BigOrangeBasketball.comTennessee Basketball

Let’s get a few things straight right off the bat…Bruce Pearl will not out-recruit John Calipari at Kentucky.  Pearl may not even win the war of words, and he likely won’t win the glitz and glamor game.

But one thing is for certain.  Pearl will not lie awake at night this season worrying about the sideline coaching matchup with Calipari.

I guarantee you Pearl would rather match coaching wits against Calipari than either of his two Wildcat predecessors, Tubby Smith or Billy Gillispie. 

Pearl is 3-5 versus Kentucky since he has been at Tennessee, the only SEC school with a winning record against Pearl since he’s been at Tennessee.  He was 2-2 versus Calipari when he was at Memphis.

The fact of the matter is that Calipari racked up a lot of wins at his two other collegiate coaching stops – UMass and Memphis – but neither of those schools was in a power conference and neither played the type of conference schedule night after night that Calipari’s Cats will play in the SEC. And his teams won’t host the conference tournament on their home floor like they did every year at Memphis.

Will Calipari’s Cats be competitive in the SEC?  Absolutely.  Will they win an SEC title?  Probably.  Will they dominate the SEC in the manner Kentucky fans are accustomed? Doubtful.

Will Pearl have a favorable coaching matchup against Calipari?  Definitely.

I don’t know about you, but I must admit I was quite surprised to hear that the Vols were ranked 10th and 11th in college basketball’s preseason polls.

After all, the Vols went unranked for most of last season, and by all accounts have not added any significant signees that would warrant such a position.  I find it hard to believe that juco signee Melvin Goins or incoming freshman Kenny Hall would be enough to elevate Tennessee into the Top 10.

Remember, basically the same group of guys last year lost 13 games and earned no better than a No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament.

But the rankings are what they are, and the Vols are poised to move even higher in the polls in the preconference season, given their schedule.

In fact, it’s quite possible that Tennessee could find itself in the top five in the polls leading up to its game against USC in Los Angeles on Dec. 19th.  The Vols don’t play a true road game until then and only venture away from Thompson-Boling Arena to play against a less-than-stellar field at the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands prior to USC.

And it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that the Vols could be 13-0 when they host preseason No. 1 Kansas in Knoxville on Jan. 10.  Tennessee currently does not play a ranked team before then.

If you have tickets to that Kansas/UT game, you might want to hold onto them.

Experience doesn’t always ensure success for any sports teams, but Tennessee has had enough in four years under head coach Bruce Pearl to make you think the 09-10 version of Vol hoops have some promise.

All five starters return from last year’s SEC East championship team as well as seven scholarship upperclassmen.

Pearl has promised that he will return to his pressing full-court basketball roots this season, and that’s a good thing.  The Vols have never been a good half-court defensive team under Pearl.  They’ve always been better at forcing turnovers and quick shots.

Personnel wise, if the Vols are to make another Sweet 16 push in March, they will have to do it on the coattails of sophomore wing Scotty Hopson.  Hopson got off to a horrific start to begin last season, but finished the season finally showing Vol fans what all the recruiting fuss was about.  Hopson finished last season averaging 9.2 ppg, and was pretty darn good in SEC play.  He will need to double his scoring output on a consistent basis this season for the Vols to make a serious run.

The other key personnel situation to watch is the play of juco signee Melvin Goins at the point.  I was critical of the decision to sign Goins last April, but in hindsight this addition may turn out to be the most important.  A potential first-team All-SEC point guard Goins is not, but his addition will allow Pearl to keep a point guard on the floor for the entire 40 minutes this season.  Last year, if you recall, when Bobby Maze went out of the game, Josh Tabb played the point, and the offense was often out of sync.

The schedule is also more favorable this season.  The Vols should go undefeated (9-0) at least until Dec. 19 when they travel to Los Angeles to play Kevin O’Neill’s USC Trojans.

With injuries, eligibility issues and academic suspensions all affecting Tennessee’s preparations for the upcoming basketball season, coach Bruce Pearl has said this preseason has been the most challenging of his coaching career.

