2024 Transfer Portal Thread

#203
#203
cncchris33 said:
We will have a hard time landing a decent impact PG in the portal, I'm afraid, unless there are assurances that we will run both at the same time. And even then, that guy is gonna have to be someone who can also play off the ball and have a little bit of size (6' at a minimum). No one is transferring into Tennessee to sit behind an All-SEC PG. The possible exception would be someone with multiple years of eligibility left that wants to play for a winning program. Gillespie comes to mind. He may be the ceiling of our options, which is fine. He's a really good player who fits the profile.
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I just think JG makes too much sense, given his hometown, the factors you mentioned, and the fact that we can sell playing 2 PGs at once with actual evidence from 2 years ago with Zakai and Kennedy.
 
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#204
#204
Our top priority should be finding a scoring wing with some size. We're losing one of the best scorers we've ever had. We won't
get anybody as good, of course--but Knecht is the prototype target. Without Knecht's scoring this year we would have been no better
than an above average team--not a top team. We need a couple of good wingers.
 
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#205
#205
turbovol said:
Our top priority should be finding a scoring wing with some size. We're losing one of the best scorers we've ever had. We won't
get anybody as good, of course--but Knecht is the prototype target. Without Knecht's scoring this year we would have been no better
than an above average team--not a top team. We need a couple of good wingers.
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The idea that we'd have been middle of the road without Knecht is flippantly tossed around as fact, but in reality, we have no idea where we'd be without him.

Maybe Vescovi isn't a shell of himself if he's forced to be more a part of the gameplan as a scorer. Same with JJJ. Perhaps we see more of Dilione or Cam Carr, or we see more looks with some combination of Aidoo/Awaka/Estrella on the floor together. Maybe Gainey gets more looks as a shooter and sees an increase in confidence. Lots of variables affected by DK not being around.

Is our ceiling higher with him? Absolutely. But, there is a lot of room between our ceiling with him and the idea that we'd have been a borderline bubble team without him.
 
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#206
#206
turbovol said:
Our top priority should be finding a scoring wing with some size. We're losing one of the best scorers we've ever had. We won't
get anybody as good, of course--but Knecht is the prototype target. Without Knecht's scoring this year we would have been no better
than an above average team--not a top team. We need a couple of good wingers.
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The core of this team was likely a final four team last year had ZZ not gotten injured so your hypothesis is quite flawed. Don’t get me wrong - I absolutely love DK and our ceiling is much higher with him.
 
#207
#207
cncchris33 said:
The idea that we'd have been middle of the road without Knecht is flippantly tossed around as fact, but in reality, we have no idea where we'd be without him.

Maybe Vescovi isn't a shell of himself if he's forced to be more a part of the gameplan as a scorer. Same with JJJ. Perhaps we see more of Dilione or Cam Carr, or we see more looks with some combination of Aidoo/Awaka/Estrella on the floor together. Maybe Gainey gets more looks as a shooter and sees an increase in confidence. Lots of variables affected by DK not being around.

Is our ceiling higher with him? Absolutely. But, there is a lot of room between our ceiling with him and the idea that we'd have been a borderline bubble team without him.
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Personally, I think we would have been behind Bama, Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida in the standings without DK and in the same neighborhood with A&M and Miss State for the entire regular season. Still a tournament team but in that 8 to 9 seed range. Now without DK, perhaps Ledlum would have stayed, which would have helped. Ledlum probably got one look at DK and started looking for a new home quickly, when they arrived on campus, especially when JJJ elected to stay one more year.

Never will know on what record would have been, but Knecht has made this season fun and it has been a pleasure to watch him play. Hopefully his development this year will attract other portal transfers who are willing to be coached. His offensive explosions have kept us on the edge of our seats time and time again. Great story for a guy who carries himself with a quiet confidence and swag. Open for debate but he has been among the top 5 UT players I've seen since '75. King by far the best. Others being Ellis, Grunfeld, and Houston.
 
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#208
#208
Namorto1 said:
Personally, I think we would have been behind Bama, Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida in the standings without DK and in the same neighborhood with A&M and Miss State for the entire regular season. Still a tournament team but in that 8 to 9 seed range. Now without DK, perhaps Ledlum would have stayed, which would have helped. Ledlum probably got one look at DK and started looking for a new home quickly, when they arrived on campus, especially when JJJ elected to stay one more year.

Never will know on what record would have been, but Knecht has made this season fun and it has been a pleasure to watch him play. Hopefully his development this year will attract other portal transfers who are willing to be coached. His offensive explosions have kept us on the edge of our seats time and time again. Great story for a guy who carries himself with a quiet confidence and swag. Open for debate but he has been among the top 5 UT players I've seen since '75. King by far the best. Others being Ellis, Grunfeld, and Houston.
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Why do people think this? It honestly makes no sense to me. We were a 4-seed last year with basically the exact same roster as this year. I don’t see Uros, ORN, and Julian being gone as reason to drop 5 seed lines.

