Yemi Makanjoula commits to Tennessee

#254
#254
GoBigOrangeVols said:
Our recruiting mess has nothing to do with the way Pearl recruited.

We are in this situation because we fired a coach very late in the game.

As I have suggested on numerous occasions, if the decision was to fire Pearl, it should have taken place in September 2010, not this spring. Pearl did the best he could to recruit this season and fill the holes that were coming. Chances are, if he was back Hopson would be too and maybe even Tobias.

If Pearl would have been fired in September, this class could have been salvaged. If Pearl was still coaching, this class could have been salvaged. The way Pearl's firing was handled, and the timing of it are what has resulted in the recruiting mess. If you can't see that maybe you should go away.

Blaming Pearl is the typical babble and garbage I have come to expect from you, lawvol, and the other hatophiles, but it is tired, stale, and boring. Move on and blame something else.

It is laughable that every time an unknown and unheralded player comes along you and the other degenerates jump on Pearl and say it is a result of what he has done. If we'd been able to land a highly ranked prospect this late in the game I doubt any of you would give him any credit for the rise in stature he helped give the program over the last six years.
Click to expand...

I rarely post but this one I could not let pass. Most of what you had posted to this point was just a bit silly but that's just plain ....unsmart. Yes pearls recruiting is directly related to the mess we are in. Even if the whole lie-gate never happened and no NCAA choppers were hoovering and Harris stayed we would still be hurting for big men and point guard play just like we have been for pretty much his whole tenure.

You seem to be overly obsessed with the idea of being nice when it pertains to people agreeing to your views but take no such pains when the coin is flipped. In short grow up. Most of the guys you are arguing with I disagree with 99% of the time but all of them are 100% correct in their arguments. I read most of them commenting on the Ware and Jones situations when those bandwagons were just opening for business.

There have been will he qualify threads in existence for Jones for about as long as there have been threads on him.

TBH I follow the football team and Lady Vols a lot more than the mens team (including the pearl years) that being said I always have followed them but my outlook on pearl's recruiting strategy goes something like this. Sign every shooting guard you see and a few wings. Have the wings play the 4 and 5 and use all the 2 to play play the 1 and 3. I seriously don't remember a single true center or small forward he ever signed that will ever make any all "anything positive" team ever.

Name me one guy he ever developed. Most of the decent guys he brought in never got any better than can be expected from what can be expected from what happens from getting playing time. And most got worse. Harris is actually the exception to the rule and if Hopson had played for any coach with size 12's he would be a 1st round shoo in.

But I digress this is about a player we signed and I personally think this guy will be a litmus test for Coach Martin. The dude could be a Tom Brady story. Let's be real he was on the bench behind some good players. That does not mean he is great but it does not mean he was a scrub either. The one thing it does mean is he probably played against better competition day in day out in practice than most did in the season. It also means if the kid has a set he has something to prove and this is the exact kind of coach that can work with that.
 
#255
#255
pimo1 said:
I rarely post but this one I could not let pass. Most of what you had posted to this point was just a bit silly but that's just plain ....unsmart. Yes pearls recruiting is directly related to the mess we are in. Even if the whole lie-gate never happened and no NCAA choppers were hoovering and Harris stayed we would still be hurting for big men and point guard play just like we have been for pretty much his whole tenure.
Click to expand...

You are right, you don't spend much time following the basketball team if you don't think Pearl was in on any big men before he was fired.
 
#256
#256
pimo1 said:
Name me one guy he ever developed. Most of the decent guys he brought in never got any better than can be expected from what can be expected from what happens from getting playing time. And most got worse. Harris is actually the exception to the rule and if Hopson had played for any coach with size 12's he would be a 1st round shoo in.
Click to expand...

How about three?

Chris Lofton, Wayne Chism, JP Prince.

Prince went from uncontrollable liability to a key component of the elite 8 run. Chism went from raw big "depth" backing up Duke Crews to a UT all time great... and Chris Lofton, well...
 
