RANKING TENNESSEE'S 2006 FOOTBALL OPPONENTS
By John Mark Hancock
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved
Thursday, April 27, 2006

Thank goodness Tennessee doesn't have to play the Auburn Tigers at home or on the road this season. They, along with the other Tigers in the league, LSU, will definitely be the class of the SEC West, and Vol fans hope they can get both of them knocked off before the SEC Title game if UT makes it that far.

There is absolutely no question that the top team on Tennessee's 2006 schedule, as it is most years lately, is Florida. Fortunately, they get the Gators at home. The Volunteers owe them since they played well enough to beat them in Gainesville last year. If UT can whip them, it stands an excellent chance of having a great season and making it to a BCS bowl for the first time since 1999. Anything is possible, I suppose.

Here is an educated assessment of the top opponents Tennessee faces in in 2006 in terms of their raw strength:

1. Florida - If Urban Meyer goes 2-0 over Phillip Fulmer, that will be a tragedy for UT's program.

2. LSU - Tigers will be out for revenge after UT beating them and knocking them out of national title contention with a team that wound up with a losing record. Les Miles will really have something to prove in Knoxville. It will be the biggest game of his career.

3. California - Toughest home opener in Fulmer's tenure and one of the toughest home openers in UT football history. Cal is every bit as good as Notre Dame was last year, and we all know how that one turned out.

4. Georgia- Vols dominated the Dawgs in Athens last time after getting waxed by Auburn the week before, but this will be their toughest road game of the year by far.

5. Alabama - They are included only due to the intense rivalry and the fact that they beat UT last year, but the Big Orange will handle them in Knoxville.

None of the other seven teams are really good enough on paper to stay with UT on the field. With improved coaching and more experience in general, the Vols ought to whip, in order as they come, Air Force, Marshall, Memphis, South Carolina, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.

The Gamecocks and the Hawgs, of course, will be Top 50 teams nationally, but neither is Top 25 material. The problem is UT has to play both of them away from home, and anything can happen on the road in the SEC. The other five are very poor opponents. If Tennessee can't beat all of them easily, they are really in trouble.

Vanderbilt without Jay Cutler and Memphis without DeAngelo Williams simply aren't even on the radar screen nationally. Kentucky's talent isn't improved and no one believes Randy Sanders is going to save them. Marshall, which has no offense, and Air Force, which has no defense, are even worse.

Now, let's look at what is realistic, considering the way things will most likely develop:

UT will probably lose the opener to Cal and the SEC opener to Florida. The Vols traditionally start slowly and finish strong, and there is no reason to see this season as any exception. If they lose two out of the first three, however, there will be a sharp dropoff in attendance the rest of the year.

By the time they go to Georgia, they will, however, have a winning record, 3-2. Look for them to lose in Athens and then bounce back to beat Bama and the ghosts of Bear Bryant and Logan Young in Knoxville. That should be followed by another win in Columbia, as Fulmer will pay back Steve Spurrier for his evil upset win last season.

UT will then be 5-3 going into the LSU game. That one will be the key as to what happens the rest of the way. If the Vols can beat the Tigers and Fulmer can go 2-0 over Miles, they stand a great chance of running the table and finishing 9-3, getting a major bowl bid, and with a win there, go 10-3, a very respectable improvement over last year's unmitigated disaster.

If, however, they lose to LSU, they will most likely also lose at Arkansas, meaning that a 7-5 finish will yield them a very minor bowl bid. Will that be enough to save Fulmer's job if that scenario pans out? An embarrassing bowl loss would end the year at 7-6. UT Athletics Director Mike Hamilton would have virtually no choice but to make a change in that case, and would have the vast majority of the Big Orange Nation behind him if he did.

Tennessee football thus is certainly at a crossroads. Everyone on The Hill seems to realize the urgency of the situation in terms of showing vast improvement over last year. The schedule isn't all that daunting, given the talent at hand. As always, the key will be in how well the coaches are able to get the most out of it.

