Archive for January, 2009

Despite falling behind by 10 points with just over 12 minutes to play in the second half, the Tennessee Volunteers managed their ninth consecutive victory over the Georgia Bulldogs this past Saturday, 86-77.  With this win, the BasketVols improve to 10-4 overall, and kicked-off conference play with a win.

But was it enough?

By most measuring sticks, Georgia is either the worst or second-worst team in the SEC—unquestionably the worst team in the SEC East.  Despite their weakness as a team, the Dawgs gave Tennessee all they could handle.  In a game which—on paper—should have been a rout, Bruce and the Barbarians found themselves behind with only minutes to play.  To their credit, the Big Orange refused to go down and played with tenacity down the stretch—perhaps spurred on by Bruce Pearl losing his suit jacket in the second-half as the Vols continued to flounder.  Whatever gave them the edge, credit their hustle and effort in helping to secure the victory.

Many have recently opined that this team is simply not as good as the 2007-08 squad.  I would not necessarily disagree with this estimation, but would add the qualifier “at this point.”  I add this slight caveat because I am still not entirely convinced that—at least from a talent perspective—this team is not in the same class as last year’s squad individually.  Of course, their play so far really does call that into question.

This team just seems to have a hard time playing together—especially in tight spots.  By all appearances, this inability to gel as a team does not owe to ego, a lack of cooperation, or a lack of effort.  To the contrary, with a few small exceptions, this team clearly wants and tries to play together as one unit.  For some reason, however, it just does not seem to click.

At times, some of this confusion seems to arise from the annoyingly “inconsistent inconsistencies”—one night it’s defense, the next transition, and the next free throws.  Each game seems to feature the debut of yet another weakness, along with the departure of an already established one.  It is the proverbial “one step forward, two steps back,” type of situation.

In other words, the ball keeps moving…

This every changing cycle of strength and collapse exacerbates the team cohesiveness problems.  To some extent, this is understandable—especially for the coaching staff as they try to fix what is not working.  Furthermore, if the teammate you count on to be a clutch free throw shooter suddenly goes 2-22 from the charity stripe, well that’s going to have a negative impact on both chemistry and confidence for the team as a whole.

In some ways, these changing problems which (in most cases can be fixed) are worse than consistently un-fixable ones.  If you know as a team that no one can hit a 3-point shot to save their life, then you can adjust by simply working that much harder to push the ball inside for the sure-thing 2 points.  When the problem seems to change every game, however, things get much more challenging since you simply cannot be sure where the obstacles will arise.

In the end, it seems likely that—for the time being—there are going to be very few “easy” wins for this team.  That said, I do have faith in this team—and more importantly this staff—and believe that they will find a way to get things running on all cylinders.  I just do not know when.

It didn’t hurt that Tyler Smith—who was not even expected to play against the Dawgs—took it upon himself to drag the BasketVols to victory with his 24 points (13 in the second half) and 11 rebounds.  All of this after he was on crutches on Friday afternoon.  So far this season, the Vols have had a real habit of relying on a single leader to pull them through games.  While that isn’t how it should work, for now it is working.

And a win, after all, is still a win…

Smith Grabs Rebound vs Georgia

With the Kentucky Wildcats coming into the Tommy Bowl on Tuesday night, the Vols are going to have to find a a way to rise to the challenge, not as a collection of talented individuals, fraught with intermittent failures, and teetering on the edge of disaster.  The Vols are going to have to find a way to rise together, and meet the Wildcats as a team.  The Wildcats are sure to put the Vols to the the test.

Prior to the Georgia game, Cameron Tatum was quoted as saying: “This is our season now.  This is what we’ve been working for.“

Hopefully, he is right.

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: KNS / AP / John Curry

Well, I am—quite obviously—running behind.  I have yet to get my thoughts together on the BCS Championship Game—which President-elect Obama still thinks needs to be sacked in favor of a playoff—and the conclusion of the 2008-09 football season.

I’m going to blame it on the uncontrollable projectile vomiting that accompanied the realization that the Florida Gators had been crowned national champions…

I know, I know, I am supposed to pull for the SEC, and as a general rule I always do.  Had the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, or any other member of the SEC won, then I would be overflowing with my congratulations to the team in representing the conference on the most visible stage in the country.  There’s only one problem with this general rule of mine, it has one exception:

I have never and will never pull for the Florida Gators in any sporting event.  No way, no how, no sir.

