Tennessee Vols Basketball Recruiting

[MoCo_Vol]

That’s kind of my thought too, people keep pointing out recruiting struggles and that these new assistants need to be shown the door etc, and while I would like to land some more top targets in the fall and not miss against rivals it’s hard to ignore that no matter how these classes have gone Barnes and assistants have continued to put out winning team after winning team…and obviously that’s the ultimate goal, so they’re doing something right with roster assembly, can’t ignore that.

Yep, ya win a lot of games, go deep in conference tournaments and march then put guys in the draft and the higher guys that we're "missing" on will start coming here. The environment is great for basketball in Knoxville. TBA is as good of a venue as anywhere else in the country, especially for big games.

Barnes has and will never coddle players or recruits. He's going to coach the hell out of everyone as if they are all starting from the same place. Some players feast in that environment KC did and some players don't BHH/Burns for example. My only critique of recruiting is I'd rather see us "hit" more on the guys we do take. Seeing so many guys transfer out worries me.

BHH, Q, Powell, Bailey, & Tamba all leaving a top 10 team that won the SECT when more playing time was potentially ahead of them isn't a good thing. But if it helps the culture stay the way it is then that's fine, objectively I feel like Tamba was the only one that left we really recruited over.

Can't tell me BHH, Q, Powell or Bailey couldn't earn minutes this season or next. So to my point, if we're going to take the 3 and 4 star guys more often I'd like to see more of them stick around and develop their games (Like Santi, Pons, Fulky, Bone did).

 

[bleedingTNorange]

^^^Bailey graduated and would’ve been a COVID year guy, not sure how much more he was gonna develop in a 6th year, our fans were pretty done with him. Powell didn’t really show any signs of bringing anything to the table at Tennessee so not sure how much of a loss that is, just never seemed to fit. Look where Tamba ended up, hard to say him moving on wasn’t the right choice. Q is a guy with some potential, but not sure he was gonna be seeing minutes this year. BHH is the only guy of those you listed who I think would see some minutes on this roster, and even that may not have been a guarantee with a healthy Nkahmoua & Aidoo returning. Unfortunately todays game is an average of about 4 transfers a year, as a college program I would recruit with that number in mind each year and plan for it as best you can. I would like to see us live in that 30-100 range of recruiting, those typically are the guys who are a bit below the blue bloods and who have a healthy amount of interest in us, they also tend to be at least 2-3 year players so you can hope to develop them some. Some of the issue has been our early scouts are just great, Estrella went from unranked and unknown to a Top 20 player in months, Edwards wasn’t unranked but his climb was similar too, our staffs have done great jobs finding guys early and it unfortunately just hasn’t paid off always.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I would like to see us live in that 30-100 range of recruiting, those typically are the guys who are a bit below the blue bloods and who have a healthy amount of interest in us, they also tend to be at least 2-3 year players so you can hope to develop them some.

Agreed.

I get why those players all felt it was best to move on for them, at least in the short term. For Bailey and Tamba it makes the most sense. Both will get far more playing time at their spots and have better production there.

BHH and Powell just never fully bought in but each could have developed into better players had they put the same sort of focus and effort into it as Santi and JJJ have.

Q was the wildcard for sure...still think him here in year 3 or 4 could have really been helping us. But who knows.

 

[Vols till I fall]

With the way college basketball is these days, missing out on big recruits isn't as bad as jt once was. With the transfer portal being the new norm, expect a talented player that you have never heard of, playing for us next season

 

[cncchris33]

Yep, ya win a lot of games, go deep in conference tournaments and march then put guys in the draft and the higher guys that we're "missing" on will start coming here. The environment is great for basketball in Knoxville. TBA is as good of a venue as anywhere else in the country, especially for big games.

Barnes has and will never coddle players or recruits. He's going to coach the hell out of everyone as if they are all starting from the same place. Some players feast in that environment KC did and some players don't BHH/Burns for example. My only critique of recruiting is I'd rather see us "hit" more on the guys we do take. Seeing so many guys transfer out worries me.

BHH, Q, Powell, Bailey, & Tamba all leaving a top 10 team that won the SECT when more playing time was potentially ahead of them isn't a good thing. But if it helps the culture stay the way it is then that's fine, objectively I feel like Tamba was the only one that left we really recruited over.

Can't tell me BHH, Q, Powell or Bailey couldn't earn minutes this season or next. So to my point, if we're going to take the 3 and 4 star guys more often I'd like to see more of them stick around and develop their games (Like Santi, Pons, Fulky, Bone did).

