Diamond Deshields officially to Tennessee

[UCONNfan1]

A very good player. Congrats to Tennessee and their fans. Now it remains to be seen what kind of chemistry they can have and what sort of offense they run. They may have DD and Russell, but UCONN has Nurse, Williams, Boykin, Samuelson and Collier. They are still fighting for 2nd place behind UCONN over the next 3-4 years. At least as of right now. I see them competing against ND and SC for a spot in the NC game - even with Deshields.

I know Tennessee fans will disagree and they are beyond elated, but even if UCONN doesn't land Durr, there's a talent gap between UCONN and everyone else.

 

[AnotherVolFan]

A very good player. Congrats to Tennessee and their fans. Now it remains to be seen what kind of chemistry they can have and what sort of offense they run. They may have DD and Russell, but UCONN has Nurse, Williams, Boykin, Samuelson and Collier. They are still fighting for 2nd place behind UCONN over the next 3-4 years. At least as of right now. I see them competing against ND and SC for a spot in the NC game - even with Deshields.

I know Tennessee fans will disagree and they are beyond elated, but even if UCONN doesn't land Durr, there's a talent gap between UCONN and everyone else.

Can you explain the talent gap? On paper IMO...Tenn is the only team that can match up with UCONN..on paper...We don't know how anything will play out until we play each other...you all have beat everyone else except us...I do fault us for not being able to make it there but I believe we're the only team that can provide some fits. IMO

 

[reno tony]

I didn't really want to start a new thread about joining the VolNation last week. Here is my assessment. A lot of them reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly don't like Geno. But there are some that respect the job he does and I haven't read anything bad about any players, except for some of the Lady Vols. Holly doesn't seem to be a popular choice to replace Pat but she is a hard act to follow. But, compared to the BY, I find them quite boring. Doesn't seem like there is much imagination going on over their in their threads or posts. I've even seen a couple BYers over there stirring the pots and fighting the good fight. Might be a lull in the off season for them as well.

45 TO GO​

 

[Rayvin56]

Loved that stuff.

Sure, it's all so funny until someone loses an eye...or suffocates.

 

[UCONNfan1]

Can you explain the talent gap? On paper IMO...Tenn is the only team that can match up with UCONN..on paper...We don't know how anything will play out until we play each other...you all have beat everyone else except us...I do fault us for not being able to make it there but I believe we're the only team that can provide some fits. IMO

Sure. I don't have your roster in front of me but... for next year...

Stewie, Jefferson vs. Graves, Carter, Jones, and Moore
Chong, Tuck vs. Russell, Reynolds
Nurse, Williams, Ekmark, Edwards, Butler vs. Deshields, Tucker, Nared, Middleton, Dunbar
KLS, Boykin, Collier vs. Cooper, Jackson

If you look at the uber elite players you have Stewie, Jefferson and KLS vs. Deshields and maybe Russell (her freshman year was nowhere near say Tina Charles, or even Liz Williams). Next level down you have Tuck, Nurse, Williams, Boykin and Collier vs. Graves, Carter, Tucker, Nared and Cooper. Honestly, the talent gap might even be larger than I first anticipated.

Now after Stewie and Mojett graduate, a lot depends on where Durr goes. And honestly, even though I didn't put Nurse in the uber elite talent level, as the starting PG for the Canadian national team at 17 years of age, i'm tempted to put her in the Dehsields, KLS, Durr level.

Again, I fully expect mass hysteria from L'vol land with landing DD. You have every right to. You are getting closer to UCONN. But you aren't there as it stands now.

You also can't really look at composite high school rankings once a kid is a junior in college - to say Graves was a top 5 recruit means zero if she's not been an elite producer in college. No one really knows what to make of Willams, possibly the best athlete ever recruited to UCONN and former #2 recruit in her class before injuries, or Tucker who's coming back from a nightmare.

Is Tennessee solid? Absolutely. Is their talent equal to UCONN? Not at all, no matter how you slice it...

 

[JS]

Your screen name fits u perfectly

ETT responded to a post about Diamond writing a book with, one assumes, a joke referring to the well-known author in ETT's avatar.

Not an especially funny joke, mind you, and one that caused some narrowed eyes for a few moments before the joke conclusion emerged.

Of course giving this one a pass doesn't preclude ETT from living up to his handle in other ways.

 

[Tonyc]

I always thought Candace Parker called the shots when she was at Tenn.

She Did .

 

[RadyLady]

I didn't really want to start a new thread about joining the VolNation last week. Here is my assessment. A lot of them reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly don't like Geno. But there are some that respect the job he does and I haven't read anything bad about any players, except for some of the Lady Vols. Holly doesn't seem to be a popular choice to replace Pat but she is a hard act to follow. But, compared to the BY, I find them quite boring. Doesn't seem like there is much imagination going on over their in their threads or posts. I've even seen a couple BYers over there stirring the pots and fighting the good fight. Might be a lull in the off season for them as well.

