Tennessee Vols Basketball: A Tradition Since 2005

Since there is nothing to write about until college football, I am going to write about something that has been on my mind for a while now. I sometimes like to get on other teams websites and read their message boards to see how they view their program and what not. I have recently been reading some UT basketball message boards and it makes me realize one thing...Tennessee basketball fans might not have as big of a brain as other human beings.

So, for all you Tennessee fans reading this post, let me explain something to you in clear fashion, black and white writing. The men's basketball program is overshadowed by the women's team. That is the most embarrassing thing you could possibly have. The men's team has yet to advance to the elite eight ONE time in the last CENTURY...and for all you UT people, a century is 100 years. Don't try and explain to people you are the up and coming program until you actually make some noise in March. Noone cares that you won the SEC in a year that Vandy, Georgia, Arkansas, Miss. St and Kentucky all lost in either the first or second round of the tournament. So, as I told all my UT friends all year that the SEC is down and is a piece of shit basketball conference (atleast in 07-08), you tried to argue with me and look what happened...not one single contender. ALL PRETENDERS.

Yes, I do know that you beat Memphis this year and the year before that...but as I recall, you don't want to peak in January and February and then bow out in early March....you want to make a deep run in March and show your true colors. Well, we learned what Tennessee's true colors were. Memphis was your Super Bowl and you needed Wayne Chism banks and Jajuan Smith prayers to beat the best team in the country. Congratulations, you have won nothing. You still have no meaningful banners in your building that starts with "Men's". You can't say you did anything noteworthy this year. You can't say you deserved to be ranked No.1, as we saw 48 hours later.

As a Memphis fan, of course I was upset when UT beat us. It always sucks losing to your arch rival. But, if I have learned anything over the last 3 months its this...I'll lose to Tennessee every year if it means we go to a Final Four and they are sitting on their couch watching us in late March.

You don't win anything for beating an opponent in February, you win something for beating them in March. I know this might be new to you Vol fans because you have never experienced a true NCAA tournament run, but noone in their right mind considers Tennessee to be a basketball powerhouse as I've seen people writing on this message board. Sure, people think you are an up and coming program, but that's only because you only used to win 15 games a season. Their is one player in the NBA who played for the University of Tennessee: C.J. Watson and I bet you couldn't tell me who he plays for without looking it up. Tennessee fans have absolutely no room to talk. You can talk shit to Memphis fans all you want, but in the end...a true program would rather have Final Four banners than a box score in February that shows you beat your rival. You are not the premiere basketball program in the state. You are not a basketball school (some might be wondering if you are even a football school anymore). Your women's basketball team carries your athletic program.

I'll admit, Memphis football is something of the same sort. We had 3 years of glory too. We were ranked. We had one of the best running backs to ever play the college game. We were re-building too. We made three bowls in 4 years after never playing in one. We beat Tennessee in 1996 and it was our Super Bowl, but I'm sure Tennessee fans would have rather played in a big-time bowl and lost to Memphis than beat Memphis and not play in a New Year's bowl game. Just like I realized I don't care if we lose to Tennessee (ok, I do a little) as long as we are the ones playing in late March for the ultimate goal of a season, a National Title. Yeah, we choked. We lost the chance of a lifetime, but I have been able to start dealing with it a little easier because I do believe we will be back. But, you can't say, "haha you choked," because WE were there, YOU were not. You were sitting around smoking weed on your couches (atleast Ramar and Duke were). You know as well as we do, you'd rather have lost to us and played for a title, so don't kid yourselves. You choked your season away. You tapped out very early in the SEC tournament and then got embarrassed by a Louisville team that was dunking all over you. We may have choked for 2 minutes, but you choked for 2 weeks. You could have lost to American, should have lost to Butler and then everyone saw why/how against Louisville. Memphis, however, beat the Pac 10 champs, the SEC West Champs, co-big 12 Champs and a 27-9 Michigan St. team.

