Let’s dance

Tennessee opens NCAA Tournament play this afternoon at 12:40 p.m. ET against Wright State, and the Hype Machine is already cranked up to 11:

Even the objective media types are adding to the momentum:


But those particular horses must be held, as Tennessee has to get by Wright State first. The Raiders aren’t highly-ranked by KenPom (No. 131 this morning), but they can play defense and score points from the free throw line. They are going to have a real challenge, though, with Tennessee’s physicality.

So what do the Vols need to do to advance today? Well, every time Will has identified exactly what makes the Vols tick, they go full chameleon curveball and surprise everyone by ticking yet another a new way.

So, we’ll just have to see what they have in store for us this afternoon. We’ll have a game thread later this morning for the 12:40 tip on truTV.

ICYMI

It’s not too late to join the Gameday on Rocky Top bracket contest.

Tennessee is one of seven teams that will be featured on NCAA March Madness Confidential, which means we’ll get to see some extra behind-the-scenes stuff peppered into the tournament coverage this year. Nice.

Rivaling the Bruce Pearl Timeline and Brian Williams’ weight loss as the most-repeated go-to talking point for color analysts is the subject of Admiral Schofield’s first name. You may be tiring of it, but I’m hoping to hear it about six more times.

UTSports has an excellent feature on Rick Barnes and how he has positively affected the culture throughout the Tennessee athletic program.

Not to be outdone, the News Sentinel has a great feature on Vol Chris Darrington having to cope with the loss of a friend.

DylanVol takes another look at Vols’ hoops recruiting.

This is about a week late, but I neglected to post it earlier, and because it will never get old, I’m posting it now: