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The Tennessee Vols face their biggest challenge of the season this week with road games against Ole Miss on Wednesday and Kentucky on Saturday.

Tyler Smith Goes Up For Three Of His Career High 30 Points Against Vanderbilt On Saturday

In actuality, the Vols face their toughest stretch of the season coming up with four of their next five games on the road.  Following Ole Miss and Kentucky this week, the Vols will host Mississppi State, before finishing their conference road schedule for the season at Florida and at South Carolina.

The SEC East race certainly took a new turn Saturday as Kentucky, South Carolina and the Vols all held serve, but Florida lost to previously winless Georgia in Athens.  The Vols, Wildcats and Gamecocks are all now 7-3, with Florida a game back at 6-4.

For the Vols, it’s a much about garnering the requisite number of conference wins to earn an NCAA tournament bid as it is winning the SEC East.

Ole Miss, along with South Carolina, has been one of the two pleasant surprises this season.  The Rebels, who lost starting point guard Chris Warren during the pre-conference season, figured to have a rough season from that point on.  Instead, the Rebels have performed admirably, with a home win against Kentucky and a road win against Mississippi State on their resume during conference play.

Ole Miss features two of the league’s premier wing players in junior David Huertas and freshman Terrico White.  Both are top 10 scorers in the league, with Huertas averaging 17.0 points per game, and White, 16.4 ppg.

The key for victory for Tennessee in this game will be defense, not offense.  And the key’s for Tennessee’s wing players will be defense, not offense.

Scotty Hopson, J.P. Prince and Cameron Tatum will have to be able to slow down Huertas and White for the Vols to have a chance.  If both Huertas and White get their averages against Tennessee on Wednesday, it will be a long night for the Vols.

In addition to perimeter defense, the Vols will have to take much better care of the basketball than they did in their two most previous road games against Arkansas and Auburn.  The Vols had their chances to put both those games away, but were sloppy with the basketball.

I expect Tennessee to play well this week.  Well enough to win remains to be seen. A lot is on the line, and Pearl knows it.  And it all starts on the defensive end Wednesday night in Oxford.

My first reaction to the announcement of Tennessee’s All-Century basketball team was that Dyron Nix, CJ Watson and Dane Bradshaw shouldn’t be on it. Upon further review, I’ll concede two of the three, but one player doesn’t belong on this team.

For starters, I’ve never thought of  Dyron Nix as one of the all-time Vol greats.  I just never would put him in the class of most of those guys on this team, nor some guys who aren’t on it.

But upon further review, Nix is the eighth all-time leading scorer in Tennessee history and third all-time in rebounds.  (Wouldn’t have guessed that in a million years in either category.)  So I’ll concede Nix.

Second, CJ Watson.  Many would argue that Danny Schultz or Jimmy England should be on this team before Watson, or perhaps Johnny Darden. Schultz was before my time, so I can’t really comment on him over Watson.  England was good, and so was Darden.  Darden is probably viewed as better than he actually was because he played with King and Grunfeld.  True, but Darden was still pretty darn good. 

The reality for CJ Watson is that had he played for Bruce Pearl for four years instead of one, he would likely be a much stronger choice than he is.  Still, his stats are pretty good.  Watson is certainly a debatable selection in my mind, but I’ll give the committee that one as well.

As much as I like and respect Dane Bradshaw, there’s no way he belongs on this team.  As a sentimental choice, perhaps.  But the majority of the guys on this team didn’t make it on sentimentality, so Bradshaw shouldn’t either.

Bradshaw averaged 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds for his career.  His average minutes played per game for his career was 22.1.  If he was that good, he would have played more minutes per game than that.  Bradshaw’s selection just doesn’t fly.

You can put Bradshaw on the all-time fan favorite team with Kevin Nash maybe, but not the all-time team.

One guy stands out to me that should have been included, certainly over Bradshaw, and that’s Mike Jackson.

Jackson had the good fortune or misfortune in that he played alongside King and Grunfeld.  Obviously, King and Grunfeld stole the show on those teams, but Jackson was a pretty darn good player.

Never was Jackson’s ability ever more evident than in that triple-overtime game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa in the mid-70’s.  Both King and Grunfeld fouled out in that game, but Jackson singlehandedly kept the Vols in the game, before the Vols finally fell, 93-90, in one of the greatest SEC games of all-time.

All in all, I have to say the fans and the committee did a pretty good job putting this team together. Congratulations to all the members.  It’s a great honor.

With seven games remaining in the regular season, the SEC East finds four teams – Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee – in a four-way tie for first.

As unpredictable as the race has been thus far, it stands to be just as unpredictable down the stretch.

In trying to predict who will come out on top in the East, I thought it would be interesting to compare the remaining schedules of the four leaders…

Florida

Home:  Alabama, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky

Away:  Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State

Kentucky

Home:  Tennessee, LSU, Georgia

Away:  Arkansas, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida

South Carolina

Home:  Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee

Away:  Alabama, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Georgia

Tennessee

Home:  Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Alabama

Away:  Ole Miss, Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina

Florida and South Carolina appear to have the more favorable schedules remaining of the four leaders.  They are the only two teams that don’t have to play the other three leaders since they have already played each other twice.

Between Florida and South Carolina, Florida has the slightly more favorable schedule.  They have four home games remaining and they also have winless Georgia on the road.  You could make the argument that the Gators finish 11-5 in the SEC.

The key for South Carolina will be can they successfully defend their homecourt against both Kentucky and Tennessee?  If the Gamecocks can, they could tie Florida at 11-5.

Kentucky probably has the next most difficult schedule.  They still have South Carolina and Florida on the road.  The swing game for Kentucky will  be its game at home against LSU, not just where the SEC race is concerned, but where it stands as far as making the NCAA tournament is concerned.  Here’s predicting the Cats finish 9-7 in the SEC.

Tennessee has by far the most difficult road left, no pun intended.  The Vols have still to play the other three conference co-leaders – Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida – all on the road.  Tennessee will also be challenged by Vanderbilt and Mississippi State at home.  The swing game for the Vols will be their game against Ole Miss at Oxford.  Win that, and I think Tennessee will end up with the requisite 10 SEC wins to gain an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.  Lose it, and I think the Vols are squarely on the bubble.

Undoubtedly, the race won’t turn out like any of us think it will during these last three weeks.  With the SEC being as weak as anytime I can remember in my nearly 40 years of following SEC basketball, everyone is vulnerable at home as well as on the road.

Not only are these four teams battling for the SEC East, they are also jockeying for positioning in the collective mind of the NCAA tournament selection committee, which makes things even more interesting.

For the second time in three weeks, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie and ESPN’s Jeannine Edwards had what you would call a less-than-cordial interview at halftime of the network’s telecast of the Florida/Kentucky game last night.

Just two weeks ago at halftime of the Kentucky/Ole Miss game, also on ESPN, Gillispie called out Edwards’ questions as stupid.

Last night, he initially dismissed Edwards’ first question saying he didn’t hear it when she was standing right in front of him.  He then went on to say that Edwards knew more than he did.  If you missed it, check it out on youtube.

Last night was just the latest chapter in Gillispie’s rude and often indignant behavior as head basketball coach at Kentucky.

Say what you want about Kentucky, but the Kentucky basketball program, its coaches, and its fans have always demonstrated the utmost respect for the game and its opponents.  Just as important as Kentucky’s winning tradition, the Wildcats have done it with class. Under Gillispie, that’s not the case.

I’ll leave it up to Wildcat fans to judge whether their current basketball coach is an embarrassment to the program or not, but I can tell you that Gillispie is an embarrassment to the SEC.

I have always thought Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart to be a standup and classy guy.  Maybe not always popular, but a standup guy.

I’ll be interested to see how long Barnhart and the Kentucky faithful continue to tolerate Gillispie.

Kentucky basketball has always been about winning, and it has done so better than anyone in the SEC.  But it has always been about so much more…until now.

If the Tennessee Vols are to make their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament under Bruce Pearl, they have some serious work to do in the last quarter of the season.

After starting the year 6-1, the Vols are 8-7 in their last 15 games and 5-3 in the SEC with eight games to play.  To get to 10 regular season conference wins means Tennessee must go 5-3 in the last half of the SEC season as well.  The Vols will play four games at home and four on the road during the final stretch.

Bruce Pearl

Fortunately for Tennessee, there is still time to get itself together and get to 10 wins, but the Vols will have to win at least one on the road to do that. With road contests remaining against Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina and Ole Miss, it won’t be easy.

