DeShields leaving UT, going professional | Page 2 | The Boneyard

DeShields leaving UT, going professional

Where will the greatest WCBB player from Georgia (by her own admission) hang her jersey from the rafters - Chapel Hill or Knoxville? :p
 
vtcwbuff said:
I am really disappointed that Deshields has decided to leave. I count her as one of the reasons (along with Warlick) that UTenn has struggled the last couple of years. Too bad. I was looking forward to another failed season at UTenn. :p
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Believe me, you will not be disappointed.
 
vowelguy said:
Whoa.
This was tweeted minutes ago:


Holly Warlick‏Verified account @HollyWarlick
1f60a.png
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Oh, here comes the offensive ...
 
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Bernie said:
Holly Warlick looking like Matthew Mitchell right know. Can we say biggest college bust now?
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Difference IMO is that Mitchell saved face and had a press conference admitting his part in the departures. He regrouped and had a pretty darn good season last year. Just can't see CHW doing that.
 
oldude said:
The buzz has been out there all day. Here's the confirmation. DD has now bailed out on 2 teams in 4 years, UNC & TN. The Lady Vols are in for one tough season.
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First NC... then TN....... she minus well have continued westward and transferred to ARK and bailed on them in mid season or something :D
 
HuskyFan1125 said:
Difference IMO is that Mitchell saved face and had a press conference admitting his part in the departures. He regrouped and had a pretty darn good season last year. Just can't see CHW doing that.
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If Holly says I have no problem getting rid of my top players for the betterment of the team and lives and dies by going all in with the freshman would you fault her for the teams record next year.
 
I think it's pretty funny. Now some Tenn fans are saying on their board "well it will be better in the long run". Really? How? DD was only there for 1 more year along with Russell. Given the core of Cooper, Nared, DD, Russell, and then probably Westbrook, LV fans figured they'd be in the final 4 for sure, and competing for the NC.

Now the train wreck continues. First, Cooper gets into a fight with Nared and bolts to SC. Then Deshields waits till well after the WNBA draft to announce that she's bolting too. Say what you will, it's hysterical and makes for the beginnings of a disastrous season for them (given the "potential" NC expectations). I, of course, am lovin' it!!


latest
 
Back before she committed to UNC, UConn was as interested in Diamond as anyone else. And she is a talented basketball player with considerable potential in the pros, IMO.

Which just goes to show that nobody's crystal recruiting ball is perfect. As talented as Diamond is, I'm not sure how she would have worked out in a UConn environment...
 
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I was fairly sure that Diamond would leave after last season, so I was surprised that she chose not to enter the draft. In no way did I see her leaving at this time of year under these circumstances.

There appears to be a lot of stuff going on in Knoxville, maybe not all of which is Diamond's fault, but this shows her limited commitment to the team. I thought that she could be a poor influence on the freshmen and might screw up the careers of all four. I agree with Cat that this is probably good for the LVs in the long run. They certainly have a lot of talent--top 5-10 talent--even without her.

BTW, Diamond's former teammates Alisha Gray and Kaela Davis are doing pretty well.
 
JS said:
Haven't read anything but the quote by Fleser. If that's all there is, Ms. Warlick sounds pretty defensive.

Minimal statement of the departure. No well wishing, or we'll miss her, or anything about her contribution.

At greater length, and I paraphrase: "We aren't going to hell; we'll be fine I tell ya."
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I do believe they are better off without her as far as building something on the floor with 5 people with a common purpose.
 
At a UT fan...I'm honestly not all that upset by this. Not trying to slam her, but since Diamond came on board the team has looked just awful and team chemistry has been abysmal. 26 losses in 2 years with two lineups both loaded with talent. They've proven they can hang with and beat very good teams (they went 3-1 against Final Four teams this year) but the effort and chemistry wasn't there most of the time.

Whether it be their social media accounts, signing day celebrations, or whatever it may be, neither Cooper nor DeShields ever appeared to be team first players. As a result, the team played like it on the court. I don't think Diamond is a bad person, but I don't think her presence on Tennessee necessarily made the Vols a better team. Same with Cooper.

I wouldn't be surprised if the team plays with a chip on its shoulder or comes extra motivated to prove doubters wrong after people will be saying this year is hopeless. The roster is going to be scary thin agian next year...that's my main concern with the 3 transfers. Outside of Nared/Russell/4 freshmen, the roster is Dunbar, Harris, Green and Jackson. Don't have much hope for Harris/Dunbar, Jackson is athletic but doesn't have great basketball skills, and I haven't seen Green. Gotta hope these freshmen are good.
 
Wow. Holly is a disgrace. What is she a teenager? She had YEARS (and hundreds of thousands of dollars, and assistants) to put her foot down on this mess that we could all see a mile away and didn't. Now she is passive-aggressively tweeting smiley faces? Yikes. They all deserve each other.

Me, I love every second of it.
 
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I've ridiculed DD's play over the past couple of years as much as anyone has. But at times she was electrifying, and, since their playoff run in Spring 2016, overall she's been better than she's been bad. Sure, she might have been a toxic influence on the fab four frosh. But she might have grown up a bit and taken the burden of senior leadership. It would have been good for everyone. Now, she'll surely be an undisciplined pro, getting pretty fair money because she's a crowd-pleaser. But who would want her on an Olympic team or anywhere where team play is demanded? Really sad to waste such natural talent.