Without re-hashing what I have already said, I hate to lose to many of the SEC schools (most notably Alabama) but I don’t “hate” those schools.  With Florida it is different.  I realize this will label me as a sour-grapes sort of poor sport who blames Tennessee’s poor performance this year on every one but the Vols.  It is petty, it is juvenile, it is silly.

Frankly, I don’t care…

Furthermore, had the thousands of classless thugs folks that I had to deal with during my three trips to Gainesville for games shown a little more class, then this wouldn’t be the case.  Of course I doubt the Gators care what I think either.  Thus, I’ll congratulate the LSU Tigers for a nice win against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the Georgia Bulldogs for their besting of the Michigan State Spartans, the Ole Miss Rebels for up-ending the Texas Tech Red Raiders, The Vanderbilt Commodores and Kentucky Wildcats for managing to win their bowl game when few gave them much of a chance.  To all of you, congratulations.  As for Alabama, well, thank you for representing the conference in the BCS, despite losing to a tough Utah Utes squad.  The Utes are a solid team and there is no shame in the loss.

Florida, however, can suck it…

Alrighty, I suppose that’s enough venom for the moment.  Then again, maybe not.

“You’d have to be out of your friggin’ mind not to want to play for the Gators,”

• Urban Meyer commenting after the Gators victory over the Oklahoma Sooners

• Via Go Vols Xtra: Meyer sees no end to Florida’s reign

Nice to see that Meyer isn’t smug about it all.

Fortunately, Lane Kiffin doesn’t seem to be the type of guy who really cares about impressions and opinions.  He spent his week giving the current members of Vols football squad the proverbial “Come to Jesus” experience as he has made it clear that he expects a lot from his players not just on the field, but in the classroom as well.  He drove this point home by showing up unannounced in a few classrooms around the Hill and by dismissing Darius Meyers and giving Brent Vinson one chance to straighten-up.  Other sources indicate that, in addition to these “visible” actions by the Blackjack General, there have been other disciplinary actions taken to shore-up various shortcomings by players.  Both Ramone Johnson and Demetrius Morely have also been mentioned as having been “encouraged” to find more focus.  I have a feeling that there will be more heard on this subject in the coming months leading up to the Orange and White game this spring.

All of this is fine by me.  Sometimes you have to do a little housekeeping when you are trying to make changes.

Speaking of changes, Mike Griffith posted a particularly interesting piece on the perceptions of various members of the national sports media on Kiffin’s selection as the new head coach at Tennessee.  The general consensus is that no one really knows how things will turn out.

I found the response of ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski to be particularly insightful:

“I don’t know what to think. I know he’s hiring a great NFL staff – his dad from Tampa and Orgeron from the Saints. He’s going into one of the most impatient places there is. The whole thing is a chemistry experiment to me. It will be fascinating to see how it plays out. It’s one of the few hires where most people don’t have a feel for how it will work out. It’s one of the greatest calculated gambles I’ve seen in a while. If it works, Mike Hamilton looks like a genius. If it doesn’t, they fired a pretty good coach.”

• Via Go Vols Xtra: National Media sounds off on Kiffin hire

Personally, I find the reactions in Griffith’s piece refreshing for two reasons.  First, it is nice for once to hear the media talking-heads admit that they don’t know everything about everything—I guess they all forgot to pay the bill on their crystal balls due to the economic downturn.  Second, and most importantly, I like the fact that Kiffin represents a paradigm shift for Tennessee.  When given a choice between a hamburger or pizza, Smiling Mike appears to have chosen the Billy Barou (Nachos) with extra queso and hot sauce.

Thus far, when it comes to staff selections, Kiffin has been keeping up his end of the bargain.

As a result, the Vols are seeing a serious up-swing in their recruiting fortunes as National Signing Day approaches.  According to Scout.com’s Jeffrey Stewart*, it appears he has the right people out in the field knocking on doors—giving Tennessee a chance at a fabulous finish which seemed unlikely not long ago.  At present the Vols have 17 commitments, but the No. 4 wide receiver, No. 4 running back, No. 4 tight end and No. 2 offensive tackle in the nation are all making visits in the coming days.  At worst, it’s now looking like a top 20 class.  Basilio has a nice breakdown (courtesy of “X”) for those interested.