This team is still very talented. And as Chris already said, we have a bunch of talent sitting on the bench that may have played a big role if we needed to give them minutes. I just find this idea that we would have been mediocre without DK dumb.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but before the season started DK wasn’t even ranked as one of the 25 best transfers of the off-season by most major news outlets. Yet we were picked 1st in the conference. We weren’t picked that high because of DK. No one knew he would be this good.
 
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#209
#209
TheMookieMonster said:
Why do people think this? It honestly makes no sense to me. We were a 4-seed last year with basically the exact same roster as this year. I don’t see Uros, ORN, and Julian being gone as reason to drop 5 seed lines.

This team is still very talented. And as Chris already said, we have a bunch of talent sitting on the bench that may have played a big role if we needed to give them minutes. I just find this idea that we would have been mediocre without DK dumb.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but before the season started DK wasn’t even ranked as one of the 25 best transfers of the off-season by most major news outlets. Yet we were picked 1st in the conference. We weren’t picked that high because of DK. No one knew he would be this good.
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You are welcome to your opinion. Note, I don't consider your opinion as "dumb". We will never know, but what media predicts about certain teams or players preseason isn't any testament to what occurs. As example, UNC was picked to be a Final Four team in the preseason last year and didn't even make the tournament. South Carolina was picked dead last in preseason this year and challenged for the SEC league championship. DK was 2nd highest rated SF in portal behind Ingram. 20th overall, but clearly proved he was the best portal transfer in '23-24, on the court. We were picked #1 in the league due to our experience (including a 1st team SEC player in Vescovi), while adding two scorers in the portal.

I base my opinion on what I saw on the court this year from players we know very well, in an improved SEC league from the year prior. Without DK, we would have been, yet again, challenged offensively much as we have been in the 4 years prior (with possible exception of that '22 team who had Kennedy Chandler in the backcourt) where we averaged around 65 kenpom rating offensively, with no "go to scorer", and would have been overly reliant on our defense which isn't quite as stout as it was the year prior.

I hope we get Gillespie as I think he would complement ZZ well and could use another creator. Will be important to get another combo forward who can score and make folks pay if they elect to double Aidoo, who is going to get alot of attention next year. Hopefully he takes another step in his development next year. Assuming everyone else stays, including DJ, we have alot of wing/2G types with Mashack, Carr, Gainey, Dilione, and Jefferson. If any of these guys leave, we can replace them in the portal. Will be interesting to see if Barnes starts Awaka at the 4 next year as you assume it is his turn to shine.
 
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#210
#210
Namorto1 said:
You are welcome to your opinion. Note, I don't consider your opinion as "dumb". We will never know, but what media predicts about certain teams or players preseason isn't any testament to what occurs.
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I’m not saying you, Namorto1, are dumb or are not allowed to have a different opinion. I am saying that the idea, which I have heard from many different voices not just you, feels misguided or unfair because you are basing it off what you see on the court from a team that had DK.

We just don’t know what this team would have looked like if players were asked to do more than they had to as part of a DK-less team. Perhaps Carr, Dillione, and/or Estrella play more because there would have been more minutes. Maybe Vescovi, if asked to shoot more, would have scored at a higher clip. Heck, Jahmai Mashack shot 39% (!!!) from 3 this year. He just wasn’t asked to shoot much. He was actually one of our most efficient perimeter shooters, and maybe he takes more shots if he knew that he had to do so.

The only thing we know to be a fact is that this team made a Sweet 16 last year without Zakai or Dalton and returned almost every major contributor from a team that was a 4-seed. So, I just find it hard to believe that this team would have been an 8/9 seed a borderline bubble team without DK.
 
#211
#211
I'd like to see if ZZs lil.bro wants to come to UT...he played similar to ZZ and would benefit greatly from Barnes
 
#212
#212
joevols89 said:
He was saying Mashack didn’t like being forced to play at the 4 there for a bit. And Barnes admitted it was a bad move. That and not getting more minutes.
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Mashack is 6'5" tops. He shouldn't have been playing the 4. If we don't have other options then it was bad recruiting and/or retention.
 
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#216
#216
TheMookieMonster said:
I’m not saying you, Namorto1, are dumb or are not allowed to have a different opinion. I am saying that the idea, which I have heard from many different voices not just you, feels misguided or unfair because you are basing it off what you see on the court from a team that had DK.

We just don’t know what this team would have looked like if players were asked to do more than they had to as part of a DK-less team. Perhaps Carr, Dillione, and/or Estrella play more because there would have been more minutes. Maybe Vescovi, if asked to shoot more, would have scored at a higher clip. Heck, Jahmai Mashack shot 39% (!!!) from 3 this year. He just wasn’t asked to shoot much. He was actually one of our most efficient perimeter shooters, and maybe he takes more shots if he knew that he had to do so.

