A community of reasonable fanatics.
Tennessee begins a short trek through the state of Mississippi today with a game against Ole Miss. The game’s at 1:00 and will be televised on the SEC Network. Online, you can catch it at WatchESPN.
See you in the comments below.
Go Vols!
A Twitter List by GamedayRockyTop
The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced the 10 semifinalists for the Werner Ladder Naismith Trophy for Men’s College Coach of the Year today, and Tennessee’s Rick Barnes is one of the 10.
Every Vols fan already knows the talking points here, namely that Barnes’ team was picked to finish 13th of 14 teams in the preseason SEC poll and has instead led his team to a 20-7 record and second place in the SEC standings at this point. The Vols are currently 11th in RPI and 15th in KenPom and have been in the Top 25 for 12 straight weeks. Along the way, they’ve beaten Purdue (10th in RPI) and swept Kentucky (16th), and all but one of their losses have come to teams in the Top 40 of the RPI. The other loss came to Georgia on the road, and the Bulldogs are currently 70th in RPI.
Other semifinalists include the following:
That list will be whittled down to four finalists on March 15, and the winner will be announced on April 1st.
The things we’ve spent all year hoping were true for the SEC are about to be fully realized.
The league record for NCAA Tournament teams is six. Eight are in the most recent Bracket Matrix, and Mississippi State refuses to remove themselves from the conversation to make nine. And it shouldn’t be eight or nine sweating it out: seven of the eight teams currently in the matrix field are a top eight seed.
We began to see this last year, when the four of the league’s five tournament teams were top eight seeds. That hadn’t happened since 2007. This year, if a handful of teams stay on the right side of an 8/9 match-up, we could see twice that many be the higher seed in the first round.
The conversation sometimes drifts to, “Yeah, but there’s no elite team.” I think this is in part because the SEC’s version of elite has been a championship-caliber Kentucky or Florida team for the last decade. The last non-UK/UF team from this league to pull off a one or two seed in the NCAA Tournament was Tennessee 10 years ago. Bruce Pearl might get there again this season. And only Texas A&M two years ago has earned a three seed outside of Kentucky and Florida in this decade. The Vols still have every opportunity to join that list this season.
So no, Auburn and Tennessee won’t be confused for the best of John Calipari and Billy Donovan heading into the tournament. But what the Vols and Tigers are doing is still better than what any other SEC program has done in the last ten years. And they’re doing it in a far deeper league.
Here’s a look at the post-expansion SEC the last six years. (Note: if the formatting is weird on your phone, try viewing it in landscape.)
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| NCAA Teams | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 8* |
| Top 8 Seeds | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7* |
| KenPom Top 25 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| KenPom Top 50 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| KenPom Top 100 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 14 |
(* – projected bids from the Bracket Matrix)
When Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league in 2012-13, the SEC was at its lowest point of this century. But thanks to changes in coaching and scheduling, now in 2018 the league is at its highest point of this century.
Along with an almost-certain record for tournament bids, the basement and the middle are both significantly stronger. In 2013 it wasn’t just five teams outside the KenPom Top 100; three of them were between 197-256. Even last year, truly terrible seasons from Missouri (156 in KenPom) and LSU (172) saw both teams go 2-16 in league play. Two coaching changes later and every team in the league has at least five conference wins with three games to play.
And now the crowd is in the middle. Behind Auburn and Tennessee are six teams at 8-7 in league play, plus LSU at 7-8, plus Texas A&M at 6-9 but almost certainly still headed for the dance floor. Teams like Georgia and South Carolina should find their way to the NIT. And, for the first time, all 14 teams are in the Top 100 in KenPom.
There are still three games left, plenty of time for positioning in such a crowded field. But Tennessee has already earned tremendous praise for getting this far in such a deep league. Earning a double bye in the SEC Tournament is a significant accomplishment. The Vols and the league have much to be proud of.
It wasn’t especially pretty for much of the game, but Tennessee beat the Florida Gators last night 62-57, restoring confidence in the team and its best player.
Grant Williams, having been publicly called out by his coach earlier in the week, responded by refinding himself and putting up 23 points, much of it a beautiful exception to the “wasn’t especially pretty” opener up there.
Jordan Bone, too, responded to Rick Barnes’ pleading for him to be more aggressive by doing just that.
Highlights:
WIN NUMBER TWENTY pic.twitter.com/KeBnNU9Fd9
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) February 22, 2018
Highlights with commentary from the SEC Network:
Barnes’ surprising post-game press conference. Why surprising? Because he actually spends some time praising his team. Really. Proof:
Grant Williams in the hot seat:
And here’s a link to Grant Williams on the post-game radio show (sorry, it’s not embeddable) with Bob and Bert talking about losing at Catan.
Paul Finebaum had The Papa on his radio show to discuss Jeremy Pruitt and to further rubber-neck the wreckage of the last decade on Rocky Top. Here’s what Fulmer had to say about the latter:
“It’s just a series of bad decisions that ended up being the issue. We had four presidents in six years. There was no continuity on campus. And all of a sudden, instead of everybody communicating and everybody trusting each other and everybody working together to an end like you see at the programs at the highest level now, it became a program struggle. And then a coach would come in. Kiffin left quick, and Dooley didn’t stay very long. And it was just a constant flow of change.
“You really have to understand the culture of any place that you go, and I don’t think the people that came in for the most part [did]. Butch Jones tried to, but to be at the championship level, you’ve got to communicate, you’ve got to trust each other, and everybody has got to work together. And we didn’t have that for seven, eight or nine years around here. It’s better now. It’s much better now.”
And what did Fulmer say about Pruitt? Video:
We already knew that Tennessee had hired Chris Weinke as its new running backs coach, but now it’s official.
The Lady Vols travel to Florida tonight to take on the Gators at 7:00 p.m. The game’s on SECN+, meaning online only.
Vince Ferrara’s done a ton of great compilation work on the talent on Tennessee’s 2018 roster.
It may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing win of the year, but Tennessee’s 62-57 victory over Florida provided validation on two important points.
One: the Vols handled Florida’s elite guards. The Gators shot 35% from the floor, and 57 points is their second-lowest total on the year. Chiozza finished with a flurry for 11 points and 9 assists, but Koulechov was 3-for-10 and KeVaughn Allen went 0-for-3. It came at the expense of 13 offensive rebounds, but Tennessee relentlessly ran at Florida on the arc, and the Gators hit just 6-of-24.
Teams with great guards have gotten the best of Tennessee several times this season. But tonight, the Vols defended really well for most of the game, and made sure Florida’s penetration didn’t get the best of them. Bone, Turner, and Daniel combined for just 14 points (22.5% of the total, which is still in the sweet spot). But they did a good job defending against solid competition, which bodes well for this team in March.
And the rest of the offense was more than covered by tonight’s second point of validation.
Two: Grant Williams is still a bad man. Coming off his worst game of the season at Georgia, Williams ate Florida’s guard-heavy lineup alive. Despite being burdened with foul trouble, Williams was 8-of-13 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the line for 23 points, along with six rebounds.
The Vols were up 10 with five minutes to play, but Florida kept attacking. Williams responded with Tennessee’s next seven points, keeping the Vols up multiple possessions. And particularly tonight, it didn’t seem to matter where he caught the ball on the floor. He just went right at an undersized defense that had no answers. The most important question when we get to March, especially with increased confidence in Tennessee’s backcourt defense, is what kind of match-ups will Williams see in the bracket. The Vols are good enough to win even when facing teams that do have some kind of answer for him. But Williams is good enough to just take over if teams don’t.
Auburn just keeps winning, but the Vols are now two games up on the six teams tied for third place. A couple of those somebodies are going to play on Thursday in the SEC Tournament. Tennessee is really close to making sure it won’t be them.
This win restored confidence in what the Vols are doing and in their best player, and bolstered it in response to their greatest weakness. Tennessee can shoot threes better than they did tonight, but this win is another reminder that they can do just that even when those shots aren’t falling. And it adds to a resume that should keep the Vols among the top four seeds in both the SEC and the Bracket Matrix with three regular season games to play.
Go Vols. Well done.
Tennessee, hoping to pull it all together against some great guards and the last tournament team on their regular season schedule, host the Florida Gators tonight at Thompson-Boling. The game tips at 9:00 and will be televised on ESPN2. Online, you can catch it at WatchESPN.
See you in the comments below.
Go Vols!
