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It’s basketball time in Tennessee
Jan 17, 2008KNOXVILLE—Thirty minutes before tipoff Thursday night in Thompson-Boling Arena, the place was completely packed. And we’re just talking about the press room.
My, how times continue to change in Tennessee. Two and a half years into his Volunteer tenure, coach Bruce Pearl has turned the renovated arena on the Tennessee River’s banks into a ticket as cherished as a football Saturday.
ESPN cameras were in the house for the No. 6 Vols’ 80-60 win over No. 16 Vanderbilt. And it’s entirely possible the state’s best team is six hours or so to the west, since Memphis is ranked No. 2.
It’s a story we ran in last Thursday’s Herald Courier, but it bears repeating: the state of Tennessee’s emergence on the college basketball scene is arguably the sport’s top story at midseason.
Forget Bob Knight’s 900th win, forget that the Pacific 10 Conference might actually be the nation’s best at the midseason point, forget there are still three unbeaten teams.
Just know that there are three Tennessee schools in the top 16 teams in the nation. And the state could easily have as many as six teams in the NCAA Tournament field in March if Austin Peay, Chattanooga and one of the A-Sun teams (ETSU, Belmont, Lipscomb) win their conference tournaments.
The buzz down here before tipoff is such that you’d almost swear Phillip Fulmer and Smokey are about to run through the T. But it’s a different era in Tennessee, one where men’s basketball is no longer a diversion to fill time until spring practice.
Sure, there have been other good teams here at UT. The Jerry Green teams I covered in the late 90s and early part of this decade oozed talent, if not always results. And no one can forget the Ernie & Bernie Show orchestrated by coach Ray Mears in the mid-70s.
But Pearl has changed a culture in a remarkably short time span. And the fact that ESPN has made this its lead game tonight—complete with its magazine’s top college hoops writer, Andy Katz, on the scene—is yet another example of why Tennessee college hoops is a big deal across the continental 48.
How’s this for fantasy football?
Jan 08, 2008Does anyone else feel like 2007 was the year of unimpressive milestones in sports?
Barry Bonds hitting home run No. 756 while at the center of the steroid scandal, for example. Rich Gossage getting elected to the baseball Hall of Fame only because Jim Rice was the only other reasonable candidate for another. Or how about the New England Patriots being branded the greatest team in NFL history after running the table thanks in no small part to playing in a division where the other three teams have a combined record of 12-36?
Granted, it’s uncool to downplay someone’s accomplishments. I’ve also written about how unpopular it is to disagree with the likes of ESPN, Fox and most sports-talk radio hosts. The thing is, most of your major-market sports multimedia vendors have a habit of using superlatives where they may not be merited.
Which brings us to the BCS national championship game. While Fox fell all over itself declaring the glory of LSU national title win, how many people out there were wondering if they were really the best team in America?
Forests have been destroyed to supply the paper for all the BCS debates in the past decade, so we won’t go into that here, but consider that, despite the fact LSU ended the year 12-2, won the SEC championship and beat the No. 1 team in the poll, the Tigers also had two fairly damning losses. One was to Kentucky, which finished the year by losing four of its last six and barely beating an already mediocre Florida State team with more than 20 players academically ineligible for the Music City Bowl.
The other, a season-ending loss at home to Arkansas in which LSU gave up 50 points, should have bounced the Tigers from title-game contention. The only problem was, West Virginia, Kansas and Missouri couldn’t stop losing.
Then you have Ohio State, which went into the title game at No. 1 despite beating no one who finished the year ranked higher than 23rd and losing to Illinois at home. Almost no one outside Columbus seemed to want the Buckeyes in the BCS game again, especially at No. 1.
It’s almost as though this year’s BCS was more about who lost than who won. A 1-2 matchup between West Virginia and Missouri had been in the works until the Tigers lost the Big 12 title game to Oklahoma, which then failed to exit the locker room en route to being hammered by the Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl.
Kansas may have been the biggest loser, having a comeback fall short against Missouri before handling Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Kansas seemingly was punished for losing to Missouri, while LSU ended up getting away with its loss to Arkansas. While Missouri was left out of the BCS altogether, the Tigers hammered the same Arkasnas team which beat the eventual champs on the road.
Again, we’re not trying to decipher the BCS system, which has been tweaked yearly as much or more than even the Nextel/Sprint Cup points format. If anyone can adequately explain either in 20 words or less, give NASA a call. You may be qualified for a career in space engineering.
While watching LSU and Ohio State duke it out Monday, I was left wondering one thing: What would either of these teams do against USC?