45 TO GO​

There was a pretty balanced thread over there that discussed the differences between UConn and TN and what TN needed to do in order to enjoy the same success as UConn , and the conclusion appeared to be that it basically boiled down to coaching. More Geno-esque and less whatever is currently going on in TN.

Remarkable.

I was frankly surprised as it was a brutally honest and amiable thread.

 

[FollowerCT]

Now this is great ... potentiality for true competition is welcome ... after all the expectations are actually exhibited in basketball behavior or not ... it would be wonderful to see UConn and Tennessee go head to head ... a team must play through face to face difficult opponents to really be considered "the best" ... let's eventually see these two teams play and we'll see which team is the best ... can't wait ...

 

[Tonyc]

Well Congrats to Tenn. Hopefully now we will hear no more excuses why they dont make the FF. Even with DD and TC its not gonna be easy for Tenn to make the FF unless they learn to play as a team on both sides of the ball. So maybe this will prove to the LV fans that its a team game not give the ball to the star and let her go one on one.

 

[AnotherVolFan]

Can anyone give me any specific information regarding Candace calling the shots at Tenn instead of Pat...could we Tenn fans say the same thing of Ms Moore? No

 

[MilfordHusky]

Pretty cool for Diamond that she gets to play with her best friend for 3 years. Which I guess was the plan all along. It was just a bit messy getting there.

I'm not convinced that Diamond will play there more than 2 years.

 

[baggerbob]

I'm sorry, I see scant evidence for UTenn getting to the National Championship Game next season.

If they do remember what happened to Louisville, Breanna showed Geno, she is a student of UConn history. A championship game against Tennessee would be fitting for Stewie to put her stamp on history, as one of the greatest to play at UConn.

 

[johnnyc]

Well,I for one am worried with Tenn. getting DD.This could be a big problem for UCONN next year.But, they will be tough with what they have this year!!Not interested in playing them!!

Take on all comers. Defense. To me that is the difference. Nobody's defense will be good enough to stop UConn but UConn's defense can stop anybody.

 

[AnotherVolFan]

VolNation doesn't wear any orange colored glasses like the Summit does! Its a pretty good site.

 

[AnotherVolFan]

I can only imagine the uproar on all the boards once we do meet! I think it'll be an exciting time for WCB and of course ESPN ratings will be through the roof for the game...they'll of course play it up more so than the NC game last year...ESPN really wanted UCONN to play ND lol

 

[Icebear]

First Cooper now Diamond. It's been a great few days.

You mean an irrelevant few days to WCBB and the Boneyard.

 

[triaddukefan]

1) Gonna make next year's UNC vs TN post game handshake line quite interesting ( I assume transfers can sit on the team bench during WCBB games)

2) If the TN-UNC series continues...... ... I'll be buying a ticket to the 2015 game in Chapel hill.... I'll be in my seat looking like

 

[stwainfan]

You mean an irrelevant few days to WCBB and the Boneyard.

They are both very talented. Diamond was FOY.

 

[msf22b]

Irrelevant may be a little rich, Ice
but UTenn hasn't much of record of player development of late.

M

 

[pap49cba]

I would be interested in knowing why Diamond decided to switch from UNC to Tenn. Perhaps someday she'll write a book.

Is there any doubt?

 

[AnotherVolFan]

1) Gonna make next year's UNC vs TN post game handshake line quite interesting ( I assume transfers can sit on the team bench during WCBB games)

2) If the TN-UNC series continues. ... I'll be buying a ticket to the 2015 game in Chapel hill.... I'll be in my seat looking like


View attachment 6189

Lmaooooo! I cannot take you right now! But it will be interesting, I'm sure it won't be that uncivilized...at least I hope not!

 

[HoopsFan21]

I can only imagine the uproar on all the boards once we do meet! I think it'll be an exciting time for WCB and of course ESPN ratings will be through the roof for the game...they'll of course play it up more so than the NC game last year...ESPN really wanted UCONN to play ND lol

They did. Besides the fact that ESPN is eternally in love with ND, is there any better rivalry in WCBB the last few years? Never mind two undefeated teams meeting in the final for the first time ever. Tennessee meeting UConn once every whatever number of years in the NCAA tournament probably won't match the intensity of the UConn-ND games of the last few years. I'm not sure any matchup in WCBB could.

 

[chocher]

I think this is great news.. Having Norte Dame, Tenn, South Carolina and possibly Duke and UCLA and whatever teams challenging UCONN hopefully makes for better games... and helps the game of women's basketball..

 

[AnotherVolFan]

They did. Besides the fact that ESPN is eternally in love with ND, is there any better rivalry in WCBB the last few years? Never mind two undefeated teams meeting in the final for the first time ever. Tennessee meeting UConn once every whatever number of years in the NCAA tournament probably won't match the intensity of the UConn-ND games of the last few years. I'm not sure any matchup in WCBB could.

Yea I'd most definitely have to disagree...the ND UCONN games were good but Tenn vs UCONN put WCB on the map and a game being played between them after all these years will yield way more ratings than the ND UCONN game! IMO