A Big Blue Template For Tennessee

Posted by On May 15, 2014 0 Comment

                                              Wait…There’s More

                                              Wait…There’s More

                                              Wait…There’s More

With a laudable dash to grab talent that will make Tennessee Basketball competitive in the 2014-2015 season, Coach Donnie Tyndall has been doing what few in his position have the moxie to do: he’s been racking up players at breakneck speed. All of this change in the Tennessee roster has lead to a renewed optimism about the program, an ever deepening affinity for Coach Tyndall and his hardworking staff as well as some question as to what Tennessee will look like as the Vols take the court next year.

The first two are ephemeral emotions, based on the moment. But the response to the latter point is actually answerable:

Tennessee will look like a One-And-Done Kentucky team.

There are clear differences, of course. Tennessee and its shiny new roster will have considerably more experience than any of the talented kittens that John Calipari brings in every year. They will also be less NBA ready, which matters to their own economic future, but not to their viability as a mechanism to win games next year.

The next Tennessee hoops team, for various reasons, will structurally resemble a Calipari Kentucky team primarily for this reason: This Team will be a clean slate from the year before. Yes, Kentucky will have a ton of players who’ve come back from the 2013-2014 campaign, but this is the exception that proves the rule. They’re built on a foundation that regenerates year by year, from September till NBA Draft. Ironically next year might be Calipari’s most challenging year in Kentucky as he’ll need Zen Master quality ego stroking capabilities to keep these budding stars in line.

The reason next year will be so challenging is because of the way Calipari has structured playing at Kentucky. It’s akin to starring in a big budget Hollywood movie. Sure you might hate other people on the set, because you all have egos the size of Montana, but you do it because the end result makes everyone a bigger star. Each year, under Calipari, Kentucky is The Avengers. Stars that have shown viability on their own yet join together to create something that cannot be beaten. It’s perfectly fine to hate Kentucky or John Calipari, but arguing with their success is as useless as arguing with Marvel’s gate receipts.

Next year, John Calipari has a whole new cast coming in, which he anticipated, and lots of people returning, which he did not. He has to balance things in a way he hasn’t in the past. Lots of opportunities, lots of peril. Sort of like that X-Men movie that’s coming out soon. But I digress.

The difference between Kentucky and everyone else, in terms of their recruiting and roster, is the difference between casting a movie and casting a television show. I’ll explain: Movies want as much talent as they can possibly afford and the more stars they can cobble together the better. Do they like each other? Who cares? They’re only working together for the next 6 months! Suck it up and give us a good performance. Sound familiar? That’s Kentucky. The rest of the College Basketball world, while they’ll enjoy a star for a year or so, mostly recruits the way TV shows recruit. They want stability. They want people to commit to contracts and be able to stick to them (even though they’ll hypocritically sever them at a moment’s notice when it is convenient or necessary for management). It’s a reason that Kentucky is quite compelling every year. It’s also a reason many, who don’t have the history with Kentucky that Tennessee has, join Vol Nation in resenting Cal and his crew.

Oddly, Tennessee has a movie crew set for the 2014-2015 season. But they aren’t structured that way. They are, oddly enough, set up like the last season of The Practice which had a freedom and value that I expect this season will share. New characters will be revealed, there is an excitement in knowing that they have an interesting past. In the end, they’ll leave as anticipated. It’s already emotionally satisfying.

Mostly for this reason:

Tennessee has One-And-Dones that are quite different. There will be some Vol familiarity in the vein of Josh Richardson, and allowing him to continue to showcase his talent is vital. Those around him are an impressive, but random, collective that looks similar to a class at the graduate level of a University. It will be populated by people who sensibly decide that they don’t want to be adults yet and they want to prolong their fun in college and are choosing to do so at the University of Tennessee. To continue the analogy, Tennessee has a crew of actors that love the craft and are happy to have stumbled upon an opportunity to continue. Much like the cast of Mad Men.

There is profound value in that.

Tennessee is going to be populated by veterans, who will be rejuvenated by a new campus, new coach and new style. They will also be more likely to understand and accept coaching, be more prepared to mesh with their new teammates and will be much more excited to play in front of a huge fanbase at every home game than a batch of cynical AAU Stars counting the days till they can bolt campus for the NBA Draft like a prisoner counting their days left in Rikers Island.

The most striking thing about this recruiting session is how smart Coach Tyndall and company have been and how they’re simultaneously trying to make next year fun while building long term. That’s the key to next year and to what Tennessee fans should expect: Fun.

Coach Tyndall and company already clearly understand that a hugely important part of the job is to make it fun, both for themselves and for the fans. A clear window into this is how incredibly smart Coach Tyndall and his staff are in terms of their use of social media, as this tweet from Director of Basketball Operations Justin Phelps shows:

This is going to be an uptempo team driven by a coach who understands the qualities he has to have to succeed at the University of Tennessee and will be populated by players that are happier to be on Rocky Top and will probably hear less vitriol (one can hope) via social media than this past season.

Does this team have talent and experience? Yes they do. Does that mean that a level headed analysis has them headed towards an NCAA berth? Not yet. Nor should that be the expectation. The expectation should be a team that plays hard and wants to score. The expectation should be a reunified fanbase that is appreciative of their coaching staff. Will the team win double digit games? They certainly could. That’s how remarkable the Old City Jerusalem Haggling style recruiting has been by this staff. The best part of the Bruce Pearl Era at Tennessee was the joyous nature of it. That joy has returned. It’s been too long since Vol Nation has seen it. Let’s hope it stays for at least twice as long as last time.

About The Author


TJ Hatter is a recovering lawyer and perpetual foreign policy wonk. He serves FootballTime.com as a columnist. He's a native New Yorker, honorary Southerner, and confirmed Anglophile. His work has been featured on Football.com, outkickthecoverage.com, dimemag.com, atlantic-community.org and TJHatter.com. He's an alumnus of The University of Tennessee College of Law, The University of Edinburgh, and SUNY Oswego. He looks forward to your ad hominem attacks on Twitter at @TJ22Hatter.