Tennessee All-American Chris Lofton has been a man of few words throughout the majority of his career.
When Lofton chooses to speak, however, he doesn't mince words.
That was the case following the seventh-ranked Vols' (3-0) lackluster 89-75 men's basketball victory over Prairie View A&M on Friday night.
"We're not the top-10 team we're ranked to be,'' Lofton said. "We're beatable right now.''
Lofton said there was no good reason the Panthers (1-2) were able to stay with UT much of Friday night's game.
"We can make all the excuses we want, but we weren't ready to play,'' Lofton said. "They came out with passion, and we came out lackadaisical. We've been blowing people out by 40, and I think we underestimated this team tonight.''
Vols' coach Bruce Pearl said he expects Lofton and his teammates to get their act together.
"They will talk about this a lot, amongst themselves,'' Pearl said. "We won't get beat for a while because we're not ready to play.''
The Panthers (1-2) out-shot the Vols from the floor, the 3-point arc, free-throw line and out-rebounded UT.
Lofton, who's mired in a 6-of-28 shooting slump (3-of-17 beyond the arc), said he was as responsible as anyone.
"Personally, I'm not happy because I haven't been playing good,'' Lofton said. "The good thing is the team is winning. That's the thing about this team, someone else will pick you up, and Tyler (Smith) did that tonight (Friday).
"I just want to be playing better. I'm never satisfied with how I play, anyway, so I'm trying to shake this off.''
Aside from his shooting, Lofton hasn't played bad.
Through three games, Lofton has nine assists and three turnovers and he has hit 14 of 16 attempts from the free-throw line.
Still, Lofton said he doesn't take any satisfaction in making one of five Sports Illustrated regional covers.
"It's great for the school,'' Lofton said, "but I really don't deserve it.''
The Vols will head to Newark, N.J., later this week for a Friday night game against West Virginia and then a Saturday night game against Texas or New Mexico State.
So how does Lofton feel about UT's chances against some big-name opponents?
"We're not looking past Middle Tennessee State,'' said Lofton, referring to the Vols' 7:30 p.m. Tuesday home game. "They gave us a run for our money last year.''
Pearl gave the Vols an earful in a lengthy post-game talk after Friday night's game.
Lofton said there's only so much Pearl can do.
"Coach is pushing us,'' he said, "but he can only coach us and put us in the right places.
"It's going to be up to us.''
Fever Pitch: Pearl, like Lofton, praised sophomore transfer Tyler Smith for his 15-point performance, which included five steals.
"Tyler did a really nice job for us,'' Pearl said, "and he was playing with a fever.''
Tyler Smith is the Vols' leading scorer through three games with 39 points. JaJuan Smith is second with 37 points and Ramar Smith is third with 36 points. Lofton has 29 points.
Ramar's Throws: Pearl said point guard Ramar Smith just needs to get his mind right after his embarrassing 0-for-12 performance from the free-throw line against Prairie View A&M.
"Free-throw shooting is very mental,'' Pearl said. "I don't know if we were as ready to play as we needed to be.
"The fact (Ramar) got to the foul line 12 times is a really good sign.''
Ramar Smith is the only Vol to score in double figures in each of UT's first three regular-season games.
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Comments » 22
UTByrd writes:
...and to think so many folks are dogging Ramar on the bobble head comment page. If things were perfect all the time, we'd all be miserable. The mark of a great team is how they respond to adversity, be it FT%, cold rim, foul trouble, bad night from the refs and so on. I believe that when this team gets it's groove on it will be a thing of beauty. Go VOLS!!!
thevol writes:
JW-Now your sourpuss, bad attitude is talking smack about b-ball? Yawn. No one cares about your opinion or will hear your boos(I am guessing that's what your retarded ass meant by bo) above the cheers of the real TN fans.
DenmarkVol_aka_Mbumburu writes:
Jwraymond, if you boo this basketball team, you are a pathetic loser. You will be a disgrace to the Vol Nation and shouldn't be allowed to wear anything orange.
Better not be in my section if you choose to boo.
eefor10c writes:
The UT Athletic Department can save a lot of money. Combine the positions of head football coach, head mens basketball coach, throw in the baseball coaching position and hey, why not, the Lady Vols head coaching position as well. We can let jwraymond do it all. He obviously knows all there is to know about coaching. We save the money by paying him what he is worth. NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!
Ironcity writes:
Sometimes you hve to be totally humiliated before you can realize there is a problem. I am hopeful that Ramar has hit that point. I cannot believe he ahs taken free throw shooting serious enough otherwise a bad day would be 6-12. Good things tend to come from adversity. The good news is we still won by 14. Go Vols take care of business and lets get rolling!
Fred08 writes:
Ramar was bad at free throws last year too...he's just not good at them. Hopefully it won't cost us a game. GO VOLS!!!
King30 writes:
Yes, bricker. I picked mine up a Weigel's yesterday.
hueypilot writes:
Don't know about newstand bricker, but I got mine as a subscriber a couple of days ago, so it should be at your favorite Walgreen's or 7-11 right now.