Oh, and despite the fact that Mike Hamilton’s little chemistry experiment is not a cheap one, UT announced that ticket prices will not be going up in Neyland Stadium this fall.

Note to self “Butts in the seats = Good”

Fulmer in the ACC?

Meanwhile, rumors are flying all over the place about the possibility of the Great Punkin being considered for the head coaching job at Boston College, after coach Jeff Jagodzinski was fired on Wednesday for interviewing with the New York Jets.  Fulmer has been a good friend of Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo from their time together as grad assistants on the Tennessee staff in the early 1970’s.  DeFilippo was instrumental in Fulmer’s decision to hire Dave Clawson prior to the 2008 season:

Ultimately, Fulmer settled on Clawson, who had interviewed the year before for the Boston College head coaching job. BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo was a graduate assistant at Tennessee in the early 1970s when Fulmer was getting his coaching start, and the two have continued to talk over the years.

DeFilippo’s endorsement of Clawson carried a lot of weight with Fulmer, who was even more intrigued after he met and talked football with Clawson. A dandy playcaller himself when he performed those duties under John Majors from 1989-92, Fulmer liked the idea of bringing some new blood into the program. And that’s not a knock against Cutcliffe, either.

• Via ESPN.com: Clawson, Volunteers planning to beef up running game

Many fans and media observers feel that Fulmer would be near the top of possible candidates outside of the existing Eagles staff members, especially considering the importance of loyalty in the mind of DeFilippo who has no problem following his instincts.  There has been no official word at present, but the possibility has begun to gain some traction in the press and the Blogosphere.  Whether anything comes of these rumors remains to be seen.

Oh, and the BasketVols lost to Gonzaga in overtime, snapping the Vols’ 37-game winning streak.  That pretty much sucked.

Up next, the Georgia Bulldogs, Saturday at noon—likely without Tyler Smith (sigh…).  As is my usual practice (and time permitting), I plan on jumping in the game open thread over at Rocky Top Talk—if you haven’t participated in one in the past, they are fun and you should give it a try.  Tell Joel I sent you.

I should post more on Bruce and the Barbarians (as well as the fact that Pat Summitt is only five games away from her 1,000th win), but—as I said from the outset—I’m still in catch-up mode.  We should be in full basketball mode here at the Gate by sometime next week.

Until then…

Go Vols, Beat the Bulldogs!

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: UTSports.com

*Scout.com membership required to access article

…About the BasketVols‘ Struggles

First off, this is my first post of 2009, so I would like to wish everyone a very late Happy New Year. Secondly, I will take just a little time to explain the three reasons for my slacking in terms of posting…

Reason #1: School began Wednesday. That is pretty self-explanatory. I’ll just leave stop now because none of you actually care, and if you do, click my fresh, new logo on the right of your screen and shoot me some mail (thanks to lawvol for making that happen).

Reason #2: I have been mentally and psychologically recovering from witnessing Tennessee lose a home basketball game for the first time ever. Never before have I had to walk through the parking lot wondering what went/is going wrong with the team. So if Tennessee builds up another long home streak – say, never losing again til I graduate – I will forever hate Gonzaga. And I mean hate as in the same breath as C****** W******, Jabar Gaffney/that ref, Matt Mauck, and Steven Hill.

Not that I didn’t already hate the Bulldogs anyways. After the first meeting between them and the Vols, I dubbed them the “gayest team in America” label that Butler so gracefully championed since the Preseason NIT win they had over Tennessee two years ago, ending when the Vols avenged that in the Tournament last year. You may be asking why this is…

No way he is good at basketball...