Specifically to the guys you mentioned, I think Bailey wanted a more prominent role (perhaps a starting role). He likely will get that at George Mason. He wouldn't at Tennessee.

Powell just seems to be nomadic going back to high school. Like he's constantly searching for the ideal fit and never finds it. I think that likely says more about him than Tennessee or Barnes.

Q, by all accounts, wasn't developing into a contributor and the coach that specifically recruited him left Tennessee.

BHH is the one loss that will leave you scratching your head, as he would have found playing time.

 

[Dallasbowlin]

With the way college basketball is these days, missing out on big recruits isn't as bad as jt once was. With the transfer portal being the new norm, expect a talented player that you have never heard of, playing for us next season

True, but Tennessee hasn’t done great in the transfer portal. If Tyreke Key comes in and plays like the guy he was before the shoulder injury, it’ll make our history look much better. But for now, our transfer portal history is not great at all.

 

[walkenvol]

Specifically to the guys you mentioned, I think Bailey wanted a more prominent role (perhaps a starting role). He likely will get that at George Mason. He wouldn't at Tennessee.

Powell just seems to be nomadic going back to high school. Like he's constantly searching for the ideal fit and never finds it. I think that likely says more about him than Tennessee or Barnes.

Q, by all accounts, wasn't developing into a contributor and the coach that specifically recruited him left Tennessee.

BHH is the one loss that will leave you scratching your head, as he would have found playing time.

I agree with you on Bailey seeking a starting role in his last season. Tamba always appeared to have been a questionable SEC level talent. No clue on Q other than he was clearly an SEC caliber athlete. I believe BHH did start coming around second half of the season and was planning to return and then some other folks convinced him he was not being fully appreciated and should move on. Shame he didn’t stick it out and bought in completely to the program.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I agree with you on Bailey seeking a starting role in his last season. Tamba always appeared to have been a questionable SEC level talent. No clue on Q other than he was clearly an SEC caliber athlete. I believe BHH did start coming around second half of the season and was planning to return and then some other folks convinced him he was not being fully appreciated and should move on. Shame he didn’t stick it out and bought in completely to the program.

What's crazy as I was looking at BHH's profile on 247...3 different HS listed, so maybe the writing was on the wall?

We also don't necessarily know if the staff or player were the ones pushing to transfer. I don't think Barnes would outright tell a player to leave, but with a guy like Tamba he may have been honest with him and told him that he didn't see him getting quality minutes until 2 or 3 more years away. I know from talking to a few players that no one on that team wanted BHH to leave though.

 

[cncchris33]

What's crazy as I was looking at BHH's profile on 247...3 different HS listed, so maybe the writing was on the wall?

We also don't necessarily know if the staff or player were the ones pushing to transfer. I don't think Barnes would outright tell a player to leave, but with a guy like Tamba he may have been honest with him and told him that he didn't see him getting quality minutes until 2 or 3 more years away. I know from talking to a few players that no one on that team wanted BHH to leave though.

It seemed as if BHH even wanted to stay, but was urged by family/advisors to transfer. A shame, if true. The three high schools isn’t terribly alarming in his case, as moving from his home school in Clarksville to IMG was a move to increase his profile and competition level. The move from IMG to Scotland Prep is perhaps open to interpretation as a questionable move, perhaps.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

It seemed as if BHH even wanted to stay, but was urged by family/advisors to transfer. A shame, if true. The three high schools isn’t terribly alarming in his case, as moving from his home school in Clarksville to IMG was a move to increase his profile and competition level. The move from IMG to Scotland Prep is perhaps open to interpretation as a questionable move, perhaps.

Yeah I was told "I'm still mad at him." and "he's still in the group chat" when I asked about BHH. Seems like he's a good dude and teammate, but has someone in that family/advisor group that is running the show a bit. Maybe it'll work out for him.

 

[Dallasbowlin]

BHH on this squad makes us a top ten team.

 

[walkenvol]

BHH on this squad makes us a top ten team.

https://c.tenor.com/oxNiuScAvZAAAAAC/snl-alexa.gif
He would have had to make a big leap forward to keep us out of the small ball lineup JMO

 

[bleedingTNorange]

BHH on this squad makes us a top ten team.

Who says we aren’t Top 10?

 

[Dallasbowlin]

Who says we aren’t Top 10?

I mean the begin the year. I haven’t seen many publications rank us in the top 10 preseason.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I mean the begin the year. I haven’t seen many publications rank us in the top 10 preseason.