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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE THE BEST IN MEN'S BASKETBALL

By John Mark Hancock
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved
Thursday, March 30, 2006

The Southeastern Conference has long been known as a football league. It has been acknowledged leader in women's basketball for decades. Now the nation is finding out that men's basketball is something the SEC should be recognized for just as much, too.

The NCAA Final Four in men's basketball contains two of the six SEC teams that were selected for this year's March Madness. The Florida Gators, who won the SEC Tournament, and the LSU Tigers, who won the SEC regular season championship, are both still alive in the semifinals, and could face each other for the National Championship this coming week.

There is no question that despite the doubters that the Southeastern Conference is the best in men's basketball. It could very well be an all-SEC NCAA Final for the men's basketball National Championship this weekend between the LSU Tigers and the Florida Gators, both of whom have been previous Final Four participants.

The men's tournament is also a glaring example of what might have been for the UT men's team. Had the #2 seed Vols been able to have beaten Wichita State, a #7 seed, in Greensboro, they would have only had to have beaten this year's Cinderella team, the #11 seed George Mason Patriots, to have advanced to the Regional Final. The #1 seed in that Washington, DC, Region, Connecticut, had been barely winning most of its games in the NCAA Tournament all along and became the last top seed to finally fall on Sunday. Tennessee's men's team might have made it to the Final Four for the first time in history.

One of the best indications of just how tough the Southeastern Conference is in men's basketball is the fact that there were different teams that won the regular season and tournament championships. Tennessee's men's team, for instance, won the SEC Eastern Division Championship by two full games over Florida, beating the Gators twice, both in Knoxville and Gainesville. Yet, the Vols were unable to win either the SEC regular season title overall or the tournament championship, despite the fact that Coach Bruce Pearl led the team to overachieve based upon the talent at hand.

Another indication of just how competitive the SEC has become in basketball is the fact that LSU's John Brady was named SEC Coach of the Year by ESPN, but Pearl was named SEC Coach of the Year by the Associated Press. Pearl has even been named National Coach of the Year by CBS and The Sporting News and is a nominee for the Naismith National Coach of the Year Award, while Brady isn't even one of the nominees.

Moreover, South Carolina is defending its NIT Championship Title tonight in Madison Square Garden in New York City. Even though the Gamecocks weren't invited to the NCAA Tournament, they have proven that they probably should have been, and the fact that they may become only the second team in men's basketball history to win back-to-back NIT titles is another indication of just how strong SEC men's basketball has become.

There were as many as seven SEC teams that were ranked at one time or another during this season in the Top 25 nationally. Many were ranked in the Top 10. Tennessee achieved one of its highest rankings in men's basketball in history by cracking the Top 10 itself. The Volunteers were ranked as high as #2 nationally in the RPI, which is why they deserved and got their #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

 

GREENSBORO DOES IT RIGHT!

Sunday, March 19, 2006

By John Mark Hancock

Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved

GREENSBORO - I've been to a lot of basketball venues in the past 40 years, but the renovated Greensboro Coliseum may be the best one I've ever visited. The people who put on the NCAA First and Second Round Tournament games there over the weekend really have a model that most other places should emulate.

From the time I got to the imposing edifice near Downtown Greensboro, I was greeted with respect and courtesy. Everyone I encountered, from the parking attendants to the custodians to the gatekeepers to the ushers were all polite and friendly, unlike many places where they can be gruff and disrespectful of fans. They had kiosks and booths labeled "Guest Services" with cheerful people manning them.

The facility itself is one to be envious of. Its capacity is well over 22,000, and the seats in it are all great, no matter where you are. The concourses are wide and inviting, with varied concessions and a festive atmosphere, including memorabilia from past ACC Tournaments. You can readily see why that league has its conference tournament here regularly.

One great feature is the Tournament Club, which provides patrons with a catered buffet meal between games in the attached convention center. There are giant screen TV's to keep up with all of the action all over the place, including a huge billboard-size screen outside broadcasting the game to those who couldn't get tickets. There were tents serving refreshments in a carnival-like setting in which fans could picnic and party.

