BigOrangeBasketball.comTennessee Basketball

Tennessee defeated Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks 72-54 at Thompson-Boling Arena Tuesday night, despite the fact Meeks set a single-game scoring record in the loss.

Meeks, who made 10-15 three-point field goal attempts and 5-7 from 2, established a new all-time single game scoring record for the storied Kentucky basketball program, eclipsing Wildcat legend Dan Issel’s 39-year-old record of 53 points in one game.

Meanwhile, Kentucky as a team shot 57.7% from two-point range for the game, and 63.2% from three.  No, that’s not a misprint.

Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee Vols continue to help set career records on offense by opposing teams.  With Meeks’ 54 point output tonight, Tennessee has now allowed their opponents’ best players to score career highs in six games this season.

So impressive was Meeks’ performance, the game was the lead story on ESPN’s SportsCenter at 11:00 Tuesday night, despite the fact that neither team is ranked.

All this, and Kentucky isn’t a great basketball team by any means.

What Vol fans have feared for the last year and a half has now materialized.  Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie is now Pearl’s worst nightmare.  Kentucky has once again surpassed Tennessee.

The difference is defense.  Gillispie’s Kentucky teams play it.  Pearl’s teams don’t have a clue.

In Pearl’s first three years, the Vols could simply outscore people.  When they can’t, which is certainly the case this year, the poor defensive play cannot be hidden.

With the win tonight, Kentucky is now the clear frontrunner to win the SEC East and the overall SEC Championship.  The Vols must fight now to get the requisite 10 wins needed in conference play to obtain an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.  It won’t be easy.

Offensively, the Vols got a total of 15 points from Scotty Hopson, Cameron Tatum, Renaldo Woolridge and J.P. Prince.  Prince scored the Vols’ first four points of the game in the first minute, and didn’t score another.  The Vol wings must get close to 40 points collectively for the Vols to win consistently this season.  That’s really not that many points.  Just ask Meeks.

Oh well.  Time to wrap up this post.  ESPN is going back to Knoxville for another story on tonight’s game.  Apparently something incredible happened. Gotta check it out.

Now that conference play is underway, I will begin weekly rankings of the 12 SEC teams.  Not by division, but in total.  I will publish them each Monday, following the conclusion of the previous week’s play.

I won’t refer to my rankings as “power” rankings, since I don’t see much power in the SEC this year.  I will provide some commentary about the rankings where appropriate.  Finally, the impetus for my rankings will be based on who I think the best teams are in the league, not necessarily what their records are.

Here goes with the first week’s rankings…

1.  Tennessee (1-0) – Road win at Georgia.  Strongest RPI and SOS to date.

2.  Kentucky (1-0) – Best defensive team in the league.

3. Florida (1-0)

4. Vanderbilt (0-1) - Lost at Kentucky but could contend for overall title.

5. Mississipi State (1-0) – Not impressed, but did win at Arkansas.

6.  Arkansas (0-1)

7. South Carolina (1-0)

8. Alabama (1-0)

9. LSU (0-1) - Lowest SOS in the SEC.  Can’t rank higher at this point.

10. Auburn (0-1)

11. Ole Miss (0-1) – Loss of Chris Warren for season keeps Rebels down.

12. Georgia (0-1)

If the teams in the Southeastern Conference only get two or three bids into the NCAA tournament this year, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Not only is the SEC perceived to be weak this year, and rightfully so, but most of the teams in the league have done nothing to counter that perception with the schedules they have played in the pre-conference season.

To date, Tennessee (#26) and Florida (#36) are the only teams in the league with an RPI in the Top 50, according to cbssportsline.com.  In addition, Tennessee (#17) and Ole Miss (#36) are the only teams in the league with a strength of schedule ranking in the Top 50.  Currently, 10 SEC schools are ranked outside the Top 60 in the RPI. Moreover, if you exclude Tennessee and Ole Miss from the strength of schedule rankings (SOS), the remaining 10 SEC schools have an average SOS of 180.9.  That’s 180.9 out of 343 Division I basketball programs.

Even the mighty Kentucky Wildcats, who under Joe B. Hall and Tubby Smith would take on all comers, have softened their schedule considerably, coming in at #110 in the current SOS rankings.

The team with the worst SOS in the SEC this season, LSU at #314, also has the most creative argument for its soft schedule.

