Strange: Forbes gets the haze out of Maze

ATHENS, Ga. - His team had blown an 11-point first-half lead and looked horrible doing it. It gets worse.

His team, in fact, now trailed by 10 points. On the road. Conference opener. A two-game losing streak looked for all the world like it was 12 minutes or so from becoming a three-game losing streak.

At that point Saturday afternoon, trailing Georgia 54-44, Bruce Pearl would have given anything to look down his Tennessee bench at Stegeman Coliseum and find No. 5 sitting there, ready to report to the scorer's table.

"Number five texted me today, all the way from Turkey,'' Pearl said later.

That would be Chris Lofton, the stone-cold Georgia killer, the scourge of Stegeman.

Bottom line, No. 5 wasn't going to rescue the Vols this time.

However, No. 3 wasn't bad.

That Tennessee rallied for an 86-77 win was a team effort in the truest sense. There were many hands sharing the load.

But Bobby Maze was in the thick of it and that's extremely good news for Tennessee.

Good point-guard play elevates a team. Tennessee hadn't been getting much of it for a few games. Maze had been struggling, to put it mildly.

It's never a good sign when your point guard goes 36 minutes without an assist and shoots 1-of-9. That was Maze's forlorn box score against Gonzaga on Wednesday. Maybe one assist and UT wins in regulation rather than losing 89-79 in overtime.

So when Maze went a ho-hum 13 minutes in the first half Saturday without an assist, Steve Forbes had seen enough.

UT's once 11-point lead was down to 36-32 at the break. When the teams went back on the court to warm up, Forbes grabbed Maze by the jersey and pulled him over to the bench.

Forbes, in his third season as a UT assistant coach, was the point man in recruiting Maze from Hutchinson Community College last spring. He knew Maze well enough to get in his grill.

"I let him have it pretty good,'' Forbes said. "I can't repeat what I said.

"I was sick and tired of watching the way he played and I knew he was a better player than that.''

So if this rescued victory is a turning point in Tennessee's season, keep Forbes in mind for a pat on the back when it's all over. Buy him a beer.

Although it took him a few minutes to get warmed up in the second half, Maze looked like a different player down the stretch.

He scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half. He connected on a couple of drives and then nailed a big 3-pointer as the Vols chipped away at that 10-point Georgia lead.

He even got two assists and revved it up on defense. Georgia didn't score a field goal in the final eight minutes until it got a 3-pointer a couple of seconds to play.

"This is an important win for Tennessee,'' said Pearl, "because this was a big win for Bobby. He needed to play well.''

Said Maze, "I give a lot of credit to Coach Forbes. That meant a lot to me.

"It definitely pushed a lot of fire into me.''

In the big picture, it pushed disaster out of Tennessee's season.

You never want to put too much weight on one game, especially with 15 SEC regular-season games still to go.

But Saturday was a must-win scenario for Tennessee. No exaggeration.

Losses to Kansas and Gonzaga were a bad way to end the pre-conference segment of the season. Opening with a loss at Georgia would have been a dagger in the ribs for a team with SEC championship intentions.

Few things are more precious than an SEC road win. You've got to have them to win a title. You cannot blow an opportunity to get one against a weak opponent in a benign environment and that's what Saturday was.

Pearl didn't dodge the importance of the day's predicament:

"Not many times, on the road in the SEC this early, would I say you put yourself in a position where you say it's a must-win.

"But, yeah, down 10 in a game on the road you have to win.''

The Vols did have to win. And they won. Pearl had good news to text back to No. 5 in Turkey.

Forbes, meanwhile, felt gratified as he watched the second half unfold.

He knew his unprintable monologue had been received. He saw the point guard he recruited re-emerge.

"Hopefully, from here on out I won't have to do that,'' Forbes said. "But I will again if I have to.''

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

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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