Great word if you are a basketball team.
It means one can stand up to difficult circumstance, and still prevail.
It means one can play the game outside of his preferred style, and still prevail.
It means one can face three foes who are committed to causing your demise, and still prevail.
It means one is capable of making a statement to future tournament opponents that whatever game plan you bring, we will prevail.
It means you are good.
It means I have a team I can be immeasurably proud of.
Morning reading courtesy of a man I know heaps praise on Tennessee only reluctantly, Mark Wiedmer...
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We now have irrefutable proof that the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team has arrived. And it has nothing to do with the Vols briefly earning a No. 1 ranking last week.
That was historic and impressive. But it may not ultimately matter as much as the Big Orange’s attitude following Sunday afternoon’s 63-60 victory over bitter rival Kentucky.
In any other season beating Big Blue would have been cause for the Vols to sport wide smiles and positive words. After all, this was UT’s 26th victory, which ties for the most singleseason wins in school history. The school also had just hoisted alltime great Ernie Grunfeld’s No. 22 to the Thompson-Boling rafters, a moment Grunfeld likened to representing the United States in the 1976 Olympics, which further charged the 21,628 in attendance.
By any past reference point, this should have been one of those games these Vols would fondly tell their grandkids about for decades to come.
Instead, senior guard Chris Lofton said of his third victory in three years over his home state U.: “We were disappointed because we were playing bad. We got down on ourselves.”
Added sophomore pivot Wayne Chism: “We were irritated because they were in the game. If we watch the secondhalf tape I probably won’t look at it because we just didn’t play defense.”
Said sophomore forward Tyler Smith, his face glum and his head hung low: “We’re down because we know we could have played better.”
Clearly, third-year coach Bruce Pearl has made winning without playing well almost as bad as losing. And that’s a good thing. Maybe even a great thing as long as the Vols don’t become joyless and jaded, as juggernauts sometimes do, including Kentucky on occasion.
Even the perpetually peppy Pearl sounded tired at the end of an eight-day odyssey that included a win at then-No. 1 Memphis, a loss at Vanderbilt and a victory over Kentucky, which ensured the Vols a share of the Southeastern Conference East division title.
“There was a lot of pressure on Tennessee today because of the kind of season we have had and the road we have traveled,” he said, “It is not easy, and it is not always pretty. We may not be the smartest or the best, but we are resilient.”
Resilient wins more than it loses. Just look at the UT football team last autumn. Given up for dead after blowout losses at California, Florida and Alabama, Phillip Fulmer’s Vols rallied to win the SEC East and almost knock off eventual national champ LSU in the league title game.
Tennessee may or may not have been the SEC East’s best, but the Big Orange was clearly the most resilient. Perhaps that’s why Pearl welcomed Fulmer into a somber Vols locker room after Sunday’s win. Resilience needed a face.
Or did it? Reslience was Tyler Smith coming from nowhere on the back of the press to swat away UK guard Ramel Bradley’s layup. Resilience was Smith blocking another Wildcat offering a few seconds later. Resilience was also JaJuan Smith coming up with a crucial steal inside the final two minutes despite hitting just 2 of 8 shots on the other end.
This isn’t to say there is no cause for concern in Big Orange Country. After scoring 80 or more points in 16 of their first 22 games, the Vols have scored 74 or less in four of their last six.
Moreover, they hit just 25 percent of their 3-pointers against the Wildcats some four days after hitting 27 percent from treysville against Vanderbilt.
Said Pearl, sounding slightly concerned: “With the exception of JaJuan and Chris, we’ve got a lot of guys who aren’t real confident (shooting the basketball).”
Said Tyler Smith, “We’re more mentally tired than
physically tired,” said Tyler Smith. “The coaches aren’t going to let us get mentally tired. But dealing with schoolwork, mid-terms and all this media attention kinda wears you down.”
So maybe it is better to be the hunter than the hunted.
But Pearl also delivered a warning to anyone who thinks his team may have peaked too soon.
“Just wait and see,” he said. “Stay tuned. We’ll beat you at your game. We’ll beat you at our game. You decide.”
Just don’t expect the Vols to ever again be happy unless they beat you at their best.
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It's great to be a Tennessee Vol.