#257
#257
kamoshika said:
I know Coach Martin knows a lot more about this kid than I do, but I don't like the decision to offer him. Makanjuola may be the rawest prospect we've signed in many years; I doubt if we've ever signed a guy who didn't start for his HS team.

I've turned over a lot of stones looking for info on him, and he barely made a ripple as a senior at Oak Hill.

At Word of God this past season, Makanjuola reportedly averaged 6.7 rebounds per game according to these stats. His name is not listed among Word of God's top 5 scorers and their No. 5 scorer averaged just 5.5 points per game. I clicked on the "Details" of each game in Word of God's schedule, and by my count Makanjuola scored a total of 112 points in the 20 games for which individual scoring was reported.

I'd love to see him make me eat my words, but I really can't see this guy contributing anytime soon. Maybe he can help out some w/ rebounding, which we'll sorely need next year, but offensively...

Pic of Makanjuola from one year ago (at Oak Hill); he's 2nd from the right.
Click to expand...

You gotta sign anybody that wears a Bugs Bunny tie....even if they never played hoops. No brainer.
 
#258
#258
GoBigOrangeVols said:
How about three?

Chris Lofton, Wayne Chism, JP Prince.

Prince went from uncontrollable liability to a key component of the elite 8 run. Chism went from raw big "depth" backing up Duke Crews to a UT all time great... and Chris Lofton, well...
Click to expand...
the funny thing is you are actually serious. Lofton and Prince were both talented and played to those talents (when prince was not hurt). Chism had a chip on his shoulder and played that way. None of those guys got appreciably better outside of forseeable year to year improvements thats expected from experience and PT. Hilariously all 3 are prototype pearl players tweeners. Chism had a small forward frame playing the 4. Hopson is too small to play the 3 too slow and not enough handles to play anything else. Prince stayed hurt but never had a position he played everything from 1 to 3 while at UT (fairly well) but never really had a position.
 
#259
#259
GoBigOrangeVols said:
How about three?

Chris Lofton, Wayne Chism, JP Prince.

Prince went from uncontrollable liability to a key component of the elite 8 run. Chism went from raw big "depth" backing up Duke Crews to a UT all time great... and Chris Lofton, well...
Click to expand...

JP Prince was streaky and just happened to catch fire during the postseason, Lofton wasn't a Pearl recruit and was already a terrific shooter before Pearl was on the scene, and Chism was always thought to have been one of the top 2 recruits before he ever stepped on campus. Crews was undersized, Johnson just sucked, and Josh Tabb was recruited to be a role player.
 
#261
#261
GoBigOrangeVols said:
You are right, you don't spend much time following the basketball team if you don't think Pearl was in on any big men before he was fired.
Click to expand...
Like who? I love how you throw out unsubstantiated jabs but whine when others do the same. lets give some examples. Me saying I don't follow them as much only means exactly that.... from your posts it is fairly obvious my cursory interest in the mens team has exposed me to a lot more info than your commitment has.I have followed all relevant UT sports (Football and Basketball) for over 25 years and have been and will always support them through thick and thin.

I am the type of fan that is more likely to be sporting my Orange after a loss then a win. I watched them during the bad times more than the good (basketball that is). I said he does not develop players you throw out 3 terrible names because all three left UT with a lot of obvious untapped potential. last I checked Chism and Loften are still in D-league and I`can't find anything on Prince since he left UT.
 
#262
#262
pimo1 said:
Like who? I love how you throw out unsubstantiated jabs but whine when others do the same. lets give some examples. Me saying I don't follow them as much only means exactly that.... from your posts it is fairly obvious my cursory interest in the mens team has exposed me to a lot more info than your commitment has.I have followed all relevant UT sports (Football and Basketball) for over 25 years and have been and will always support them through thick and thin.

I am the type of fan that is more likely to be sporting my Orange after a loss then a win. I watched them during the bad times more than the good (basketball that is). I said he does not develop players you throw out 3 terrible names because all three left UT with a lot of obvious untapped potential. last I checked Chism and Loften are still in D-league and I`can't find anything on Prince since he left UT.
Click to expand...