A Twitter List by GamedayRockyTop
Tennessee basketball hosts the Florida Gators at 9:00 tonight at Thompson-Boling Arena. It will be the Vols’ last regular season game against a tournament-bound team, and the result will likely determine whether we turn our attention back to seeding or continue searching for the cause of that wailing and gnashing sensation.
What’s caused the minor funk recently?
Kyle Alexander says the team is still adjusting to being an “opportunity” for other teams at this time of year, meaning everybody wants their pelt and the team isn’t quite used to that yet.
Rick Barnes, though, is focused more on the tangible, saying the difference in his team the past three games is shooting percentage, rebounding, and unforced turnovers. He also is pulling his hair out while wondering why Jordan Bone won’t push the ball in transition.
All that said, a prediction machine has run 50,000 simulations and concluded that Tennessee is the projected 4+ seed with the best chance to make the Final Four. So, best-looking Cinderella? Or do 4-seeds not qualify for Cinderella status? Regardless, their chances to reach the second round, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, title game, and the championship podium are, according to this thing, 84%, 53.4%, 26.5%, 12.2%, 3%, and .9% respectively. So, over 50% chance to make it past the first week and a decent shot to go a bit further. Sounds about right.
SEC Country says to expect a few more football commitments over the summer this year due to a new rule that allows rising seniors to take official visits during that time.
Jeremy Pruitt is making Memphis a priority in recruiting and also bringing in the big guns (Peyton Manning, Phillip Fulmer, and David Cutcliffe) for his first coaching clinic as a Vol.
Freshman Zach Daniels’ grand slam in the third inning last night against Lipscomb helped the Vols to an 8-5 win.
Who else is glad to see Montario Hardesty back on campus? That spin move against South Carolina in the pumpkin uni is still the best I’ve ever seen.
@VFL_Films is trilled to have @MoHard20 back on campus! pic.twitter.com/e5jyLKFQSO
— Barry Rice (@jumbartron) February 19, 2018
We get as much mileage as we can out of the “picked to finish 13th in the SEC” narrative, but that story really changed as soon as the Vols beat Purdue. That was 91 days ago. Tennessee then increased its tournament profile in the most boring way possible: competitive losses to Villanova and North Carolina, wins over everyone else in the non-conference. It looks like that will now include one additional victory over a tournament team (NC State), but at the time there was no additional earth-shattering moment after Purdue. The Vols beat all the teams they should beat, and almost beat two teams better than them.
But after a brief set of questions following near misses with Arkansas and Auburn to open SEC play, the Vols provided answers almost every night. Tennessee won nine of its next ten games in what might be the deepest SEC of all-time, beating Texas A&M and sweeping Kentucky. They won four road games, losing only at Missouri by four. It was, and is, the sort of streak that creates an expectation and then lives up to it.
Meanwhile, Auburn did basically the same thing, which kept the SEC title just out of reach. Tennessee’s RPI has hovered between 10-20 for six weeks. Even though it seems strange to say with that whole picked-13th past, Tennessee has been this good for a while now.
So good for so long, in fact, we flirted with one-seed talk the same week we won at Rupp Arena. Did the Vols fly a little too close to the sun? We’ll find out in March. But a 28-point loss at Alabama and what should be the season’s first loss to a non-tournament team at Georgia both backed the Vols down the bracket, and raised questions for the first time in almost two months. (By the way, the #nobadlosses still holds up – Georgia wasn’t a “good loss”, but the Dawgs are 66th in RPI in 70th in KenPom. That’s an NIT team.)
A team with Tennessee’s profile – consistent all year but an elite win or two shy from longer one-seed conversations – feels like a baseball team seven games up in the wild card in early August. There’s still work to do, and it sucks you can’t win the division, but this team is going to the playoffs with every chance to advance. That’s the end result, and you know it a few miles away from the bracket. A team like that can get lost in the grind for a minute.
Is that what’s happened to Tennessee these last few days, or are there legitimate concerns? Here with some answers are the Florida Gators.
Florida runs a particularly efficient offense: shoot threes, make free throws, don’t turn it over. Virginia Tech transfer Jalen Hudson and Rice transfer Egor Koulechov joined Chris Chiozza and KeVaughn Allen in this guard-heavy lineup, and these dudes will let it fly. The Gators are fourth in the SEC in threes attempted and 70th nationally in three-point percentage; Hudson shoots 39.5% and Koulechov 42%. They shoot 73.8% from the line, and most of all, they take great care of the basketball. Florida is fourth nationally in turnover percentage, giving the ball away on just 14.3% of its possessions.