I'm just so sick of reading their message board about how great they are and how they somehow think their season was a successful one just because of one game in February that meant nothing but a simple check mark in the win column for one and a check mark in the loss column for the other. There was no consequence for losing and no rewards for winning, unless you want to count being called No. 1 for less than 3 days. Quit kidding yourself. Tennessee was overrated and it showed in the most important month of the season.

Bottom line is: I wish Tennessee fans would quit talking and acting like they have a top 10 program. They have not even made it past the sweet sixteen for crying outloud! EVER! That should give them reason enough to be quiet. Keep priding yourself on beating someone in February while we keep making elite eight's and final fours and championship games....I'll take that all night, all day. "Good ole Rockytop, never past the sweet sixteeeeeeeeeeeeen!"

17 and Oh So Sweet

Well, let me first start out by saying I got this series completely wrong, ok? Now all my friends who have been nagging me can finally be quiet. I'm sorry I couldn't predict Leon Powe single handedly winning game 2 for the Celtics. I'm sorry I couldn't predict the Lakers blowing a 35-14 first quarter lead in game 4 which ultimately changed the series, but what I am most sorry about is the faith I had in the Los Angeles Lakers to play defense.

Not only did Boston win its 17th title, and not only did they do it against their arch rivals, but they beat the living piss out of them. The Celtics defense was nothing short of phenominal. They made Kobe Bryant so confused on the court that not only was he missing shots, but he was turning the ball over as well. The C's bench was tremendous whether it was Powe, House, Posey, P.J. Brown or yes, even Big Baby Glen Davis. They hit key shots, grabbed timely rebounds and made key defensive stops. After Game 5, Kobe was asked by a reporter, "Do you think we saw enough in the Lakers for people to believe they can go into Boston and win game 6?" Kobe smiled and said, "No, probably not." Well, there was no probably about it...we didn't Kobe. What we did see was your inability to lead this Lakers team. There was no leadership on the floor for them whatsoever.

Boston proved me wrong. I'll admit it. I did not think that the Celtics could find a way to stop Kobe Bryant, but they did. Kobe, in my opinion did not seem like he wanted this title as bad as the other one's he played. His facial expressions never changed throughout the entire game 6. It was almost like he was just waiting to lose the game so he could go back to LA and have a fun summer before leaving for Beijing. Whatever the reason, the Celtics proved they were the best team in the NBA this season. They have won a an NBA Franchise record 17 NBA titles which is 3rd most all time in any sport behind the New York Yankees and the Montreal Canadians. Now we can all go take a nap until the Olympics start because nothing will be on t.v. until then.

Coaching, The Bench and Defense

Ok, so I checked my cell phone around 9:35ish to see what the score of the game was and it said 35-14 Lakers at the end of one. My initial thought was, "Wow, how the hell do the Celtics give up 35 and only score 14??? It was all part of Doc Rivers' plan to not only win the game, but break a record while doing it. The Celtics came back from an 18 point halftime deficit, bigger than anyone in NBA Finals history since the shot clock era. The comeback was due to three things: coaching, bench play and defense.

Coaching: Doc Rivers vs. Phil Jackson. I know that I am going to take Jackson over Rivers 9 out of 10 times. Well ladies and gentlemen, we were all "witnesses" of the one time where Phil was outcoached by Doc. Its hard to question a guy with 9 championship rings, but every great coach makes a mistake every now and then (Ex. John Calipari on April 7th, 2008). Doc Rivers saw the exact same thing the whole world did. He saw LA trapping the post, whether it be Perkins, Garnett or Powe, every single time they touched the ball. This forced them to kick it out to Rondo (his man usually left to double) and he is not someone you want taking the bulk of your shots. So, Rivers decided to yank him and "Perk" and throw in Eddie House and James Posey. LA continued to double, only this time House and Posey made them pay. This forced LA to quit doubling the post and allowed KG to have one on one battles with Pau and it worked to perfection. For Jackson, he decided to go with Sasha "point shaving" Vujacic instead of Lamar Odom who finally looked like himself last night. Odom was playing brilliantly and Vujacic wasn't only shooting poorly, but Ray Allen was toying with him on offense as well. Odom was 8 for 11 and Phil decided not to go with him late in the game. This coaching battle was clearly won by Doc Rivers and maybe people will start taking him seriously now.

