
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Yep. Aidoo said he was returning.
Awaka left.
Cal went to Arkansas.
Aidoo left.

But Felix was a nice addition. Awaka and Aidoo leaving wouldn’t have mattered much had JP not needed season ending surgery.
Click to expand...
Awaka made his decision based on items not on this list. He was very much still contemplating staying after Aidoo left. Awaka is a very serious/very religious kid who had two big run-ins with kids who were not. One involved an underage girl. One involved a fight in the locker room. Ultimately the way to keep Awaka would’ve had to do with Barnes disciplining/ letting certain players go (who ended up leaving anyway). Barnes was very much on his side, but didn’t respond to something that was very close to being an ultimatum.
 
  • Like
Reactions: b_gann, Orange., Batman1948 and 5 others
#14
#14
Stoerner Fumbles said:
Awaka made his decision based on items not on this list. He was very much still contemplating staying after Aidoo left. Awaka is a very serious/very religious kid who had two big run-ins with kids who were not. One involved an underage girl. One involved a fight in the locker room. Ultimately the way to keep Awaka would’ve had to do with Barnes disciplining/ letting certain players go (who ended up leaving anyway). Barnes was very much on his side, but didn’t respond to something that was very close to being an ultimatum.
Click to expand...
If true... GOOD for Awaka! If you don't have discipline in your program or are unwilling to deal with it, you'll never have a winning culture. Hopefully, Barnes deals with it appropriately, just not enough for TA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Col_Cathcart
#15
#15
Stoerner Fumbles said:
Awaka made his decision based on items not on this list. He was very much still contemplating staying after Aidoo left. Awaka is a very serious/very religious kid who had two big run-ins with kids who were not. One involved an underage girl. One involved a fight in the locker room. Ultimately the way to keep Awaka would’ve had to do with Barnes disciplining/ letting certain players go (who ended up leaving anyway). Barnes was very much on his side, but didn’t respond to something that was very close to being an ultimatum.
Click to expand...
Wow, interesting. I knew that Awaka was both a very religious and very thoughtful/conscientious person. Made me sad when he left; it was cool having a guy who was a student of Dostoevsky on the team.
 
  • Like
Reactions: camp_steveo
#16
#16
Stoerner Fumbles said:
Awaka made his decision based on items not on this list. He was very much still contemplating staying after Aidoo left. Awaka is a very serious/very religious kid who had two big run-ins with kids who were not. One involved an underage girl. One involved a fight in the locker room. Ultimately the way to keep Awaka would’ve had to do with Barnes disciplining/ letting certain players go (who ended up leaving anyway). Barnes was very much on his side, but didn’t respond to something that was very close to being an ultimatum.
Click to expand...
I’ve heard this, not just on here but in other sources as well. Scuttlebutt even made its way across campus and apparently this wasn’t a deep secret. When a bunch of college kids know, it wasn’t going to stay secret for long, no matter if it involved athletes.

Barnes had to walk a tight rope on this one, but frankly I’m surprised he didn’t take the hammer to the problem children on the roster last year (that as you mentioned, were gone anyway). Makes me wonder if there wasn’t carryover into this season and things came to a boiling point.

Good on Awaka for finding a place and improving his game. Wish he could have stayed with us, but understand why he looked elsewhere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DixieVol
#17
#17
jeff1vol said:
If true... GOOD for Awaka! If you don't have discipline in your program or are unwilling to deal with it, you'll never have a winning culture. Hopefully, Barnes deals with it appropriately, just not enough for TA.
Click to expand...
Complicated situation. I think coaches have to believe the best about every player until the evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary. Barnes couldn’t ditch one relationship based on the data he had. Later it became clear he should’ve. Awaka is a great kid, but really somber.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HalfullVol
#18
#18
We’re in the Sweet 16 with a serviceable center…which is exactly equal to what we got out of the two centers that left. Let’s not make them into the next hall-of-famers like many on here have done with two certain coaches.

I’d say we moved on just fine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BernardKingGOAT
#20
#20
PowerWookie said:
How did Estrella play into all this?
Click to expand...
He was going to be our 2nd center behind Okpara (it appeared). Would be invaluable against a roster like UF for example. We nearly lost at UI this yr because FO got in foul trouble and played few minutes. Thankfully UCLAs bigs were winded and ineffective late in that one.

Losing JP took the wind out of my sails this fall. Teams in the FF almost always have strong post play. We're decent, but somewhat thin now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: walkenvol
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top