'22 SC SF Julian Phillips (Tennessee commit)

#901
#901
golfballs said:
But did they pony up enough for Phillips? We won’t know. So Barnes could now start facing heat for something he doesn’t have control of?
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I do think it’s obvious that NIL groups do not act independently of coaches, even with what some have said to the contrary. So should we now hold coaches responsible for “selling” a NIL group on a player just as much as we do with them selling Tennessee to a player? I’m not sure, but it’s something that will become more clear as we learn more about how NIL deals transpire over the years. I love Barnes and will always advocate for him at Tennessee, but I don’t see him being the type to press for a bidding war over a certain player, even in an age of legal NIL deals.
 
#902
#902
Vol49er said:
Sure I was excited to see him develop, but I'm more excited to watch Scov and JJJ lead the team, and honestly the non-Chandler freshman ive been consistently most enthusiastic about, even before last season, have been Mashack and Aidoo (and thats reflected in my posts). Now thats a minority opinion, but BHH never excited me as much as those two did, so maybe thats why I am not as upset with the offseason as many. Though last season, I was more pessimistic than most (did not anticipate Chandler and Scov being the defenders they were), so my opinion is only worth so much, but I feel ok for now
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I'm honestly concerned about where we go to get a bucket in crunch time, right now. I think we desperately need JJJ to develop into a guy that can get to the rim at will, or recruit someone who can. Chandler was our best option, last year, and not a great one, at that.
 
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#903
#903
joevols89 said:
No he wasn’t starting. And by big impact I mean anything more than a role player on this team. I don’t think outperforming Uros is something to get excited over. I think he will be really good, just not next season.
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I mean regardless of your opinion of Uros, he played a lot. If Aidoo plays those same minutes and gives even a little bit more than Uros did, thats having an impact by any reasonable definition of the phrase
 
#904
#904
cncchris33 said:
Maybe I'm completely disconnected, but I'm of the impression that those at Spyre aren't making financial and personnel decisions swayed by any fandom of their own, no matter how great or small. But I could have developed that assumption on my own.
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Thats odd, I was told they are doing this because they bleed orange. Anyway, regardless of the reasons behind their decisions, they have significant responsibility in what recruits end up on campus. And without transparency in the process how are fans/donors supposed to evaluate their performance vs that of the coaches.
 
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#905
#905
golfballs said:
Better or not it’s certainly more power that they’re legally binding. So weigh the fact the details are still not transparent and I wouldn’t say any of this means there’s more accountability. Probably even less for a fan’s perspective. Who is accountable now for success/failures in recruiting? Coaches? Or NIL cooperatives? Neither is infallible certainly. So as it stands now we’ll never really know.
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Sure but did we ever know? Every single time we lost a recruit this whole board was full of "Bagman came through for ____". Sometimes that was likely true, sometimes not. Now at least that kind of stuff is in the open
 
#906
#906
Vol49er said:
And I dont disagree with that. But two things:
1. I have serious doubts about his disposition to the point that I struggle to ever seeing him reach that potential anyhow.
2. Last year we had a really great team WITHOUT Brandon having reached his potential. So we are losing the freshman BHH, not a developed BHH, and that is not nearly as much of a gap to fill
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I don’t disagree with either of these. This is a big reason I still like the team we have for next year (assuming Collins and Key commit) but I struggle to LOVE it like I did last year’s team. And while the doubts of BHH potential being reached are there, it’s gonna look really really bad if he does reach those heights on another SEC team.
 
#907
#907
golfballs said:
Thats odd, I was told they are doing this because they bleed orange. Anyway, regardless of the reasons behind their decisions, they have significant responsibility in what recruits end up on campus. And without tansoarency to their decision making how are fans/donors supposed to evaluate their performance vs the coaches.
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You may be right in that they bleed orange, but how much is that fandom impacting how they spend the money of the collective? I think they are business people first and foremost, but I could be wrong.
 
#908
#908
cncchris33 said:
I'm honestly concerned about where we go to get a bucket in crunch time, right now. I think we desperately need JJJ to develop into a guy that can get to the rim at will, or recruit someone who can. Chandler was our best option, last year, and not a great one, at that.
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And I think thats completely fair, but that was always going to be a concern if one, like I did, assumed Chandler was never returning. So I'm not any more down about this next season as I was when the offseason started (and while Phillips would have been nice, I never expected him to come here and am not crazy about constantly relying on freshman to come in and be your go to guy). Honestly it might be alot like the first half of the season last year where we get big leads and then just hold on with defense. If JJJ or even Z can develop into that guy that can go get you 2 in the half court, like Kennedy when he was on, we've got a great chance to be another 25+ win team again IMO
 
#909
#909
Vol49er said:
I mean regardless of your opinion of Uros, he played a lot. If Aidoo plays those same minutes and gives even a little bit more than Uros did, thats having an impact by any reasonable definition of the phrase
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That’s your definition, sure. Not how I feel.
 
#910
#910
cncchris33 said:
I'm honestly concerned about where we go to get a bucket in crunch time, right now. I think we desperately need JJJ to develop into a guy that can get to the rim at will, or recruit someone who can. Chandler was our best option, last year, and not a great one, at that.
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Bingo. Honestly, ZZ is looking like our best bucket-getter right now and he will always have problems creating his own shot simply because of his size. If that’s who we are looking to late in games, as much as I love ZZ, we are in trouble.
 
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#911
#911
cncchris33 said:
You may be right in that they bleed orange, but how much is that fandom impacting how they spend the money of the collective? I think they are business people first and foremost, but I could be wrong.
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Eh, I see athletes who most causal fans wouldnt even know were on the team getting personalized deals, so that makes me doubt it
 
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#912
#912
cncchris33 said:
You may be right in that they bleed orange, but how much is that fandom impacting how they spend the money of the collective? I think they are business people first and foremost, but I could be wrong.
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Their business is selling fans on what they can deliver. It’s very easy then to imagine conflict over where blame is placed for recruiting classes that fail to live up to expectations.
 