Tailgaters could be seen all over the arena grounds between sessions. The atmosphere was much like you see at UT football games. There was electricity in the air.

Of course, for a Tennessee basketball fan, it was disappointing that their team wasn't able to win both games over the weekend and advance to the Sweet 16 for only the second time in school history. However, this was an outstanding team that overachieved, and it was good to see that in UT athletics. There was a large contingent of Vol fans who came out, many who were native Carolinians who are UT alumni.

The fact that there is an affinity between Tennesseans and North Carolinians, with Tennessee having been a part of North Carolina at one time and with many of the citizens of both states having kinfolks on both sides of the mountain, didn't hurt, either. The Great Smoky Mountains that separate the two states actually draw them closer together, as the Piedmont region of North Carolina where Greensboro is located is much like the East Tennessee foothills where Knoxville, the Capital of Big Orange Country, is found.

It was nice to spend some time at my condo high atop Beech Mountain, which at 5,500' elevation is the highest resort east of Denver, less than a couple of hours west of Greensboro, over the weekend, and to co-host "The Sports Page" on WXIT Radio 1200 AM in Boone/Blowing Rock with my old friend Jeff Fancher, a former UT basketball manager in the Ernie and Bernie Show hoops golden years in the 1970's. That show is now heard in a 12-county area of Western North Carolina, Upper East Tennessee, and Southwest Virginia, and is the premier sports talk show in the entire region. Jeff is now an NCAA basketball referee and is known as "Jeff the Ref" on the air, and it was nice to hear his prospective on this year's edition of "The Big Dance." 

I also got the opportunity to visit with Big Orange Tipoff Club Chaplain Rev. Dr. Arnold Lovell, Senior Pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, and his family, who graciously hosted me during this tournament. Dr. Lovell is a rare treasure, a native of the Greensboro area, along with his wife, Emily, and they had a ball returning to their home state and to mix and mingle with the players' families at the team hotel. They are getting some much-needed rest at their own condo at Myrtle Beach for a few days.

Yours truly won't get to follow through on my plans to ride the Amtrak from the Carolinas to Washington, DC, to see the Volunteers face the Tar Heels, but the NCAA experience here is one that all basketball fans should experience for themselves. Something tells me that with Bruce Pearl being under contract as the Vol coach for several more seasons, there will be a lot of opportunities like this in years to come.

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NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Volunteers showed they were far from out of gas today as they made one of the most miraculous comebacks in Big Orange basketball history, overcoming a 16-point deficit to beat the Vanderbilt Commodores at Memorial Gym in Nashville, beating the home team 68-59. The 25-point turnaround left the VU faithful stunned as they silently filed out down the stretch.

After having been held to only 21 points in the first half, the Vols outscored Vandy 47-22 down the stretch to post a breathtaking win that left Commodore fans scratching their heads as they went home. UT's win over their bitter cross-state rival stuck a dagger into the heart of VU's attempt to become the 7th SEC team in the NCAA tournament.

Coach Bruce Pearl had his team conditioned and ready to wear down the homestanding team and left the floor victorious to the cheers of thousands of UT fans who came out in force to cheer on their team. The win stopped a slide in which the Vols had lost two straight games at home and three of their last four, and gave them new life and momentum going into the SEC Tournament that will be played across town in Nashville's Gaylord Arena next weekend.

It was a bright sunny day on the Vanderbilt campus. The Big Orange of Tennessee could be seen throughout Memorial Gym in every section of the antiquated facility, including Big Orange Tipoff Club Chairman Charlie Morgan and Public Relations Director Mark Hancock, wearing their signature crested Big Orange blazers, who made the trip along with hundreds of others from Knoxville and East Tennessee. The cheers were as loud when the Volunteers scored as they were when Vandy did so.

