5* SC PG Josiah James commits to Tennessee

#101
#101
This should be a lesson to all of us. The crystal ball is really useless. 96% Clemson 4% not UT.Those guys don't do their homework,just copy off each other!!!
 

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#103
#103
cncchris33 said:
Hopson was #5. He is the highest rated ever.
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I know this was a different era, but I am pretty sure Bernard King was top 5 (Parade?), and I think Allan Houston was ranked pretty high too. Not seeing their names thrown around.
 
#104
#104
i2amavol said:
I know this was a different era, but I am pretty sure Bernard King was top 5 (Parade?), and I think Allan Houston was ranked pretty high too. Not seeing their names thrown around.
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Bernard was easily the best player ever signed by UT. But they didn't publish rankings back in the day.
 
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#105
#105
i2amavol said:
I know this was a different era, but I am pretty sure Bernard King was top 5 (Parade?), and I think Allan Houston was ranked pretty high too. Not seeing their names thrown around.
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Yeah, just discussing players since the era of recruiting sites.
 
#106
#106
omghulkhands said:
It makes you wonder if not getting Mann had something to do with getting James

As for comparison to Mann, they are just very different players. Mann is a scorer and great ball handler.

James is bigger. better passer. Better rebounder. Not a great scorer right now, but that can change. More versatile and likely much better defender.
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From the tapes I have seen, he can be as high a score as CB wants him to be. He can also average a big number of assists whether he scores or not. I look forward to see him in the 2020 NCAA final four.
 
#107
#107
Put him in bubble wrap this coming season. Wrap his ankles in a couple rolls of tape for every game. Put those braces on his knees that offensive linemen wear. Everybody say their Vol prayers every night.
 
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#113
#113
SGMVols said:
This could be our biggest win in recruiting since Bernard King. I’m not kidding.
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Supposedly, Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris were rated higher; and that includes Bernard King. King was overlooked out of high school by many. IIRC, Grunfeld was rated higher than King coming out of HS. But to the point. This guy is supposedly the third best we have ever recruited.
 
#114
#114
esarmstrong said:
Supposedly, Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris were rated higher; and that includes Bernard King. King was overlooked out of high school by many. IIRC, Grunfeld was rated higher than King coming out of HS. But to the point. This guy is supposedly the third best we have ever recruited.
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I don't think that anybody with a lick of sense overlooked Bernard King. I think that UT even had a "Bernard King Day" at a game when he came to visit during Grunfeld's freshman season.
 
#116
#116
Thunder Good-Oil said:
I don't think that anybody with a lick of sense overlooked Bernard King. I think that UT even had a "Bernard King Day" at a game when he came to visit during Grunfeld's freshman season.
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Don't make the mistake of assuming that every one in the mid-1970's coaching basketball had the appropriate intelligence and awareness to know about Bernard King. Take a look at the "30 for 30" special about "Bernie and Ernie". Mike Jackson is quoted in the program as saying that King felt slighted and over-looked by many coming out of High school and that when he arrived in Knoxville he was here on a mission to prove his doubters wrong.
 
#117
#117
esarmstrong said:
Don't make the mistake of assuming that every one in the mid-1970's coaching basketball had the appropriate intelligence and awareness to know about Bernard King. Take a look at the "30 for 30" special about "Bernie and Ernie". Mike Jackson is quoted in the program as saying that King felt slighted and over-looked by many coming out of High school and that when he arrived in Knoxville he was here on a mission to prove his doubters wrong.
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I don't think that any competent coach doubted a thing about King's ability. It was 1974 and major programs had only been integrated for a couple of years and it was limited. Jackson, Moss, and King might have been TN's only AAs his first year here. Wilbert Cherry might have still been on the roster. Larry Robinson had already graduated. Johnny Darden was a year or 2 behind BK.
 
