2025 Target List

#478
#478
Stoked said:
Looks like Coach Barnes & Co are really trying to reel in a 5 star, or two... or three lol!

I think he'll have to hit the portal hard next year and we'll have to spend big to get a starting pg once ZZ leaves.
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Agree. But similar to QB in football, that’s one position I will NEVER mind showing the $$$ to the right guy.
 
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#479
#479
Lefteye said:
Agree. But similar to QB in football, that’s one position I will NEVER mind showing the $$$ to the right guy.
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I question how the hell we managed to sign Knect. I assume they sold him of the value of defensive development headed to the NBA. They got to want it, and if they do, Barnes will provide.
 
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#480
#480
chuckiepoo said:
I question how the hell we managed to sign Knect. I assume they sold him of the value of defensive development headed to the NBA. They got to want it, and if they do, Barnes will provide.
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I doubt Knecht demanded an obscene number for NIL. He flew under the radar in the portal, it’s not like he was the top guy. I’m sure he got a good deal while here, but this seems more like a case of our staff identifying talent and being successful in that regard.
 
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#481
#481
TheMookieMonster said:
I doubt Knecht demanded an obscene number for NIL. He flew under the radar in the portal, it’s not like he was the top guy. I’m sure he got a good deal while here, but this seems more like a case of our staff identifying talent and being successful in that regard.
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I don't know about "he flew under the radar in the portal" considering he was one of the top 5 players in the portal (#13 on another listing) at the time. I suspect he did very well here with regards to NIL considering.

Top 5 Transfer Portal Dalton Knecht
 
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#482
#482
AurantiacoFan said:
I don't know about "he flew under the radar in the portal" considering he was one of the top 5 players in the portal (#13 on another listing) at the time. I suspect he did very well here with regards to NIL considering.

Top 5 Transfer Portal Dalton Knecht
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Did any other guys in the portal with DK’s group make all-American? I’d guess he wasn’t predicted to achieve that level of success when he signed at UT so his financial package likely reflected his projected level of success. JMO
 
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#484
#484
Little reset…Mullins & Mallory OV’s have been cancelled from what I’ve heard

Commits:
#110 Dewayne Brown-COMMITTED


Priority Targets:
#5 Chris Cenac-OV TAKEN 9/14
#24 Darius Adams-OV TAKEN 9/13 & UOV
#50 JJ Mandaquit-OV SCHEDULED 11/16
#92 Isaiah Denis-OV SCHEDULED 10/11 & UOV
#108 Dante Allen-OV TAKEN 8/23
#129 Amari Evans-OV TAKEN 8/30 & UOV
#135 Josiah Sanders-OV SCHEDULED 10/11



#3 Nate Ament-OV PLANNED
#6 Caleb Wilson-OV PLANNED & UOV
#35 Braylon Mullins-OV CANCELLED
#39 Shon Abaev- OV TAKEN
#48 Chance Mallory-OV CANCELLED & UOV
#51 Kai Rogers- OV PLANNED
#62 Matt Gilhool-OV PLANNED
#69 Christian Jeffrey-OV PLANNED
#NR Jackson Keith-OV PLANNED & UOV
#NR Jermaine O’Neal Jr.-OV TAKEN



Other offers:
#7 Meleek Thomas
#9 Koa Peat
#11 Tounde Yessoufou
#12 Brayden Burries
#13 Kingston Flemings
#15 Mikel Brown Jr.
#28 Trey McKenney
#30 Kiyan Anthony
#33 Eric Reibe
#34 Nikolas Khamenia
#43 John Clark
#59 Jerry Easter
#63 Cam Ward
#72 Sebastian Williams-Adams
#73 Nyk Lewis
#85 A’mare Bynum
#88 Amari Allen-UOV
#102 Zymicah Wilkins
#106 Gevonte Ware
#114 Keyshuan Tillery
#139 Deondrea Lindsey
#143 Nicholas Randall
#146 Jaylen Cross-UOV
NR Adrien Stevens
NR BJ Davis-Ray
NR Aleks Alston-UOV
NR JR Leonard-UOV
NR Simon Walker-UOV
NR Silas Barksdale
NR Shane Cherry
 