#913
#913
Vol49er said:
And I think thats completely fair, but that was always going to be a concern if one, like I did, assumed Chandler was never returning. So I'm not any more down about this next season as I was when the offseason started (and while Phillips would have been nice, I never expected him to come here and am not crazy about constantly relying on freshman to come in and be your go to guy). Honestly it might be alot like the first half of the season last year where we get big leads and then just hold on with defense. If JJJ or even Z can develop into that guy that can go get you 2 in the half court, like Kennedy when he was on, we've got a great chance to be another 25+ win team again IMO
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The puzzling thing is that we've done nothing to address that concern. Some will point to Key, but I'm not putting my faith in him being an impact player for us. I'll just hope I'm wrong, or we have an alternate plan.
 
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#915
#915
berryvol said:
I don’t disagree with either of these. This is a big reason I still like the team we have for next year (assuming Collins and Key commit) but I struggle to LOVE it like I did last year’s team. And while the doubts of BHH potential being reached are there, it’s gonna look really really bad if he does reach those heights on another SEC team.
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But what is it about last year's team do you love that you dont with next year's? If its Chandler's bucket getting I get that, but like I said responding to Chris, that was always gonna be a concern, and IMO counting on Chandler to return or BHH to become "the guy" or Phillips to come here was never realistic anyhow, so I dont feel any worse about next year than I did in February. In fact I may feel better as we have a pretty good PG lined up to replace Chandler
 
#916
#916
cncchris33 said:
The puzzling thing is that we've done nothing to address that concern. Some will point to Key, but I'm not putting my faith in him being an impact player for us. I'll just hope I'm wrong, or we have an alternate plan.
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Well pursuing Phillips seemed to be the plan, and I dont think that was a good strategy. I think Chandler was a unique talent though, I think there were only a small number of guys out there who could just come in and be a one for one replacement (and one of them just committed to Memphis). It was always my expectation that that gap was going to have to be filled by committee, with Scov and Josiah continuing to progress, Powell maybe finding his pulse, Z improving, maybe shrinking gold with Yuri or Key, so on
 
#917
#917
Vol49er said:
But what is it about last year's team do you love that you dont with next year's? If its Chandler's bucket getting I get that, but like I said responding to Chris, that was always gonna be a concern, and IMO counting on Chandler to return or BHH to become "the guy" or Phillips to come here was never realistic anyhow, so I dont feel any worse about next year than I did in February. In fact I may feel better as we have a pretty good PG lined up to replace Chandler
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We downgraded in the post and point guard. And our post was not good last year to begin with.
 
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#920
#920
joevols89 said:
We downgraded in the post and point guard. And our post was not good last year to begin with.
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PG yes, but that was expected. Getting Yuri would make it not as big a drop off as it looked like it might be
Post I am clearly in the minority here but I am just not so sure. Oliver coming back is better than freshman BHH. Uros will improve with another offseason. And I believe sophomore Aidoo can be an improvement over what Fulk was this past season. He may not be the same natural scorer but he could be a real defensive deterrent without being a complete drain on offense either.
And I really feel like if Josiah can stay healthy he can excel this year
 
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#921
#921
Vol49er said:
Well pursuing Phillips seemed to be the plan, and I dont think that was a good strategy. I think Chandler was a unique talent though, I think there were only a small number of guys out there who could just come in and be a one for one replacement (and one of them just committed to Memphis). It was always my expectation that that gap was going to have to be filled by committee, with Scov and Josiah continuing to progress, Powell maybe finding his pulse, Z improving, maybe shrinking gold with Yuri or Key, so on
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Phillips may have provided some of that, but I'm not sure he's the guy you rely on as a freshman, a skinny freshman at that, who is going to take his man off the dribble and get to the rim at will.

I'm talking an Admiral Schofield type that can get from the wing to the rim, to the paint, to inside 10' and get a bucket. We missed that, last year (sans Chandler) and right now, I think we'll miss it next year. JJJ is probably the most likely guy on the roster for that role, but he has yet to prove across three years that he can finish in traffic, or even uncontested sometimes, at the rim.
 
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#923
#923
cncchris33 said:
Phillips may have provided some of that, but I'm not sure he's the guy you rely on as a freshman, a skinny freshman at that, who is going to take his man off the dribble and get to the rim at will.

I'm talking an Admiral Schofield type that can get from the wing to the rim, to the paint, to inside 10' and get a bucket. We missed that, last year (sans Chandler) and right now, I think we'll miss it next year. JJJ is probably the most likely guy on the roster for that role, but he has yet to prove across three years that he can finish in traffic, or even uncontested sometimes, at the rim.
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I agree, I'm just saying in terms of finding one outside candidate to fill that role, that seems to be the player the coaches zeroed in on the most. I dont think they should have and certainly in hindsight they shouldn't have

And I think were having different convos here. I dont disagree that is a concern. But I was previously discussing why this offseason has not upset me as much as others. And its because that was a concern at the start of it and one I never expected to have a great answer to, so I wasn't disappointed. Maybe one could fault me for having low expectations, but even in this crazy player movement area, sometimes you just gotta count on a guy making a leap, and I have thought for a while that that answer, if found, would be found in house, probably from Josiah, rather than from an elite recruit or transfer
 
#924
#924
joevols89 said:
Yeah. And our biggest upside player left. And our 6th year senior. And our best assistant coach.
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Not sure about that. He clearly has some roadblocks to ever realizing that. I think Aidoo has a lot of upside. And even just a little improvement collectively is significant.
 
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