Coach Pearl was wearing his own Big Orange blazer again for the 4th time this season that was made famous by legendary Tennessee Head Coach Ray Mears four decades ago. Mears was honored with a banner permanently unfurled in UT's arena in his honor at the Kentucky game in Knoxville Wednesday night. Pearl was lustily booed by Vandy fans when he entered the gym, just as Mears was so many times in his career.

"They booed me when I came out to start the game," Pearl said. "That's great! Coach Mears has got to be so proud that we won and that they hate me already. That's wonderful! I wear the blazer in honor of the rivalry between UT and Vandy. Don't you know these Vanderbilt people are really upset seeing it now?"

As the game's star, Chris Lofton said after the game, "This was a great confidence booster for our team. Regardless of how much this team is down, we're never going to give up and stop fighting the fight and taking it to the other team."

Frank Lofton of Maysville, Kentucky, Chris' Dad, was seeing his third away game of this season, having been to the Alabama and Kentucky games in Tuscaloosa and Lexington, before making the 5 1/2 hour trek to Nashville. In an exclusive interview with me outside the locker room, Frank said. " What impressed me the most was how we got after it on defense, started making steals, and never gave up. We took the lead at 46-45, and then they went back up on us, but we never gave up and kept on fighting, and came out with another win, which is big going into the SEC Tournament.

"Chris has come so far in the development of his game since he has come to UT. It's been huge how much overall he has improved," said Lofton. "I credit that to hard work, and a lot of people don't like to hear this, but you have to give God a lot of credit, too."

Vanderbilt jumped out to an early 12-2 lead, with their leading scorer, sophomore guard Shan Foster scoring half of VU's points on two 3-pointers, as Tennessee was unsuccessful in trying to work the ball into the paint to center Major Wingate. Tennessee went to work on defense and it became a struggle for either to team to score for the balance of the first half.

Just following the last media timeout of the half, Vandy only led 23-17, and the Vols missed several scoring opportunities that would have narrowed the margin even more. The Commodores went stone cold from the field for a large portion of the first half. However, the Vols shot only 28% in the first stanza and were only 1-of-9 from the 3-point arc.

Tennessee fell further behind as the second half started, by as much as 16 points, but was able to trim Vandy's margin down to 39-33 with 13 minutes to go in the game. Coach Bruce Pearl showed increasing frustration with the officiating, as crew chief Tony Greene, who was also the SEC official in charge in Knoxville Wednesday night in the loss to Kentucky, repeatedly made calls in the Commodores' favor.

Only one foul was called on Vanderbilt in the first 8 minutes of the second half. In the game at Knoxville, 23 fouls were called on Vandy, but the Vols barely made it to the free throw line in this one for the entire game.

UT battled back to make it 44-39 after a steal by C.J. Watson, who took it all the way to the basket, then Andre Patterson made another steal that was converted into a 3-point basket from the corner by JaJuan Smith, making it a 2-point game at 44-42 with 9 minutes to go in the game. That was followed by a bucket by Chris Lofton to knot the score at 44-44, the first time the Vols had been even with the Commodores since the outset.

Tennessee then took the lead for the first time at 46-45 with 7:30 to go with another basket which Lofton drove all the way to the hole. Four minutes later another driving basket by Lofton after he stole the ball tied the score again at 54-54.

At that point, during the last media timeout of the game, Pearl went all the way out to halfcourt and sent Dane Bradshaw all the way to the other end of the floor to speak to the officiating crew. Vandy was given a timeout while juggling the ball as they went out of bounds, to the consternation of Pearl, who again went all the way to halfcourt to protest.

Bradshaw hit his first 3-pointer of the game coming out of that timeout, giving UT its biggest lead at 59-55, but that was only the beginning, as the Vols outscored Vandy 12-3 to close out the game. Lofton hit a key 3-pointer, his 19th point of the game in leading UT, to put the Vols up 62-57 with a minute to go, followed by Moore's airball from behind the arc, giving Tennessee the ball and a 5-point lead, the largest they had enjoyed.

