Pics courtesy of Knoxville News-Sentinel

How many coaches for major Division I basketball programs will give a sophomore combo guard who can’t shoot and makes questionable decisions about 30 percent of the time his first start as a collegian in the NCAA tourney round of 32?

Yes, I’m back from vacation at Disney World and Universal. Yes, the numbers on the buttons of my cell phone are worn off from all the rapid-fire texting I was doing from Epcot on Friday while waiting in line for Mission to Mars and “watching” Ellen’s Energy show. Yes, I was fretting every single second of a school I’d never heard of giving my Vols all I could ever want. And, yes, unbelievably, I made it home this afternoon by 6 completely oblivious to the outcome of not only UT’s game but the other other games of the day, too.

(That is, if you can call the UNC-Arkansas and Louisville-Oklahoma games “games.” Jeez, the East is a ridiculous bracket…)

But I get home and fire up the ol’ DVR and lo and behold, J.P. Prince is starting at the point. This is the same J.P. Prince who has sick athleticism but makes worse decisions with the ball than anybody on the court not named Ramar Smith. Unfortunately, Ramar Smith just happens to be UT’s starting point guard. Throw in the fact that senior Jordan Howell — a once-upon-a-time reliable 3-point shooter — is 4 for his last 40, FORTY, I SAID! from the floor and looks like he’s playing a game of hot potato every time he gets the ball within 30 feet of the basket, and I guess Pearl did this out of necessity.

But it was pretty ballsy, nonetheless. And, you know what? For 38 minutes, it actually worked brilliantly. Prince made several dazzling passes and plays, ran the offense to perfection and really disrupted Butler’s dictation of the flow of the game. Inevitably, Butler did slow things down, hit some 3s (though not enough, thankfully) and play pristine defense like everybody thought, but for a while, J.P. played terrifically.

He had nine points, seven boards, five assists and a nasty block on Mike Green. But Prince also had six turnovers — including on the final two possessions of regulation, including a travel with 4.1 seconds left that gave Butler a chance for the win. At that stage of the game, I was screaming at Pearl for what he was doing, not praising him.

Then, it typical Hollywood fashion, Ramar Smith — much-maligned for his disappearance in the second half of the season and particularly down the stretch — played all five minutes of overtime. When Butler took a two-point lead, Ramar tied it up. Then, he put UT ahead for good 70-68.

From the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

“I told them J.P. and I did not close out the regulation well,” said Pearl. “I didn’t play-call well and, no fault of his, he’s never been in that situation.

“So I said, ‘Bail me out.’ ”

Ramar to the rescue.

After Butler took its first lead of the game, 68-66, Smith slashed into the lane and scored.

With UT up 70-68, Chris Lofton hurried the ball up court and fed Smith for a layup to make it a four-point lead with 26 seconds left.

“Going to the basket, that’s my strength,” Smith said. “Coach always says go to your strength.”

It’s a strength Tennessee saw plenty a year ago, but not as much lately.

Smith played only 13 minutes in regulation, but all five of the overtime.

“Even though we haven’t been getting great play from Ramar,” said Pearl, “he’s been in that situation before and he obviously delivered.”

And his teammates loved it.

“He ain’t put his head down one time,” said JaJuan Smith. “He’s been right there. He showed he cared by making big plays when we need ‘em the most.”

“He went out there,” added Duke Crews, “and did exactly what he was supposed to do - make plays.”

Thanks to those plays, the experiment moves forward to Charlotte, N.C., where the Vols play Louisville on Thursday.

“I’m not the most popular guy in that locker room, I guarantee you,” Pearl said. “But I’ve got to do my job and they’ve got to handle it.”

***

Now, the Vols have plenty to “handle,” with Louisville and (hopefully) either Mighty North Carolina or upstart Washington State, but they had plenty on Sunday with Butler, no doubt. All day long — the entire 10-hour trip home — I sat and wondered and worried, believing that UT was going to lose to Butler. All year long, I’d been thinking, “There are three types of teams that will beat the Vols in the tournament, and there’s no way we won’t run into one of the three types. There are much bigger teams (Georgetown, Louisville, Memphis), there are teams that just flat-out have more talent (North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, Kansas) and teams that are just meticulous, smart and pesky (Butler led this list, along with teams such as Stanford, which also could fall into the “much bigger” category.)