You look at Gonzaga’s team, and you think there is absolutely no way in hell they are any good. Josh Heytvelt is a ‘shroom-smoking, low-class punk (those of you in attendance know why) who has no business making anything from the outside. Austin Daye is skinnier than the biggest pansie in the sports world (that’s Pau Gasol of the Lakers/Grizzlies) and looks goofy in his oversized t-shirt. Matt Bouldin‘s pretty boy hair annoys me, and he will NEVER score 26 points against a good team again this year (for the record, 26 is his career high, which he’s done a grand total of once). Micah Downs, a former McDonald’s All-American, does get a pass for transferring from Kansas after just a semester to be closer to home. Jeremy Pargo is the only legit player on that team and will make it in the NBA.

So while their band of goofballs (sans Pargo) are a solid team, their streakiness is the kicker. For example, they start off shooting poorly in the first half. At 45-33, I thought Tennessee would run away with it. That is, until Gonzaga’s garbage kicked into high gear and they couldn’t miss. Yes, Tennessee’s defense was awful (more on that later). But they hadn’t shot that well earlier in the game. There was also a short stretch late in the second half where they couldn’t hit anything. And of course, they made every shot in the OT. And I’m not even going to start on the incompetency of their conference’s officials…

Reason #3: I was physically sick yesterday from vomiting all Thursday night/Friday morning from Florida’s winning another national title. Which brings me to another mini-rant (please bear with me)…

How any true Vol fan could have wanted Florida to win a national championship is beyond me. They are Tennessee’s biggest divisional rival. How does their winning a second title in three years benefit Tennessee in any way at all? Please explain this to me, I’m willing to listen.

The SEC power argument doesn’t make a difference. In today’s football world a one-loss SEC champion will get a shot to play for a national title. Florida’s two titles and LSU’s last year will have no bearing on whether or not Tennessee gets left out of a potential title game in the (hopefully very near) future. Let me say it this way: if Tennessee takes care of their business of winning the SEC – which is the #1 primary above-all goal EVERY YEAR – the rest will resolve itself. And if it doesn’t and we were to hypothetically get “Auburned,” Florida winning national titles wouldn’t make a lick of difference.

We all enjoyed watching Utah smack Bammer around didn’t we? Why would watching OU do that to Florida be any less enjoyable? Hence why I wanted Utah to win and OU to win Thursday night by 1,000. I thought both Alabama and Florida would win, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right?

Bruce is more frustrated than any of us

OK, now to the main topic of this post, today’s little trip to Athens to open up the defense of last year’s SEC hoops title. I’m still not in full panic mode yet, because I had justified losing at Temple and Kansas as the whole young team/hostile environment deal and the first Gonzaga loss as to them being hot. That said, I expected Tennessee to win Wednesday night.

The biggest reason to worry right now is Tyler Smith‘s health. Smith is doubtful to play today due to the knee injury he suffered in the OT Wednesday night. The hush that fell on TBA during those moments was similar to the one that fell when Chris Lofton sprained his ankle his junior season. The general thought of course was “Oh no, there goes the season.” However, when Tyler popped up and walked off, and eventually reentered the game, relief ran rampant (there’s some alliteration for ya!).

The second biggest issue is team defense. The lack of defensive communication on ball screens is absolutely some of the worst I have ever seen from a college team. I see better team communication in intramural games and pickup games in TRECS, and I’m not even kidding. I really don’t even know if it’s individual players struggling, but the team as a whole has been horrific and frustrating. You obviously can’t win if you let the other team score every trip down the floor.

Now I’m not as worried as most about Tennessee offensively. Yes, the shot selection is bad, but hasn’t it always under Bruce? That said, Tennessee missed so many makable shots in the lane Wednesday night I lost count. Admittedly the Vols struggle with hitting a big shot in a crucial time (other than Tyler of course) and consistently making an open three-pointer.

Fortunately, the SEC just isn’t very good. Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas and LSU are all teams that can make the Tournament, but I still think Tennessee’s the team to beat, at least from a talent standpoint. Only Arkansas has near the quality wins (Oklahoma and Texas) as does Tennessee (Georgetown, Marquette). The rest of the league hasn’t played – and more importantly beaten – anybody.

Georgia hoops in a nutshell...

That said, a loss today to the worst team in the league would really start the meltdown/frantic/panicking/worrying. Georgia’s losses this year: Loyola of Chicago, Western Kentucky, Illinois (by 34 points), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Missouri, and Georgia Tech. Throw in an OT win over Wofford on a prayer three-pointer at the buzzer and you come to realize: this is a bad team we’re playing today. Georgia hasn’t beaten Tennessee in four years, so even Buzz beat Georgia.