While a horrible loss to Stanford killed any shot the Trojans had at a national title, there were many analysts who said in the season’s final weeks that once healthy, USC was actually the best team in the country. Not that who’s best has anything to do with the BCS, of course.
At the end of the day, we’re left with the same issues in college football we’ve always had: A lot of discussion and debate but no real national champion - besides Appalachian State in the Championship Subdivision, which actually has a tournament.
Funny thing is, Appy State stumbled during the year but was still generally regarded as the best team in the country before proving it in the playoffs. It’s likely Pete “Vote for Us” Carroll would have liked to have had the same opportunity in the Bowl Subdivision.
For those still clinging to hope for a Division I-A playoff, don’t hold your breath. BCS Bowls like the Orange, Sugar and Rose each had a payoff of $17 million, as did the title game. If a separate tournament were held, do you think the sponsors would sink that kind of money into both the old bowls and new qualifying games? Forget about it.
The debate over who’s the national champion in college football is nearly as old as the game itself. No matter what other changes are made, that is one tradition that will never die.
Is Fulmer SEC’s Rasputin?
Nov 15, 2007Want to know the best way to guarantee a big-time performance from Tennessee’s football team? Try completely panning this team’s ability before a big game.
While this isn’t always a fool-proof method (see Florida, this year), just ask last year’s California team or this year’s Georgia squad for evidence. Better yet, how about Arkansas?
Outside of head coach Phillip Fulmer and his staff, and his players, no one—and I mean no one—thought the Volunteers could put the clamps on Arkansas’ running game last week.
Yet there was Darren McFadden, finding no room to run until the Razorbacks were down 27-3. There was Felix Jones, running ineffectively before leaving the game with a thigh bruise. There was the UT defense, playing like the ghosts of Al Wilson and Leonard Little had shown up in their prime.
And now Fulmer, who seemed at times this year to be a 50-50 bet to be moving out of his office in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center at season’s end, is in position to not only survive a potential coup d’etat by influential boosters, but to possibly reach a BCS bowl.
If the Vols beat Vanderbilt Saturday (which they should) and Kentucky the following week (a 50-50 shot at this point), they’ll play LSU Dec. 1 in Atlanta for the SEC title.
While the Tigers are more talented and will beat UT if both teams play at the same level, they are also prone to lots of mistakes. They lead the SEC in penalties and haven’t really blown out an SEC team since September.
Point is, a UT win over LSU in an SEC championship game isn’t likely. But it seems a hell of a lot more plausible now than it did about two weeks ago.
And if that does happen and the Vols reach a BCS game, there’s no way you can justify canning Fulmer. Like him or not, the guy would deserve to keep his job.
Remember when ESPN’s Chris Berman kept referring to former Detroit Lions coach Wayne Fontes as Rasputin for his almost-mystical ability to go on a winning streak just when the critics would start asking for his job?
One can make the case Fulmer has become the SEC’s version of Rasputin. And not a minute too soon for UT’s title hopes this year.
The Weekly Picks
Florida Atlantic at Florida
If Gators coach Urban Meyer wants to do it this way, quarterback Tim Tebow can pad his Heisman Trophy candidacy shamelessly against the Sun Belt Conference’s Owls. My guess is Tebow is on the bench before the third quarter’s end. There’s nothing at stake here except the Gators’ health—especially if they get some help in other games. Florida 52, Florida Atlantic 14.
Kentucky at Georgia
It’s not too often the Lincoln Financial game matches two top 25 teams, but that’s the case here. The Bulldogs haven’t lost since their no-show appearance in Knoxville last month, while the Wildcats overcame a slew of mistakes to win at Vanderbilt last week and keep their East Division title hopes alive. It would make sense if Georgia lost, since this season has been so unpredictable, but it still remembers how it came from ahead to lose at Kentucky last year. Georgia 34, Kentucky 24.
Mississippi St. at Arkansas
How about Sylvester Croom for SEC Coach of the Year? All he’s done this year is guide a decent, but not overly-talented team to wins over Auburn, Kentucky and Alabama—games which no one thought the Bulldogs would have won back in August. This game belongs on that list as well, and you can’t count MSU out. But I just don’t think it matches up well enough against the Razorbacks’ blitz-happy scheme. Nor do I think Darren McFadden will get neutered again. Arkansas 27, Mississippi St. 20.