#118
#118
05_never_again said:
Actually I thought it was his ability to recruit. He recruited elite talent at Texas (Ford, Durant, Augustin, etc.) but the knock on him was that he routinely got bounced from the tournament earlier than you'd expect, or didn't win the Big 12 as often as you'd expect. He had Durant and Augustin on that 2006-07 team but went 25-10 (12-4) which was good enough for 3rd in the Big 12, and they got bounced early in the tournament as a #4 seed (Round of 32). That isn't a bad year at all, but when you have a couple players like that you'd like to see something more like a conference title and at least a Sweet 16.
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That is the kind of thinking that got him fired at Texas and made it possible for UT to hire him.
 
#121
#121
Thunder Good-Oil said:
I don't think that any competent coach doubted a thing about King's ability. It was 1974 and major programs had only been integrated for a couple of years and it was limited. Jackson, Moss, and King might have been TN's only AAs his first year here. Wilbert Cherry might have still been on the roster. Larry Robinson had already graduated. Johnny Darden was a year or 2 behind BK.
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Moss was gone when King arrived. King and Jackson where the only black players on Tennessee's roster in kings first season, 1974-75. The following season other black players were recruited to and played at Tennessee, such as Irv Chapman and then Darden and Reggie Johnson came along in 1976-77
 
#122
#122
esarmstrong said:
Moss was gone when King arrived. King and Jackson where the only black players on Tennessee's roster in kings first season, 1974-75. The following season other black players were recruited to and played at Tennessee, such as Irv Chapman and then Darden and Reggie Johnson came along in 1976-77
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Threeths, Crosby, Carter, and Rupert Breedlove all came along around that time. Carter was in Devoe's first class so he was 2 years after King's last year. Rupert was just before King iirc and possibly never played a single minute. Threeths and Crosby over lapped with BK. Terry Crosby was in Bert's class which was 1976-77 through 1979-80.

I don't know that Moss ever played a minute of varsity BB. He and Jackson came in together. They were in Grunfeld's class. I was there the night that he walked out to center court after he had lost his leg. It was said that the dude could leap and touch the top of the backboard. Tragic. He would have been an all-time great.

Edit: Jackson and Moss were a year ahead of King. Terry Crosby, Irv Chatman, and Johnny Darden were a year behind King. Also Howard Wood's freshman year was the year after Grunfeld and King left.

Chatman was a one-and-done, but not in a good way.

I wish the history was easier to locate. I guess it might be in old media guides. I'm wondering why Chatman left after only one year, why Brykalski only played one full year plus a couple of games in a second year, did Moss get varsity minutes his freshman year or were those 6 games his freshman year on the JV team (and what was the last year that TN had a JV team since 1973-74 might have been the first year that freshmen were eligible), and what exactly went down with Rupert Breedlove? The King era could have been much different had TN been able to hang on to Chatman or Brykalski. Reggie Johnson only overlapped one year with King and was a very skinny kid. Doug Ashworth was the low post a year or two with King and he was way undersized. He was more like a smallish 4. TN was probably a FF team with King/Grunfeld had they also had a good sized, skilled center.

1975-76 Tennessee Volunteers Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com
 
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#123
#123
I’m late to the party, but I want to acknowledge the ending of our ‘consensus Top 100’ streak in recruiting. What a great surprise and breath of fresh air. This gives me hope that the program can be sustained beyond next season. We needed something like this - especially with the stage we’ve returned to in the football rebuild. We have basketball to look forward to again.
 
#124
#124
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Tony Harris was a good get. Danny Shultz also (before my time). Rodney Woods was a great point guard but I have no idea how big of a signee he was. Johnny Darden was similar... great career but not necessarily a huge get. It was a pretty big deal when TN beat out UNC for Bert Bertelkamp, but he was a shooting guard when he signed.
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C. J. Watson is the best I recall. Getting this kid is what the doctor ordered!
 
#125
#125
well, alright, alright, alright...hot dang it...nice...now, Coach, work on that 7 foot center for me...:D

GO VOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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