The opening weekend, college football gave us a shock-the-world story, Appalachian State's upset win at Michigan.
In college basketball, the knee-buckling news couldn't even wait until opening weekend.
Grand Valley State stunned No. 8 Michigan State in an exhibition game. Then little Findlay humbled Ohio State, last year's national runner-up, in another exhibition.
Then the real games started.
In one weekend:
n Gardner-Webb dominated No. 22 Kentucky in Rupp Arena. So much for Billy Gillespie's honeymoon.
n Mercer went to LA and upset No. 18 Southern Cal. So much for O.J. Mayo's debut.
n Rick Byrd's Belmont team won handily at Cincinnati. Make it a hat trick for the Atlantic Sun Conference.
n UNC-Greensboro upset Georgia Tech in Atlanta, its first win against an Atlantic Coast Conference team in 25 tries.
Furthermore, while Tennessee was pummeling Arkansas-Monticello this week, Davidson was taking No. 1 North Carolina to the wire in a 72-68 near miss.
From the looks of it this basketball season is going to have a lot in common with football season. Goliath is going to take some lumps up side the head from David.
Onto this slippery slope Tennessee dribbled Friday night.
Besides its 17-point win over Temple, the Vols' average margin of victory against exhibition foes California (Pa.) and Lincoln Memorial and Arkansas-Monticello was 60 points.
Friday figured to be more of same against Prairie View A&M, a 104-48 loser at Oklahoma State a week ago.
The Panthers apparently hadn't read the script.
They proceeded to lead Tennessee for virtually the first 20 minutes as a Thompson-Boling Arena crowd fidgeted.
The halftime score - Prairie View 36, Tennessee 35 - must have raised some eyebrows as it crawled across the screen of various televised games.
The final score, of course, is all that matters. Tennessee 89, Prairie View 75.
There are any number of worthy attributes Bruce Pearl has brought to Tennessee basketball in a little over two seasons. Among them is that his teams rarely lose games they are supposed to win.
He promised as much shortly after his arrival in Knoxville. Because his pressing, frantic tempo wears on opponents and instills confidence in his own players, his teams seldom fall prey to inferior competition.
"We play harder than our opponents,'' Pearl reiterated Friday night, "almost every night. We didn't tonight.
"I wish I could give the system credit for this win. I can't. In this case we had overwhelming talent that won that game tonight.''
The system, though, has generally been bankable against mid- and low-major foes. Wichita State and Butler are the only mid-majors to beat Pearl's Tennessee teams and, to be fair, Butler is so good it has transcended mid-majordom.
As lackluster as UT's pre-Pearl history has been, I was surprised to find it had as few losses to mid- or low-major teams as it has.
Buzz Peterson's last team lost at home to UT-Chattanooga. Kevin O'Neill made history by losing to Tennessee Tech. Wade Houston's last team lost consecutive home games to Arkansas-Little Rock and Western Carolina.
Jerry Green's legacy is sullied by a string of NCAA tournament losses to mid-majors Illinois State, Southwest Missouri State and UNC-Charlotte.
Losing to Prairie View would have been more shocking than any of the above. But the Vols didn't lose.
Unlike Kentucky, Southern Cal, Michigan State and the other Goliaths wearing bandages on the heads, Tennessee bucked up in the second half and avoided disaster.
Surveying the carnage already littered across the college basketball landscape, Pearl breathed a sigh of relief and moves on.
"It happens in the early season, it certainly does,'' he said.
"You have to put it in perspective and understand that we could have lost that game.
"We didn't.''
Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.
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Comments » 4
Hunter writes:
Great time for a wake-up call. Now, team, let's stop reading the newspapers and watching ESPN and relax! Play the game like it's fun. Don't sweat the free throws - the more you worry about them the worse they will get. Pearl shouldn't even mention it in practice. I think they would improve with less pressure put on them, most self-imposed. Let's get after the rest of the non-conference slate and get prepped for SEC basketball.
drmike writes:
best thing in the world to ever happen to the mighty vols. reality check. get your heads back out of the clouds and welcome back to planet earth. i wonder if pearl will have ramar shoot 100 straight free throws in practice today and force the team to shoot 50 each in ramar's behalf? thank god for steve forbes and his second half defensive scheme
johnlg00#206211 writes:
I hope last night's 0-12 debacle is enough to get Ramar Smith's head out of those NBA clouds for a while. NBA teams simply do not waste first-round draft choices on guards who cannot make either free throws OR outside shots on a regular basis. I love the quickness and power with which he takes the ball to the basket--in COLLEGE BALL! In the NBA, he simply won't be able to get that kind of penetration, and when he does he is going to get creamed--and why not, until he shows he can make them pay at the foul line. Furthermore, when a point guard repeatedly takes the ball to the basket, the other team runs out on his misses, as happened several times last night. Baby steps, Ramar! First, show that you can make a free throw, then show that you can make a field goal outside 3 feet, and THEN you can dream about the NBA!
Colliervol writes:
Amen johnlg. Not a chance Ramar Smith gets drafted by an NBA team till he learns what you said. Just to use a local example of how tough the NBA is to make. Mike Conley (yes, that guy) is struggling to get minutes with the Grizzlies (who are not exactly the Spurs or Mavs). He is running 3rd string behind Damon Stoudamire and Kyle Lowry. Stoudamire will probably be traded soon and Conley may be the future point guard but there are no guarantees that he will beat out Lowry. Anybody think that Smith is as good as Conley? Who would you like to have on the line at the end of a tight game? Like you, I like his toughness and attitude, but I hope he doesn't think that will automatically get him in the NBA.
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