When asked about his team’s weak SOS last week, first-year LSU head coach Trent Johnson, formerly the head coach at Stanford, replied…”The reason our schedule was like it was, was No. 1 academics.  We had a majority of guys on this basketball team that we couldn’t afford to have away from campus.  If we did, we probably would have had a roster of seven or eight guys.” So I guess when you were at Stanford, Trent, you never played a home game, right? 

The problem the SEC now faces with its low RPI is that most of the teams stand to gain very little upward movement in the RPI as they move through conference play.  Even Tennessee, which has a highly respectable RPI and SOS, stands to suffer because the rest of the league’s RPI is so weak.

If the majority of the teams in the SEC beat each other up as is normally the case in conference play, the conference could very likely be looking at getting only two or three teams into the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday.

With low RPI’s pervading the league, the only hope for the majority of teams in the SEC will be their performance in conference play.  As stated in a previous post, the magic number of wins needed in conference play to clinch an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament is 10.  Go 10-6 and you’re in, no matter your RPI.  Win fewer than 10 games, and it’s a crap shoot, unless you’re Kentucky. 

It could be a dark day for the SEC on March 15th, NCAA Selection Sunday.  Don’t be surprised if the Selection Committee sends the conference a clear message – get your scheduling acts together and play some people!

What began as an extremely promising season with a record of 6-1 in the first quarter, quickly turned more uncertain with Tennessee posting a record of  4-3  in the season’s second quarter.

However, the Vols’ SEC opening victory on the road at Georgia Saturday  renews hope.

The third quarter of the season, and really the remainder of the season for that matter, sets up to be the most interesting and yet challenging of Bruce Pearl’s four seasons at Tennessee.

The third quarter of the season includes seven SEC games, with an out-of-conference home game with Memphis sprinkled in. It begins Tuesday night against arch-rival Kentucky at home in Thompson-Boling Arena. (I can think of no better way to start a new homecourt winning streak than by beating the Wildcats.) It ends with a road contest against Auburn on Feb. 7.

In all my years of following SEC basketball, I can’t think of another year when the conference is as weak as it is this year.  Many have bashed the SEC for being weak in previous years, but undeservedly so.  This year, I find it hard to argue with them.

The SEC currently does not have a single team in the RPI Top 30.  It only has one team with a strength of schedule in the top 1o0, and that’s Tennessee at No. 21.  To be sure, there are some good overall won-loss records among SEC teams right now, but by and large, they haven’t played anybody, except for Tennessee.

Tennessee has to hope its strength of schedule will pay dividends in conference play.  Bruce Pearl is certainly hoping that it will.

Pearl said earlier this week that he believed the winner of the SEC this year would have double the number of losses this year than last. That means four. 

As for Tennessee’s third quarter, I believe the Vols go 6-2.  If that’s the case, we should all be ecstatic. 

The Vols have the good fortune of  playing  five of their eight games at home in the third quarter, and they should win all five.  That means home victories against Kentucky, South Carolina, Memphis, LSU and Florida.

Right now, I think the Vols manage a win at Auburn, but lose to Vanderbilt and Arkansas on the road.

The final quarter of the season looms much tougher.

Tennessee looked more like Tennessee today in its 86-77 road victory

Tyler Smith Led Tennessee with 24 Points and 11 Rebounds In The Win Over Georgia

against Georgia and that’s a very good thing.

The Vols looked like a team that wouldn’t be denied today, and they weren’t, despite blowing a 10-point lead in the first half and falling behind by 10 in the second.

Even had Tennessee lost today, the Vols looked much better.  They competed today.  They hustled and scrapped today, and their defense was much better.  Save for a hail mary three at the end of the game, Georgia scores 74 points today.  Tennessee will win a lot of SEC games if it can hold its opponents to 74 points.

Yes, the Vols gave up some flushes and a few open threes, but nothing like they have in recent games.  Georgia made some shots, but for the most part, they were contested shots.

What is imminently clear to me today is that the Vols don’t win this game without playing the schedule they played in the pre-conference season.  The opposite could be said for Georgia. You couldn’t count up Georgia’s pre-conference RPI with a calculator.

The losses at Kansas and at Temple, and the home loss to Gonzaga earlier this week, did, in fact, get Tennessee ready for Georgia.  The Vols looked like a team today that had learned from its losses.

Tyler Smith had his best game in a Vol uniform today.  He looked like an All-American out there.  He played under control, took good shots, and led his team.  His double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds will most assuredly earn him SEC Player Of the Week honors.