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#485
#485
bleedingTNorange said:
Little reset…Mullins & Mallory OV’s have been cancelled from what I’ve heard

Commits:
#110 Dewayne Brown-COMMITTED


Priority Targets:
#5 Chris Cenac-OV TAKEN 9/14
#24 Darius Adams-OV TAKEN 9/13 & UOV
#50 JJ Mandaquit-OV SCHEDULED 11/16
#92 Isaiah Denis-OV SCHEDULED 10/11 & UOV
#108 Dante Allen-OV TAKEN 8/23
#129 Amari Evans-OV TAKEN 8/30 & UOV
#135 Josiah Sanders-OV SCHEDULED 10/11



#3 Nate Ament-OV PLANNED
#6 Caleb Wilson-OV PLANNED & UOV
#35 Braylon Mullins-OV CANCELLED
#39 Shon Abaev- OV TAKEN
#48 Chance Mallory-OV CANCELLED & UOV
#51 Kai Rogers- OV PLANNED
#62 Matt Gilhool-OV PLANNED
#69 Christian Jeffrey-OV PLANNED
#NR Jackson Keith-OV PLANNED & UOV
#NR Jermaine O’Neal Jr.-OV TAKEN



Other offers:
#7 Meleek Thomas
#9 Koa Peat
#11 Tounde Yessoufou
#12 Brayden Burries
#13 Kingston Flemings
#15 Mikel Brown Jr.
#28 Trey McKenney
#30 Kiyan Anthony
#33 Eric Reibe
#34 Nikolas Khamenia
#43 John Clark
#59 Jerry Easter
#63 Cam Ward
#72 Sebastian Williams-Adams
#73 Nyk Lewis
#85 A’mare Bynum
#88 Amari Allen-UOV
#102 Zymicah Wilkins
#106 Gevonte Ware
#114 Keyshuan Tillery
#139 Deondrea Lindsey
#143 Nicholas Randall
#146 Jaylen Cross-UOV
NR Adrien Stevens
NR BJ Davis-Ray
NR Aleks Alston-UOV
NR JR Leonard-UOV
NR Simon Walker-UOV
NR Silas Barksdale
NR Shane Cherry
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Is that viewed as a development based off liklihood of landing them? A case of us feeling like we may be running 4th or 5th, at best, on their lists?
 
#486
#486
Tennessee hosted a pair of big official visitors this past weekend in big man Chris Cenac, the nation’s No. 13 overall prospect, and guard Darius Adams, the No. 20 prospect in the 2025 class per the On3 industry composite rankings.

Cenac attends Link Academy in Missouri, where current Vols Cam Carr and Cade Phillips both played before landing in Knoxville. So Tennessee obviously has some familiarity with that program and the people on the ground there.

That’s an elite program though which sends kids to elite schools all over the country, so that’s the type of place were a lot of college staffs have connections.

Cenac is originally from Louisiana and LSU is in here pushing hard.

Tennessee has made a push this week in an effort to get Cenac to shut his recruitment down following last weekend’s visit, but as of Thursday evening that seemed unlikely.

Cenac is scheduled to be at Auburn this weekend. He has additional visits slated to Kentucky and Arkansas with in-state LSU getting the final visit on Nov. 9. He visited Houston prior to his Tennessee trip.

Tennessee is definitely in this one, but in the NIL era, barring a real love-fest between prospect and school, most kids are going to take most if not all of their visits to gauge the marketplace.

In our estimation Tennessee did a fantastic job with Adams and his family on his visit. Tennessee, through associate head coach Justin Gainey, has built a strong relationship with Adams.

Given the length of that relationship, this is probably the most ‘traditional’ recruitment of the targets on Tennessee’s board. Adams is one of the few prospects in this cycle who also made an unofficial visit to Knoxville as an underclassmen.

Tennessee is certainly in the thick of it here, but the Vols are swimming with sharks in terms of the competition.

Adams followed his visit to Knoxville with an official to two-time defending national champ UCONN. The other two finalists are Alabama and Michigan State.

I don’t love the fact that Tennessee had the first visit here, but the Vols used it to the best of their ability, making a strong first impression.

There’s a ways to go here as Adams indicated to us he intends to take all of his remaining visits before making a commitment and signing in November.

