re: Better basketball job Mizzou or Tennessee?

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Yeah a lot of people don't realize Knoxville is 6 hours from Memphis. I've had to explain to some people that Tuscaloosa is actually closer that Knoxville

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And a long 6hrs at that. I swear even having to cross the TN/NC mountains, going from Knoxville to South Carolina seems to go faster than the trek from Knoxville to Memphis. Tennessee is a deceptively long state.

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Plus it is hard to recruit Memphis when these kids are raised on Tiger basketball. Outside of Jarnell, who had an odd situation, I can't think of many Memphis products at Tennessee. I thought Austin Nichols was a lock for Tennessee though.Every time I talked to the kid he said he loved it there.

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Yep even though the Memphis Tigers are a bit overrated overall (I mean in terms of an historic program) the city really does love basketball, promotes the Tigers, and has had many teams that are easy to fall in love with. Just like the distance is deceptive, Memphis 'feels' like a blue blood program that's always been a blue blood program but as they say in politics 'perception IS reality' so my hat's off to the Tigers and their PR team. Also they've had great product on the court in the modern era that adds to all that. Memphis is a good program that perception-wise seems even better (no knock either - I wish we would invest more in our program and get to Memphis' level and beyond).

As to Nichols... he's not the first nor will he be the last that gets stolen away at the last minute despite appearing to be a lock. That's where distance comes in - we just don't have the eyes and ears there to make sure a prospect stays steady. Distance is a bigger disadvantage than folks realize and makes it easy for Memphis to swoop in and nab a recruit from UT.

It also doesn't help that a lot of Memphis area talent comes from poverty or has family/friend that are working poor. Stokes' parents both have good jobs and can travel but for others if they don't play for Memphis their parents/family will never get a chance to see them play.