Barttorvik has us #3, many media polls have been 9-12 that I’ve seen, which is close enough to say Top 10 imo. It seems our fan base is more down on this team that media & analytics.

 

[Dallasbowlin]

Barttorvik has us #3, many media polls have been 9-12 that I’ve seen, which is close enough to say Top 10 imo. It seems our fan base is more down on this team that media & analytics.

#3 is crazy to me. We’re way closer to that 9-12 range IMO. BHH would probably move you into 7-9 range. So not that much of a difference, but a difference none the less.

 

[Dallasbowlin]

I’m not down on the team BTW, but I do think we take a step back talent wise next year.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I’m not down on the team BTW, but I do think we take a step back talent wise next year.

By next year you mean this upcoming one right? 2023? Why do you say that? I mean we swap Kennedy with Phillips which seems like a pretty even swap based on rankings. Fulky was not the real Fulky towards the end of his tenure. Those are really the only 2 key pieces we lost and I am pretty confident a healthy ORN can give us Fulky’s production if not more, and then everyone else returns and is another year older and more seasoned.

If anything, this team should be more talented not less.

 

[Dallasbowlin]

By next year you mean this upcoming one right? 2023? Why do you say that? I mean we swap Kennedy with Phillips which seems like a pretty even swap based on rankings. Fulky was not the real Fulky towards the end of his tenure. Those are really the only 2 key pieces we lost and I am pretty confident a healthy ORN can give us Fulky’s production if not more, and then everyone else returns and is another year older and more seasoned.

If anything, this team should be more talented not less.

Yeah, there’s not a big talent difference between Phillips and Chandler, but they’re different positions. Unless Phillips is gonna run point. Key is going to be good, but I don’t know if he’ll be Chandler good.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Yeah, there’s not a big talent difference between Phillips and Chandler, but they’re different positions. Unless Phillips is gonna run point. Key is going to be good, but I don’t know if he’ll be Chandler good.

His point is overall team talent…you lose a 2nd round talent and gain probably a 1st round talent. Yea PG talent decreased, but wing talent increases.

 

[johnfnkelly]

By next year you mean this upcoming one right? 2023? Why do you say that? I mean we swap Kennedy with Phillips which seems like a pretty even swap based on rankings. Fulky was not the real Fulky towards the end of his tenure. Those are really the only 2 key pieces we lost and I am pretty confident a healthy ORN can give us Fulky’s production if not more, and then everyone else returns and is another year older and more seasoned.

If anything, this team should be more talented not less.

Maybe based off ratings, but I’m taking a Chandler type of talent at PG over a similarly talented wing any day of the week.

 

[cncchris33]

Maybe based off ratings, but I’m taking a Chandler type of talent at PG over a similarly talented wing any day of the week.

Yeah, same here. Kind of like I'd rather have a top-flight QB over a top-flight WR. The PG and QB positions are just that important.

 

[Dallasbowlin]

His point is overall team talent…you lose a 2nd round talent and gain probably a 1st round talent. Yea PG talent decreased, but wing talent increases.

Is point guard not the most important position on the team though? I hope Phillips is a first round guy, we’ve had a pretty good season if so.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Is point guard not the most important position on the team though? I hope Phillips is a first round guy, we’ve had a pretty good season if so.

You’re now having a different discussion, he simply stated overall team talent. PG is absolutely important, but it appears most analytics and “experts” think that Zeigler will do an adequate job in the increased role. They expect a better Vescovi and James, and that Phillips will be better than Bailey/Powell.

Vescovi, James and Mashack we can say wash, but expectation is at least a small step forward…so that leaves Chandler/Bailey/Powell vs. Zeigler/Key/Phillips/Edwards, which do you think is better/would you take?

 

[Dallasbowlin]

You’re now having a different discussion, he simply stated overall team talent. PG is absolutely important, but it appears most analytics and “experts” think that Zeigler will do an adequate job in the increased role. They expect a better Vescovi and James, and that Phillips will be better than Bailey/Powell.

Vescovi, James and Mashack we can say wash, but expectation is at least a small step forward…so that leaves Chandler/Bailey/Powell vs. Zeigler/Key/Phillips/Edwards, which do you think is better/would you take?

Probably the second team. It will be hard for James to be better than he was to end the season. If you mean they expect him to do that for a full season, then I say you probably will be right and this years team will be better. They most likely won’t win the SEC Tournament, but I can see us making a deeper NCAA run.