The Official “Regular Posters of the Basketball Forum” Thread

#21,079
#21,079
TheMookieMonster said:
I get the intent, but personally I wouldn’t put Serrano in the “clown” category. I think he was the one hire that made a lot of sense when it was made and everyone was surprised it didn’t work out. Plus Serrano is a genuinely great human being. I hate that things were basically a dumpster fire around here during his tenure.
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IIRC, Heart hired his big 3 coaches whereas White inherited 2 of his. To me, White is still a TBD till the lady VOLS new coach succeeds or not and how he replaces Barnes. I’m hopeful both go well.
 
#21,080
#21,080
walkenvol said:
IIRC, Heart hired his big 3 coaches whereas White inherited 2 of his. To me, White is still a TBD till the lady VOLS new coach succeeds or not and how he replaces Barnes. I’m hopeful both go well.
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That’s fair. But to me there is more to running an AD than just hiring. I would argue that a major key to success in college athletics as opposed to the pros is just how your athletic department is run.

Heupel is a great offensive mind, but I don’t think anyone viewed him as a “slam dunk” hire from past success, but he seems to be doing quite well so far because there is complete buy-in across the AD and a well-run NIL operation equipped to support him.

Don’t get me wrong, hiring coaches is an important piece for AD success. But I’ve seen enough of his hires from past jobs (e.g, Leipold, Oats) to think he can identify coaching talent.
 
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#21,082
#21,082
DK at 17 and other draft reactions?

I wanted him to go higher, his work and stats supported him being a lottery pick. I get the NBA would rather draft 18 year old players coming off ACL tears because "potential" but seems like nothing really supports that's the best practice.

I think he landed in a great spot where he can learn from elite players, a hungry and smart young HC, and play with enough talent to not be defended as a #1 scoring option.
 
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#21,083
#21,083
TheMookieMonster said:
That’s fair. But to me there is more to running an AD than just hiring. I would argue that a major key to success in college athletics as opposed to the pros is just how your athletic department is run.

Heupel is a great offensive mind, but I don’t think anyone viewed him as a “slam dunk” hire from past success, but he seems to be doing quite well so far because there is complete buy-in across the AD and a well-run NIL operation equipped to support him.

Don’t get me wrong, hiring coaches is an important piece for AD success. But I’ve seen enough of his hires from past jobs (e.g, Leipold, Oats) to think he can identify coaching talent.
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Was going to say exactly this, on both fronts. ADs need to provide the resources coaches need to be successful, they need to provide for a steady stream of income into the department, and they need to hire well.

White has been phenomenal at the first two, and his hiring track record to-date (here and at precious stops) is just as good. Nothing left to prove imo.
 
#21,084
#21,084
Danny White hired a great football coach in Heupel, he kept Rick Barnes here when UCLA came knocking, he has navigated some crazy NCAA BS thanks to Pruitt, and he's going to lock down Tony V.

His Lady Vols hire I think will do great here, but TBD still. He's also helped coaches at the less popular sports as well and those teams are having success. Golf, Tennis, Track, Volleyball, Soccer to name a few.
 
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#21,085
#21,085
walkenvol said:
IIRC, Heart hired his big 3 coaches whereas White inherited 2 of his. To me, White is still a TBD till the lady VOLS new coach succeeds or not and how he replaces Barnes. I’m hopeful both go well.
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Hart only hired 1 good big 3 coach in his time here, Rick Barnes and if we're honest he kind of got lucky on that redo...cause his first choice was Donnie Tyndall. He also was the genius that tried to remove Lady Vols.
 
#21,086
#21,086
MoCo_Vol said:
Danny White hired a great football coach in Heupel, he kept Rick Barnes here when UCLA came knocking, he has navigated some crazy NCAA BS thanks to Pruitt, and he's going to lock down Tony V.

His Lady Vols hire I think will do great here, but TBD still. He's also helped coaches at the less popular sports as well and those teams are having success. Golf, Tennis, Track, Volleyball, Soccer to name a few.
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White wasn’t at UT yet (in 2019). Fulmer was the AD and Randy Boyd prevented Fulmer from losing Barnes.
 