The offense is still inconsistent.  I can’t help but wonder when I see Cameron Tatum miss as many open three’s (nine) as he did today, how many of those Chris Lofton would have made, and it drives me crazy sometimes.  But this is a new day and a different team, and that’s ok. 

I can live with the inconsistent offense and shooting as long as the effort and the desire is there.  And again, the defense was much better.  The Vols held the Dawgs to 42.1% shooting for the game, and I’ll take that.

Tennessee also boxed out better than I have seen all season.  It’s evident by the rebounding differential in this game.  The Vols won the battle of the boards 48-35, and Georgia had a big team.

Granted, Georgia is nowhere near an elite team.  There’s a reason why Georgia is where it is, and Dennis Felton is fighting to save his job.

But any road win in the SEC is a great win.  And the Vols got one of 10 they needed today in conference play to lock up an NCAA tournament berth, and a pretty solid seed to go with it.

When you looked at Tennessee’s SEC schedule before the season, in particular the road schedule, you had to think that the Vols’ SEC opener against Georgia was a great opportunity to pick up an early-season road win.

While the opportunity is still there, the likelihood may be a little more in question.

Georgia's Jeremy Price

After all, the Vols are 3-3 in their last six games, dropping their only two true road contests along the way in decisive fashion.   Tennessee’s  confidence, at this point in the season, seems shaky at best.

“I wish my team was a little more confident heading into conference play,” admitted Bruce Pearl on Thursday. 

“We may have been a little ambitious, with so many new guys, in the non-conference,” Pearl added.

Georgia is 9-6 overall and 8-2 at home.  Their biggest win of the season was a one-point win at home against Virginia Tech earlier in December.

 Tennessee struggles mightily on defense and has been inconsistent on offense.  And unlike the three previous years, the Vols travel to Athens this year without Chris Lofton, a reality not lost on Pearl.

“We’re travelling without Chris Lofton for the first time in four years, and he was unbelievable at Georgia,” Pearl said of the Vol All-America.

To win the SEC, you have to be able to win on the road. During Pearl’s first three years at Tennessee, the Vols have done just that.  In fact, Tennessee is 14-10 on the road in the SEC under Pearl.  In two of those seasons, the Vols were 6-2 on the road.

The Vols’ SEC road schedule this season consists of the other five SEC Eastern Division teams, plus Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Auburn in the West.  Of those eight SEC road games, you have to think that Georgia, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Auburn represent Tennessee’s best chances for road wins in the conference this season.

Tennessee has an eight-game winning streak against the Dawgs. If the Vols defeat Georgia on Saturday, it will be a huge momentum builder.  If they don’t, they will have let one of their best opportunities for a road win in the SEC slip away, and they will be fighting an uphill battle for the rest of the conference season.

(P.S. – I have added a poll at the lower righthand side of the blog below the Blog Roll which asks whether you believe Tennessee will defeat Georgia or not?)

Following last night’s overtime home loss to Gonzaga, 89-79, Tennessee now prepares itself for the commencement of Southeastern Conference play where its performance will ultimately determine its NCAA tournament bid fate.

As Tennessee tips off SEC play on Saturday on the road at Georgia, there’s good news and bad news for Tennessee where its NCAA tournament resume is concerned.

The bad news is that after beginning the season with a 6-1 start, the Vols are 3-3 in their last six games.  Their 9-4 overall record is ninth best in the SEC, and with last night’s loss to Gonzaga, the Vols will fall out of the Top 25, quite likely for the remainder of the season.

The good news for Tennessee is that while its overall record is not as impressive compared to its SEC brethren, its RPI and strength of schedule is.

According to cbssportsline.com’s current RPI ratings, the Vols are ranked at No. 31 in the RPI, and their strength of schedule is ranked 21st.  That makes Tennessee the highest ranked SEC team in terms of RPI with by far the most difficult strength of schedule.  In fact, the SEC team with the next most difficult strength of schedule is Vanderbilt at No. 128, 107 spots below Tennessee.

Make no mistake about it, RPI is very important.  For those keeping score at home, the key for Tennessee throughout the remainder of the regular season and the SEC tournament will be to maintain an RPI in the top 30.  Year in and year out, most teams with a top 30 RPI receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament if they don’t earn their conference’s automatic bid, which  normally means winning the conference tournament.

The other key factor to follow is Tennessee’s record in SEC play.  Since the SEC added Arkansas and South Carolina into the conference and subsequently split the league into two divisions, no team that has finished with a 10-6 record or better in SEC play has ever been left out of the NCAA tournament.  Any record less than that, and all bets are off.