C.J. Watson put the Volunteers up 64-57 with 2 free throws and after another Vandy miss, Lofton followed with 2 more free tosses to make it a 66-57 game. Vanderbilt promptly threw the ball away out of bounds, leading to a final UT bucket that put them up 68-57, their biggest margin of the day just before the end of the game.

COACHES SONNY SMITH AND BRUCE PEARL SWAP BASKETBALL WAR STORIES AT BIG ORANGE TIPOFF CLUB LUNCHEON

TriCitiesSports.Com
Friday, February 17, 2006
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved
By John Mark Hancock, jmh@icx.net

KNOXVILLE - He might have been stating the obvious when he said that Bruce Pearl's coaching had made all the difference in the world in this year's Tennessee men's basketball team, but when former Auburn Coach Sonny Smith spoke at the Big Orange TipOff Club Wednesday in Knoxville, he gave concrete examples of what he meant by that statement.

Smith, who was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year three times in the 1980's, said that when Pearl came to Knoxville, he identified the role that he wanted each of his players to fill after going over film on all of them. Pearl then, according to Smith, convinced each of those players to perform that role instead of what they had been doing previously.

Two prime examples of Pearl's phenomenal coaching are Major Wingate and Dane Bradshaw. Most SEC hoops observers thought that Wingate was a lost cause and that he would never be productive. As Smith stated, Pearl has turned Major into one of the best post players in the league.

With Bradshaw, how many 6'4" players in America can even be made into a power forward? Dane is going up against bigger, faster, stronger, taller players every night and is beating them both at home and on the road. As Smith related, he is essentially a point guard who has been transformed into the role of power forward, because that's what Pearl designed for him and convinced him he could do it.

Sonny hosts a cable television show weekly, "Talkin' Hoops", on CSS, with former Alabama Coach Wimp Sanderson. He was very candid in his remarks and his analysis of coaching today.

Smith said some coaches aren't very good but they get better players and simply let them play. He said that one of the coaches in the SEC was a good example of that, and he let the large crowd who gathered to hear him speak decide for themselves who that one coach in the conference is.

He said that others, like Jeff Lebo, have very little talent on their teams and very young players, but are great coaches who can change up defenses every time down court. They look for mismatches to exploit. Of course, UT's 105-89 victory over Lebo's Auburn Tigers didn't feature much defense Wednesday night in Knoxville.

He also said that Tubby Smith at Kentucky, while a great defensive tactician, lacks the ability to coach offense as well. That is why in Smith's opinion the Wildcats are struggling to win games at home, since they don't seem to be able to score many points.

Speaking of Kentucky, Smith had some choice words for his former foe in those years, Joe B. Hall. He said that Hall simply beat other teams up with physical play and the officials let him get away with it. Hall's philosophy, according to Smith, was to have all five players foul at once, since the referees could only call one foul at a time.

Smith talked about how coaches who rotate the ball around the perimeter, as they now do in international play, complain about not getting enough fouls called. He chided such coaches for not spreading the offense like Tennessee does, driving the ball to the basket and then getting fouled, or kicking it out to the three-point arc for a shot at a trey.

Smith was a tough disciplinarian who coached Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, and Chris Morris into NBA stars in his three decades of coaching. He believes that the three-point shot has permanently changed the game of basketball.

Smith said C. J. Watson may be the best point guard in the SEC in a league that is loaded with great point guards. He said C. J. was so quick that he could "turn the light off and get it bed before it got dark." He said the post position now is the least valuable on the team, as more teams are searching for perimeter players who can handle and shoot the ball.

Smith, as always, had several tales to tell. A native of Roan Mountain, Tennessee, he talked about how his hometown wasn't the end of the world, but that you could see it from there. He said there were so many shotgun weddings performed in Roan Mountain that the local church was dubbed, "Winchester Cathedral."                                   

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Smith had plenty of trying times at Rupp Arena in Lexington with his Auburn team. He told about one game when the Tigers were down by 30 points and he had seen enough. He kept mouthing off to SEC official Reggie Copeland, who later became the Vice Mayor of Mobile, Alabama, and was trying to get thrown out of the game.

