Quick note to Bruce Pearl and the Vols basketball team before tonight’s 8 p.m. (Central time, baby!!) showdown with Alabama:
If D.J. Hall is in the stands, it’s fine NOT to guard him. He can’t hurt us from his student section seat. If a Tide basketball player throws to him, he WILL catch it, but he’d be ruled out of bounds, therefore being ruled a turnover.
I repeat: DO NOT GUARD D.J. HALL!!
(I’m staring at you, Phillip… This is my hate look … Anyway, on to basketball)
Remember my post last week that Rupp is still Rupp? Well, Coleman is still Coleman, too. And if Vols fans thought UT’s struggles in Lexington were bad, try this one on for size. Tennessee has lost four straight in Coleman Coliseum and 16 of 17. That’s right, 16 of 17. I’m embarrassed to type that.
Bruce Pearl is even 0-1, too. But, thankfully, none of these guys are around anymore:
I mean, you gotta feel like you’ve got a chance with Pearl in your corner and Mark Gottfried in theirs, right? Right?
Well, to me, this game is a lose-lose situation for the Vols. Even with Alabama’s rejuvenated 97-77 win over Auburn on Saturday when Scenario Hillman provided one of the most electrifying dunks of the season, most Bammer fans don’t think they’ve got a chance in this one.
If UT wins, oh well, the Vols were supposed to. If UT loses, all heck will break lose from the masses of Crimson Crazies talking about how they own us in football AND basketball. It’s a scary thought, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
I mentioned in that UK article — or at least, I meant to — that there is a bigger home-court advantage in SEC basketball than home-field advantage in SEC football. I truly believe that. Playing in front of your fans for 40 minutes is a great equalizer, and it’s not like UA has no talent.
Richard Hendrix is a freak of nature, averaging 19.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. Mykal Riley shoots 42.6 percent from 3-point range, and Brandon Hollinger looked fantastic when Gottfried inserted him for freshman pogo stick Rico Pickett on Saturday. Hollinger is shooting 46.2 percent from 3-point range and was 6-of-9 from beyond the arc against Auburn. Scenario Hillman has the greatest college basketball name since Majestic Mapp and God Shamgod.
And this game is a matchup nightmare inside for the Vols, too. Bama is big, and we get outrebounded every single game.
Now, that said, I do believe UT has a distinct advantage on the perimeter, and if we win (and I think we will) this is where it will have to come from. Bama shoots well from beyond the arc, or at least it has lately. Well, the Vols’ opponents are averaging just 28.2 percent from 3-point range this year.
The Tide doesn’t have experienced guards, and UT leads the conference, forcing 20.4 turnovers per game.
Also, Chris Lofton scored 27 points against Georgia on Saturday, and, more importantly, he is 16-of-33 from beyond the arc during the past three games. Somebody must have whispered to him that he still has a pair.
Psst, Chris…
Tyler Smith has been somewhat inconsistent lately, and that has killed the Vols, who’ve grown to depend on the sophomore. Duke Crews and Wayne Chism did an excellent job on Hendrix last year in Knoxville, and I think if they can contain him again, we’ll pull this win out.
If not, I may not even show up around these parts tomorrow.
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Something I forgot to add:
Full disclosure time, guys. I actually don’t hate Bama basketball… Never have. I despise the football program with every fiber of my being, but it’s always been UK that I hated in basketball. And, recently, Memphis has side-stepped the Cats into my No. 1 spot.
When I was young, UT basketball blew, and SEC basketball consisted of Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas. I hated the Hogs, and we know how I felt about the Cats. So, that left the Tide. I really liked Wimp Sanderson, Latrell Spreewell, James Robinson and Robert Horry. I pulled for them every time they were in the tournament.
Now, I have a reputation to uphold. I’m the Tide hater, so, for you, my readers, I’ll try. But Gottfried and Pearl are friends, and I LOVED Gerald Wallace and Ronald Steele, and I can’t remember a Tide player I hated, so there.
Sorry, Vols fan. I don’t know what to say.
I honestly think that the homecourt advantage in the SEC is so big because of the officiating. It is horribly one-sided - at least historically, I haven’t watched a lot this season - for the home team. I agree the home team should get the majority of the calls. But more like 60-40 instead of 80-20.
Oh yeah….Gottfried owns Tennessee.
