For the long time basketball fans. Your thoughts on Don DeVoe.

#10
#10
I concur with the great bench coach idea.

Been a long time but thinking you had to be able to truly defend man-to-man.

Ended up with a senior leader like Johnny Darden coming off the bench.

Would not tolerate free spirits so Kevin Nash washed out. Still fuzzy memory but think he called him Captain Ahab.

I was just impressed that Kevin had read Moby Dick....or the CliffsNotes.
 
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#11
#11
LeannaVol said:
An old school hard nosed coach,. Like Bobby Knight without the temper or level of success mainly due to the fact he didn't like recruiting and probably mostly played by the rules. He would not do well in todays college game. A good X's and O's coach who did better here than many
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If memory serves me correctly he did recruit Dyron Nix with his free flowing hair as I recall.Enjoyed watching him play.
 
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#13
#13
Bigorangefan 98 said:
Don devoe teams played very disciplined and tough defenses . He recruited few big fish , landed dale ellis , dyron nix , fred jenkins , Gary carter , Michael brooks , Kevin woods from dunbar highā€¦ devoe learned from one best coaches in the game ever
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Forgot about Michael Brooks. Sweetest shot Iā€™ve maybe ever seen seen.
 
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#14
#14
Bigorangefan 98 said:
Don devoe teams played very disciplined and tough defenses . He recruited few big fish , landed dale ellis , dyron nix , fred jenkins , Gary carter , Michael brooks , Kevin woods from dunbar highā€¦ devoe learned from one best coaches in the game ever
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Ah yes, the ole pass the ball 20 times before anyone puts up a shot

Really miss those 20-17 games :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
#17
#17
JL24 said:
Curious how veteran Vol fans feel about his time here.
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The discipline he added was a big bonus...until it wasn't. His unwillingness to adapt to the 3 pointer was his downfall.

My memory is not the greatest, but it seems the first few years were great, but the trajectory was all downhill. We probably kept him too long.

Overall though, I think he was a good guy and a good coach. He just maybe didn't fit the culture of UT the best.
 
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#18
#18
JL24 said:
Curious how veteran Vol fans feel about his time here.
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The biggest question is why did that fat bastard Woodruff hire him in the first place.

We were a Top 10 program after Ernie and Bernie and outside of a few famous coaches could have hired almost anyone. But instead Fatso hires a coach from Wyoming who just went 11-17 and had the rep of a medicore recruiter.

Meanwhile there was a guy at FSU named Hugh Durham who had taken the Noles to the Final 4 and then went to UGA and took their chicken **** program to the FF. He said on Sports Talk he literally begged Woodruff to hire him..

And then of course there was a young coach at West Point with the funny name who had just gone 17-11 at West Point. So what's more impressive a coach who went 11-17 at Wyoming or one who went 17-11 at WP. And who by the ways mentor had won a NC at Indiana the year before.

But have to give Fatso credit, at least he didnt hire a 28 year old position coach like he did in football 7 years earlier.
 
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#19
#19
I was at UT when Devoe was coach, so I got to see a bunch of his games in Stokely Center with Dale Ellis, Gary Carter, Howard Wood and Michael Brooks. So much fun. I also went to numerous practices and Iā€™m not sure I ever heard a coach cuss more than Don Devoe. He was a riot sometimes to listen to.
 
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#20
#20
Great coach in pre shot clock era. Didn't adjust well afterwards. Great defensive mind. Someone said he wasn't a good recruiter but that wasn't his issue. He recruited Dale Ellis, Dyron Nix, Tony White, Michael Brooks. Adjusted his style before his last season, one which saw a return to the NCAA but the first round loss got him canned. Went to five straight NCAAs before the field was 64.
 
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#21
#21
Savannahbayvol said:
The biggest question is why did that fat bastard Woodruff hire him in the first place.

