Barnes has got to play Vescovi now.

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Isn't adding Vescovi a plan?

 

[VolArmy74]

Isn't adding Vescovi a plan?

I mainly hope Vescovi and get the ball up court and not have a ton of turnovers. Barnes apparently planned in redshirting him before Turner dropped out.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I mainly hope Vescovi and get the ball up court and not have a ton of turnovers. Barnes apparently planned in redshirting him before Turner dropped out.

Yes. He doesn't have an unlimited roster size. If he had used up all 13 spots then Vescovi could not have been added.

As far as those saying he had no plan for the post, Walker, Jr. was on the roster, Zach Kent was on the roster, Burns was on the roster, Blackshear was heavily recruited to be on the roster and nearly signed, and Plavsic was signed and there were appeals made to have him play immediately. Plus Jancek is on the roster and is possibly as good as any leftovers from JUCOs or the grad transfer pool. TN still isn't Duke, UNC, Ky, or Kansas. Recruits hadn't been lining up to play at TN. But there are now some really, really good ones that have been convinced to chose to play for TN.

 

[Sudden Impact]

I mainly hope Vescovi and get the ball up court and not have a ton of turnovers. Barnes apparently planned in redshirting him before Turner dropped out.

I think that was just Coach Talk....He could not state it but it was obvious that the kid would play if he were up to it and willing. Turner was always going to need some relief and SV was the answer IMO.

As someone mentioned earlier UP was a risk. I don't think that there was any chance anybody thought he would not be eligible except the NCAA. To lose a year of eligibility just sitting on the bench is ridiculous and is not the answer you would expect from the NCAA.

Win-Win would be to bring him in after the New Year, but the NCAA backlog and their incompetence is evident.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

I think that was just Coach Talk....He could not state it but it was obvious that the kid would play if he were up to it and willing. Turner was always going to need some relief and SV was the answer IMO.

As someone mentioned earlier UP was a risk. I don't think that there was any chance anybody thought he would not be eligible except the NCAA. To lose a year of eligibility just sitting on the bench is ridiculous and is not the answer you would expect from the NCAA.

Win-Win would be to bring him in after the New Year, but the NCAA backlog and their incompetence is evident.

At least with Plavsic there's very little debate that he'd be used even if the NCAA finally cleared him in March as opposed to playing him zero minutes. The only reason to not play him if he can help is the remote chance that losing a year could somehow be appealed later or there's a retro-active rule change by the NCAA. Actually, maybe hiring a lawyer and appealing to get a year back is a possibility. But unless UP really develops over the next few years, TN might rather have the scholarship than 5 years of Plavsic using a roster spot. But again, athletic 7 footers aren't real common human beings.

 

[cncchris33]

It's just hard to excuse away 2 years of completely wasted recruiting plus some questionable decisions in the transfer market this year. What happened in the first two years is one thing, but the bad classes came after. Also, spinning two juniors being able to leave early into a negative isn't the proper way to look at it imo. Grant was clearly on a path to leaving early and when Bone left early Barnes signed a guard he knew wasn't going to be able to play this year in Bailey and took a transfer that required NCAA scrutiny in Placsich rather than taking a grad transfer that would have no NCAA issues.

So roster construction is 100 percent on Barnes and is our problem this season. Who knows, he may have been out the door in his mind until Fulmer made him a top 4 paid coach. Thus no coherent plan to bridge this year. Hopefully Bailey/Plavsich is worth punting this season and he needs to win and win big next year with the roster we will have in place.

While any coach will face criticism for losing, Barnes isn't facing a ton now and would probably be facing even less if he hadn't had a foot in Los Angeles in the off season.

Barnes attempted to land Jalen Cone (PG) who reclassified, and Kerry Blackshear (grad transfer PF). We finished 2nd for both. Our team looks much different with those two guys on the roster. Not all recruiting battles end in victory. But just because we lost on those guys doesn't mean Barnes didn't try like many have insinuated.

 

[VolArmy74]

Barnes attempted to land Jalen Cone (PG) who reclassified, and Kerry Blackshear (grad transfer PF). We finished 2nd for both. Our team looks much different with those two guys on the roster. Not all recruiting battles end in victory. But just because we lost on those guys doesn't mean Barnes didn't try like many have insinuated.

Not saying he didn't try, just can't figure out the Bailey signing when we needed eligible bodies this year. Have to have back up plans.

 

[VolArmy74]

Yes. He doesn't have an unlimited roster size. If he had used up all 13 spots then Vescovi could not have been added.

As far as those saying he had no plan for the post, Walker, Jr. was on the roster, Zach Kent was on the roster, Burns was on the roster, Blackshear was heavily recruited to be on the roster and nearly signed, and Plavsic was signed and there were appeals made to have him play immediately. Plus Jancek is on the roster and is possibly as good as any leftovers from JUCOs or the grad transfer pool. TN still isn't Duke, UNC, Ky, or Kansas. Recruits hadn't been lining up to play at TN. But there are now some really, really good ones that have been convinced to chose to play for TN.

Those guys fall under recruiting misses. Many questioned his recruiting with those classes and they were right in those cases. He gets a ton of credit for Bone/Grant, he shouldn't have blanket immunity for having a year 5 roster that can't get 50 points on the board. Just because things should be better in 20-21 doesn't mean he didn't make some bad recruiting choices to have the current roster we have.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Those guys fall under recruiting misses. Many questioned his recruiting with those classes and they were right in those cases. He gets a ton of credit for Bone/Grant, he shouldn't have blanket immunity for having a year 5 roster that can't get 50 points on the board. Just because things should be better in 20-21 doesn't mean he didn't make some bad recruiting choices to have the current roster we have.

