NCAA Tournament - Tennessee Vols

I don’t see Grant being selected high enough, and that he returns. I think Bone is already gone.

My blind ass guess.

But then, I don’t recall even hearing the name of DJ Burns, so you can probably use that to counterbalance the value of my hoops opinions.

 

Multiple sites have put out articles about pro prospects playing in the tournament. Grant has been listed on all of them, and I’m not sure Bone was listed on any.

Burns is a young guy that I believe reclassified to last year’s class. I think he was just outside the top 100 in the country. The team was good enough this year to allow him a red shirt season to get in shape and improve. Pretty sure the article someone posted about him said he’s roommates with Grant, so hopefully that helps him progress similarly.

 

Yeah but we didn’t know that going in. I’m talking about looking at chalk

 

I trust you. I heard someone say last week that Bone was the only NBA prospect on this team, and that he’d play in the league “for a long, long time”. Bilas, maybe, or some talking head like that.

I still think Grant returns and Bone goes, and have nothing more to back that up than just a hunch.

I looked up Burns....his offer list was abysmal, and he looks like a fat boy. He is tall. Maybe he’ll be the next Zion, but nothing I read or highlights I watched suggested he’s going to be a significant force. He reminds me more of Derek Walker than Grant, tbh.

I appreciate your take, and trust that it’s both legit and in the very epicenter of the action of this issue.

 

He’s not fat, any more.

 

It causes me physical pain to read this.

That makes what we squandered in Atlanta in 01 seem comparatively tame and understandable, by comparison. We’ll never see the stars align so perfectly for us, again.

 

The fact that we had this path and we were out in the second round is the reason I think we will never make it to a Final Four. It's not meant to be.

 

Alexander going down hurt. He was playing well and we had to play a weak Fulk instead.
And They got every bounce in the world due to the nun. Their last basket still a joke. Havent seen a bounce like he got from a fading shot hit front/side rim and go in.

 

Burns had offers from Virginia Tech, Virginia, Oklahoma State, LSU, Houston, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Auburn, and South Carolina. No blue bloods, but not abysmal. Had he not reclassified from 2019 to 2018, he'd have had another year to pick up offers.

 

Here, let me just piss everyone off in saying this:

Absent a series of miracles, we will NEVER make a Final Four, and shouldn’t even realistically aspire to it, without Top 100 players at the starting positions, and 1-2 coming off the bench.

The disparity in talent to the upper echelon teams is too great, and the distance between your mediocre talent and everyone else’s is too narrow as to almost guarantee you won’t get upset, with the first off game you have.

Can you make it without that kind of stacked talent? Sure? I guess? As long as you avoid the upper echelon teams or they have an off night against you, AND you avoid being upset by a comparably talented team who suddenly gets a hot hand. But it’s highly, highly unlikely.

Jimmy’s and Joe’s is where it always begins and ends. Always.

 

Not per Rivals:
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/d-j-burns-181172

Not that they’re right or the end all be all, it’s just the first link I clicked.

 

His offer list was actually pretty good if 247 is to be believed. UVA, VT, South Carolina, LSU, Houston, Auburn all offered. That’s 6 teams that are 5 seeds or higher South Carolina. Between those evaluators and our S&C and player development programs, I feel pretty good about his future.

 

I pulled mine from 247.

 

I agree with pretty much all of this.

 

Both fair.

I guess my larger point was less about Burns, and more generalized - you can’t just compete with UGA, GT, VT, etc. on the recruiting trail, and KY, Duke, UNC, KU on the court.

That’s actually a perfect recipe for having many years of mostly moderate success, but none of greatness, and which is the perfect description of Tennessee’s hoops tradition.

At least thus far.

 

I don’t think that’s a realistic outlook. First, it takes luck to make a Final Four regardless of talent level. ‘11 Duke, ‘12 UNC, all the recent UVA and Arizona teams were loaded with talent and got bounced before the Final Four.

Conversely, Butler made back-to-back title games and VCU, Loyola, and Wichita St. have all made it in the last 10 years. A quick perusal of the RSCI ranking composite doesn’t show a single Top 100 player on those rosters. Don’t get me wrong, better talent makes it easier to win games (and it looks like our recruiting is headed that way), but I wouldn’t write this team off so quickly.

 

This is just dumb. "meant to be." It's no way to see sports or life, man.

 

Simply not true, in large part due to the limit of 5 people on the floor and no more than 10 likely in a rotation. The disparity in talent between a top 100 player and a top 10 player is usually not that great. Even Williamson has been on the floor and lost a couple of times this year to vastly inferior teams.

Hell about this: I don't think Duke wins the national title this year. There, I said it. I am putting it out there. It doesn't happen.

While it may be a low probability thing, a team like Tennessee, including Tennessee, CAN make a FF. This exact team COULD make a FF. Hide and watch.

 

Why wasnt Burns on bench for SEC tourney?

 

I don’t think redshirts can travel for postseason.