This year celebrates the centennial season of men's basketball at Tennessee. The News Sentinel continues its series looking into the players, teams and events that have molded an exciting history.
When Tennessee takes the floor for warmups Saturday in Stegeman Coliseum, Georgia coach Dennis Felton will peak around the corner — just to be 100 percent sure Chris Lofton isn’t out there.
Lofton torched a lot of UT opponents but he seemed to be especially lethal to the Georgia Bulldogs.
Three years ago, on Feb. 11, 2006, Lofton broke a UT record with nine 3-point baskets in an 83-79 win over the Bulldogs before a sold-out crowd of 10,523 in Stegeman.
His 33 points at Georgia followed a 31-point game at Kentucky earlier in the week. No wonder Lofton was named SEC player of the week and ESPN’s national player of the week.
“He’s as good a contested shooter as I’ve ever seen,’’ Felton said afterward. “He flat out won the game for them today.’’
Felton doesn’t have to worry: Lofton is playing in Turkey. He left UT as the SEC’s all-time 3-point king with 431. That ranked third in NCAA history. He finished No. 4 on UT’s all-time scoring chart with 2,131 points.
On the record-breaking day, Lofton was 9-of-12 from 3-point range. None was bigger than No. 8. Georgia had sliced an 18-point Tennessee lead to 68-65 when Dane Bradshaw spotted Lofton on the wing and Lofton swished the shot.
His record-breaking ninth trey made it a 77-70 game with 1:11 to play.
“I saw the game slipping away,’’ Lofton said later. “It was time to settle down and get a key basket.’’
That wasn’t Lofton’s only big day against Georgia. As a senior, he was 7-of-13 from 3-point land for 27 points when the Vols won in Knoxville.
He was 6-of-12 behind the arc for 22 points in his final visit to Athens. In the second half of that fierce 74-71 win, Lofton was 5-of-7 from 3-point range.
After which, coach Bruce Pearl said, “Chris Lofton willed this win.’’
Lofton graduated 8-0 against Georgia. Today, somebody else will have to will a win.
Vanderbilt 93, Tennessee 79, Feb. 9…
Signing day celebration at Neyland…
Notre Dame beats Tennessee 72-44…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 13
chrisw2967 writes:
Lofton was tough on any team , sure do wish we had him back.
middleTNvol writes:
Isn't that peek around the corner? If some already posted that I apologize. I can't see comments.
middleTNvol writes:
I can't see comments from my blackberry is what I meant. Love the website!
rusty_shackleford writes:
And he played a little defense, too.
rockitwithrespect writes:
C-Lo will go down in history as one of the best bbvols of all time
rusty_shackleford writes:
Time for a LOT of defense!
Need_2_Know writes:
" ...Georgia coach Dennis Felton will peak around the corner..."
Dad-blamed spell checker, needs to be a grammar checker too!
Peek around the corner, I'm certain that's what you meant to say.
ubershamu312 writes:
Rob, are you serious? Dane was worthless? Did you even watch any of our games? I refuse to list the many accomplishments of Bradshaw, like how he converted himself from a point guard to a power forward for the benefit of the team, how he always made the key steal or pass, or how he always got a rebound he had no business getting based on his size and talent.
You obviously never played basketball Rob. Players like Dane make everyone on the court better. This 08-09 UT team could use a player like Bradshaw.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
"Trying to correct a fool is a fool's errand." Lofton himself said that no one was better at feeding him than Bradshaw, but I'm sure Naffy/Rob never heard him say that, or blanked it out if he did.
ncvol writes:
Miss you Chris Lofton! Go Vols!
cobbwebb writes:
i cant wait to see #5 hanging in the rafters!
johnlg00#206211 writes:
I agree that Chris would rank high on any list of the most popular and influential Vol bballers of all time. I think he is deserving of some kind of special recognition, but lowering the standards for retiring jerseys would either water down the impact of the honor by cluttering TBA with drapery or lead to endless wrangling over why "this" guy got in over "that" guy. I agree with you that it IS sad as it stands now.
MrBamSeydu writes:
Bruce Pearl looks like he's giving the camera bedroom eyes in that video still above.... lol.
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