Hopefully the Vols can get this win to start the SEC season off on the right foot before the evil blue team from up north comes visiting Tuesday night…GO VOLS!

– … to me.

Images Courtesy of: Gonzaga Official Site • Amy Smotherman-Burgess / Knoxville News-Sentinel • John Curry / AP (Daylife)

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports College Football BlogPoll hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Final Season Ballot

Through 09 January 2009

Well, it all came down to the Florida Gators and the Oklahoma Sooners.  As many prognosticators predicted, it was Florida all the way.  Now, with the 2008-09 BCS Championship game in the books, it is time for the final BlogPoll Ballots of the 2008-2009 season.  Thus, here is in my final BlogPoll ballot, without explanation.  I will be posting a little analysis later on today, but I wanted to go ahead and get my final ballot up as early as possible so people could go ahead and start flaming.  Either way, here it is:

My Final Ballot for the 2008-09 Football Season

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	–
2	Utah	3
3	Southern Cal	1
4	Texas	1
5	Oklahoma	3
6	Oregon	6
7	Alabama	1
8	TCU	5
9	Georgia	10
10	Penn State	1
11	Mississippi	5
12	Ohio State	4
13	Boise State	6
14	Texas Tech	4
15	Missouri	5
16	Virginia Tech	9
17	Cincinnati	6
18	Oklahoma State	3
19	Rice	5
20	Oregon State	6
	Iowa	5
22	Northwestern	8
23	Michigan State	5
24	Florida State	2
25	LSU	1

Dropped Out: Pittsburgh (#17), Ball State (#21), Brigham Young (#22), Georgia Tech (#23).

Obviously, there is a lot to talk about in this ballot—including a few seemingly unorthodox choices (such as the Texas dropping one spot, Utah leap-frogging to the second spot, and Georgia rocketing upward).  I hope to get a a little analysis up later today.  For now, however, this is how I see things.

The Rest of the BlogPoll

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all comments.

As for the rest of the BlogPoll, well, you can check out how other bloggers voted and how your team fared across the blogosphere over at MGOBlog, and view the final BlogPoll Top 25 later this week over at CBS Sports.

More later today…

– Go Figure …

Check out the Full Poll Results at Garnet and Black Attack!

Week 1

Through 6 January 2009

Well, given the fact that the collective SEC Blogging brain trust simply couldn’t give up on a good thing, this week Gate 21 along with a host of real blogs (ones that actually know what they are talking about) proudly debuts the first SEC Basketball Power Poll, ranking the relative “power” (hence the name … pretty cool, huh?) of the basketball squads for each of the SEC-member schools on a weekly basis throughout conference play.  In the future, these ballots will be submitted by the various members at the first of the week with the results being posted over at Garnet and Black Attack Thursday-ish.  Since this week is the first week of the 2009 Poll, however, well … we’re running behind.

Anyway, here’s my ballot for this first week in the SEC Basketball Power Poll, along with a feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron.

In all its radiant glory:

So there you have it, my pre-SEC conference Power Poll rankings which are worth almost nothing.  In a few weeks we should have a much clearer picture of who is for real and who is not.  For now, however, we are really left to little more than educated guessing.

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Garnet and Black Attack, where the final poll results will be posted Thursday-ish.

– Go Figure …

Ever wondered how they put the yellow first down lines on the field during football games on television?  No?  Well, never mind then.  If so, then here’s a little video explaining the process. It’s a bit technical, but interesting nonetheless.

The Mystery of the Yellow Line Video

• via: Fandome • NBC Sports

Just think, there is a staff of hundreds of people with millions of dollars of equipment all dedicated to making sure you don’t have to wait that extra 10 seconds to find out the down and distance.  All of it, just for you.

Do you feel the power?  Oh yeah!  Man of distinction coming this way…

Videos like this are making me really start to like Monte Kiffin.

Video : Lane Kiffin introduces Monte Kiffin : GoVolsXtra.com.

I like his tie, don’t you?

Meanwhile, the Great Punkin makes his first appearance on ESPN, as an analyst

Still Workin’ Like Heck!