Posted by 2000man on January 10, 2008 at 1:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Good ol' Rocky Top!

Whew!

Rocky Top Tennessee!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by hdhurst on January 10, 2008 at 2:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Yes, no doubt, a sweet win at home and against a very quality opponent. Until UT becomes a regular powerhouse, I hope we don't lose out on the opportunity to do something special this year.

This rebounding thing scares me. I know Duke is out and Williams is a little young/inexperienced, but if we don't make it a point to hit the offensive and defensive boards, we are in for a short run in the tourney. Don't get me wrong, I see the hustle on most occasions, but I think we are not positioning ourselves to block out and get it. Wayne..I love you man, but do yourself, the team, and the fans a favor and give us an inside presense...no need or justification for jacking up 2-4 3's a game when we need you inside. My opinion is that BP gives him way too much room for that. Just an observation.

When our defense starting lagging a few games back, BP got them together and lit a fire in them to turn it up. It's more than time to do that with regard to hitting the boards.

Also, despite the good win, down the road we will need to have someone step up at the point. I have seen flashes of brilliance from both Ramar and Jordan, but neither has taken it over yet. A consistent and productive offense is about rythym, and a floor general is the catalyst for that. I am not so sure I like the idea of the PG's being shuffled so fast, maybe they can't get into it being on the floor for just 7-10 minutes at a time.

Anyway, I will hang up and listen to your call. GO VOLS...lets manhandle SC, then take out the other unbeaten in the SEC.

Posted by oldorange on January 10, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Good column Mike

Posted by dfreeman on January 10, 2008 at 6:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Come on Lofton.. we need you to get hot!! We will need you this year!! Great win, thank you for Prince and Smith!

Posted by mlawson8 on January 10, 2008 at 7:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Wow guys! Congrats & What a finish. However, that being said...BOX OUT A STINKIN MAN AND PULL DOWN THE FRIGGING REBOUND.

Posted by james on January 10, 2008 at 7:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Rebound and play help defense and the game doesn't get that close. Chism has to learn to box out and help out. Two or three times someone's man drove and Chism watched. Fun, exciting win but one that shouldn't have gotten that close. Lofton, you are a shooter. We are pulling for you.

Posted by lempga on January 10, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Chism is a terrible rebounder. Hope we get Duke back and/or Williams develops. The post will cost us dearly later if Chism does not improve. Also, 3 for 12 from the floor is poor shoting. Post man shooting the 3 ball. I have to question Coach Pearl on giving him the green light.

Good win though and my blood runs Big Orange. Big W. Improve and Go Vols!

Posted by VolnDothan on January 10, 2008 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)

What Pearl has done to our basketball program is nothing short of amazing. The quality of players of we have, the strategy, the energy...is so incredible and fun to watch!

Kudos to Mike Hamilton for hitting it out of the park with Pearl!

Posted by ALLVOL12 on January 10, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Great article Mike. I admire Lofton for getting the ball to T. Smith down the stretch. He's a smart player and most of the time not to selfish. In the meantime, we need to get Mr. Lofton the hot hand he has yet to find this year. Big win.

Posted by ssukonic on January 10, 2008 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I love watching this team play. There seem to be no "I" players. They play so well together. Kudos to Pearl. I do notice re: their rebounding problems on the offensive end, when the shot goes up, count how many guys in orange you see either in the lane or headed there. Last night, the number most times was 1. Makes it tough to get an offensive rebound. Where's everyone else going....back down court? Were we so concerned with Ole Miss getting an easy basket at the other end?. On the defensive boards, we obviously miss Crews. But we have to get help from others too. Tyler Smith has to be there rebounding too. What a great addition he and Prince have been. But they have to rebound too. That Ole Miss team with their great 1-2 punch inside last night gave us quite a challenge inside. I think we go pretty lucky that one of their bigs got hurt or maybe this game goes the other way. Glad we only play those guys once in the regular season. We'll probably see them in the SEC tournament though. We better get better inside! Let's get ready for USC.

Posted by VolnFlorida on January 10, 2008 at 9:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

String music....great game.

