Pressure on Barnes ratchets UP

[BanditVol]

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/college/university-of-tennessee/mens-basketball/2019/05/01/tennessee-vols-basketball-derrick-walker-transfer/3367552002/

Darrick Walker is going to transfer.  It's too bad, as we need a big body to replace Alexander.

Of course, it's widely believed that he had underachieved so far, so maybe not as big a loss, but still a loss.

Barnes better be working his $4.7 million magic.   

[Tnphil]

Might make room for a highly ranked player soon? Not sure Walker would see the floor much going forward. Based on reports I've read Walker has regressed and not really gave much effort to improve.

[Creek Walker]

This was expected, and had been expected for a while, I believe.

[BanditVol]

Hm, well he had a lot of minutes to not be one of the top 6, and I have seen speculation that he would compete for a starting spot.

But maybe he will make room for a better player. I hope so.

[Volznut]

DJ Burns is a big body. He will replace Alexander.

Replacing Williams is a bigger deal if he goes.

[Creek Walker]

Incidentally, the spin cycle out in LA is on high with the LA Times reporting this week what the UCLA 247 site had said early on: that it was UCLA -- not Barnes -- who ended negotiations. The LAT was more salacious, though, saying that Barnes came crawling back after UCLA rejected a request for more money, only to have the school say no. The LAT beat writer disgraced himself during the coaching search, though, when he retweeted the fake twitter account out of Knoxville saying that a Barnes-to-UCLA announcement was imminent, then he doubled down by saying that even though the account may have been fake, his sources were telling him the same thing. So it's hard to put much stock in that. Also, it's hard to imagine that Barnes would've thrown himself under the bus with his brutal honesty about how he would be in LA if UCLA had ponied up the money for his buyout and been lying the whole time. Just hard for me to buy that.

[BanditVol]

Incidentally, the spin cycle out in LA is on high with the LA Times reporting this week what the UCLA 247 site had said early on: that it was UCLA -- not Barnes -- who ended negotiations. The LAT was more salacious, though, saying that Barnes came crawling back after UCLA rejected a request for more money, only to have the school say no. The LAT beat writer disgraced himself during the coaching search, though, when he retweeted the fake twitter account out of Knoxville saying that a Barnes-to-UCLA announcement was imminent, then he doubled down by saying that even though the account may have been fake, his sources were telling him the same thing. So it's hard to put much stock in that. Also, it's hard to imagine that Barnes would've thrown himself under the bus with his brutal honesty about how he would be in LA if UCLA had ponied up the money for his buyout and been lying the whole time. Just hard for me to buy that.

sounds like some self-serving SoCal spin to me