Bench Play: Well, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I will...toot toot. I said the key to this series was going to be the bench and who stepped up when it mattered the most. Game 4 was a perfect example of that. For the Celtics, with Perkins and Rondo struggling, Rivers needed help from his bench and so he decided to go with the youthful Eddie House (not the egghead) and James Posey (to have another shooter on the floor). House and Posey both scored in double digits with 11 and 18 respectively and were a combined 6 of 10 from the three point line. The biggest shots were when Posey hit a fall away three pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one and then two possessions later House hit a 20 ft. jumper to give the C's there first lead of the night. The Lakers bench was god-awful. Vujacic, Farmar, Ariza, Walton and Turiaf were a combined 5 for 21 from the field and neither scored more than 6 points. Sasha was lights out in Game 3 but wasn't ready to play last night on both ends of the floor. He constantly got beat on defense and just couldn't get into a rythmn on offense. Kobe needed help last night as he was struggling as well, but he didn't get it.

Defense: The Celtics played the best defense I have ever witnessed in an NBA game in the new "offense controlled" era. They may prove again that defense wins championships. They held the Lakers to 33 points in THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF (less than they scored in first quarter). They didn't let Kobe get into the lane as he said in the press conference, "I saw two, three bodies around me the whole game." Pau missing dunks, Vujacic missing three's and Farmar going 1 for 6 did the Lakers in. Pierce told Doc he wanted to guard Kobe because he wasn't in foul trouble and that may have been the point where the Celtics took it to another level. Either way, they earned this victory on the defensive end and getting out in transition which would not have been possible without the D.

I am really at a loss for words when watching Vujacic defend Ray Allen on that last possession. He seemed to just stop in the middle of the play. I'm not sure how he could have expected help because it was clearly an isolation play and he knew nobody from his team was going to be in the paint. With the NBA refs allegations swirling around the league, the last thing anyone wants to hear is a player shaving points, but if you take a look at that play, something sure looks fishy to me. If anyone has any idea what Sasha may have been thinking on that play, please please please, let me know. No doubt the Celtics earned Game 4 and the Lakers now have to overcome something that has never been done before, coming back from 3-1 in the NBA finals. I will say, if I had one player to choose from to lead that comeback, it would be Kobe Bryant. He said it best when asked how you win three straight, "You just have to win Sunday and then move on to the next game." If anyone thinks this theory is bullshit, just go ask the Boston Red Sox.

Dorsey Impresses at NBA Draft Workout

Well, the word on the skreet is that Joey Dorsey had a very good workout with the Memphis Grizzlies. Dorsey worked out with Kevin "I got dunked on by CDR" Love, Javale "little conference" Mcgee and DeAndre "my hands are bigger than my face" Jordan. The Griz had them run baseline to baseline shooting elbow jumpers and while Kevin Love consistently hit shots, Dorsey wasn't too far behind. Dorsey's whole mindset throughout this NBA draft process has been trying to show everyone he has an offensive game that nobody thinks he has since he was not needed offensively in college at Memphis. Dorsey did knock down shots and played very well in the post.

On one 3 v 2 drill, Dorsey actually ended up dunking right in Kevin Love's face, only this time he didn't choose to point and laugh at him like he did in the final four. When being interviewed after the workout, Dorsey said he played video games with Russell Westbrook of UCLA and in one game Dorsey played as Memphis and Westbrook of UCLA. Dorsey said CDR dunked on Kevin Love in the game and he looked at Westbrook and said, "that was just like the final four game." Naturally, it sparked a laugh out of Westbrook. That is who Joey is though. He is just a kid who loves to play pranks, make jokes and laugh. Those are qualities that NBA coaches and scouts love about him. He is a very nice young man, but obviously nobody can deny his troubled past. He is doing exactly what he should be doing though which is forgetting the past and trying to find a way to brighten his future and show everyone his genuine side.