Good post, but there's no need. I don't care if Pearl was in on Hakeem Olajuwon; he got himself fired. That's the reason the roster has gone all to hell. There is no one to blame but Pearl.
 
#263
#263
LawVol13 said:
Good post, but there's no need. I don't care if Pearl was in on Hakeem Olajuwon; he got himself fired. That's the reason the roster has gone all to hell. There is no one to blame but Pearl.
Click to expand...

This one got me stumped. Who else(maybe Ware) would be on the roster if he'd stayed?
 
#264
#264
vol66 said:
This one got me stumped. Who else(maybe Ware) would be on the roster if he'd stayed?
Click to expand...

This was presuming that GoBigOrange was correct in saying that Pearl was in on numerous post players that would have come here had Pearl stayed. I should have made that more clear.
 
#266
#266
GoBigOrangeVols said:
How about three?

Chris Lofton, Wayne Chism, JP Prince.

Prince went from uncontrollable liability to a key component of the elite 8 run. Chism went from raw big "depth" backing up Duke Crews to a UT all time great... and Chris Lofton, well...
Click to expand...

Chism had minimal improvement.

I'm sure Bruce taught Lofton how to shoot.

And Prince?
 
#267
#267
JZVOL said:
Chism had minimal improvement.

I'm sure Bruce taught Lofton how to shoot.

And Prince?
Click to expand...

I think saying chism improved minimally is crazy. Lofton didnt have problems shooting it was getting open and driving to the bucket. Both he improved at. Now whether the players made this improvement on their own or from their coaches debate away, but give the players credit where its deserved.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#268
#268
jp1 said:
I think saying chism improved minimally is crazy. Lofton didnt have problems shooting it was getting open and driving to the bucket. Both he improved at. Now whether the players made this improvement on their own or from their coaches debate away, but give the players credit where its deserved.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
Click to expand...

Lofton is my favorite player in UT history and I like Chism a lot. Doesn't change the fact that Bruce did little to improve their respective games.
 
#269
#269
GoBigOrangeVols said:
you are confusing hat being in the know with movers and shakers with hatvol's personal opinions.
Click to expand...
No. Hat's good at what he does and when he "One Ups" people instead of realizing that they go off defeated, like a dog with feelings hurt and it's tail stuck between his legs. It's a big man's world, you either sink or swim. Get use to it.
 
#271
#271
JZVOL said:
Chism had minimal improvement.
I'm sure Bruce taught Lofton how to shoot.

And Prince?
Click to expand...

I will have to disagree on this one. I saw Chism play from his freshman year in high school to when he finished here. He improved a lot at UT, especially between his freshman and sophomore years.

I would have said you were crazy if you would have told me he would have had a better college career than Willie Kemp their senior year in high school.
 
#272
#272
tigervol9802 said:
I will have to disagree on this one. I saw Chism play from his freshman year in high school to when he finished here. He improved a lot at UT, especially between his freshman and sophomore years.

I would have said you were crazy if you would have told me he would have had a better college career than Willie Kemp their senior year in high school.
Click to expand...

Of course he's going to dramatically improve from 14 to 22.

Love Wayne, but as a senior he still had mental lapses, still took wild three point shots, still had up and down games.
 
#273
#273
I think Chism gets too much credit sometimes. Not to say that he didn't have a big impact, but I thought the pedestal that the fans (and he) put him(self) on was high.
 
#274
#274
Ask yourselves this; Do we make the Elite 8 rum without Weezy?

Nobody has been better in the paint since Slay.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#275
#275
JZVOL said:
Of course he's going to dramatically improve from 14 to 22.

Love Wayne, but as a senior he still had mental lapses, still took wild three point shots, still had up and down games.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The only dramatic improvement I think he made at UT was his post defense. I'm not saying he didn't improve over time in ever aspect, but it's not like Pearl turned Chism from some project player into an NBA lottery pck.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top