As to it being a near-miss disaster if she had chosen UConn, I would very much have liked to have seen that: wonder if the program would have shaped her or whether she would have transferred out....
 
Does Holly leave on her own recognition next year or does she get fired right after the season ends. I don't think their new AD will give Holly much grace period, he came right out the gate and fired their baseball coach who was subpar.
 
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I am very surprised by this but not sure why I expected anything other drama from DD. I am a huge fan but personally I am SO SICK of these college kids having ZERO loyalty to a program and their teammates. Not only did she have a very mediocre career, but now she will forever be known as the player who gave up on 2 schools, never made the FF, never won a major award, nor was even drafted. Put me in the group that says TN needs a fresh start from the DD/Cooper drama. And it really burns me up that she posted a long post a couple of months ago saying she wanted to mentor the freshman. BYE DIAMOND. your words mean nothing. Next......
 
LadyVols9 said:
I am very surprised by this but not sure why I expected anything other drama from DD. I am a huge fan but personally I am SO SICK of these college kids having ZERO loyalty to a program and their teammates. Not only did she have a very mediocre career, but now she will forever be known as the player who gave up on 2 schools, never made the FF, never won a major award, nor was even drafted. Put me in the group that says TN needs a fresh start from the DD/Cooper drama. And it really burns me up that she posted a long post a couple of months ago saying she wanted to mentor the freshman. BYE DIAMOND. your words mean nothing. Next.
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Ehhh. I bet you were jumping for joy when she transferred there though weren't you.
 
Bernie said:
Ehhh. I bet you were jumping for joy when she transferred there though weren't you.
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Yes I was. Because she always wanted to be a LV. Her mom was a LV. Everyone thought she made a huge mistake by picking UNC. At the time, I thought she was following her heart. HOWEVER, after seeing her at TN and her attitude and now this? I stand by my post 100%. Enough is enough. I have loyalty to the program...not players who over time end up not deserving it.
 
LadyVols9 said:
Yes I was. Because she always wanted to be a LV. Her mom was a LV. Everyone thought she made a huge mistake by picking UNC. At the time, I thought she was following her heart. HOWEVER, after seeing her at TN and her attitude and now this? I stand by my post 100%. Enough is enough. I have loyalty to the program...not players who over time end up not deserving it.
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If she wanted to be a Vol so bad she would've assembled her crew in Knoxville no matter who was the coach. Loyalty to the program first before the players sacrificing for said program. Tennessee and Warlick is not above wrongdoings.
 
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I was very surprised that she announced that she was returning to Tennessee. She had nothing to gain by returning. She had not helped herself move up in the draft in her two seasons there, but she would simply be there for another painful year. But now I'm surprised by this bizarre announcement that she's leaving.

She has now burned the WNBA, and her chance to go high in the draft. And she will either have to attempt to latch on to a WNBA team, or else hope for a European contract for September. Any way you look at it, she's been a major bust. She ran out on her teammates at UNC. Then she underperformed in a very big way at Tennessee. Then she announces she's returning. Then two months after the pro draft, and a month into the WNBA season, she changes her mind, forcing her and her agent to scramble for a career.

Any way you look at it, she is becoming more and more of a roll of the dice, and a potential liability for whichever team gambles on her.

I've never seen such strange behavior from a WCBB player before.
 
Trappa said:
This is interesting news in a summer of interesting news.



Dan Fleser on Twitter

ETA:
DDCPOh1WAAIJ53d
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Wow! Rereading this announcement, it is seething with barely concealed anger and resentment from Holly. " Diamond DeShields is no longer with the program." That is the sort of statement that a coach makes when a player has been kicked off the team, or has engaged in some sort of behavior that is detrimental to the team.

And after stating that DD "now has a chance to play professionally," Warlick goes on to praise the "commitment" of her returnees and incoming freshmen. That sounds like an indirect slap at DeShields, implying that she is not, and was not, "committed" to UT.

No nice words, not words of thanks, no best wishes. This is a rushed and sullen announcement that reeks of anger and a "good riddance" attitude by Warlick.

Something big must have happened recently to make this happen. A kid with hopes of a pro career doesn't blow off the pro draft, then in the middle of summer decide to go pro. Weird and inexplicable from the announcement. Wonder what happened....
 
How many days until we get a Twitter war filled with passive aggressive sub tweets between DD people and the current defending Holly? I figured it's going to blow up tomorrow when the reporters start digging.
 
RPM101370 said:
Wow. Holly is a disgrace. What is she a teenager? She had YEARS (and hundreds of thousands of dollars, and assistants) to put her foot down on this mess that we could all see a mile away and didn't. Now she is passive-aggressively tweeting smiley faces? Yikes. They all deserve each other.

Me, I love every second of it.
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Her twitter account has been deleted. No more smiley face - or anything else.
 
Anyone else find it odd that Holly would specifically mention Dunbar (a senior) and Westbrook ( a freshman) in an announcement about a departing Diamond?
 
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