We were a Top 10 program after Ernie and Bernie and outside of a few famous coaches could have hired almost anyone. But instead Fatso hires a coach from Wyoming who just went 11-17 and had the rep of a medicore recruiter.

Meanwhile there was a guy at FSU named Hugh Durham who had taken the Noles to the Final 4 and then went to UGA and took their chicken **** program to the FF. He said on Sports Talk he literally begged Woodruff to hire him..

And then of course there was a young coach at West Point with the funny name who had just gone 17-11 at West Point. So what's more impressive a coach who went 11-17 at Wyoming or one who went 17-11 at WP. And who by the ways mentor had won a NC at Indiana the year before.

But have to give Fatso credit, at least he didnt hire a 28 year old position coach like he did in football 7 years earlier.
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You realize that in his first season we won the SEC tournament and made the sweet 16. The NCAA field was 32 at the time. What you should be questioning is why did Doug Dickey allow our program sink to new lows while not giving a damn after we parted ways with DeVoe. DeVoe wasn't a bad hire
 
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#22
#22
The first coach, I remember for Vols basketball . Devoe was from the Bobby Knight coaching tree, loved Dale Ellis and Tony White is still my all-time favorite Vol.Vols got shafted in the Tourney, twice, Virginia and Sampson in back to back years, come on, BS. I have nothing but love for DeVoe.
 
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#23
#23
Jax_Vol said:
I concur with the great bench coach idea.

Been a long time but thinking you had to be able to truly defend man-to-man.

Ended up with a senior leader like Johnny Darden coming off the bench.

Would not tolerate free spirits so Kevin Nash washed out. Still fuzzy memory but think he called him Captain Ahab.

I was just impressed that Kevin had read Moby Dick....or the CliffsNotes.
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That switch to putting Bertelkamp at the point and inserting Gary Carter into the lineup turned that first season around quickly
 
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#24
#24
Savannahbayvol said:
The biggest question is why did that fat bastard Woodruff hire him in the first place.

We were a Top 10 program after Ernie and Bernie and outside of a few famous coaches could have hired almost anyone. But instead Fatso hires a coach from Wyoming who just went 11-17 and had the rep of a medicore recruiter.

Meanwhile there was a guy at FSU named Hugh Durham who had taken the Noles to the Final 4 and then went to UGA and took their chicken **** program to the FF. He said on Sports Talk he literally begged Woodruff to hire him..

And then of course there was a young coach at West Point with the funny name who had just gone 17-11 at West Point. So what's more impressive a coach who went 11-17 at Wyoming or one who went 17-11 at WP. And who by the ways mentor had won a NC at Indiana the year before.

But have to give Fatso credit, at least he didnt hire a 28 year old position coach like he did in football 7 years earlier.
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Not even close to being true. We did not finish in the Top 10 any of those years, and were no where near being a Top 10 program.

1972 - Unranked (I was born...:))
1973 - Unranked (year before EG and BK)
1974 - Unranked (their 1st year)
1975 - Unranked (year 2)
176 - 13th (year 3)
1977 - 15th (EG and BK final year & I believe also Ray Mears final year)
1978 - Unranked (Cliff Wettig)
1979 - Unranked (Don DeVoe 1st year)
1980 - Unranked
1981 - 15th (Sweet 16 in NCAA Tournament --- only the 2nd time they made it)
 
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#25
#25
He was coach when I was in school, was very, disciplined but had a short fuse with his players. A few years after I graduated we had him speak at an alumni function and he complained about recruiting (he didn't really like it) as he was not a good salesman of the program. Technically he was very good as a coach, did better with the players he inherited (Reggie Johnson, Crosby, Howard Wood, etc.) but towards the end of his term at UT we had way more Sam Arteburns and Tyrone Harpers than we did Dale Ellis and Dyron Nix. It was hard for fans to watch Cedric Henderson and John Johnson go elsewhere.

But, he did gets lots of mileage from players like Rob Jones and Willie Burton, guys that were not really SEC players but were willing to work like heck.
 
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