Forget talk of post-season tournaments or championships in year one for Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall. He told the Associated Press yesterday that finishing above .500 is a realistic goal for this team.
“I won’t tell my team this of course, but if I’m going to tell the public, I think a winning season,” Tyndall said. “You’re talking about seven guys, only one double-figure scorer returning. You get the job basically around May 1st and (are) trying to sign guys who can help you win in the SEC. There aren’t many of those guys left. I think a winning season, our fans won’t want to hear that, but realistically that’s probably pretty fair.”
If the team reads that interview, Donnie, the cat is out of the bag.
In addition to the hiring of Al Pinkins yesterday, Tyndall also is bringing his Southern Mississippi staff with him. Adam Howard and Chris Shumate will join Pinkins as assistants. Jareem Dowling will have a player development role.
With it looking like Tennessee won’t end up with any of the four guys who signed with Cuonzo Martin, Tyndall and staff have a lot of work to do in putting together a full team for next year. By my count Tennessee currently has seven scholarship players with six additional scholarships available. Unfortunately, late April isn’t the best time to fill up a roster.
“At this level, you have to for the most part recruit top-100 type high school players and build it with high school guys,” Tyndall said. “This first year could be a little different because it’s so late in the process. Trying to get the best high school players, there just aren’t many of those out there right now. I do think moving forward you’ll have a timely junior-college transfer or four-year transfer sprinkled in with predominantly high school guys.”
Several targets are already being discussed, such as JUCO C/PF Octavius Ellis, PF Elijah Minnie, JUCO G Kevin Punter, among others. And don’t forget his current class at Southern Miss. Even though Tyndall insisted he won’t pursue those guys, it’s too early to rule them out completely, assuming they request to be released and reach out to Tennessee. We should know more in the next few weeks.