Shooting guard Amari Evans, who visited Tennessee earlier this month, told us this week that he has set a commitment date for Nov. 1.

Tennessee continues to pursue top-five national prospect Caleb Wilson. This is a high-level recruitment to put it mildly with a lot of buzz around Arkansas and Kentucky. Look to see if Tennessee can get Wilson on campus for an official visit the weekend of the Florida game.
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-VQ
 
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#487
#487
cncchris33 said:
Is that viewed as a development based off liklihood of landing them? A case of us feeling like we may be running 4th or 5th, at best, on their lists?
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I think on Mallory they like others more, with Mullins I thinks it’s that they felt he was beyond a long shot and just taking visits
 
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#491
#491
cncchris33 said:
If we can't win that recruitment, then....

Feels like a case of if we want him, we should land him. I guess Pitt is the hometown team, so there's that, but if this is a basketball decision, that's a no-brainer.
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Trilly put in a prediction for us earlier this week! Still kind of odd he's waiting over a month to announce it.

Also sounds like UCONN is getting either one of Adams or Mullins and it may be the first to commit. Really hoping Mullins goes off the board first in that case..
 
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#492
#492
It will be interesting to see how we handle this class.

We have 6 scholarship guys for sure gone after this season unless I'm missing a COVID season still, but I think that's done (Zeigler, Lanier, Dubar, Mashack, Milicic, and Gainey).

You would expect at least 1 transfer in the off-season as has become standard at this rate. So, you're looking at potentially 7 spots next year open. That's a lot.

You can afford to take a guy like Evans at that rate, who's more likely to be a project and require a year or two before making an impact. But with us losing so much production after this season, landing some impact freshmen like Cenac or Adams would be huge. I suspect we'll take 3-4 in the portal again, which means 3-4 spots from HS this time around, but Brown already committed, if we take Evans as well, that last 1-2 spots becomes pretty important.
 
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#494
#494
CamVol8 said:
We will need to go after a big time transfer point guard next season, assuming one is available. There’s really no way around it considering we lose ZZ
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No worries. Barnes had had great PG options every year he’s been at the real UT. Many have been combos (Punter, Darrington/Daniel, Turner, Santi, Springer/Johnson), but he’s made it work every year. Bone (and Kwe Parker). Chandler. ZZ.
 
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#496
#496
TheMookieMonster said:
It will be interesting to see how we handle this class.

We have 6 scholarship guys for sure gone after this season unless I'm missing a COVID season still, but I think that's done (Zeigler, Lanier, Dubar, Mashack, Milicic, and Gainey).

You would expect at least 1 transfer in the off-season as has become standard at this rate. So, you're looking at potentially 7 spots next year open. That's a lot.

You can afford to take a guy like Evans at that rate, who's more likely to be a project and require a year or two before making an impact. But with us losing so much production after this season, landing some impact freshmen like Cenac or Adams would be huge. I suspect we'll take 3-4 in the portal again, which means 3-4 spots from HS this time around, but Brown already committed, if we take Evans as well, that last 1-2 spots becomes pretty important.
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The price tag combined with the bust rate on instant impact freshman is just a tough pill to swallow for this staff, and I don’t necessarily blame them. I’ve said it before, I’d try and land those 75-125 type freshman who WANT to be here, not just because of money, and then take you a few portal guys each year. With our winning tradition now and program stability we’ve been able to attract portal guys pretty routinely of late, and they’re much more proven and day 1 ready than freshman typically.
 
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#497
#497
bleedingTNorange said:
The price tag combined with the bust rate on instant impact freshman is just a tough pill to swallow for this staff, and I don’t necessarily blame them. I’ve said it before, I’d try and land those 75-125 type freshman who WANT to be here, not just because of money, and then take you a few portal guys each year. With our winning tradition now and program stability we’ve been able to attract portal guys pretty routinely of late, and they’re much more proven and day 1 ready than freshman typically.
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Fair points. I think the portal is definitely the more reliable route. I suppose now that I think about it we basically rebuilt through the portal this year after losing 5 key rotational players, so losing 6 isn’t too different.

It just makes your hit rate in the portal need to be that much higher if we’re living in that 75-125 range next year for HS.
 
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