It's not really a miss if the recruited player was signed. There's going to be some risk no matter what teenager is added to the roster. They don't all always mature quickly or develop. Some reach their peak while still in high school. Some will make wrong choices no matter how much assistance they are given.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Not saying he didn't try, just can't figure out the Bailey signing when we needed eligible bodies this year. Have to have back up plans.

Seems as if Santiago Vescovi is a really good back up plan. Using JJJ as the PG is another back up plan. Adding a walk-on transfer is a back up plan. Having a healthy Turner was a plan. Having Bone stick around for a probable 4th year was a plan.

 

[cncchris33]

Not saying he didn't try, just can't figure out the Bailey signing when we needed eligible bodies this year. Have to have back up plans.

Bailey wasn't announced until a month after Cone committed to VT. It doesn't appear that he was the first option. And FWIW, I didn't love the Bailey pickup myself, but mostly because I felt it could cost us a better player in the 2020 class. That said, I don't think it's fair to portray it as the easy/lazy decision. Barnes was clearly very familiar with Bailey and believes in him as a player. Bone wasn't thought to be a candidate to leave early. We looked to replace him with Cone, and missed. The pickings are slim in late April-early May. Not sure what pool of players you hoped to pluck an immediate contributor from at that point in the game, but I can assure you it was shallow.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Not saying he didn't try, just can't figure out the Bailey signing when we needed eligible bodies this year. Have to have back up plans.

What did taking Bailey matter, we still could’ve added someone?

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

It's just hard to excuse away 2 years of completely wasted recruiting plus some questionable decisions in the transfer market this year. What happened in the first two years is one thing, but the bad classes came after. Also, spinning two juniors being able to leave early into a negative isn't the proper way to look at it imo. Grant was clearly on a path to leaving early and when Bone left early Barnes signed a guard he knew wasn't going to be able to play this year in Bailey and took a transfer that required NCAA scrutiny in Placsich rather than taking a grad transfer that would have no NCAA issues.

So roster construction is 100 percent on Barnes and is our problem this season. Who knows, he may have been out the door in his mind until Fulmer made him a top 4 paid coach. Thus no coherent plan to bridge this year. Hopefully Bailey/Plavsich is worth punting this season and he needs to win and win big next year with the roster we will have in place.

While any coach will face criticism for losing, Barnes isn't facing a ton now and would probably be facing even less if he hadn't had a foot in Los Angeles in the off season.

The bad classes came precisely because of the first two years - that is the point. Two juniors leaving early for NBA can be both a positive and a negative - great for CRB's reputation and our program but bad for this season - no?

Please state when it was clear Grant was on a path to leave early.

We both agree roster construction is 100% on CRB which is why I stated so...again, my main point is that those pushing the CRB didn't put forth the effort is absurd and ignores who CRB is as a coach while adopting a very naive perspective on the whole situation IMO.

Your theory on CRB having "one foot out the door" is possible and very well could have been part of his rationale for departing but I think it is more likely he wasn't feeling the support he felt he needed (and, to your point, knew he would need it if this year became ugly) and honestly was intrigued by the opportunity to coach at a historic program.

 

[calban]

Hindsight is 20/20. coulda , shoulda, woulda. I'm done cryin. Let's play ball. Hope Santi is a sponge.

 

[JelloPuddinPup]

It's almost like Barnes is looking into the future and worried about building a program than building for the short term and "making the tournament" this season. Yes, that's still a goal and a focus in-season, but come on; we're headed in a MUCH better direction that we've been in decades and unless we go 0-whatever the rest of the season, that isn't going to change. People seem worried about the fact that if we don't make the tourney this year that we'll fall back into irrelevance but that's mostly because we're not used to this type of success. It doesn't get forgotten just 1 year later and definitely not when 4 of the players from that team are in the public eye playing various levels of professional ball for the best league in the world!

Yes this year could've been drastically different with Turner healthy, Plasvic playing and then the still possible addition of Santiago but that's now how the apples fell this year. I believe Barnes will get us back to being competitive (starts with our identity being rediscovered as a defensive team because Lord knows we're not going to magically start out-shooting teams) this season and we'll be a fringe bubble team after a middle of the pack SEC season. We'll be fine people, relax.

 

[MinisterofDef#92]

Those guys fall under recruiting misses. Many questioned his recruiting with those classes and they were right in those cases. He gets a ton of credit for Bone/Grant, he shouldn't have blanket immunity for having a year 5 roster that can't get 50 points on the board. Just because things should be better in 20-21 doesn't mean he didn't make some bad recruiting choices to have the current roster we have.

CRB owns the results of recruiting, no doubt, but the degree to which he had "choices" is debatable after his first 2 seasons which were subpar a s he rebuilt the program.

 

[Kosmalski]

I mainly hope Vescovi and get the ball up court and not have a ton of turnovers. Barnes apparently planned in redshirting him before Turner dropped out.

You gotta watch Barnes he's tricky.

 

[orangemadam]

Has Vescovi been cleared yet? They were expecting to hear something yesterday. Anyone know yet?

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Has Vescovi been cleared yet? They were expecting to hear something yesterday. Anyone know yet?

I haven't seen that something was expected to be heard yesterday. I've only seen that the NCAA offices were closed over the holidays and first opened yesterday.

I have a feeling that it won't go to the bottom of somebody's In Box and be dealt with whenever. I think they'll take care of it before clicking out tonight. Phil and Rick no doubt have somebody on speed dial and unless CRB has already decided to have him sit out LSU, I think that the process will be expendited. Remember it's not really a ruling or an appeal that's being waited on... it's more of a routine matter of confirming that everything is in order. Then again... the NCAA hasn't done TN many favors lately.