But Butler was one of those teams. I mean, in the Preseason NIT last year, UT had a huge early lead and lost by 12 and scored in the 40s. Butler is disciplined, well-coached, talented, can make 3s, rebound a little, draw plays in the sand and control the tempo of the game. They did all those well today except make their 3s.

For as much as the Prince decision nearly burned the Vols, though, I don’t think Pearl could have coached a better game. Honestly. I’d have said the same thing after cooling off if Prince cost us the game. Here’s why:

1. Prince threw such a curveball at Butler, he was an integral part of the quick start, spearheaded the huge athletic advantage the Vols had over the Horizon League champs and generally got the day off to an orange feel.
2. The offensive-defensive switches normally reserved for late-game situations were implemented by Pearl throughout the game, and the quickness and athleticism on the defensive side when Prince, Tabb, Brian Williams and Duke Crews were on the floor certainly disrupted Butler. That said, we got in a lot of unfavorable offensive situations that led to a lot of Vols turnovers, but not having the liability of Lofton on defense a lot and having Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith with the freedom of playing aggressive without the worries of fouling out (Chism still almost did) were big keys, in my opinion.
3. The decision to stick with Ramar in overtime was clutch — even if he can’t hit a clutch free throw to save his life.
4. Several times, Pearl made great playcalls that wound up in points coming out of timeouts, most notably, the play to Ramar in OT for a 70-68 UT lead.
5. Finally, UT’s press looked like it had early in the season and forced Butler into turnovers it isn’t used to committing.

No wonder Indiana “reportedly” wants to talk to Pearl. (I’m giving this no play yet because it’s completely unsubstantiated rumor, and Pearl has already said he wasn’t interested in the job, but I would be remiss to let it slide … HT to the KNS on the linkage.)

All this, and the Vols STILL needed overtime to beat Butler 76-71. You know what? It doesn’t matter, either. Not one bit. This was one of those games for UT. Butler was ranked freakin’ 10th in the country and was a 7 seed. That’s just sick. They got as screwed as we did. Those guys are a great team, and they deserved better.

Finally, I’ll leave you guys with these five thoughts. Thanks for listening. It’s good to be writing again, even if I don’t always make sense.

• I sincerely hope Oklahoma sucks as bad as I thought it did all season, because — if not — the Vols’ season may end in the Sweet 16 again. But to think about Pearl’s Vols against Pitino’s Cardinals just gets me excited. That game may be 100-97, but I’m very, very concerned about the matchup problems Padgett gives us.
• Man, I don’t know where Chris Lofton is. This was an All-American LAST YEAR, and I don’t know if he just hated the rims at Birmingham or not, but he hasn’t played well at all and rarely even looked for his shot. If Chris Lofton is Chris Lofton, we’ll beat Louisville and may give North Carolina a run for its money. If Lofton played like he did the past couple of days, I hope we enjoy the short trip home from Charlotte.
• Goodness, UNC looked G-O-O-D. Now, I want to say that all year, the Arkansas Razorbacks have been helter-skelter. They’ll have a game where they can do no wrong from the outside or inside like in the SEC tourney against us, and then turn around, poop their pants and lay in it like they did Sunday. But, the Heels are picking the right time to click, obviously. I shudder to think ahead … which I’m not going to do. We’ve got our hands full with Louisville.
• Way to go SEC! Way to look like the fat kid in dodgeball! Good job, guys. Y’all just sit back and applaud while we carry the torch… I hope. Jeez. What a miserable showing.
• Finally, whatever happens, these Vols have given me so, so many happy times during a pretty brutally dreadful personal late winter. I hope they keep winning for their sakes — and maybe mine, too, I have to admit — but congratulations on getting to the Sweet 16, guys. That’s nothing to sneeze at.