Never before in Pearl’s tenure at Tennessee have the Vols had so many expectations and yet so many

Tyler Smith

question marks.

The expectations start with Pearl, who in his first three seasons at Tennessee, has guided the Vols to three NCAA tournament appearances, two SEC Eastern Division championships, one SEC championship, the school’s first-ever No. 1 ranking, and the winningest season in program history just last year.

The question marks come in the form of six newcomers, extremely talented but very young and inexperienced, four of whom are true freshmen.

Then you lose a potential starter for most of preseason practice to knee surgery.  You lose another to a shoulder injury, and you lose your backup point guard for the season because of an eligibility issue.

Combine the expectations, question marks and bad luck with one of the most difficult schedules in all of college basketball, and you have a real mystery on your hands as to how this season may play out.

It’s common among coaches these days in all team sports to divide their seasons into four quarters for planning and evaluation purposes.  With that in mind and with the season opening Saturday night, I’m going to offer some analysis as to what to look for, what to hope for, and how the first quarter of this season may play out in terms of wins and losses.

The Vols are scheduled to play 31 regular season games this year.  So I’m identifying the first quarter of the season as beginning with UT-Chattanooga and ending with the UNC-Asheville game on Dec. 3.

What to Look For:

• The Starting Lineup – It looks as if Pearl will go with three newcomers in the backcourt who have never played a regular season game for the Vols.  Junior college transfer Bobby Maze will start at the point, and true freshmen Scotty Hopson and Renaldo Woolridge at the wings.  SEC Preseason Player of the Year Tyler Smith will start at power forward or the 4 spot, and junior Wayne Chism will start at center.  But don’t get hung up on who starts.  With Pearl, it’s more about who finishes, and who gets the most minutes.
• Backup point guard – With freshman Daniel West no longer available to fill the backup point guard role, Pearl has said that J.P. Prince, Josh Tabb and walkon Michael Hubert are all possibilities to sub for Maze.  It will be interesting to see who emerges from this group, who is most productive, and most importantly, who is most productive for the team.
• Offensive Production – With so many newcomers, it will be interesting to see where Tennessee’s offense comes from and from whom.  Teams will no doubt try to take the Vols out of their comfort zone, which is an up-and-down game.  They will try to force the Vols into a half-court game and will dare the Vols to beat them from the outside.  And with the 3-point line moving back a foot this year, the Vols can expect to see more zone.
• Leadership – The Vols had two of the best leaders in the history of the program the past two seasons in Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith.  With those guys gone and with six newcomers on the roster, it will be important for new leadership to emerge.  It will be interesting to see who steps up.
• Some Losses Early – Combine the most difficult schedule that Pearl has ever played with the youngest team he has ever fielded, and there is a strong probability that the Vols will endure a few losses, enough to even drop out of the Top 25 early in the season.

What To Hope For

• Gradual Improvement – No matter what the Vols record in November and December 2008, they will be judged more by what they do in 2009.  Just look at Kentucky last year.  The key for the Vols, especially early, is less about wins and losses, and more about players getting experience, gaining confidence and understanding their roles. The Vols will not be limited by talent, only by inexperience.  The competition the Vols will face is strong enough to exploit their lack of experience early.  It is what the Vols learn from their inexperience that will matter later on.
• Improved Team Defense – Again, the Vols may struggle defensively early, and not knowing how or where exactly the offense is going to come from, the Vols will need to be better defensively.  Pearl said at his media day press conference that he believed this team would be a better half court defensive team than his previous teams.  They will need to be.
• Team Maturation – Believe it or not, this team has the chance to be better than either of Pearl’s first three.  They may not, and likely will not, be better in terms of wins and losses than last year’s team, but if this team matures throughtout the season like good teams do, they have a chance to advance in postseason play farther than any Tennessee team in history.