At this point in the season, the Vols are clearly struggling.  While defense has never been a hallmark of Pearl teams at Tennessee, offensively the Vols have been explosive under Pearl.  Having led the SEC in scoring offense in each of Pearl’s first three seasons at Tennessee, the Vols are fourth so far this year (SEC games only.)

The Vols are sixth in the league in turnover margin and third in assist/turnover ratio, all categories Tennessee led the league in during Pearl’s first three seasons.

Defensively, Tennessee has struggled all year.  And this year, Pearl has allowed the team’s defensive woes to affect the offense.  Pearl has elected the slow the tempo of recent games considerably.  The Vols no longer press, deny in halfcourt defense, nor look to get out on the break, particularly on the road.  The Vols have become a halfcourt team, something to which Pearl-coached teams are totally unaccustomed.

Then there are the personnel issues.  Too often, the Vols find themselves with too many non-scorers on the floor.  Tennessee has three players in Brian Williams, Josh Tabb and Renaldo Woolridge all averaging better than 11 minutes per game but less than four points. You add in a skaky Cameron Tatum, whose scoring continues to decline, and that many non-scorers on the floor will kill you against good teams, especially when they’re playing as many minutes as they are.

I don’t blame Pearl for trying different personnel and substitution patterns to try and find something that works, but one experiment clearly is not working.  There’s no way Tabb should be playing 18 minutes a game at the point when he’s averaging three points and one assist.

An Isaiah Thomas he is not, but clearly Bobby Maze is the best option for the Vols at the point.  And when he is scoring, the Vols are a much better team.

Tennessee and Pearl should continue to ride Scotty Hopson as well.  If the Vols could get Hopson and Maze going during these final eight games and have them playing 30+ minutes, the Vols can be a better team.

There’s still time for Pearl and the Vols to find something that works, but there’s not much time.

The pressure is clearly on the Vols, unlike any other season under Pearl.

The fourth week of play in the SEC proved to be the most uneventful.  No coaches were fired this past week, and LSU continued to position itself as the elite team in the SEC.

Nonetheless, there were two games this past week that were especially noteworthy…Mississippi State’s win at Kentucky and Tennessee’s loss at Auburn.  Two very winnable games for the Cats and the Vols, but both ended up as losses.

Here are my rankings as of 2-9 heading into this week’s action…

1. LSU (7-1) – Continues to put distance between themselves and the rest of the league.

2. South Carolina (6-3) – Has yet to have a bad conference loss.

3. Florida (6-2)

4. Mississippi State (6-2) – Jumps in rankings after win at Kentucky.

5.  Kentucky (5-3) - Key game with Florida Tuesday night.

6. Tennessee (5-3) – Disappointing loss at Auburn.  Chance to get well this week with two games at home.

7. Vanderbilt (4-5) – Commodores seem to have settled down a bit, yet lack signature conference win.

8. Ole Miss (4-5)

9. Auburn (3-5) – Nice win at home against the Vols.

10. Alabama (3-6)

11.  Arkansas (1-7) – Playing like they should be 1-7.

12. Georgia (0-8) – What you get when you fire your coach in-season.

If you found yourself scratching your head in the waning seconds of today’s loss by Tennessee at Auburn, you weren’t the only one.

There was plenty of fault to go around in the game’s last 12 seconds.

First, where Tennessee is concerned, Wayne Chism had no business trying to intercept a pass from a guard 60 feet from the basket with the game on the line in the final seconds.  As it turned out, Chism didn’t get the interception, promptly fell down in the backcourt, and his man Kovortney Barber scored the game-winning basket on a layup.

And while Chism and the Vols can be blamed for defensive execution on the game’s second-to-last possession, the officials were also at fault.

On that same final defensive possession where Chism attempted to intercept the inbounds pass, when he missed, he went completely over the back of the Auburn player, and a foul should have been called.  That’s a foul for at least 38 minutes of the game.  It should be a foul in the final minute.

Of course, this has been standard operating procedure for most officiating crews for years.  With the game on the line, swallow the whistle.  It’s an absurd philosophy.

Each year, the NCAA and its officials have certain points of emphasis that they are told to enforce entering into a new season.  This practice of calling a game differently in the last minute of a game needs to be changed, and it needs to be a point of emphasis mandated by the NCAA.

