[lynchburgwildcats]

Barnes couldn't even consistently recruit the talent top in-state talent in the hot bed of Texas, what were Tennessee fans really expecting?

[Sly Fox]

What are you talking about, shuk? The crack on him was that his in-game coaching was subpar. But recruiting was never a problem. If you are talking specifically about the Harrison Twins, let's just say the price wasn't right.

[lynchburgwildcats]

What are you talking about, shuk? The crack on him was that his in-game coaching was subpar. But recruiting was never a problem. If you are talking specifically about the Harrison Twins, let's just say the price wasn't right.

The Harrison Twins aren't the only top-100 level Texas talent he pretty consistently failed to bring to Austin. Obviously he isn't going to bring them all in, but the rate of misses is astounding. See below, guys he actually landed have a * before their name. And the players listed are taken from what ESPN listed as a player's hometown.

2014
*Myles Turner #2
Emmanuel Mudiay (signed with SMU before being ruled ineligible)
Justin Jackson
Kelly Oubre
Justice Winslow
Joe Burton
Elbert Robinson
Alex Robinson

2013
Julius Randle
Harrison Twins
Matt Jones
Jordan Mickey
Keith Frazier
Karviar Shepherd
*Kendal Yancy-Harris #85
Dominic Woodson

2012
Isiah Austin
*Cameron Ridley #8
Marcus Smart
Rasheed Sulaimon
Danuel House
Shaquille Cleare
Danrad Knowles
Winston Shepherd
*Prince Ibeh #59
LJ Rose
J-Mychal Reese
*Connor Lammert #94

2011
LeBryan Nash
*Shelden McClellan #47
Jamal Branch
*Jonathan Holmes #62
D'Angelo Harrison
Antwan Space
*Julian Lewis #76
TaShawn Thomas

2010
Perry Jones
Tony Mitchell
Cameron Clark
Phil Pressey
Michael Cobbins
TJ Taylor
Daniel Alexander
Joseph Young

2009
Keith Gallon
Tommy Mason-Griffin
Nolan Dennis
*Shawn Williams #53
Raymond Penn
Roger Franklin
Cory Jefferson
Erik Williams

2008
Willie Warren
J'Mison Morgan
Phillip McDonald
Anthony Jones
Elston Turner
Demetri Goodson
Jeremy Green

2007
Jai Lucas
DeAndre Jordan
Anthony Randolph
*Gary Johnson #31
D'walyn Roberts

Reeled in 10 top-100 Texas players in the 8 recruiting classes he had in the ESPN Basketball recruiting rankings history. Two years he didn't even manage to get a single one. Got the top in-state player just once, got the #2 in-state player just twice. The average ESPN ranking of the guys he did get was 51.7, which is even close to being a 5-star rating. Considering the vast amount of talent in that state nearly every recruiting class, that is tick-poor coming from what is supposed to be the premier basketball program and athletic department in the state.

[R i]

Good Info.

[Sly Fox]

You are correct. He should have taken a 2-star kid from El Campo instead of guys like Kevin Durant & Tristan Thompson. UT recruits nationally as well as in-state. And using ESPN as your point of reference for hoops recruiting doesn't lend a great deal of credibility to the argument. The vast majority of kids on that list were never offered by Barnes.

I have close knowledge of a couple of the 2014 kids including Justin Jackson & Jutice Winslow. We have talked about JJ on here for years since he has been influenced by the Sanders family since he was a kid. He did have UT among his finalists but Carolina came strong. Not many schools win head-to-heads with Roy. As for Justice, he grew up ina house hating the Horns based on his dad's Phi Slamma Jamma roots when UT & UH were archrivals in hoops. That was tough to overcome. The rest were hit & miss prospects outside of Myles.

[olldflame]

Absolutely correct about Barnes not limiting himself to Texas. His overall recruiting record speaks for itself, especially when you look at what his players have gone on to do in the NBA. His lack of success in the NCAA tourney is another matter, and a valid argument for his detractors.

I do find it humorous that a couple of 2016 recruits he offered at UTK who he has apparently lost out on to Shaka at UT are listed as having committed to ¨änother school¨. As things stand now, his class for 2016 is in fact less than impressive.

[jcmanson]

Perhaps we should take the discussion of Rick Barnes and his recruiting prowess to a new thread.

[olldflame]

Perhaps we should take the discussion of Rick Barnes and his recruiting prowess to a new thread.

I don´t see why. Yes, we may have gone a bit far afield, but the thread IS about a player Barnes is recruiting who happens to also have an offer from Liberty. It´s certainly not worth starting a seperate thread.

As it stands now UTK has 2 committments, and both have a lot of upside, but are probably rated a bit lower than Fulkerson. If he ends up being the best (or at least the highest rated and most sought after) player they sign, this class will for them pretty much be considered a disaster. If he somehow were to change direction and come to LU on the other hand, our class, which is already looking really good, would for us be fantastic.

[jcmanson]

TBH, this thread could be closed, he's not coming to LU.

[olldflame]

TBH, this thread could be closed, he's not coming to LU.

That´s not exactly a ¨bold prediction¨ at this point, but I fail to see why you would have a problem with the discussion. As far as closing the thread is concerned, why would we do that? As far as I know we never have closed the threads for recruits, and often the kid ends up doing something noteworthy or transferring or something and then all we have to do is bump the thread instead of starting a new one.

[jcmanson]

Notice the word COULD and not SHOULD

[R i]

According to Scout he has narrowed it down to Georgia, Tennessee and Charlotte

[TDDance234]

According to Scout he has narrowed it down to Georgia, Tennessee and Charlotte

I had a chance to watch UNCC's practice last week. Mark Price won't be in Charlotte for long - he's headed for the big time.

Regardless, we're out of the running here, unfortunately. Best of luck to Fulkerson.

[olldflame]

Fulkerson made a second (unofficial) visit to UNCC this past weekend. That and some pretty strong compliments he has made to Mark Price may mean this is not a done deal for UTK after all.

[LUnpretty11]

Can't say enough good things about Price. Top notch all the way around.

MKG went to a UNCC practice to talk to the team after his surgery and it's all because of how much he respects Price. He (Price) has done some amazing things for MKG and impacted numerous lives for Christ. He's the real deal.

[BJWilliams]

MKG?

[LUnpretty11]

MKG?

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - Charlotte Hornets.

[olldflame]

MKG?

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - Charlotte Hornets.

There should be some kind of minimum name recognition standard for an athlete to be referred to by his initials. This guy doesn´t meet it. At the very least the hyphen should have been included.

[SuperJon]

Why are we still talking about this dude?

[olldflame]

Why are we still talking about this dude?

Why not? He is a kid we recruited, and some of us are interested to see where he ends up. How is that less appropriate or ïnteresting¨ than half the crap that gets talked about on here?

[SuperJon]

I was just asking. It's obvious he's not coming here so I wasn't sure if I was missing something. If you're just following his recruitment, awesome.

[TDDance234]

He's a Volunteer.

[BJWilliams]

Good luck to him on ole Rocky Top...course this comes hours before ESPN carries the #1 recruit in the country for this class committing to Duke...