Grabbing Joey with the 28th pick would be a bold move for the Grizzlies, but I believe in the long-run it will be a beneficial one. He is going to grab rebounds, block shots and run the floor as good as anyone in the draft. No, he is never going to be a starter in the NBA unless something drastic changes with his game, but he is a great backup to come in the game and provide a spark. If the Griz take Love with the number five selection you are getting the most talented power forward in the draft, hands down. He can shoot the three, take people off the dribble and has every post move you could possibly think of. Love has a great work ethic and has already dropped upwards of 15 pounds since getting crushed in the final four. Dorsey and Love playing next to one another wouldn't sound so bad to me. Then again, what the hell do the Grizzlies have to lose? If they draft two big men, then they can shop around for some free agents or trade for another guard to compliment Rudy Gay. Corey Maggette would be my first choice, but odds are he will re-sign with the Clippers.

I will leave you with this...the most curious move in the past week has by far been the hiring of Vinny Del Negro to be the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. He has not lost one game in the NBA playoffs as a head coach, so I guess the Bulls figured they couldn't go wrong. I thought Del Negro was going to take up acting again after he had a cameo in one of my favorite movies, "Eddie," where he was shown talking to Avery Johnson on their way back to the locker room after beating the lowly Knicks. Yes, that was right after Eddie referred to Avery Johnson as a "little roach."

Go get um Del!

Reds Go With the Red-head

It's not easy for Will Hudgens, and it never has been. Going to Ridgeway High School and playing football as an 8th grader, everyone has always expected something of Hudgens. He was one of the top quarterbacks in the state coming out of high school in 2004, but there was one thing a lot of people didn't know about Will.....he was an incredibly gifted baseball player as well.

Hudgens signed with the University of Memphis to play football during a very competative recruiting battle between Memphis and Ole Miss. Hudgens uncle played football for the University of Memphis back in the day and all of Will's family lived in Memphis along with all of his friends. So, he had a lot of pressure to come to the U of M and play for the tigers. After blowing out his knee, he had to red-shirt his entire freshman year and then came back ready to play the next season. Hudgens was called on to replace Patrick Byrne who broke his leg on the third snap from center in 2005. I remember watching the game at college at one of my buddies houses and seeing Will run onto the field for the first time, I couldn't have been more proud. So, how did he do on his first ever college football series in front of national television?....he was unbelievable. He went 3 for 3 for 53 yards including a 34 yard strike right down the center of the Ole Miss defense. The Tigers lost the game 10-6, but I was happy to see my best friend finally get his chance and play a pretty good game.

So, after seasons 2005, 2006 and another injury, Hudgens decided he was going to again take his talents to the baseball field. Will actually got called upon in a road game against Clemson (his first year on the mound) who was then ranked in the top 10 and he got the win! I remember him calling me ecstatic as can be. Hudgens told coach Tommy West he was going to play baseball again this spring and not participate in spring workouts with the football team and coach West allowed him to do what he wanted.

After an awful year for the Memphis baseball squad, Hudgens decided he was going to allow himself to be eligible for the 2008 baseball draft. He was taken in the 23rd round by the Cincinnati Reds and is going to play rookie ball in Billings, MT this summer. The Reds are going to get themselves a fierce competitor and one of the best athletes they have seen in a while. I look for Will to do big things and come out of the crapshoot that is minor league baseball, on top. Hudgens has had to face more adversity than anyone can imagine and I am proud to say he is one of my best friends and I am more excited for him than he will ever know. I guess I have to somewhat become a baseball fan now.