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#21,089
#21,089
Thunder Good-Oil said:
White wasn’t at UT yet (in 2019). Fulmer was the AD and Randy Boyd prevented Fulmer from losing Barnes.
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You're right, DW has just been doing the extensions the past 3 years to keep Rick here.

I'll just point this out though, since DW took over AD.

1719502958789.png

Not sure why anyone would say his success here is TBD with these results.
 
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#21,091
#21,091
MoCo_Vol said:
Hart only hired 1 good big 3 coach in his time here, Rick Barnes and if we're honest he kind of got lucky on that redo...cause his first choice was Donnie Tyndall. He also was the genius that tried to remove Lady Vols.
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Yes, Hart’s hirings showed he wasn’t very good.
 
#21,092
#21,092
MoCo_Vol said:
You're right, DW has just been doing the extensions the past 3 years to keep Rick here.

I'll just point this out though, since DW took over AD.

View attachment 654559

Not sure why anyone would say his success here is TBD with these results.
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Nobody is knocking DW, but until he successfully replaces Barnes and we see how the lady Vol hire works out then we don’t KNOW how good he’s done at UT. We’re all hopeful and optimistic it will work out. I’m not sure how this is confusing to some?
 
#21,093
#21,093
walkenvol said:
Nobody is knocking DW, but until he successfully replaces Barnes and we see how the lady Vol hire works out then we don’t KNOW how good he’s done at UT. We’re all hopeful and optimistic it will work out. I’m not sure how this is confusing to some?
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The bold IS knocking DW imo. Revenue is high, fan support through the roof, and championships are being won.

Inheriting good coaches and helping them be great coaches is as important for an AD as making new hires.

2023 was the first in school history the Athletics Department eclipsed $200 million in revenue generation.
 
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#21,094
#21,094
Fund raising, battling the NCAA, and football coaches are the standards for AD success here. As long as those three hum, DW will be seen as a success. D.A.D was never in any danger and his legacy as a.d here is seen as very positive because he did those three things. Now as basketball fans, we know he was not good for the program, but to the masses it didn't matter. Football was winning and money was flowing.
 
#21,099
#21,099
Obviously there are worse things in the world than being taken 17th overall in the NBA draft, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a huge surprise to see Dalton Knecht fall that far on Wednesday night.

In the lead up to the draft there was plenty of speculation that Knecht’s age (he’s 23) would be a detriment in the eyes of many teams. Turns out that was more true than many would have thought possible.

In talking with a few people around the program on Thursday the consensus seemed to be that Knecht fell out of the lottery in the most part because of his age, or at least that was the only feedback they got. Not medical concerns, not defensive concerns, age.

Knecht was kind of a darling of the pre-draft process in the eyes of many observers who were privy to what was circulating out there based on his workouts.

Few thought Knecht would fall out of the top-10, let alone out of the lottery, but at the end of the day he’s a millionaire who will begin his career as Lebron James’ teammate on the Los Angeles Lakers.
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On the recruiting front it’s another evaluation weekend and once again it’s a weekend where prospects take part in events where they only participate with their high school teams.

Tennessee’s staff will split up to various locations with Rick Barnes splitting his time between the Washington D.C. area and Philadelphia this weekend.

(So if you’re scoring at home Barnes has been in Omaha, New York City, Washington D.C. and Philly this week, doesn’t seem like a guy slowing down a lot)

Barnes will once again make it a point to see Baltimore area point guard Acaden Lewis. That’s two weeks in a row Barnes has made that effort, so safe to say we can consider Lewis a priority target at this point.

As we noted last week, Lewis is a guy that has really raised his stock in the last couple of months, and Tennessee is just one of the programs really trying to crank up its efforts to become a player with him.

Other prospects who the Barnes and the staff will check in on personally this weekend are Nate Ament (who the saw last week as well), big man Eric Reibe (a new name being evaluated).

Tennessee will also watch four-star forward Mikey Williams, who attends the Christ School in Asheville. Four-star shooting guard Caden Magwood is another prospect that the staff will be checking out this weekend.
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-VQ
 
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