Posted by johnlg00 on January 10, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Worse than Chism's 3-pt misses was his inability to finish around the rim. If Ole Miss doesn't lose Parnell early, we lose this game. This was a good preview for Memphis. They do everything OM does, only better, with a longer bench. Even with the best prognosis, Duke won't be back in time to help. Two things are against us in terms of defensive rebounding: 1) We don't have enough big, strong guys who like to pound the boards; and 2) We spread out all over the court applying defensive pressure. Most games we come up with enough steals and forced turnovers to compensate for the offensive rebounds we give up. The fact is that, for all our depth of skilled players, this team balances on a very fine edge. In football terms, we have to win with the speed and deception of a spread offense and a blitzing defense because we don't have the personnel to control the line of scrimmage. Just as in football, our system is entertaining to watch, and can overwhelm unprepared opponents, but has too many possible sources of failure for any of us to get too cocky just yet.

Posted by johnlg00 on January 10, 2008 at 9:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Good points, ssukonic, but we are in a sort of "devil's bargain" right now. If we send more guys to the defensive boards, we maybe don't get as many run-outs and have more offensive possessions against prepared defenses, where we have to depend on our streaky 3-pt shooting because we can't pound it down inside. If we send more guys to the offensive boards, we risk more run-outs by the other team and less opportunity to apply our pressure defense. Again, all that comes back to the fact that we don't have the inside power to do it any differently. Pearl is a GREAT coach who realizes all of the above, so he employs the system which gives THIS group of players the best opportunity to win, and convinces those players to buy into it.

Posted by leapyear52 on January 10, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Look for an impressive Ole Miss team to go as far as anyone in the SEC...great balance, will only get better...UT should learn from this game although proud of their fight !

Posted by ssukonic on January 10, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)

johnig00---I agree but last night on the telecast (wish I could be there to REALLY SEE), you could see Pearl mouthing to T. Smith..."you gotta get in there and rebound." Look, I agree that don't have lots of inside power. Even if we had Crews back, would you see Chism and Crews at the same time to increase our rebounding power? Nope, don't think so as then someone else isn't in there unless someone will allow us to use 6 at a time! It's a delicate balance and you have to go with your best possibilities. Pearl is a great coach....but it would have been interesting to see what would happen back in Nov. with two bigs in the game at the same time. The reality right now is we need for some of our other guys to help out on the boards. I don't think that last night if we had sent more guys to the offensive boards we would have been in MORE trouble at the other end. We couldn't stop Polynice with his spinning drives no matter what. He's just tough. All that said, this is just one fun team to watch play. The press and out of bounds defense didn't hurt Ole Miss as much as it's hurt other teams so far this year. I think that's a tribute to a good Ole Miss team.

Posted by KENVOL on January 10, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)

They can't rebound because NO ONE is under the basket. They throw up threes with no one around the basket. Seven min. without a basket is crazy. If the big man for Ole Miss didn't get hurt we loose this game. We'll take the win and hopefully learn from it. Block out and rebound.

Posted by dirtywhiteboy on January 10, 2008 at 10:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)

i agree with KENVOL. ole miss got all those rebounds because THEY TRIED to get them. seems like we were trying to get a rebound with one versus three or two versus four. plus we don't have an inside player who appears to be tough enough to want to tangle for a rebound except for duke crews and sometimes he's a little too aggressive.

Posted by Orange4life on January 10, 2008 at 12:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

NOW IF WE can only get our center to stop taking 3 pointers, and Juwan to stop hot dogging and Lofton to start driving and stop shooting from half court we'll be fine

Go VOls!

Posted by johnlg00 on January 10, 2008 at 1:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

ssukonic, I don't think the press has hurt anyone as much as it did last year. One good dribbler like Warren of Ole Miss or Rose of Memphis can break a man press. As I said earlier in the season, we need to come up with a zone press if only as a change of pace. We need to be able to get more than one trap in the backcourt and we need to trap more in the corners in the halfcourt. Of course we need more effort from the whole team to rebound better, but even more effort on the press will give better returns than trying to become a power rebounding team with our present personnel. Let's try to build on our strengths while trying to overcome our weaknesses.

Posted by keithvol71 on January 10, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Very disappointed in Chism. I cannot understand the inconsistency with this young man. If we cannot find a legitimate inside presence soon then we will lose often despite our great coach and amazing talent at the guard and forward positions. I love this team and the potential is there. We need Chism to step up and Crews to get healthy.

Posted by doctorvol on January 10, 2008 at 2:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Should not have let the tempo slow in the last 10 min. Once we got the 72-60 lead, we lost focus and became content in the half-court. Almost cost us. Ole Miss is good.

