How are our Hoops teams gonna fair this year? Are the men gonna be better

[volsboy]

than KY and are the women gonna be better than UConn. If not, why? Women need to turn it up a notch. Is anything less than a Final 4 appearance acceptable to Lady Vols fans nowadays. I watched a few games last season and it seemed like the Lady Vols offense was the basketball version of this years Bronco offense. No firepower at all. In Holly's defense, the last couple of teams Pat coached were the same way. Plus we just don't get the talent Geno does now. I think we will be happy if the men are just competitive. That cupboard is really bare. A win over the Kitty's would make it a successful season though. I think Barnes will do okay if given the time. You just can't help but wonder what scandal is going to come out of the woodwork about him. He was let go at Texas pretty quickly inspite of making them relevant. Still wonder what the real story was.

[Clockwork Orange]

than KY and are the women gonna be better than UConn. If not, why? Women need to turn it up a notch. Is anything less than a Final 4 appearance acceptable to Lady Vols fans nowadays. I watched a few games last season and it seemed like the Lady Vols offense was the basketball version of this years Bronco offense. No firepower at all. In Holly's defense, the last couple of teams Pat coached were the same way. Plus we just don't get the talent Geno does now. I think we will be happy if the men are just competitive. That cupboard is really bare. A win over the Kitty's would make it a successful season though. I think Barnes will do okay if given the time. You just can't help but wonder what scandal is going to come out of the woodwork about him. He was let go at Texas pretty quickly inspite of making them relevant. Still wonder what the real story was.

For once I agree with almost everything you say. I think you're right about the status of both programs, and I also wonder how long fans will be okay with Warlick's results. We risk becoming an also-ran in the NCAAW world and considering the head start we had on nearly everyone, that's not acceptable.

But on the Barnes bit . . . no. It's easy to see why he was fired without looking for anything nefarious. He earned a reputation for underachieving with his talent, and I think Texas thought it could do better. Period. Hopefully that was a mistake on their part and their loss is our gain.

[Volznut]

The mens team, quite frankly, will suck. I will be pleasantly surprised if we make the NIT. We have no size and we're limited in scoring. Not a good combo.

Women - should be better with all the talent we have, but I wonder how good a coach Warlick is.

[Creek Walker]

It's going to be a long season. Media projects Vols 12th in the SEC, which is fair. Season ticket sales are indicative of the state of the hoops programs at UT right now.

[Tnphil]

Will be hard to judge Barnes until year 3 IMO....we are on our 4th coach in 5-6 years and it has hurt the program big time IMO. Our BB program needs stability and recruits need to see stability. Pretty much what our football team has gone through the past 7 years.

I've never been a fan of Holly and I'll leave that right there. I've never seen a program like the LV's BB team the past 5-6 years that recruits on a high level and the program has gone backwards in some ways. This has gone back to Pats last 2-3 years too. A lot of it has to do with offense. I'm not sure we have a coach on the staff that can coach offense and this goes back several years too. Defense is well and fine, but you can hold a good team to 55 points and if you only score 48 you still got your ass beat. CPS was about defense and same with Holly...the game has changed and you better have a offense that scores.

  And I've never seen a program that has more injuries than they do. Hell, we recruit players that are injured. There are only about 8-10 teams year in and year out that can make the final 4.....UT should be in the final 4 mix 50% of the time. LV's haven't had a dominate player since Candice Parker and we bad need one. The teams that have been in the national championship mix the past 5-7 years have had that dominate player and UConn usually has 2 of them every year. Some say this Diamond De'Shield (sp?) can be that dominate player we've needed but I read the other day she's been injured and didn't play much at all this Summer on the USA team and she's been limited already in practice so far this preseason. Guess we'll see.

[volsboy]

If she can't recruit and coach why is she here? Just because she was Pat's assistant is no reason. If this team isn't relevant, I say send her packing.

[BanditVol]

We did pick up a really good transfer player from UNC for the Lady Vols.  Maybe that helps.

http://www.knoxnews.com/govolsxtra/basketball/lady-vols-deshields-discusses-transfer-from-unc

She set the SEC record for scoring by a frosh last year, that has to be a good thing   

Agree we should be making some final fours, but Holly is close.  Maybe this is the year.

[Tnphil]

We did pick up a really good transfer player from UNC for the Lady Vols.  Maybe that helps.

http://www.knoxnews.com/govolsxtra/basketball/lady-vols-deshields-discusses-transfer-from-unc

She set the SEC record for scoring by a frosh last year, that has to be a good thing   

Agree we should be making some final fours, but Holly is close.  Maybe this is the year.

She's the one I posted about.....She was on the USA team this Summer and played very little because of injuries and I read the other day she's been limited in practice already due to nagging injuries. LVs are like the football team...can't stay healthy.

[volsboy]

We did pick up a really good transfer player from UNC for the Lady Vols.  Maybe that helps.

http://www.knoxnews.com/govolsxtra/basketball/lady-vols-deshields-discusses-transfer-from-unc

She set the SEC record for scoring by a frosh last year, that has to be a good thing   

Agree we should be making some final fours, but Holly is close.  Maybe this is the year.

Tough part of it all,is that teams can make the Final Four and still get beat by 20-30 points by UConn. They are that much better than everyone else. They have coaching and recruiting, which sucks for the rest of the teams. We just don't get the talent they do. Why is UT such a hard sale to these players nowadays.

[BanditVol]

Tough part of it all,is that teams can make the Final Four and still get beat by 20-30 points by UConn. They are that much better than everyone else. They have coaching and recruiting, which sucks for the rest of the teams. We just don't get the talent they do. Why is UT such a hard sale to these players nowadays.

Yeah uconn suxes, and espn gives them free recruiting advert because it's basically the home team.  The ESPN talking heads trip over each other to slobber on Auriimma's knob 

[volsboy]

Yeah uconn suxes, and espn gives them free recruiting advert because it's basically the home team.  The ESPN talking heads trip over each other to slobber on Auriimma's knob 

Of course you know people say the same thing about the SEC and ESPN during football season. I don't think the perceived bias makes any difference once they take the field or court. You either win or lose. Still would like to get a home and home with UConn started again for the women. Unless we are scared.