First Quarter Wins and Losses

• Overall Record: 4-3
• I expect the Vols to lose one of their first three between UT-Chattanooga, UT-Martin and Middle Tennessee.  The most likely candidate would be UT-Martin.  UT-Martin has the best player in the country that no one has ever heard of outside the Ohio Valley Conference in Lester Hudson.  He’s a 6-3 guard who is proven where Tennessee is most unproven – in the backcourt.
• I expect the Vols to lose two of three in the Old Spice Classic.  The tournament field includes three other ranked teams in Michigan State, Gonzaga, and Georgetown, besides Tennessee, and the Vols open with Siena, who returns all five starters from an NCAA tournament team that shredded Vanderbilt in the first round last season.  Because this event is so early, I expect the Vols to lose to Siena in the opening round, and then split the next two games in the loser’s bracket.  Win or lose, the Vols have a lot to gain by playing this strong of a field so early in the season.
• The Vols close out the first quarter of the season with a win over UNC-Asheville at home.

It’s not about how this team starts, but how it finishes.  It should be fun to watch this team grow up.

Daniel West

News today that freshman point guard Daniel West will in fact be ineligible to play for Tennessee during the upcoming season is a big loss for the Vols.

While West did not figure to start, he did figure to play a key role as backup point guard.  Today’s decision leaves head coach Bruce Pearl with only one scholarship point guard in junior college transfer Bobby Maze. Should Maze go down with an injury at some point during the season, the Vols will have to manage without a point guard.  That’s not a position you want to be in when you’re an NCAA Division I basketball team playing in one of the nation’s power conferences.

The Vols are now in a position where they will go as far as Bobby Maze will take them.  If Maze can remain healthy, the Vols could still have a promising season.  If he goes down at some point, all bets are off.

The loss of West means more than likely that J.P. Prince will now work in relief of Maze in the substitution pattern.  While this scenario may seem viable on the surface, it could prove to haunt the Vols especially in tightly contested games, particularly conference games and tough matchups against the likes of Memphis, Gonzaga and Siena. Not only will Prince be playing out of position at the point, but it will take him away from his natural position at the 3, something that the Vols painfully experienced last year in postseason play.

In games where every possession matters, ineffective point guard play could kill the Vols.  Lapses of ineffective offense over the course of five to 10 minutes a game can mean the difference between winning and losing.

In one respect, Pearl finds himself in a situation similar to his first season at Tennessee when he only had one true point guard on the roster in C.J. Watson.  But he had Dane Bradshaw to back Watson up.

Once again this season, Pearl finds himself with only true point guard.  And while Prince may be more athletic than Bradshaw, he’s not the passer and ballhandler that Bradshaw was.

What Pearl does have in his favor this year over that first year, however, is a much more talented roster, albeit a very inexperienced one.  Tennessee recently added a walkon point guard, Michael Hubert, who wasn’t even on the roster two weeks ago.  Hubert has been impressive backing up Maze in the two exhibition games, but that was against Division II competition, not Florida or Kentucky.  It will be interesting to see if Hubert gets meaningful minutes early in the season as Prince recovers from a shoulder injury and how effective he is.

One thing’s for sure, the Vols’ backcourt will be tested early.  UT will face the preseason Ohio Valley Conference backcourt of the year when UT-Martin comes to town Nov. 18th. That will be followed by Middle Tennessee and its All-Sunbelt guard Kevin Kanaskie.  Then you have Siena which returns its starting backcourt from the NCAA team that defeated Vanderbilt in the first round last year. And then there’s Marquette in the SEC/Big East Challenge which also returns its starting backcourt from a year ago.

The other matter that now needs to be addressed post haste with West’s dismissal is signing a point guard in the 2009 recruiting class.  While it remains uncertain whether or not West will eventually play at Tennessee, you certainly can’t count on it at this point.

Only two point guards that Tennessee has shown interest in up to now remain uncommitted leading up to the November signing period.  They are Johnnie Lacy from Massachusetts, who appears to be leaning to Minnesota, and Gentry Hines from Memphis.  It appears unlikely at this stage that the Vols will sign a point guard during the early signing period, but they will definitely need to address the position once again in the spring.

