Category Archives: Basketball

Gameday today: It’s all a super-revealing mind game, man

Football

It’s all a mind game, man. When defensive back Rashaan Gaulden had to sit out most of the spring due to injury, new position coach Charlton Warren told him that he could look at it one of two ways: Either he wasn’t getting any reps, or he was going to get all of them (mentally). The happy ending: Gaulden chose to get every rep.
 
Oh my goodness, the headline: “Tennessee QB Jarrett Guarantano’s Twitter account revealing.” What’s the big reveal? Is it naked Jim McElwain on a shark? Another mooning incident from a Volunteers quarterback, this time with pictures? Does it unearth psychopathic tendencies of a guy on our roster? What? It “reveals” that Guarantano is a team player? Oh, well that’s good. Boring, but good. Begrudging high-five for the headline, Mike.
 
So some folks are in an uproar about the Vols spending $40,000 on bowl and Battle of Bristol rings. Pffffftt. That’s like two parking passes, man. They can handle it.
 
One small squat for man, one giant squat for Marquez Bembry, who is “maybe 60 percent” recovered from a torn ACL suffered last August. Godspeed, young man.
 
“Pretty boring guy” Kendal Vickers is graduating despite an early stiff arm to the whole academics thing. Congratulations, from one boring guy staying home on Friday nights to another. Represent!
 
I don’t know what’s behind the paywall for this link promising an analysis of the Vols football scholarship distribution, but it sounds fun.
 
The 2017 Lott IMPACT Trophy folks have added Vols’ senior defensive back Todd Kelly Jr. to their watch list for the season. The criteria for the award isn’t limited to athletic performance, but also considers the player’s character, which is awesome. Kelly is one of 42 guys on the list, which is a lot of guys to watch, so I’m just going to watch Kelly and declare him the winner when the time rolls around.
 

Basketball

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee has recommended several rules changes, including implementation of a centralized replay system in basketball games. What’s a “centralized replay system,” you ask? Think replay for college football. You know, where they stop the game and get on the horn to some poorly-compensated virtual assistants in the Philippines to see what they think. Or maybe it’s the guys sitting in the SEC offices in Birmingham; I always get those two groups confused. Anyway, I guess it’s better than watching the stripey guys hunched over the monitor that belongs to the broadcast crew like they’re showing each other their latest Instagrams.
 

Baseball

The baseball Vols dug themselves a hole early and couldn’t climb out, falling to Kentucky 15-5 last night in Lexington. That moves Tennessee to 26-20 and a woeful 7-16 in the SEC.
 

Miscellaneous fun stuff

Remember Ron Slay? He’s graduating, and he’s going to wear a headband on his mortar board. Also, the Indianapolis Colts have waived VFL Curt Maggitt. Boo.

Gameday Today: Not a fan of Will Muschamp edition

Football

 
Tennessee freshman offensive tackle K’Rojhn Calbert is not a fan of the Muschamp culture at South Carolina. Sort of confirms most of what you thought a Muschamp locker room would be like, doesn’t it? Muschamp, though, does outrank Butch Jones in CBS’ list of the best coaches in college football. No. 52 doesn’t sound bad for Jones, but being ranked lower than Muschamp has to add a little salt to the sting. That’s what you get when you haven’t ever beaten the guy. Let’s fix that this fall, shall we?
 
And speaking of things to fix . . . Dave Hooker says that Vols defensive coordinator Bob Shoop needs to rebound this year. Yeah.
 
Things that don’t need fixing? Josh Dobbs, who is still winning hearts, participating in graduation activities and throwing his first pass for the Pittsburgh Steelers all within the same 24-hour span. 

Recruiting

The Twitter profile of 4-star defensive tackle Jaquaze Sorrells makes him look like a pretty solid commit to the Florida Gators, but that didn’t stop Tennessee from throwing their hat in the ring.
 

 

 Hoops

Little late to this party due to the magazine deadline, but . . . Vols guard Shembari Phillips is transferring. The Vols have also lost Kwe Parker, but they have signed JUCO All-American Chris Darrington and are trying to land James Daniel, a grad transfer from Howard. 

Baseball

 
Tennessee baseball . . . has a really good APR.
 
 
 
 

Gameday Today: On players becoming bullies and Caravans becoming Corollas

Football

That quarterback competition between Quinten Dormady and Jarrett Guarantano? It’s still a competition and probably will be for much longer than you want it to be. Meanwhile, Trey Smith is looking like he’s well on his way to becoming only the fifth true freshman to start a season opener on the Tennessee offensive line, which by the way, is intentionally conditioning itself to be a bully this season. I am generally anti-bullying thanks to a guy named Brad Smith (maybe not his real name) who will forever be an extremely huge and mean sixth-grader in my mind, but I like my offensive linemen to push people around, and if a little attitude helps them in that task, I am all for it.
 
Oh, look. The Big Orange Caravan is apparently downsizing to a couple of Corollas with car magnets and car flags road tripping to Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga with an old school foldable paper map. Tri Cities, y’all are out of luck, and they don’t care how much money you spend at the Strawberry Plains exit every Football Saturday.
 
A bit of good news, that game that Tennessee is supposed to play against Georgia Tech at the new Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta to open the season? It’s going to be held at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. And the odds of the retractable roof just outright falling off and squishing both teams in the middle of the second quarter diminishes just a little more every day!
 

NFL Draft

Yeah, Jon Gruden says that Josh Dobbs is a “great sleeper” in this year’s NFL Draft. I don’t think he means that he has great sleep technique, which is something Derek Dooley might have meant. And speaking of Dobbs, Todd McShay thinks he could even sneak into the first round of the NFL Draft. That thing I said about McShay over-thinking things? Never mind. Oh, and Tennessee defensive end Darrell Taylor is getting all crunk just watching all of the attention Derek Barnett is getting.
 

Recruiting

Two of Tennessee’s commitments for the 2018 recruiting class are in the ESPN 300: 4-star offensive tackle Cade Mays and 4-star receiver Alontae Taylor. And in hoops recruiting, wing Yves Pons and power forward Derrick Walker both got bumps in the final Top 247 rankings for the Class of 2017.
 
And finally, the Vols have offered 4-star defensive end Cameron Latu from Salt Lake City.