let me go on record as saying chris lofton is my fav all time ut basketball player. he may not have been the most athletic vol, but his heart and effort were unrivaled. it seems to me that u guys are comparing the senior lofton with the freshman mcbee. tyler will never be a chris lofton but he will be a good sec player for bruce. he reminds me of a aaron green with his hustle. hopefully he will win a few of u guys over with his effort but probably not. lets face it,hes not from ky, new york or indiana, hes from a rural area in tn and hes white.
Being white and from a rural area of Tn myself, I am going to have to disagree with you. In addition, it isn't even close at this point. I have nothing against Skyler, in fact he has exceeded expectations, Coach Pearl loves his work ethic and he probably tries to model his game somewhat after CL. Someone will, I will not, look back and compare CL's freshman stats with Skyler's at the end of the year and then offensively you will have a truer comparison of their abilities. Chris had remarkable, unbelievable body control, shot more of a fallaway jumper which allowed him to find and make shots that Skyler can not, and was tremendous on the dribble drive with some variation of a finger roll or soft hook at the end. He also was a better penetrator and distributor of the bball. Offensively, you are trying to compare probably a freshman all-american or close to it with a garden variety zone breaker that many teams have sitting on their bench.
Defensively, Loften at this stage was far superior, he was a defensive back in high school and could stay in front of his man. We have never had a pressing, ball hawking, stealing team that could compare with CL, Dane, Jujuan and co. They all had very high bb iq and came to play every game. Skyler gets beat and beat again and then someone else has to help him out. He is trying hard, but his d is not very good to this point.
Lofton was also a very, very good ball handler and a phenominal pressure free throw shooter.
If I was grading the two based on their freshman year alone, keeping in mind that Skyler hasn't played against any of the SEC or better, quicker, guards in the league and basing it on a 1- 100 scale what follows would be my grade.
Lofton 95 range A- to A.
McBee 76 to 80 range C+
Athleticism is important but several current Vol players are athletic and not very good basketball players or shooters IMO.
That is my opinion and McBee is currently my favorite Vol bball player. Next you'll say McBee is comparable to Wall at Ky.