During the 2008-09 season, the University of Tennessee will celebrate 100 Years of Tennessee basketball.  The culmination of that celebration will occur Feb. 14, 2009, when the university will announce its Vol All-Century Team at the Vanderbilt game in Thompson-Boling Arena.

Over the past five weeks, I’ve been announcing my All Vol starting five, which culminated today with Chris Lofton becoming the fifth member of my starting five.

Below is a recap of my Vol All-Century Team starting five…

Bernard King

Bernard King, forward. Consensus first-team All-American and SEC Player of the Year all three years at UT.

Ernie Grunfeld

Ernie Grunfeld, forward. Two-time first-team All-American and first-team All-SEC for four years

Dale Ellis

Dale Ellis, forward.  Two-time SEC Player of the Year.

Allan Houston

Allan Houston, guard.  UT’s all-time leading scorer and second all-time in SEC.

Chris Lofton

Chris Lofton, guard

.  UT’s all-time leading 3-point shooter and 4th all-time leading  scorer

Chris Lofton

Coming out of high school, Chris Lofton would have been perhaps the most unlikely candidate to become a member of the Tennessee Volunteers All-Century basketball team.

Despite being named Mr. Basketball in his native Kentucky during his senior year of high school, Lofton was not recruited by either Kentucky or Louisville, the state’s two basketball powerhouses.  Lofton, instead, was signed by then Tennessee head coach Buzz Peterson as a mere afterthought.

What began as an afterthought at Tennessee became a career from which legends are made, and Lofton unquestionably carved out a legendary career for himself as one of the best Vols ever.

Lofton joins Bernard King, Ernie Grunfeld, Dale Ellis and Allan Houston as part of my Vol All-Century team starting five.

Known for his incredible three-point shooting and immeasurable range, Lofton completed his career as the all-time leader at Tennessee in three-point field goals with 431.  His 431 career three-pointers also ranks him first in the category in Southeastern Conference history and third in NCAA history.

Lofton ranks fourth on UT’s all-time career scoring list with 2,131 points and he led the Vols to a school record 31 wins this past season and the program’s first outright SEC championship in 41 years.

He was a three-time second team All-American and three-time first team All-SEC selection. He was also the 2007 SEC Player of the Year and a member of the 2008 John Wooden All-America team.

Lofton’s accomplishments were made even more remarkable when it was disclosed at the end of last season that he had played his senior year while battling testicular cancer, which he was diagnosed with following the conclusion of the 2007 season.

In addition to the individual and team records with which Lofton was a part, he will be forever remembered for some of the great shots in UT basketball history.  Who will ever forget his three-point shot over Kevin Durant of Texas in 2006 in Tennessee’s overtime win against Texas?

Or his game-winning, last-second, two-point basket against Winthrop in the 2006 NCAA tournament?

Or his nine three-pointers at Georgia in 2006 in which he singlehandedly led the Vols to victory?

I distinctly remember one of Lofton’s best performances ever that very few Vol fans ever saw.  It was a non-televised game against Vanderbilt in Nashville.  The Commodores triple-teamed Lofton virtually every time he touched the ball in that game, but Lofton put on a shooting exhibition nonetheless, making 6-7 three point attempts and scoring 29 points.

In addition to the historic 2008 season, Lofton will be forever the leader of three-straight NCAA tournament teams and back-to-back NCAA Sweet 16 teams.

Lofton was a winner and a warrior, and it is appropriate that the player who wore No. 5 would become a member of the Vol All-Century team starting five.

“No. 5 will be hanging from the rafters some day at Tennessee,” Bruce Pearl said.

Renaldo Woolridge Led Tennessee with 15 Points

The Tennessee men’s basketball team played a little more like Tennessee tonight, especially in the first half, in dismissing the Tusculum Pioneers 82-51 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Opening the game in their signature Bruce Pearl press, the Vols went on a 36-0 run after the first minute of the game and led 39-2 with seven minutes remaining in the first half.  The Vols forced 19 turnovers in the first half which resulted in 22 points.

“It was good to see Tennessee basketball from this group,” Pearl said. “We were much more aggressive and physical tonight.”

