He isn't coaching at Memphis East now. He's now not the only coach who is recruiting. He actually needs to have some idea of how to motivate and scheme. He's not able to simply out-athlete everyone else now.

I agree completely.  The amount of money offered to an athlete through NIL, under current legal rulings, cannot be regulated imo.  They can possibly enforce rulings that NIL payments cannot be tied to a player remaining at a certain university, but dollar amounts cannot be limited, I don't think.

You could be right, BDV.  The system may be its own worst enemy and devour itself.  I'm not sure that will happen any time soon, though.

Personally, I am completely disillusioned by the current state of college athletics. 

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/with-the-ncaa-backed-into-a-corner-the-age-of-paying-college-athletes-is-officially-upon-us/

On another topic, how is the NCAA (a collective group of colleges and universities) supposed to put limits on NIL when colleges and universities cannot be involved in NIL?

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1484364144006471680?s=21

It's going to be really difficult for schools to compete with Texas and TAMU for recruits that they really want. This kid may end up being the next lottery pick, but he was a 2* coming out of high school. He blew up this year at Wyoming. From what I've been told, we had a pretty good NIL offer for him (I don't have specifics, just that we had him a good deal).

It wasn't pretty and it wasn't really impressive, but it sure beats losing.

His supporting cast hasn't helped with the perception. He can play and the NBA folks know it. All imo, of course.

I definitely think he will enter the draft after this season.  He has all of the tools.

You'll get no argument from me. He makes some mistakes, but he's young. Supposedly one the past week he has started performing better in practice and had even been spending time working after practice. I hope that its true.

The rumors on BHH are that he wasn't performing well in practice and wasn't giving the effort that CRB thought he needed.  The kid is definitely talented and athletic.

Exactly. Get tired of hearing it. BHH had 11 pts in 10 minutes. Granted it was mop up duty. Fulky & Uros just ain't cutting it. 

I'm all for playing the young, athletic kids.  Having said that, I don't know what goes on in practice and team meetings.

I will say this: imo, if you are forced to play Uros you are in trouble.

But...but...but defense.

Again, I think team speed plays a role on our defensive effectiveness against teams like UK.

KC is limited in his ability to shine by his supporting staff, imo.

UK is basically a veteran team this season, which makes a big difference over past years.

It isn't really close.

I think that UK is a really good basketball team.  They are especially difficult for this UT team because they are long, athletic, quick, and they can shoot the basketball for a change.  They are also playing unselfish basketball.

I would like to say that I was surprised by the outcome today, but really I wasn't.  Unless things change, I think that this team will struggle to be above .500 in SEC play.

The majority of what I’ve seen on VolQuest’s forum has been talk of offensive players. Maybe I’ve just missed the defensive stuff. 🤷🏼‍♂️

You’d be really hard pressed to find two more unathletic  bigs on the same team - anywhere in college basketball - than Fulky and Uros.

If you spend your time watching Paul, you get what you deserve. 

I'm not at all upset that he doesn't get a ring.  Bama missed those stud receivers badly tonight.

I don't want either of them to win, but I would rather that UGA lose.

Dang, can't believe I forgot Bruce got us to the Elite 8, lol.

Wont argue that overall Pearl was better, and (much as I hate to admit it) still is, but certainly Barnes has us close to where we were with Pearl, typically contenders for the SEC, ranked, and with expectations of a decent seed in the tourney.

We all know that unfortunately Barnes just hasn't been that good in the tourney. I don't know if anyone has a reason for that, but I have observed he usually does good in the first game and it's pretty much crap after that. So maybe he is just a HC that needs scouting time and/or time to build a game plan.  I'm sure there is probably more to it than that, but that's my guess anyway.

It could just be as simple as "second round opponents are normally better teams".

I think it also goes against the grain of Ivy League schools.  They decided a long time ago not to emphasize athletics. I don't see them ever going back on that.

I can't dispute that, but that wasn't really the point of my earlier post. The point was, what if some of them did decide to get into big time athletics with NIL.

I was thinking that the other day. Of course, those schools would have to drastically alter their admission standards for most of these kids, and I can’t imagine that’s something they’d want to do.

That's VERY true.  I hadn't even considered that aspect.  There aren't a whole lot of Josh Dobbs and Grant Williams types playing top level NCAA athletics.

Admitting that I'm not knowledgeable of all that is going on with this team, it seems to me that there are players who are very likely "playing scared".  At least some of the athletes seem to be tentative and afraid of making mistakes.  I believe that some are likely "thinking" instead of just reacting instinctively, and this is never a good thing.