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Another recruit crosses Tenn off their list

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who expected tennessee to even be in the elite 8 at the beginning of the year after losing 5 seniors and a hall of fame coach. Having a first year head coach who has never been a head coach before and win the sec and make it to the elite 8. Some teams can only dream of making it that far
 
I think the point is that Tennessee isn't a"top" team anymore. They haven't made a final four in five years. WCBB is different than MCBB, there are really a handful of top teams and the tournament isn't exactly up for grabs as it is on the men's side. For Tennessee to not make the Final Four is pretty indicative that the program is slipping a bit. Of course, they are still a top ten program, but they aren't the clear number one or number two program that they were in the 90s and early 00s.
 
jscott said:
who expected tennessee to even be in the elite 8 at the beginning of the year after losing 5 seniors and a hall of fame coach. Having a first year head coach who has never been a head coach before and win the sec and make it to the elite 8. Some teams can only dream of making it that far
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But Tennessee has a roster full of high school AAs. If they didn't make it to the Elite 8 it would be stunning, with that roster.
 
jscott said:
so louisville is a bad team?
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jscott said:
louisville knocked off baylor and made it all the way to the national championship i believe 2 out of the past 4 years
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Honestly I'm not sure who you are referring to but I assume me since I replied to your erroneous comment about Tennessee "only" losing to 6'8" Griner and Baylor the last several years in the NCAA's. Additionally, L'ville has made only 2 final 4's and those 2 years they went to the NC game, but once was in 2009 where the lost to UCONN, and the 2nd was in 2013 where they lost to us again.

Last year the final 4 was Baylor, ND, Stanford, and UCONN. Baylor beat ND in the NC game. Anyway, I'm also not sure of the points you are trying to make. Obviously discussions go off topic fairly frequently in threads, but I'm having a seriously hard time following your logic...

And by the way, Tennessee didn't lose 5 seniors. Last year they lost Spani and Williams. The year before, Manning, Stricklen, Johnson and Baugh. In fact, they haven't lost 5 seniors since maybe ever. I think that's the most in recent memory, unless you count Parker, Hornbuckle, and Anosike as well.

Most agree this coming year, UCONN is far and away the #1 team, and Duke is #2. Tennessee is somewhere between 3-7 depending on who you ask. I'd put them at #4-5 to start the season behind ND, Maryland, and either Stanford or Louisville.
 
Yes tennessee is indeed needing to making it to a final four again. Now with Griner gone and skylar diggins gone i believe uconn is the only team left up at the top for this upcoming year to win another national championship but i really see the number two spot going back and fourth throughout the year
 
jscott said:
Yes tennessee is indeed needing to making it to a final four again. Now with Griner gone and skylar diggins gone i believe uconn is the only team left up at the top for this upcoming year to win another national championship but i really see the number two spot going back and fourth throughout the year
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And....?
 
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The only thing really holding tennessee back the past couple of years has been griner and diggins and both of them have also beat uconn too. Besides louisville who beat a very young tennessee team and after being pumped up out of their minds after beating baylor and just continuing to just be on fire and finally just ran out of gas at the end.
 
Tennessee lost 8 games last year, including games against Chattanooga and Mizzou. They didn't just lose to Griner and ND. The year before they lost to UVA, Arkansas, Vanaderbilt, and South Carolina. If you are talking about 2010-2011, then yes, they only lost to Baylor and ND. But you are leaving out a few key stats with that assumption.
 
Every team cannot go undefeated every single year. For example The north carolina mens basketball team does not win national championships every year and they have some losses too. But at the end of the day its still NORTH CAROLINA and they are always going to be considered at the top of the game.
 
Just like duke mens basketball teams lose sometimes to teams that they should not lose to for example lehigh and that does not make duke no good or not a top team anymore. There still duke. Teams do not get the chance to play north carolina mens basketball or duke mens basketball everyday. and tennessee womens basketball team so the team that beats these teams play out of the minds and are just playing like they have never played before making shots they have usually do not make.
 
Again, I'm not really sure what your point is. Tennessee's decline has been pretty well documented since 2008. They aren't getting the same caliber recruits that they used to, and when they do they don't seem to achieve much with them. Men's college basketball isn't comparable IMO to WCBB because there is so much more turnover. Look at UK two years ago compared with last year...they didn't even make the tournament after winning the year before. WCBB is a much different game; if Breanna Stewart were in the men's game, she would have been gone after her freshman season.

