‘22 TN C Handje Tamba

#301
#301
VFLCodyGBO said:
At 7ft and 215lbs, I don’t see him sniffing the court in year 1. Maybe by year 2, but it’s going to take a while to get him to a D1 ball body.
Click to expand...
Does seem odd since UT already has a similar "project" in this class with Aidoo. Thought the plan was to let him play at Catholic this year and see how he progressed? Maybe some other programs were turning up the heat on him and forced UT's hand?
 
#302
#302
CAVPUT said:
Does seem odd since UT already has a similar "project" in this class with Aidoo. Thought the plan was to let him play at Catholic this year and see how he progressed? Maybe some other programs were turning up the heat on him and forced UT's hand?
Click to expand...
Just because Aidoo is a bit light doesn’t mean he’s a project…Evan Mobley was lighter and did just fine, Chet Holmgren is way lighter and most expect big things from him. Aidoo isn’t on that level talent wise but the gap between Holmgren and Aidoo is smaller than Aidoo and Tamba.

And no, this has been the plan for about 7 months now with Tennessee & Aidoo.
 
#304
#304
VolArmy74 said:
Hope for the best on this one. Not sure if there's some kind of package deal in play or what. Doesn't make sense to me when you can wait a year and see if he looks anything like an actual high level D1 recruit by then. Is someone else leaving I wonder?
Click to expand...
It makes sense given the staffs roster strategy Rick discussed recently
 
#307
#307
RyanWalkerPGH said:
Basilio keeps saying that Aidoo is behind Plavsic and probably won't play much if at all. Do you believe there to be truth to that?
Click to expand...
Basilio also said Wallace was going to be our first commit and commit about a month ago…it’s a statement that could be true, could not be, but he’s covered either way. If Aidoo plays a lot early on Basilio will say how much he developed and came along late, if Plavsic plays over him then he’ll pound his chest and say how right he was. I don’t see it ultimately being the case when the season starts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Willy14, onevol74 and RyanWalkerPGH
#308
#308
Farmer Bill said:
Where can I find that discussion at?
Click to expand...
Aaron Torres podcast…I posted about it yesterday. Barnes basically says that given the new transfer rule and the fact you don’t play 13 scholarship players his staff will take projects with the final scholarships provided they are guys they see potential in down the road and that they don’t see as being an issue at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: highspeed and Farmer Bill
#309
#309
bleedingTNorange said:
Basilio also said Wallace was going to be our first commit and commit about a month ago…it’s a statement that could be true, could not be, but he’s covered either way. If Aidoo plays a lot early on Basilio will say how much he developed and came along late, if Plavsic plays over him then he’ll pound his chest and say how right he was. I don’t see it ultimately being the case when the season starts.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Basilio is definitely to be taken with a boulder of salt. He hits just enough on things that you can’t totally dismiss him, but he misses enough that you never feel comfortable just assuming his word is gospel, and would rather take a “seeing is believing” approach.

That said, he has been adamant that Aidoo is way behind, currently. He says the kid is talented and that the staff likes him a lot, but he is just behind and not where he needs to be to be a major contributor. Basilio has been steady on that opinion for weeks. Just yesterday, he added the idea that Aidoo was behind Uros. Again, that may or may not be actually true, but I could see some growing pains for Aidoo. I cautioned against those believing he was going to come in and lock down major minutes immediately. We will see if he can hit his stride as fall camp gets going. I just hope he doesn’t get frustrated and bolt because he expected immediate major minutes. He was never a one-and-done kid and I hope he didn’t come in with the mentality that he somehow was going to be that.
 
#311
#311
cncchris33 said:
Yeah, Basilio is definitely to be taken with a boulder of salt. He hits just enough on things that you can’t totally dismiss him, but he misses enough that you never feel comfortable just assuming his word is gospel, and would rather take a “seeing is believing” approach.

That said, he has been adamant that Aidoo is way behind, currently. He says the kid is talented and that the staff likes him a lot, but he is just behind and not where he needs to be to be a major contributor. Basilio has been steady on that opinion for weeks. Just yesterday, he added the idea that Aidoo was behind Uros. Again, that may or may not be actually true, but I could see some growing pains for Aidoo. I cautioned against those believing he was going to come in and lock down major minutes immediately. We will see if he can hit his stride as fall camp gets going. I just hope he doesn’t get frustrated and bolt because he expected immediate major minutes. He was never a one-and-done kid and I hope he didn’t come in with the mentality that he somehow was going to be that.
Click to expand...
Yea I didn’t think he was gonna come in and be major factor Day 1 and be a one and done All-American named the giraffe like Dog was predicting lol…I figured 10-15 minutes a game was probably fair, and I still think that.

Fwiw Rob was asked about Basilio’s comments and (paraphrasing) he said that the staff is very high on Aidoo and he’s what they expected, they knew he needed some work. They said Aidoo also knows he has a lot of work to do but that both parties are on the same page about that and very excited for his future. Also said that that is probably a good thing for the program in the future, having him around for a couple years at least.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cncchris33
#315
#315
walkenvol said:
Didn’t Aidoo end up ranked a 5*? Amazing how exciting we continue to get based on recruiting rankings when they so often are wildly inaccurate
Click to expand...
We tend to hate our 5 stars and look for replacements.
 