In fact, Buzz Peterson’s 2002-03 squad finished 9-7 in league play, yet did not receive an NCAA tournament bid.  That same year, however, Alabama finished 7-9 in SEC play and did make the show…based primarily on the prevailing opinion that the Tide played a very tough non-conference schedule that year.  That may and should help Tennessee this year.

I happen to think that if the Vols go 9-7 in the SEC they will make the NCAA tournament by virtue of their non-conference schedule being so much stronger than anyone else in the league.  But it’s no guarantee.

Two key factors potentially alter that scenario.  The first is the Big Beast Conference.  The prevailing opinion is that this 16- team behemoth of a basketball conference will get 10 teams into the tournament.  If that’s the case, and it’s hard to argue against it at this point, there will be fewer at-large bids available to the rest of the teams.

The second factor that could work against Tennessee is the emerging love affair with the mid-major cinderellas in recent years.  With the success of such teams as George Mason in 2006 and Davidson last season, the trend has been to grant more at-large NCAA tournament bids to the mid-majors.

So late this season when you hear all the basketball tv talking heads asserting that this team is a lock or that team should get in with a win or two in its conference tournament, remember the key for Tennessee will be 10-6 in SEC play.  That will get them in, no questions asked.

Tennessee’s 37-game home winning streak at Thompson-Boling Arena will be put to its sternest test of the season during the next two home games against Gonzaga on Wednesday night and against Kentucky next Tuesday.

If the Vols are to make it 38 in a row at home, they will have to do it by defeating the Zags from Gonzaga, who handed Tennessee its first loss of the season on Nov. 30 in the finals of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.

Gonzaga was the first team to exploit many of the Vols weaknesses, which have continued to perplex Tennessee ever since.

Gonzaga was the first team to expose Tennessee’s inconsistent scoring from the perimeter by employing a zone defense for most of the game.  Not only did the zone affect Tennessee’s success in the half-court game, but it also slowed the game down.

Despite its defensive woes, look for Bruce Pearl to try to force tempo from the get-go on Wednesday night.  I look for the Vols to press hard from the outset, and also get physical with Gonzaga on the offensive end.

Gonzaga will no doubt reapply the zone against Tennessee.  It will be interesting to see how the Vols react.

Pearl said Monday that “the returning guys and their coach have to step up.” While Pearl is attempting to take the pressure off the freshmen as well as newcomer Bobby Maze, the freshmen and Maze will, in fact, have to step up as well.

I suspect that the crowd at the arena on Wednesday night will be as energized as any all season.  They take pride in the homecourt winning streak, perhaps moreso than the players.

It will be interesting to see how the players and Pearl, quite frankly, respond as well.  I expect that the Vols will come out with fire in their eyes.  But they will have to sustain it.

Despite losing four of its last five games, Gonzaga is still Gonzaga and then some.  This Bulldog team is more physically talented than any previous Gonzaga team, and it also boasts the nation’s second-winningest Division I head coach in Mark Few.

Gonzaga’s center, Josh Heytvelt, at 6-11 and 260 pounds, is a rugged and athletic presence in the post, and the kind that typically gives Tennessee a lot of problems.

For the first time all season, Tennessee will have to take the game to the opponent in a relentless, aggressive style.  Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith, with an assist from Brian Williams, will have to be productive offensively, especially early.  If that happens, it will loosen things up on the perimeter and instill more confidence in the Vols’ wings.

It must start inside-out for Tennessee offensively against Gonzaga. And Maze must look to shoot more from the perimeter.  He’s been Tennessee’s most effective outside shooter so far this season in the biggest games.

If the Vols are fortunate enough to extend the win streak against Gonzaga, the Kentucky Wildcats lie in waiting.

Interestingly, the team with the third and next longest home winning streak is Kansas at 32 games.  The last team to defeat Kansas at home was Texas A&M in 2007, coached by none other than Billy Gillispie.

An interesting next couple of home games for the Vols, no doubt.

As I have thought more about Saturday’s two Tennessee basketball games – the mens’ loss at Kansas and the ladies win at Rutgers, I can’t help but be struck by the similarities and differences between the two teams and the two games.

Much has been made this season about the youth of both teams.  Bruce Pearl’s men’s squad counts three true freshmen, a redshirt freshman and a junior college transfer among its top 10 players.  Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols count six true freshmen, one redshirt freshman, two sophomores and a senior among their top 10 players.