Posted by jevolball7 on January 10, 2008 at 4:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)

johnlg00,please don'''''''t compare the b ball program to the f ball ever again!! For all of our sakes,and dislike of flashbacks and nausea. Also,I heard Pearl say last night that if Duke passed 1 more of his 'tests",the doctors would likely clear him!!!!!

Posted by tshipley7963 on January 10, 2008 at 6:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)

A good game but there is no excuse in missing layups are anytime you are within 2 feet of the basket. Period

Posted by twicevolalum on January 10, 2008 at 9:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)

There have been several consistent, nagging issues with Tennessee basketball that go back over the last 3 coaches and I feel like continue to today. Those issues are: over-reliance on the three point shot, an inability to work the ball low to make consistent post shots, and poor free-throw shooting. I wish that Tennessee would become more of a team rather than 5 people playing on the court that happen to wear orange/white uniforms. I don't think we have the team skills to go very deep into the NCAA tournament and I'm not sure we can stay in the SEC tournament very long either. Tennessee has got to protect their lead and the ballgame with better defensive boards and better team play!

Posted by johnlg00 on January 11, 2008 at 12:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)

jevolball7, I wasn't comparing basketball and football programs, I was comparing the sports. At least in my opinion, there are similarities between certain systems in both sports. In case my point was too subtle, I will elaborate. One way to play football is to control the line of scrimmage so as to run the ball down the opponents' throats, eat up the clock, and wear down the opponents' defense. This is analogous to a strong inside game in b'ball in which one controls the ball, gets the opponents' big men in foul trouble, and shoots a high percentage. By contrast, a football offense based on deception and passing aims to score quickly on big plays, but can lead to turnovers, can't kill the clock reliably, and puts too much pressure on one's own defense because they don't get much rest between possessions. I could go on, but if you don't get the point by now, further elaboration wouldn't help.
twicevolalum, UT is at or near the top in the nation in assists and in assist-to-turnover ratio. Those are two of the most reliable team-oriented offensive stats there are. Every TV commentator I have heard so far comments on how crisply and unselfishly we move the ball around on offense. We have a TEAM, we just don't have a strong inside-oriented team. I pretty much agree with most of your other points.

Posted by Colliervol on January 11, 2008 at 2:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

No question we have issues in rebounding. Ole Miss had some bruisers in there and our bigs did not respond well. Tyler Smith and Jajuan saved the day for sure. Rebounding is nothing more than desire and putting a butt on somebody on every play. The best rebounder I've ever seen (Dennis Rodman) is only 6-8 and he got his with desire (and excellent timing).

Still a good win. Ole Miss is for real but it didn't hurt them that they had the Three Blind Mice refereeing for them. Never seen so many missed calls in my life, most of them in favor of Ole Miss. And that Ted Valentine may be the worst lead ref that I've ever seen. Hope we don't see him too much as he does not appear to like BP for some reason. They came within an eyelash of losing control of that game.

Note: Was it just me or did several of the Ole Miss big men seem to look to be about 35 years old?

Posted by johnlg00 on January 11, 2008 at 4:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)

For some reason, I thought coaches had some influence over who calls their home games. If so, I wonder why CBP didn't veto Valentine, since they seem to have some history. If they didn't before, they surely do now! I only listened to the game, but I know Kesling and especially Bertlekamp didn't think very highly of the officiating.(;-P) I agree with you, Colliervol, on your comments on Memphis and on rebounding being about desire rather than mere ability. However, I do think our emphasis on on-ball defense takes us out of position for defensive rebounds. I think we can improve on this, and we must if we are to have a chance against Memphis, but I think CBP realizes that abandoning on-ball defense for more rebounding is not a good bargain for us. As I said before, we are riding a fine line with this team because of our inside weakness. On the other hand, we surely do force a lot of turnovers and score a lot of points off of them.

Posted by Colliervol on January 11, 2008 at 6:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Probably true johnlg. Hard to play that pressing style and be a great rebounding team too. But, even in half court, our guys don't board well. (That five offensive rebound trip that Ole Miss had was almost more than I could bear.) They are just getting muscled way too much. I think Williams and Jurick (next year) will help when they grow up and Crews (even at 6-7) is tough but I just don't see it in Chism as yet.