Vanderbilt at Tennessee
At first glance, the betting line (Tennessee by 11 1/2) seems low in light of the Vols’ 6-0 home record this year. Then again, the guys in Las Vegas wouldn’t be there if they didn’t get this stuff right. And the Commodores do enough things pretty well to make this a game. But even if UT isn’t at its sharpest this week, it isn’t going to allow Vandy to walk into Neyland Stadium and leave for a second straight trip with a win. Tennessee 30, Vanderbilt 21.
LSU at Ole Miss
The Rebels have had two weeks to prepare for this game. And senior DE Greg Hardy has been reinstated after a two-game suspension by coach Ed Orgeron, giving Mississippi a pass-rush threat to scare anyone. But with so much at stake nationally for the Tigers, it’s hard to construct a scenario under which the Rebels can make this a game past the third quarter’s middle. LSU can’t make enough mistakes to make this one close, can they? LSU 41, Mississippi 17.
Louisiana-Monroe at Alabama
For the Crimson Tide, this is just a glorified scrimmage before next week’s Iron Bowl at Auburn. The last two weeks have been a reality check for Alabama, which almost stole a BCS bowl bid in Nick Saban’s first year. Two years from now, when Saban recruits enough four and five-star athletes to fix the program’s depth on both sides of the ball, this will become the SEC’s top program. Alabama 45, Louisiana-Monroe 20.
Guilford 21, Emory & Henry 17
Nov 10, 2007Young Wasps lose fifth straight as curtain falls
From staff and wire reports
The Wasps’ slide continued and ended at the same time.
Emory & Henry fell to Guilford 21-17 on Saturday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C., in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference game.
The loss marked five straight defeats by a total of 23 points for E&H (4-6, 1-5 ODAC) and also brought about the end of their season.
The Quakers compiled 484 total offensive yards to the Wasps’ 228, had 15 more first downs and held the ball seven more minutes.
Guilford (6-4, 2-4) quarterback Josh Vogelbach torched E&H’s defense for 364 passing yards and a touchdown, completing 34 of 54 attempts.
Senior Matt Gillespie ran for a game-high 123 yards on 26 rushes for the Wasps.
E&H wide receiver Johnathan Hawkins pulled down his ninth receiving touchdown of the season when he caught a pass from Daniel Booher (7 of 16, 71 yards) and turned it into a 27-yard score.
Booher then connected with Hawkins again late in the second quarter for a 7-yard touchdown.
And the Wasps held a 17-7 lead with 7 minutes, 58 seconds left in the third quarter before the Quakers mounted their comeback.
Emory & Henry began the season 4-1 but finished it last in the ODAC.
Posted by Brian T. Smith Dayton 78, ETSU 74
Nov 10, 2007Pigram drops 30, Bucs fall late
From staff and wire reports
Courtney Pigram’s 30 points weren’t enough, as ETSU dropped its season-opener 78-74 to Dayton on Saturday afternoon in front of 12,115 at the University of Dayton Arena.
Pigram shot 11 of 23 from the field and knocked down 5 of his 11 3-point attempts. He also grabbed three rebounds, dished out two assists and had one steal.
“I really felt like we could win this game, so I just went out and tried to take it to ‘em,” Pigram said. “I wasn’t looking at my numbers. I was just trying to score to help us win.”
The Bucs (0-1) led by as many as nine points midway through the first half. But the Flyers (1-0) went on a 7-0 run to close out the period, and pulled to within 41-40 at the break.
ETSU held a hot hand in the first 20 minutes. The Bucs shot 50 percent (15 of 30) from the field and 46.7 percent (7 for 15) from beyond the arc.
But Dayton slowed the game down in the second half, and Flyers guard Brian Roberts (game-high 31 points, five assists) and forward Chris Wright (18 points, 13 rebounds) slowly took control.
“They’ve got great players in Wright and Roberts,” said Bucs coach Murry Bartow.
Roberts knocked down a three to give Dayton a 67-64 lead with 4:42 left in the second half.
But the Bucs battled back to make it 76-74 when junior-college transfer Jacolby Davis scored on a lay-up.
“I saw a lot of encouraging things,” Bartow said. “[Courtney Pigram] played a heck of a game. And we played a good team to the end in a hostile environment.
“And I don’t remember the last time we made 11 3-pointers in one game.”
The Flyers shot 53.8 percent (14 of 26) from the field in the second half, outrebounded ETSU 43-31 during the game, and took 15 more foul shots than the Bucs.
“I’ve got make sure that we get a better shot towards the end of games,” Bartow said. “We had some empty possessions late, in the last seven or eight minutes of the game.”
ETSU takes on Milligan College in an exhibition at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Memorial Center.
Bristol Herald Courier staff writer Brian T. Smith contributed to this report.
