Strange: Loss only a speed bump, not roadblock for UT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - North Carolina moved on Thursday night. Louisville moved on. UCLA moved on.

Tennessee, meanwhile, hit the wall at Bobcats Arena. Or maybe it was a glass ceiling.

Tennessee is upwardly mobile, but after a 79-60 loss to Louisville in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16, the Vols are still trying to get admitted to the country club - the one that decides national championships.

The Tennessee season that ended with a thud Thursday night was a glorious ride that crashed through a number of thresholds.

A school-record 31 wins. The first outright SEC regular-season championship since 1967. The school's first No. 1 ranking.

"We did a whole lot this year,'' sophomore Wayne Chism said in a somber locker room after Thursday night had become Friday morning. "Our seniors carried us for a very long ride.

"I didn't want them to go out like this. The team didn't want to go out like this.''

But go out they did. One barrier Tennessee has yet to break through is getting to the final group that decides a national championship.

The eight teams that suit up this weekend in a regional finals game are only 40 tantalizing minutes away from the Final Four.

The Sweet 16 is the on-deck circle for the regional finals. Five times Tennessee has arrived in the on-deck circle. Five times it has been turned away.

Three of those times, the Vols were agonizingly close.

In 1967, in the program's very first NCAA tournament game, they lost 53-52 to Dayton.

In 2000, they had a modest North Carolina team on the ropes in Austin, Texas, but couldn't finish.

A year ago in San Antonio, Tennessee looked a sure bet at halftime, up 17 points on Ohio State. Nothing is a sure bet, though. The Vols lost at the buzzer.

This time, it wasn't so close.

No one could question Tennessee's heart, but Louisville was the better team by a fair margin.

In victory, Louisville coach Rick Pitino spoke one sentence that said it all about Tennessee:

"They've got a lot to be proud of.''

And this defeat didn't change that.

It was, however, the end of an era, the final game for Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith.

Those two seniors set the pace for the transformation that coach Bruce Pearl initiated when he arrived three years ago.

Lofton was disappointed with his final tournament. The greatest 3-point shooter in SEC history didn't have a good run in UT's three games.

In the locker room, a bleary-eyed Lofton worked to compose himself before answering questions.

"It's been a great career,'' he said. "But I wish we could have made it farther.''

In time, Lofton and Smith will be able to appreciate the remarkable contributions each made to help get the program from where it was then to where it is now.

Lofton leaves as the school's No. 4 all-time scorer. There was no fanfare Thursday night, but he also passed Dale Ellis to become UT's all-time scorer in NCAA tournament play.

Smith helped put the sizzle in the prime-time show that Tennessee basketball has been the past three seasons.

And while Thursday marked the end of an era, Tennessee is a program that isn't going away.

Pearl said he plans to be running it.

"I anticipate, if Tennessee will have me, being back at Tennessee,'' he said. "I think they'll have me.''

He has good talent returning and more on the way. The ingredients will be there for other runs at the glass ceiling.

"It's a top program now,'' said JaJuan Smith, "and it's going to stay a top program.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knoxnews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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