Florida has also been a tad unlucky, especially when it comes to opponent free throw shooting. They lost to Duke by three when the Blue Devils went 19-of-20 at the line, and at Vanderbilt by three when the Commodores went 22-of-24. Ole Miss, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida State all beat the Gators while shooting better than 81% at the line.
Much of Tennessee’s focus right now is on offensive production and rebounding, but Tennessee’s most consistent weakness has been stopping great guards. Florida provides another opportunity for Rick Barnes’s squad to show their work.
On the other side of this one is a road trip through the state of Mississippi and another shot at Georgia in Knoxville. It’s the last test against a tournament team before the SEC Tournament, and will either cast our vision back toward the bracket with a win, or deeper into what makes this team tick with a loss.
9:00 PM ET, but hey, we made it to ESPN2! Have I mentioned we still have the television schedule of a team picked to finish 13th?
Go Vols.
Tennessee men’s basketball had another rough night Saturday, losing to Georgia, 73-62. That makes two losses in three games on the heels of a six-game winning streak and talk of a possible 1-seed.
Coach Barnes (who, by the way, is a national coach of the year candidate according to SI.com), reacted to the significant free throw disparity Saturday night by putting the blame on his team, not the officials. Georgia made 27 of 38 freebies, while the Vols only had 15 total trips to the charity stripe. Fan may call that bad officiating or home court advantage or whatever, but Barnes says it means the team “didn’t play very smart,” suggesting they were too content to shoot over defenders instead of taking hard to the basket.
The loss to the Bulldogs may (or may not) be the worst on the season resume, but regardless, Wes Rucker’s right that losing right now could pay off when it counts. A coach can tell his guys that they can get beat by anyone anytime if they don’t play well, and they can even believe it, but actually having it happen and feeling it is another matter entirely.
Let’s hope they rediscover their groove at the right time and remember the lessons learned along the way. For his part, Barnes is mashing buttons like crazy and sparing no one, not even Grant Williams, the team’s best and most consistent player who’s nevertheless been in a bit of a funk recently. Barnes is not only not coddling Williams, he’s trained a giant spotlight on him in the midst of his struggles, saying that he “has to quit talking about it and do it.”
The Lady Vols basketball team also lost this weekend, to No. 13 Mizzouri, 77-73.
The softball team, though, beat Marshall 5-4 on a late hit by Meghan Gregg with the bases loaded.
The baseball team split a doubleheader Sunday with Maryland, losing 10-4 in Game 1 and winning 13-6 in Game 2.
VFL Christian Coleman broke the world record in the 60-meter dash yesterday:
#USATFindoors ends with @__Coleman’s 6.34 🌎 record! #MoveOverMo pic.twitter.com/iiNbrgfQl3
— USATF (@usatf) February 19, 2018
And finally, Peyton Manning may not be able to sell you these products, but he is able to maintain his sense of humor even while driving the pace car at the Daytona 500:
Peyton Manning is leading us to green! #DAYTONA500 https://t.co/It40QMxBYh
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 18, 2018
Tennessee basketball, presented an opportunity to inch closer to an Auburn team that had lost earlier in the day at South Carolina, instead blew their own road game at Georgia this evening, losing 73-62. Fortunately for Tennessee, they weren’t the only SEC team to lose on the road today, as all six tournament teams that traveled lost.
The Bulldogs used a couple of second half runs to secure the victory, starting the second period with a 10-2 run and then using an 8-2 run to seal the deal under the ten minute mark after the Vols had cut the lead to 2.
Tennessee had one last gasp when Lamonte Turner buried a three with 1:11 remaining and closed the gap to two possessions, but Georgia was able to pull away and hit their free throws when the Vols turned to desperation fouls.
Kyle Alexander posted his second career double-double, finishing with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Lamonte Turner led the way on the scored board with 14 points, and Jordan Bowden and Admiral Schofield had 13 and 11, respectively. Grant Williams was held to 5 points and four rebounds. He was 1-8 from the field.
Meanwhile, the Vols allowed SEC Player of the Year candidate Yante Maten to score 19 points and grab five rebounds and allowed Derek Ogbeide to earn a double-double dominating the paint.
Tennessee hosts Florida Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. on ESPN2.