Canpflier writes:
jwraymond: I'd advise you to keep your boos to yourself. What an obnoxious, punk thing to say. How about leaving the comments section to people who know at least a little about the game. You obviously have no clue!
Besides, you couldn't boo your Moma off the floor in TB. Dimwit.
chefjorge writes:
"poopy pants?" Is that what they said to you on the short bus jwr when you soiled yourself? I simply can't imagine how bad your life must be to have essentially every post you make be so entirely negative. These seem to be some kids that are simply not making any excuses. All Lofton is doing is trying to motivate himself to improve. Why show him disrespect for that.
cdldoc#211897 writes:
jwr and tdtn, two malcontents that are tiresome to the loyal fans and readers.
threehundredbowler writes:
You can do a lot of things useing a key board.
budrhon writes:
Note to Ramar: Before being so eager to get to the League (NBA) work on fine tuning your game so when you do step out for the draft you're marketable as a 1st rounder. Right now you're not, which means you should exercise patience by staying an additional year to raise your stock. Maybe not what you want to hear, but don't let the hanger-on folk brain wash you.
asleep#212036 writes:
I think the challenge this year is coaching and BP has his hands full. The first two years there were no expectations. Now? When you are the only ranked team in your conference and the unanimous choice to win the regular season and the tournament, the pressure mounts. Not to mention you have the pre-season favorite for Player of the Year and 6 of your top 7 players returning off a Sweet Sixteen squad. Lots and lots and lots of pressure to not just maintain, but exceed the past two seasons. Dont' get me wrong, I think BP and the team will respond. But playing as the target instead of the gun is new to this program. Let's hope they have to get used to it for many seasons to come. Go Vols!!!
Tellicovol writes:
I've been a Vol bb fan since the sixties and I believe this team has more tallent than any team I've saw, and yes I saw the Earnie and Bernie show. I don't know who makes our schedule or how far ahead it is made but I don't think the push over schedule we've played this year has served us well. If we want to contend for the SEC crown, the final four and a national championship we could take a page out of Pat Summits book on our schedule. Tallent plus good coaching will rise to the ocassion most of the time, but as we saw last Friday if we are not challenged we tend to lower our play to the level of the team that we are playing. I hope next year we will schedule some good teams before we start the SEC schedule.
nickperkinsalc#627224 writes:
The vols have some super talent, depth, and a great coaching staff. Obviously we can worry about free throw percentages, and Lofton's 3pt percentage, but it's a long season and no one should have expected them to dominate every game. They will get the kinks worked out, it's a long season. As far Lofton, I think he is simply putting a little too much pressure on himself. He has been hyped to have a huge senior season and he wants to have that season, both for himself and his team. He also is going to be fine. If these problems are still evident in several weeks then we can worry, until then it's simply working out the kinks and getting in the groove.
tntheel writes:
a friend recommended this forum to me for a good laugh...love reading B'BALL comments from TN fans, most of which never spent one day in a college classroom...get over yourselves and realize you are a fairly good football school, and will never ever be a top tier basketball team..when speaking of the best in college basketball, a vol fan would be laughed out of the room...get real...you will be bounced out of the top 10 by by the end of Jan..GO HEELS
thevol writes:
JW- Sure you were joking. I bet when we win the SEC in football, you were "joking" about the football team as well. Idiot.
DSaVol writes:
Ya'll taking jw wayyyyy too seriously...lmao..first of all he couldn't even find NJ if someone dropped him in the middle of the state! Secondly, he's obviously enthralled with bending his knees, hmmm, wonder why that is? Lots of practice maybe? jdub...you're better off just yawning man.
Now for the heel...what the hell would someone from NC ever possibly know about being a good football school? You better worry bout keeping that coach of yours more than one damned year. As for hoops, well, gonna take 3 whole months to knock us out of the top 10 eh? Bet NC goes before we do big fella!
And finally for all of those obsessed with free throws - PLEASE STFU!!!! My God, you've been posting the same phooey for two years and I think we've done pretty damned well in that time. It's real simple - we have a number of guys that just don't shoot free throws (or jumpers) very well. Doesn't matter why, doesn't matter what they could or should do about it, it simply is what it is and it ain't gonna change. The more important thing with this team is that a number of these guys learn what WE means and forget the me, my, I phooey. Understand that teams that win titles have NBA caliber talent but that talent plays for their team and not a future payday. The risk is that we have probably 7 or 8 guys that MIGHT develop into NBA players but none that are currently a lock for the league. Those guys have to avoid playing for scouts and instead commit to playing for THIS team or they're gonna miss a tremendous opportunity to achieve something great this year.
Dirtdobber writes:
Jwraymond: why dont you share the resin off that crack pipe you are smoking with the rest of us!
Dirtdobber writes:
Tntheel- why dont you grab your heels!
DSaVol writes:
Touchdown - your beloved free throws did NOT cost us the OSU game - piss poor defense in the second half and a total of 10 missed layups did! I've never said FTs weren't relevent but they are certainly very overrated by simple minded people that can't see beyond what some Dickie V type tells them.
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