So it will be harder for Tennessee to stay relevant in this day and age without consistently getting top recruits, and without the coaching that Summit provided. Look at programs like Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech...even Texas and Texas Tech.

You said more than a few times that it was only ND and Baylor holding them back...well, I don't really see how that's true. They lost to those teams in the tournament, yes, but they also lost enough games in the regular season to lower their seed and increase the likelihood of playing the top teams. Baylor only won one championship with the most dominant player in WCBB history, so it's not as if they were completely unbeatable. If Tennessee was going to make it to a Final Four, last year was their best shot. Louisville was hot, yes, but UConn completely dismantled them.
 
Tennessee was so dominant because they had one of the best coaches of all time. It remains to be seen what will happen now that she's gone. The same thing could happen at Duke if Coach K leaves, heck, it could happen at UConn when Geno retires. Just because the program has a history of success doesn't guarantee success in the future. Again, look at Old Dominion and La Tech.
 
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Old Dominion and La Tech have never had a strong conference. Tennessee is in the SEC come on now. The sec is the best of the best just like the big east is the best of the best. Tennessee will still be tennessee always and uconn will always be uconn. the two most dominant programs in history. Tennessee just landed the top recruit in the nation to go along with bashaara graves down low. what team wouldnt want to have mercedes russell 6'6 and bashaara graves 6'2 #1 and #5 player overall in there class playing down low. to go along with massengale and cierra burdick #3 and #4 players in there class. and meighan simmons i reallly dont see recruiting going down at all still right up there with all the top teams
 
jscott said:
downward spiral.... you act like there old dominion or something or louisiana tech
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Don't pay any attention to those who are questioning your basketball knowledge. I think you're on to something here.
 
jscott, you are talking about graves, massengale and burdick like they are world beaters.... they haven't shown much, though I would agree they are talented.... they really haven't separated themselves to show they belong at the next level..... and Simmons.... she is absolutely not a solid player..... too inconsistent and always is looking to shoot rather than be a playmaker. The game in the tournament they lost to Louisville was really telling...... they had absolutely no heart!! No championship fire...... and the year before when they lost almost the whole class of seniors.... those seniors were highly touted coming out of high school....all top 20 recruits.... and they never made it to one single Final Four...and that was WITH Pat Summitt!

Mercedes was the top recruit in the country on paper.... but let's see how she does..... maybe she can be dominant.... but maybe not.... Tennessee has a ways to go to make it back to where they were..... Holly did a decent job last year I thought..... but it needs to improve in Knoxville. Tennessee is no longer feared on the schedule for SEC and other opponents.
 
At this rate jscott will pass my post total by the middle of next week although his or her word count will be falling significantly short.
 
Icebear said:
At this rate jscott will pass my post total by the middle of next week although his or her word count will be falling significantly short.
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He/she appears to be saving all of their punctuation and capitalization for a future date, too.:oops:
 
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im just a fan of basketball i dont get into all the extra bs that goes along with it sometimes im a fan of all teams i like uconn and i like tenn

Didn't you get the memo? This is a UConn fan message board
 
What happened to Tennessee was Maya Moore chose UConn. When the Vols got Parker, Holdsclaw, et al, they were great. There are only a few REAL difference makers in all of women's basketball. UConn has been landing them (DT, SB, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Delle Donne, Stewart, the list goes on) and there are not enough others to really supply other schools.

Interestingly, Holly did seem to make an effort to hire great recruiters as assistants to turn the tide. They spent a lot of money to hire the one assistant away from Kentucky. The biggest problem is that when you miss on one of the very few true franchise players, there likely isn't another one readily available.
 
Outside Shot said:
What happened to Tennessee was Maya Moore chose UConn. When the Vols got Parker, Holdsclaw, et al, they were great. There are only a few REAL difference makers in all of women's basketball. UConn has been landing them (DT, SB, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Delle Donne, Stewart, the list goes on) and there are not enough others to really supply other schools.

Interestingly, Holly did seem to make an effort to hire great recruiters as assistants to turn the tide. They spent a lot of money to hire the one assistant away from Kentucky. The biggest problem is that when you miss on one of the very few true franchise players, there likely isn't another one readily available.
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Well, a franchise player is indeed something to Stew(sorry DD) about.
 
Outside Shot said:
Interestingly, Holly did seem to make an effort to hire great recruiters as assistants to turn the tide.
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Well, so far Holly's efforts do not seem to be paying off. To date she has only got three recruits to commit to her program, and one of those, Mercedes Russell is a player who grew up watching the Pat Summitt teams and as a result "always wanted to be a LV", so I am not giving Coach Warlock too much credit. And 2015 recruit Alexa Middleton from TN, committed to the LV's in large part because of "how close it was to home so my family can come see me". So it's not like Holly had to do a big sell job on her.

