HoopNotes:Waiting For Columbus

[orange+white=heaven]

Good Morning Nationals!

Let the Madness begin.

The monday hilites from the local sportspages...

Tennessean:Ready for Business\

"The excitement is still the same," senior forward Dane Bradshaw said. "It's a magical day, Selection Sunday. I'm thrilled to be a part of it. But at the same time, you realize how much work is ahead of you and how tough it is and that nothing comes easy.
"We felt like we let an opportunity pass us by last year."

Pearl's message to his team and fans who gathered Sunday at Neyland Stadium's East Side Club Level to watch the selection show was simple: Live in the present.

"I feel that we need to look to the opportunity we have right now," said Pearl, who's 1-3 in the postseason at Tennessee. "We want to build and make history, but so much of our postseason history is not positive. I'm a pretty positive guy. I want to look at Long Beach State, not what Coach (Ray) Mears did. I want to look at Virginia and Albany and not what Ernie Grunfeld did or didn't do in the NCAA Tournament. I think we felt it a little bit in the SEC Tournament."

The 49ers (24-7) love to push the basketball and are averaging more than 80 points per game. It's a style very similar to the one Pearl brought to Tennessee.

"We're just going to keep going and see who has the best motor," junior guard JaJuan Smith said.

tfp:A little more reaction..

What once was a thrill has now become a trend.

“Last year, I think we were excited just being there, getting in the tournament,” guard Chris Lofton said. “This year, we took it as a business approach. We’re trying to go in there and win some games.”

“I feel like it’s where we ought to be,” UT coach Bruce Pearl said. “And maybe there’s also a little poetic justice putting me in the 5-12 bracket, because at Milwaukee we were always the 12.

“We lost at the buzzer to Notre Dame as a 12, and we were able to beat Alabama as a 12. So history does tell us that a 12 will beat a 5.”

“Me and Chris (Lofton) were laughing,” senior Dane Bradshaw said, “imagining two years ago when I was sitting around with Pee-Wee Gash, watching Selection Sunday and all the other teams. It’s crazy how quickly things have changed.”

“We probably have as little tape on Long Beach State as anybody,” said Pearl, who collects tape of nearly every televised game during the season. “They’ve not been on TV a lot.”

A quick scouting report on the 49ers is they’re similar to the Vols. They run a lot. They averaged more points per game (83.3) than any team in Division I last season, and are in the nation’s top 10 this year.

“You could say it plays into our hands,” Bradshaw said, “but they’re probably saying the same thing.”

“They’re very, very athletic,” Pearl said. “It’s going to be interesting to see whether or not it’s going to be the kind of team we can press or maybe we have to slow them down a little bit.”

tfp:Wiedmer Commentary:Vols Get Great Draw

Not even the most passionate Tennessee basketball fan would have predicted a long NCAA stay for the Vols following last Thursday night’s overtime loss to LSU in the SEC tournament.

But that’s the great thing about March Madness.
Which is why the following sentence sprints off my keyboard rather than stopping and starting more times than a Yugo: The Big Orange can reach the Big Peach for the Final Four.

rarely has a bracket set up so right for the Vols as this year’s South Regional does. The only thing better would have been if UT could have played three hours up the road in Lexington’s Rupp Arena rather than six or so hours away in Columbus, Ohio.

But regardless of where it plays, UT should have little trouble with Long Beach State in the opening round and should rattle guard-erratic Virginia (assuming the Cavaliers outlast Albany) in round two.

Win there and it’s on to the Alamodome, where the Big Orange could face top-seeded Ohio State in the Sweet 16. In case you’ve forgotten, the Vols lost 68-66 to the Buckeyes in Columbus on Jan. 13. Both have improved since then, but because of that, UT will loathe the Bucks more than fear them.

And just in case the Big Orange reaches the regional final, UT has already thumped second-seed Memphis, tormenting the Tigers 76-58 in December.

But that’s not all. Let’s just say that Texas A&M — arguably the best team in this regional — gets past Memphis. Do you know where Vols assistant Steve Forbes was coaching this time last year? Texas A&M, that’s where. Factor all that in and it makes you wonder if former SEC commish Roy Kramer didn’t draw up this bracket, believing it was for the UT football team.

I'm also really happy that we wound up with a Friday game....

Go Get 'Em Vols!!!

 

[MphsBlues]

Thanks OWH. Well written, as always. Here's hoping to bring a couple W's home and go the the Alama Dome!

 

[tidwell]

:rock2:

Gets ya even more excited reading stuff like that.

 

[lawgator1]

I liked the Bradhsaw quote. Very good way to put it.

 

[orange+white=heaven]

I'm totally bummed that nobody got the reference to the classic '78 live album from Little Feat in the threadline....
:no:

 

[volley]

That got me pretty pumped to read that. I'm torn between not getting my hopes up and knowing that we could make a deep exciting run. This article made me think that there shouldn't really be any team for the Vols to really be afraid to face. We have faced 3 out of 4 of the 1-seeds, Memphis as a 2-seed, and a dangerous Texas team and proved we could handle them (with the exception of NC but I choose not to count that one).

Like always, it's hard to predict what this team will do, but I can guarantee it will be exciting.