The only thing we know to be a fact is that this team made a Sweet 16 last year without Zakai or Dalton and returned almost every major contributor from a team that was a 4-seed. So, I just find it hard to believe that this team would have been an 8/9 seed a borderline bubble team without DK.
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Well, unlike others I don't think we would suck either. I've seen the same posts. Perhaps you just disagree with my 8-9 seeding suggestion. Okay, I give maybe we would be a 7. :)

I think the difference of opinion is you are using the seed of the team in the tournament as some sort of static marker that carries equal value each year. The quality of the opponents year to year changes too. I think every single Top 20 team in this year's kenpom is rated higher than the equivalent Top 20 team from last year. Suggesting the quality of basketball has improved this year. Most opinions, and I think kenpom rankings would suggest the SEC was tougher this year as well. Our non-conference schedule this year was tougher too. Our overall strength of schedule this year is 12. Last year it was 40.

While I don't think how we perform in the NCAA "lose and go home" tournament is a good marker year to year anyway on how "good we were for the year", that Sweet 16 team we had last year, the guy who scored 41% of our points in that game (Nkamhoua) and was the primary contributor to that win is gone and we punished Duke in the paint. We don't have the same personnel this year and aren't as physical. Heck, it could be argued that Knecht is our most physical offensive player as he can drive to the paint and isn't afraid of contact, unlike others. If we lose tonight against Texas, are you going to argue that last year's team is better than this year's SEC championship team? If we lose, would we have been better off without Knecht? Of course not. Not suggesting you do, but using our NCAA result last year doesn't carry much weight, with respect to this year.

You're a good poster, but for the sake of argument. We went 14-4 in SEC league play this year. Without DK, what do you think it would have been? I think we would have been 10-8. What are we disagreeing on? Marginally 2 games, 3 games? I don't think you are going to make the argument that we are better without DK, or would have had the same record? Would we have won the SEC without DK? Last year we were 11-7. Florida was 11-7 in the SEC this year. I don't think we would be better than Florida in league standings without DK.
 
#217
#217
Namorto1 said:
You're a good poster, but for the sake of argument. We went 14-4 in SEC league play this year. Without DK, what do you think it would have been? I think we would have been 10-8. What are we disagreeing on? Marginally 2 games, 3 games? I don't think you are going to make the argument that we are better without DK, or would have had the same record? Would we have won the SEC without DK? Last year we were 11-7. Florida was 11-7 in the SEC this year. I don't think we would be better than Florida in league standings without DK.
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I am not saying we are better without DK. We likely don’t win the SEC this year without him, but also our entire play style has changed to accommodate him. So it’s hard to make a judgement call on what our record would be because I don’t think this team would be playing the same type of tempo offense without him.

You asked what we disagree on, and I agree we wouldn’t be as good without DK. I do disagree that we would finish 8th or 9th in the SEC and be on the bubble without him. It’s hard to predict a record, but 12-6 or 11-7 again wouldn’t have surprised me.
 
#218
#218
TheMookieMonster said:
I am not saying we are better without DK. We likely don’t win the SEC this year without him, but also our entire play style has changed to accommodate him. So it’s hard to make a judgement call on what our record would be because I don’t think this team would be playing the same type of tempo offense without him.

You asked what we disagree on, and I agree we wouldn’t be as good without DK. I do disagree that we would finish 8th or 9th in the SEC and be on the bubble without him. It’s hard to predict a record, but 12-6 or 11-7 again wouldn’t have surprised me.
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So disagreeing on 1-2 game swing basically without DK.

Go Vols! Let’s beat Texas.
 
#219
#219
TheMookieMonster said:
Why do people think this? It honestly makes no sense to me. We were a 4-seed last year with basically the exact same roster as this year. I don’t see Uros, ORN, and Julian being gone as reason to drop 5 seed lines.

This team is still very talented. And as Chris already said, we have a bunch of talent sitting on the bench that may have played a big role if we needed to give them minutes. I just find this idea that we would have been mediocre without DK dumb.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but before the season started DK wasn’t even ranked as one of the 25 best transfers of the off-season by most major news outlets. Yet we were picked 1st in the conference. We weren’t picked that high because of DK. No one knew he would be this good.
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Also, isn’t it safe to assume that if DK didn’t come they’d get another transfer at his position? Likely wouldn’t be as good as him, but could have been a solid contributor. Nobody can say.
 
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#221
#221
Idk how well he would do here, but for some reason, I've had this feeling that AJ Storr may transfer. He has more than one year left to play, and he could take over for Knecht.
 
#222
#222
TrippieRedd said:
Idk how well he would do here, but for some reason, I've had this feeling that AJ Storr may transfer. He has more than one year left to play, and he could take over for Knecht.
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Didn’t he just transfer from St. John’s or somewhere like that to Wisconsin though?
 
#224
#224
turbovol said:
Our top priority should be finding a scoring wing with some size. We're losing one of the best scorers we've ever had. We won't
get anybody as good, of course--but Knecht is the prototype target. Without Knecht's scoring this year we would have been no better
than an above average team--not a top team. We need a couple of good wingers.
Click to expand...
I know Barnes is pretty excited about frosh who didn't get much time playing. Do need to add a couple pieces though. There'll be some out there for us to take w/ the visability of Dalton, and also Barnes can sell the same thing to potential incomers as Dalton, on getting D up to snuff, except he's got an All American to show for it. I think we'll be fine.
 
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