Personally, it is my belief that many of the top recruiting are tentatively shying away from the LV's until Holly and her staff can prove they can develop and coach a championship caliber team. So far they failed on a major opportunity to get back to the Final Four after their biggest roadblock to the FF, Baylor, got upset...but then the LV's choked big time against Louisville in the Regional Final, thereby extending their streak of consecutive seasons not appearing in the Final Four to FIVE, and in the process essentially relinquished their "elite program" status.

And to make matters worse for the LV faithful, after this season UConn will own the most number of National Championships and thereby officially THE best women's basketball program of ALL-TIME!!
 
Stray Cat said:
Well, so far Holly's efforts do not seem to be paying off. So far she has only got three recruits to commit to her program, and one of those, Mercedes Russell is a player who grew up watching the Pat Summitt teams and as a result "always wanted to be a LV", so I am not giving Coach Warlock too much credit. And 2015 recruit Alexa Middleton from TN, committed to the LV's in large part because of "how close it was to home so my family can come see me".

Personally, it is my belief that many of the top recruiting are tentatively shying away from the LV's until Holly and her staff can prove they can develop and coach a championship caliber team. So far they failed on a major opportunity to get back to the Final Four after their biggest ro to the FF, Baylor, got upset...but then the LV's choked against Louisville in the Regional Final, thereby extending their streak of consecutive seasons not appearing in the Final Four to FIVE, and in the process basically relinquished their "elite program" status.

And to make matters worse for the LV faithful, after this season UConn will own the most number of National Championships and thereby officially THE best women's basketball program of ALL-TIME!!
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Well, the LV fans feel that Middleton is one of the top 3 guards in the class and should be rated much higher (yawn). They say that she's "outplayed" most everyone ranked ahead of her. Ummm... Ok. But they also think they are right in there with Wilson, Nared, Green, and White - all top 15 recruits from 2014, and they also think they have a great shot at Durr as well as several others from that class. Additionally, I think there are several top kids in future classes from Tennessee, and their logic dictates that those kids have dreamed of wearing orange as well.

However, to be fair, they did land Russell, who as #1 kids go is probably going to be more like a Kelsey Bone player rather than a Griner/Stewie/Moore etc. type of impact player. But that's just my observation based on her less than dominating performances on all the USA National teams she's played for. She might surprise me and develop into something really special. Then again, find me a top rated post player NOT named Parker that the Tennessee staff turned into something special...
 
Many teams would consider a recruiting class consisting of Russell alone to he be their greatest ever recruiting class ever, so I think it is a bit early to be writing Holly off. While they aren't the TN of the 90's, they aren't (yet) La Tech or ODU.
 
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ericsandiego said:
Well, the LV fans feel that Middleton is one of the top 3 guards in the class and should be rated much higher (yawn). They say that she's "outplayed" most everyone ranked ahead of her. Ummm... Ok. But they also think they are right in there with Wilson, Nared, Green, and White - all top 15 recruits from 2014, and they also think they have a great shot at Durr as well as several others from that class. Additionally, I think there are several top kids in future classes from Tennessee, and their logic dictates that those kids have dreamed of wearing orange as well.

However, to be fair, they did land Russell, who as #1 kids go is probably going to be more like a Kelsey Bone player rather than a Griner/Stewie/Moore etc. type of impact player. But that's just my observation based on her less than dominating performances on all the USA National teams she's played for. She might surprise me and develop into something really special. Then again, find me a top rated post player NOT named Parker that the Tennessee staff turned into something special...
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Well, until they start signing some other elite recruits from states besides OR and TN, all the thoughts of LV fans can only be categorized as "wishful thinking"...which also describes their fantasy of the LV's winning the NC in Nashville this season. How about trying to make the Final Four first, and then calling it a good season because UConn will own Nashville come April 8th!

Shout out to Orange007 ;)
 
Phil said:
Many teams would consider a recruiting class consisting of Russell alone to he be their greatest ever recruiting class ever, so I think it is a bit early to be writing Holly off. While they aren't the TN of the 90's, they aren't (yet) La Tech or ODU.
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Not writing her off, just not willing to automatically concede she is a success yet. She inherited a solid team and ton of built-in advantages. The proof is in the pudding, which at present, taste very bland in LV land.
 
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