#316
#316
bleedingTNorange said:
Then maybe it’s the fans expectations that are inaccurate and not so much the rankings?
Click to expand...
I guess if a 5* ranking means a prospect might one day develop into a solid contributor in a few years then yes the fans expectations are off. If it means what most everyone thinks it means that this is an advanced prospect who should be a solid contributor from the start then the folks assigning the stars are regularly inaccurate. But whatever
 
#317
#317
I wonder if this is the tallest roster the Vols have ever had from top to bottom. With Tamba we have 5 guys 6'9 or taller. Only Chandler is under 6'3. Most of or guards are in that 6'5 to 6'6 range. I think this is mostly a good thing Barnes has done on purpose but I do wonder if there will be a team like Alabama last year that could go small and quick and expose some of these guys on defense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cosmo Kramer
#318
#318
From Basilio's blog...
After weeks of an on again off again flirtation, Tennessee finally decided to sign the Knoxville Catholic big man (7-0 215) yesterday. The 3 star Tamba is expected to enroll in August and be eligible for the upcoming season.

My belief is that Tennessee decided to make Tamba their second reclassified big man to the incoming group of freshmen after seeing center Jonas Aidoo from Charlotte struggle in practice. This is no knock on Aidoo but if the season started tomorrow my understanding is that he would be running behind Plavy for minutes.

Simply put, Aidoo is not ready at all to play so it seems that Rick Barnes and staff felt the need to act. Therefore yesterday's seemingly out of nowhere news. The long and short is that Tennessee needs defensive help immediately and think that Tamba could provide it.
Click to expand...

And this is why you take Basilio with a grain of salt. This has been speculated (known, even) for months. Even prior to Aidoo enrolling and arriving on campus. Yet, Basilio is acting like this is some sudden development.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lankykong, AngryButchJones, ricepatty and 5 others
#319
#319
rdk4121 said:
I don't think the plan is for him to play this year at all. He's going to have plenty of time to develop his body and his skills with a redshirt year. Next year Fulky is gone, maybe another guy or two from the front court could be gone. We'll just have to see.
Click to expand...

That is a good scenario. He gets to practice with higher level players while preserving his eligibility. He’s was not going to develop a lot going up against Catholic’s backup center in practice.
 
#320
#320
walkenvol said:
I guess if a 5* ranking means a prospect might one day develop into a solid contributor in a few years then yes the fans expectations are off. If it means what most everyone thinks it means that this is an advanced prospect who should be a solid contributor from the start then the folks assigning the stars are regularly inaccurate. But whatever
Click to expand...
So again, it quite possibly is the fans expectations of a 5* that are inaccurate?
 
#321
#321
cncchris33 said:
From Basilio's blog...


And this is why you take Basilio with a grain of salt. This has been speculated (known, even) for months. Even prior to Aidoo enrolling and arriving on campus. Yet, Basilio is acting like this is some sudden development.
Click to expand...
Not only that but Tamba has no impact lol, he’s redshirting next year lol.
 
#322
#322
LeannaVol said:
I wonder if this is the tallest roster the Vols have ever had from top to bottom. With Tamba we have 5 guys 6'9 or taller. Only Chandler is under 6'3. Most of or guards are in that 6'5 to 6'6 range. I think this is mostly a good thing Barnes has done on purpose but I do wonder if there will be a team like Alabama last year that could go small and quick and expose some of these guys on defense.
Click to expand...

I think that there was a year in the early 70s when TN had 5 players that were right at 7’. Kosmalski and Brykalski might have been 2 of them. One was Greg Longshore, but he transferred out while maybe never been on the roster for a game. I can’t remember the other 2.
 
#323
#323
Aidoo will be fine, I expect him to slowly increase his playing time as the season goes along. He may get a little more early run against some of the weaker OOC teams. While it's very possible, I said the 🦒 will be one and done, I think I predicted 2 and done, officially. It seems like Aidoo is not quite as college ready as I was led to belive. Still, he should contribute some this year and next year will be his big breakout year, imo. My only fear, like Chris posted, he gets NO playing time and pulls a Corey Walker. But, I don't think that happens as long as he stays out of Rick's Dog house
 
  • Like
Reactions: youcancallmeAl
#324
#324
CAVPUT said:
Does seem odd since UT already has a similar "project" in this class with Aidoo. Thought the plan was to let him play at Catholic this year and see how he progressed? Maybe some other programs were turning up the heat on him and forced UT's hand?
Click to expand...

Aidoo was a consensus Top 50 player in his class. How, by any definition, would that be considered a project?
 
  • Like
Reactions: walkenvol
#325
#325
Thunder Good-Oil said:
I think that there was a year in the early 70s when TN had 5 players that were right at 7’. Kosmalski and Brykalski might have been 2 of them. One was Greg Longshore, but he transferred out while maybe never been on the roster for a game. I can’t remember the other 2.
Click to expand...
I was curious so I went back and looked at some early 70's rosters. 1972-73 Tennessee Volunteers Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com .The biggest I found was 72-73 and they had 3 over 6'9 with Kosmalski as the 7 footer. No mention of Longshore on any of the rosters I saw but he may not have been around long enough as you mentioned. That 72-73 team did have some length at the guard positions as well especially compared to other teams from that same era but overall not really close to the length on this years team.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cardvolfan
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top