Rolling with Excitement

Not on a bus.

Not heading down a rainy, sleet-soaked interstate to watch a University of Tennessee men's basketball road game at Alabama.

"No way," Hipsher said before he camped out in the top row of the upper reaches of Coleman Coliseum. "I never would have imagined this.

"All I want now is a 'W.' Give me a win today and that would be a great birthday present."

Hipsher was one of 51 Tennessee fans who made the Saturday bus ride to Alabama, caught up in the excitement surrounding the No. 8-ranked Vols.

There just wasn't much to cheer about when UT (19-4, 10-2 Southeastern Conference) lost 92-79 to the Crimson Tide (15-9, 8-4).

Hipsher didn't get his birthday wish, but it remains a day lifelong UT fan Doug Boshears never pictured.

"I've got the fever," he said. "I'm a diehard fan, but I never dreamed it could ever happen that people would be making bus rides on road trips for basketball.

"It's just that this team plays so hard and with so much heart. It's almost like someone could make a heck of a movie script out of this whole season."

That was the story repeated over and over again on the 4-hour ride from Knoxville in the cold rain.

"I've been watching them since the late 1940s," fan Allen "Scrapper" Campbell said. "The only thing that compares to this year was when Ernie (Grunfeld) and Bernie (Bernard King) played in the '70s."

The Big Orange TipOff Club helped get the wheels in motion for the second consecutive weekend road trip. For a Feb. 11 victory at Athens, Ga., three busloads of UT fans made the trip.

"I think we could have had that many again this week, but there were a limited number of tickets," TipOff Club representative Barry Smith said after handing out "Bus Mob" name tags to all the riders.

Smith, a former basketball manager at UT in the early 1980s under coach Don DeVoe, said the current excitement is unrivaled in his days following the program.

"It's a combination of things," he said. "First, the team is doing great. Secondly, coach (Bruce) Pearl is promoting the heck out of it and seeing the results."

There was even a dignitary making the bumpy ride down Interstate 59.

E. Riley Anderson, a 16-year Tennessee Supreme Court justice, had his window seat along with a couple of Big Orange pom-poms.

"I've just always been a big basketball fan from the old days in Memorial Alumni Gym to Stokely (Athletics Center)," he said. "But this is my first road trip.

"I think this team just plays so hard, and the expectations weren't great. It inspires people to watch them."

Count Sue Sellers among the inspired.

Sellers was with a group of five fans from Maryville. The wife of the late Herman Ramsey, a longtime SEC official, also made the trip to Georgia.

"We had at least 10 more people who wanted to come to this game," she said. "The trip to Georgia was just great.

"You could tell the players were happy we were there, and it was exciting when they came up in the stands after the game."

There wouldn't be any trip in the stands for UT players this time.

The bus ride back to Knoxville was a little more subdued, but that's not the point. The point is the fans were there.

"The season has been incredible," Hipsher said. "To be projected last in the SEC East and be leading the whole pack we'll take that."

All the way back to Knoxville.

Mark Burgess may be reached at 865-342-6277.