Saturday, both teams found themselves behind at halftime, the men behind by nine, 40-31,  after trailing by as many as 16 points, and the Lady Vols by a 20-point margin, 33-13, in what was the lowest point total ever for a Summitt team in a first half.

Unfortunately, the similarities end there.

While the men were being thumped by Kansas, 92-85, in a game that was never really that close, the women were staging an unforgettable come-from-behind 55-51 victory that can arguably be called the most remarkable win in Lady Vol basketball history.

How did the Lady Vols do it, you ask?  Or why didn’t the men do it, you wonder?

The answer boils down to defense.

The Lady Vols held Rutgers to 18 second-half points in their second-half comeback yesterday, while also holding the Scarlet Knights  to 30.0% shooting. The men, conversely, while outscoring Kansas by two in the second half, gave up 52 points and allowed the Jayhawks to shoot 56.7%. 

You don’t come back to win games when you give up that many points and allow a team to shoot that high of a percentage from the field.

From the outset of this blog, I have stressed the importance of defense and rebounding as it relates to the success, or lack thereof, of this Tennessee men’s basketball team.  Offense wins games, but defense and rebounding win championships, coach Summitt has often said.

While you could argue that it’s unfair to compare two programs that are at very different stages in their history and evolution, it is fair to compare the teams.

Both teams are very young and inexperienced, although the Lady Vols with six true freshmen, are much younger than the men.  Yet, with all that inexperience, somehow Pat Summitt’s team plays solid defense, while Bruce Pearl’s team plays very little.

Why all the fuss about defense you say?  After all, offense is much more exciting.

The reason…offense can come and go, particularly with a young team, and it has for Pearl’s Vols this year.  But defense can be a constant.  You don’t have to shoot well to play good defense.

The great teams find other ways to win or stay in games besides scoring.  To this point, Pearl’s Tennessee team hasn’t found it.

Bruce Pearl Doesn't Want To Look Against Kansas

The final scoreboard read Kansas 92 – Tennessee 85, but the real story in this game was the two head coaches working the sidelines.  In this game, Bill Self took Bruce Pearl to coaching school.

In a game pitting two inexperienced teams, one looked much better coached than the other, and the better-coached team was the Kansas Jayhawks. 

The excuse of youth is over where Tennessee is concerned.  Kansas started two true freshmen, one redshirt sophomore, and two true sophomores.  Tennessee started three juniors, one juco transfer, and one true freshman, yet Kansas, by far, looked the most experienced team.

The Vols gave up seven consecutive layups or dunks to begin the game as Kansas jumped out to a 14-5 lead, and while the Vols defended the layups a little better after the first 10 minutes of the game, the dunk fest continued for 40 minutes.  I stopped counting after a dozen.

I don’t know about you, but I am getting tired of watching these dunk fests by the opposing team.

The significance of the dunks isn’t the dunks themselves, but they are emblematic of a team that is so poorly coached on defense.  Tennessee is fundamentally abysmal on defense, and the situation got no better this afternoon in Lawrence. 

They front the post on the wrong side, they can’t defend the pick and roll, and they constantly leave the other team’s best three point shooters wide open.  If you’re guarding a good three-point shooter, you don’t help out on defense.  You stay with the three-point shooter and get help from a post defender or you make the non-shooters beat you.  The Vols do none of that.

I can no longer blame the players for how they play when they are so poorly coached on defense.  Tennessee has been at or near the bottom of the SEC in scoring defense all season long, and it got no better Saturday.

Tennessee also failed the toughness test against Kansas.  As ESPN color analyst Jay Bilas accurately pointed out midway through the second half, “Kansas has been the tougher team and it hasn’t been close.”

It was evident all day long.  One glaring example occurred with 8:11 remaining in the game.  The Vols’ Scotty Hopson turned the ball over to a Kansas guard in a midcourt exchange.  The Kansas guard passed the ball ahead to Kansas Center Cole Aldrich.  Aldrich took a couple of dribbles toward the basket, and Tyler Smith, instead of stepping in to take the charge, just moved out of the way and allowed Aldrich an uncontested dunk.

Tennessee’s poor defensiveဠeffort is evident in the final statistics.  Kansas shot 51.5% for the game and 43.8% from three.  When you give up that many dunks and uncontested threes, the other team shoots that kind of percentage.

While Pearl deserves credit for scheduling this game, he needs to learn from it.  A national championship coach showed you why he is in this game. Self’s Jayhawks held the Vols to 39% shooting for the game. Pearl has a long way to go in coaching defense.  It begins and ends with him, not the players.