Why was this particular no-call so important you ask? Granted, Auburn would have gone to the line to shoot free throws, but even if the Tigers make them both, the Vols get the ball back with at least 10 seconds left on the clock and plenty of time to get a good shot.

Instead, after the no-call on Chism, Auburn scores a layup with about four seconds left, and Tennessee is forced to go the other way with the clock running to attempt a desperation shot.

Yes, Auburn won the game.  The Vols had plenty of chances to build a workable lead in the second half, but failed to do so.

The Vols did fail on Auburn’s final possession, too, but so did the officials.

Tennessee made its road to a fourth-consecutive NCAA tournament berth more difficult today, losing a very winnable game at Auburn, 78-77.

For just the third time all season, Tennessee held an opponent under 80 points and still lost the game.

The culprits this time out were several. 

The biggest was in second-chance points where Auburn outscored Tennessee 19-2.  The Tigers outrebounded the Vols for the game 34-21, most often at inopportune times when the Vols desperately needed possession of the ball in a close game.

The loveliest village on the plain also had the friendliest rims in the SEC.  It was rediculous, quite frankly, how soft the rims were at Auburn’s Memorial Coliseum.  Shots that had no business going in rolled in at Auburn.

Honestly, the SEC and the NCAA should look at standardizing the basket equipment in college basketball.  Schools should have the same goals, the same rims, and the rims should be maintained at the same tension in all venues.  Equipment is standardized in just about every other major sport. That was rediculous today.

Still, the Vols allowed the Tigers to shoot better than 50.0% from the field (53.7%).  And when you allow the opposition to make at least one of every two shots it takes, you’re going to lose most games.

Make no mistake, this was a tough loss for Tennessee today.  Assuming the Vols win out at home (and that’s a big assumption), they need to win at least one more road game to lockup an NCAA berth.  Their best chance to do that was today was against a 2-5 (SEC) Auburn team.

Now the Vols must win out at home and win one game at either Ole Miss, South Carolina, Florida or Kentucky.

I liked Tennessee’s chances for a road win much better today.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a “w.”  A road “w” no less.  And it was Tennessee’s poise that was the difference.

Tennessee shot less than 30.0% from three, continued to have defensive lapses, got outrebounded and had as many turnovers as assists (15), yet defeated Arkansas in Fayetteville Wednesday night, 74-72.

Despite their flaws, the Vols did what you need to do most to win on the road.  They kept their composure. 

The Vols shot 8-10 from the free-throw line in the second half, and coupled with several clutch baskets by J.P. Prince, it was enough for Tennessee to get the win.

The Vols are now 3-0 on the road in the SEC, and the only team in the conference without a road conference loss.  In just a week, the Vols have moved from fourth place in the SEC East to second, and they now have the third-best overall record in the conference behind LSU and Florida.

In doing so, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl has abandoned what his teams normally do.  They no longer press, and they don’t extend on defense, but they are managing to win games.  The Vols are playing a lower-risk game, and it seems to be working.  Last season, Arkansas scored 92 points against the Vols in the SEC tournament.  Last night, they scored 72.

The Vols have their next most winnable road game coming up Saturday against Auburn.  After that, the road gets much more difficult.  The Vols still have to go to Kentucky, Florida and South Carolina, as well as Ole Miss, who has already defeated Kentucky at home.

There’s a lot of basketball left to be played.

Allan Houston

In this, the 100th year of Tennessee basketball, and with the celebration of that centennial along with the announcement of Tennessee’s All-Century Team scheduled to take place Feb 14th against Vanderbilt, it would only be appropriate that Allan Houston’s jersey be hung from the rafters at that game.

The 6-6 guard from Louisville, Ky is Tennessee’s all-time leading scorer with 2,801 points, and he’s also the second all-time leading scorer in SEC history, trailing only LSU’s Pete Maravich.

In addition to being a two-time second-team All-American with the Vols, Houston is also one of only two former Vols to be named first-team All-SEC four times. 

Houston is deserving of joining Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld in the rafters of Thompson-Boling Arena.

As the celebration of Tennessee’s 100 years of basketball is about to take place, so should Houston’s jersey retirement ceremony.

No. 20 deserves to be next.