Finally, after all of his bellyaching didn't do the trick after having gotten one technical foul called on him, Smith let Copeland have it with a barrage of unflattering comments about his mother's heritage. Copeland, however, didn't flinch.

Instead, the next time he came down court, Copeland went over to Smith and said, "Sonny, I know you're trying to get thrown out of this game, but you're just going to have to sit here and watch it like the rest of us!"

He told the story of a man who bought a bronze rat at an antique store and started walking down the street with it. Soon, rats had come from everywhere following him and that bronze rat. By the time he got to the river on the edge of town, he was in a gallop in fear for his life. He threw the bronze rat in the river and all the rats jumped in as well and drowned. The next day, he went back to the same antique store and asked the proprietor if he had any bronze Kentucky fans for sale!

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Smith said there was a Tennessee fan, an Alabama fan, and a pig that all were in the waiting room of a hospital maternity ward at the same time, waiting on their babies to be born. All of a sudden, the lights went out. When they came back on, the nurses came out and told the expectant fathers that they had good news and bad news.

The good news was that all three had healthy offspring. The bad news was that since the lights went out during delivery, they couldn't tell which baby belonged to whom. They said they would let the fathers draw straws and the first one to go in could select the one he thought was his.

The Tennessee fan got to go first and after spending 30 minutes in the delivery room, he came out with the pig. When asked by the nurse why on earth he did that, he said, "I just couldn't take a chance on getting the Alabama baby!"

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He also told about the Kentucky fan, the Alabama fan, and the Tennessee fan that went to Saudi Arabia and got in trouble for gambling. They were arrested and each given 20 lashes as their punishment.

Each fan was given one wish before his punishment was administered. The Kentucky fan went first. His wish that was a pillow be strapped to his back to soften the blows. After seeing how much pain the Kentucky fan endured even with the pillow, the Alabama fan's wish was that he have two pillows strapped to his back while he was flogged.

Finally, it was time for the Tennessee fan's punishment. Because the person who was administering the blows had heard of the Big Orange, he granted the UT fan two wishes instead of the customary one. So, the Tennessee fan's first wish was that he be given 200 lashes, rather than just 20.

The Saudi was perplexed. He couldn't figure out why someone who wish to endure such pain. He then asked,

"What's your second wish?" To which the Tennessee fan replied, "Strap that Alabama fan on my back!"

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Coach Pearl, who also spoke to the gathering prior to Coach Smith's address, was given a fan as a gift from the Big Orange Tipoff Club by President Lloyd B. Richardson. On one side it had the thumbs-up symbol and said, "Good Call!" On the other side, it has the thumbs-down symbol with the inscription, "Bad Call!"

It was suggested that Bruce use the fan at his son Steven's West High School games for the upcoming tournaments. Pearl, as you may remember, was ejected from one of his son's games this year for questioning some calls by TSSAA official Shane Mynatt, who has since been reassigned as a referee to no longer call any of West High's games. Mynatt had given Steven Pearl a technical foul earlier this season. 

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Pearl, in accepting the gift, couldn't resist a quip of his own. He told about a game when he was at Southern Indiana and he was on the road playing Kentucky Wesleyan in one of those situations where "we were playing five on eight", with the officials giving his team the short end of the deal.

Down by 20 points on the road, he called timeout with 30 seconds to go in the game to a chorus of boos. He told his best player when they broke the huddle to go and guard one of the referees. When the player questioned the coach's instructions, an assistant chimed in and said, "Just do what Coach Pearl told you to do."

The player followed Pearl's orders and came out on the court and started closely guarding the official rather than an opposing player. The referee blew the whistle and came over to Pearl and asked, "What are you trying to pull here, Coach?"

Pearl told the ref that when he was an assistant to Dr. Tom Davis at Iowa, Davis always taught his coaches that you should put your best player on the guy who is hurting you the most, and as Pearl told him, "You're it, buddy!"