One Big Flop

The Los Angeles Lakers simply did not show up in B-town with the exception of the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter in game 2.  They got outmanned in every phase of the game.  Pau Gasol (as predicted) couldn't hold KG's jockstrap in either of the two games.  The bench was the key.  Leon Powe, who has rarely seen the floor in these playoffs somehow emerged in game 2 and finished with a career playoff high 21 points.  The Celtics defense has made it very tough for Kobe even though he has still gotten his points.  These Lakers do not seem as confident as the one's who ran through the western conference playoffs.  

With five games left in the series, and the Lakers backs against the wall, we will see what they are made of and if they are worthy of being called champions.  Being wrong is tough to admit, so I am not going to....I still believe the Los Angeles Lakers will somehow win this series.  If they can take all three in LA, I think Kobe HAS to have one  solid road game left in him where he can will the Lakers to victory.  If the Celtics bench continues to play like they are and KG continues to toy with Pau on offense, this series may end quicker than expected.  These two games were one's that I am sure the Lakers want to forget, so we will see if they can put the two L's in the past and show up Tuesday night and for the sake of ratings, I'm sure the NBA does as well.  

An Old Rivalry With A New Spark

Well, it might not be as good as Magic vs. Bird, but it should be a very exciting NBA Finals with the two franchises with the most titles in NBA history. Last year we were hoping for a fantastic seven game series with Lebron vs. the Spurs, but instead we had to sit and watch as the Spurs played their usual boring basketball and swept James and his Cavaliers.

Most are hoping that this series is decided by the "Big 3" on both the Lakers and the Celtics. I happen to think that Kobe, Lamar and Pau are going to cancel out Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen. I think the key to this series is going to be which bench steps it up and plays the way they can. If Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar are in sync, the Lakers chances of winning are going to be very high. Luke Walton and Ronny Turiaf must give Pau and Lamar a chance to rest and go hard for 4-5 minutes at a time. For the C's its as simple as this...either Egghead Sam Cassell or Eddie House has to be able to run the team while Rondo is on the bench. Rondo has played well in his first playoff run, but the NBA finals is a whole different story. PJ Brown and James Posey have to make the Lakers earn it. They cannot allow Pau or Kobe (the two players they will most likely be guarding) to go on a run that kills all the momentum they might have gained when the big 3 need a breather. However, both Gasol and Bryant are excellent free throw shooters which is why it is going to be very difficult to stop them Here is what we know going into this series:

-Kobe is going to get his points. No matter how good the Celtics defense is, Bryant is still going to fill it up. If Bruce Bowen, who is the best defender in the NBA (and its not even close) could not shut him down, I don't think Pierce of James Posey will either.
-KG is going to absolutely dominate Pau Gasol on offense. Pau is too slow and not physical enough to bang with the Big Ticket and the Celtics need to exploit this mismatch as much as they can.
-Ray Allen is going to be inconsistent. He is not going to shoot lights out for however long this series goes. He started to find his touch against the Pistons, but he may have trouble getting his shot off over the long reach of Vladimir Radmanovic.
-Derek Fisher is going to hit some big shots when the Lakers need them most. That's simply what he does best.
-The Boston crowd is going to chant "Eddie Eddie Eddie," when Eddie House comes into the game.
-Rondo is going to be left open so fisher can stay down and help double on KG or Perkins when they get the ball in the post, so he has to be ready to shoot.
-There is a good chance Kobe Bryant could do what he did in Game 1 against the Spurs and that is sit and play the "trust my teammates" card in the first half and study the game to figure out how he wants to attack Boston in the second half.
-Kendrick Perkins is going to give the officials the look of, "How can you call that?" Kendrick Perkins does not foul anyone, just ask him.

Finally, my prediction for this series...

I want to believe this is going to go 6 or 7 games, but I just don't see it. I know the Los Angeles Lakers are far and away the best team in the NBA and they will prove it. With Odom, Bryant and Gasol still in their prime (and don't forget about Andrew Bynum), this team could definitely be a dynasty in the making. I think LA is going to steal one in Boston (my guess is game 1), and then sweep the Celtics in LA (remember it is 2-3-2, not 2-2-1-1-1). Lakers in 5, but hopefully there will be a little excitment along the way.