The UT-UK game was the worst officiated game I’ve seen in years. Honestly. Patrick Patterson jumps over the back more often than he eats boogers and gets youtubed because of it …
You loved Wallace? He barely saw the court. Now he’s probably the most athletic player in the NBA.
I loved Wallace because me and Boomtown (who, I think, is dead) went to see him when he played for Childersburg and was a man among boys. Then, I love him because the Charlotte fans chanted “MVP! MVP!” for him last year, though he was averaging about 17 points at the time.
Love that guy.
I also don’t hate the hoops team as much as i should hate a Bama athletic team. Pearl mentioned in a quote recently how the rivalry might not be as big in hoops because we play East teams twice a year, whereas we only play Bama once. Some validity to that i think.
“Sorry, Vols fan. I don’t know what to say.”
-GoN
Um, that your thought processes are more complex than a simple binary UT+/UA- toggle? This actually brings up a not-very-related point that I’ve always found amusing. Just because of the football rivalry, not all other circuits have to have the same intensity. If they did, then we’d have hatred overflowing between the respective Math departments, and the English departments would be flinging out poem after poem of insult and ridicule. (That, and Auburn professors would have significant reason to fear UA police dogs during any joint research program.)
…mmmm, geeky rivalry…
I just feel like I should apologize.
I am a bastion of Crimson Hatred.
And, Kapps, I completely agree with you. You’re simply supposed to lose some road games in SEC basketball. It happens. Matter of fact, I don’t see how we can win AT Bama and AT MSU this week.
How can you forget guys like Mo Williams, Rod Grizzard, Erwin Dudley, Doc Martin, Kenny “Sky” Walker, Ernest Shelton, Antoine Pettway, and Kennedy Winston? I know they are a bit younger than the guys you listed, besides Gerald, who only played one year.
Can you imagine if Gerald, Mo, and Kennedy stayed around. That teams could have been nasty. Especially if they would have been there to play with Grizzard EDub, Ernest, Antoine, and Kenny. Wow, with some decent coaching, that could have had title written all over it.
Not to mention Sam Haganus (probably misspelled).
Rod Grizzard never met a shot he didn’t like.
Hooper, those were Auburn police dogs ironically enough. If I weren’t too lazy to look it up I would find it, but my favorite caption from that picture was “You can take the Iron Bowl out of Birmingham, but you can’t take the Birmingham out of the Iron Bowl.” Stings a little since Birmingham is a place I’d like to live again, but still funny.
As for rivalries in other sports, they tend to be based on how often you face each other, and how important those games are when you do. Baseball isn’t a real rivalry because winning only 60% of your games is considered an amazing level of success. And in basketball, you play so many games in a season and like Kapps said, you only play out of your division once. In football, though, Bama and UT have historically been the two strongest teams in the South, and in a season of only 11 games (12 now) success in that one game defines the success of your whole season moreso than in sports with longer seasons.
For the record, I don’t hate Tennessee. I’ve just evolved beyond them.
Rod Grizzard pulled from the T on Crimson Tide written near the half court all the time. Only one game I remember him making them. Against Auburn when Auburn was very, very good. But still, he was decent some of the time and with a name like that, how could anyone not like him?
TIDEFAN!! It’s dinner time! Get off your wheel!
Anyway, I’d say Yankees and BoSox fans would beg to differ on your “baseball can’t have rivalries” argument.
ESPN has made the Yankees - Sox into a bigger rivalry than it really is. Until a few years ago, the Yankees completely dominated that series.
IMO, you couldn’t be more wrong now.
Maybe the media has brought national attention to how big a rivalry it is, but it’s always been huge. HUGE.
I’m stunned at this conversation.
The Yankees and Red Sox play something like 19 times a season. And they are both over-promoted as CD says, and they are more the exception that proves the rule. Of course there are rivalries in all sports, but in terms of intensity, you can’t match football.
TFiT,
I only saw the replay once, and I wasn’t sure whose dog it was, so I made a guess. Thanks for the correction.
I have the picture you refer to. Do you want me to email a copy over to you via blog email?
As far as Yankees-BoSox, I’d call it a true rivalry. Even if one team owns the other, the fan hatred alone is enough to qualify. Besides, it alone is sufficient to keep MLB viable. That should count for something.
And now I am done typing baseball. I must wash my hands now.
Isn’t this an SEC blog? Just wondering.
And, I’m kidding too.
Oh, GoN,
It’s not like UT has ever covered D. J. Hall in the past. Why would they start now?
{sniff}
{sob}
;)