Tusculum shot 15.8% from the field in the first half and just 28.0% for the game.

As in the first exhibition game, five Vols scored in double figures led by freshman Renaldo Woolridge’s 15 points.  Wayne Chism added 13 points, Tyler Smith 12, Scotty Hopson 11 and Cameron Tatum 10 points for Tennessee. 

“We play best when everyone contributes,” Pearl said.

Woolridge got the start tonight for Tennessee.  Vol center Brian Williams, who started the first exhibition contest on Monday, has been battling tendonitis in his knee, Pearl said after the game, and aggravated the injury during pre-game warmups and did not play.

The remainder of the starting lineup was the same tonight for Tennessee as it was against Indianapolis with Chism and Smith in the front court, and Bobby Maze and Hopson joining Woolridge in the backcourt.

Tennessee took much better care of the basketball against Tusculum, commiting only 10 turnovers compared to 20 against Indianapolis in the first exhibition contest.

The Vols led 49-12 at halftime.  They were outscored 39-33 by Tusculum in the second half, although as Pearl pointed out after the game, the Vols did not press in the second half.  The Vols were also outrebounded by the Pioneers, 43-41.

Pearl did not seem pleased with Tennessee’s half-court offense in the second half, saying the Vols weren’t as aggressive as they were in the first half, and settled for too many tough shots.

The Vols shot only 45.5% from the field for the game and 30.8% from three.

Interestingly, in the two exhibition games, the Vols are 30.0% from three, compared to 35.6% from three last season.

Perimeter shooting, both from two and three, will be a key for Tennessee this season.  Teams will undoubtedly try to slow Tennessee down and make the Vols prove they can beat them from the outside, especially with the three-point line extended a foot this year.  And with the losses of Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith, there will be more pressure on Tennessee’s newcomers to deliver.

Junior wing Josh Tabb did not play again against Tusculum, apparently still related to academic discipline issues.  On a brighter note, Tatum had another solid outing coming off the bench.  The redshirt freshman, who missed most of the preseason with a knee injury, scored 10 points tonight, including two three’s, in only 18 minutes of action.  I continue to emphasize that a healthy Tatum will be big for the Vols this season.

Next up for the Vols is the regular season opener against UT-Chattanooga next Saturday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Mocs are the preseason favorite to win the North division of the Southern Conference this season.  They return three starters from last year’s squad, which fell to Tennessee in Chattanooga, 76-70.

Tyler Smith

Tennessee junior forward Tyler Smith was one of 50 players named today to the John R. Wooden Player of the Year and All-American Team preseason list.

The list is comprised of players based on last year’s individual performance and team records.

North Carolina center Tyler Hansbrough, who won the Wooden award last season, headlines this year’s list.

The SEC has four other candidates on the preseason list in addition to Smith.  They are Nick Calathes of Florida, Devan Downey of South Carolina, A.J. Ogilvy of Vanderbilt and Patrick Patterson of Kentucky.

Bruce Pearl Directs His Team

The 2008-09 edition of the Tennessee Vols will have one last tuneup game tonight against Tusculum at 7:30 at Thompson-Boling Arena before the games begin to count and the RPI starts to build.

The Vols face another NCAA Division II opponent in the Tusculum Pioneers from Greeneville, Tenn., who finished in the middle of the pack in the South Atlantic Conference last season. Coach Bruce Pearl’s squad is coming off a less-than-impressive 87-73 victory against Indianapolis on Monday night.

What to Watch For

1. Starting Lineup Changes – Pearl indicated after the UIndy game Monday night that he was not pleased with the frontcourt starting lineup of Brian Williams, Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism, admitting that both Smith and Chism were playing out of position as evidenced by the fact that each committed four turnovers.  Pearl acknowledged that Smith’s natural position was the 4 and Chism’s the 5.  It will be interesting to see if Pearl adjusts his lineup tonight to return Smith and Chism to their natural positions and brings Williams off the bench. And if so, who then starts along with Bobby Maze and Scotty Hopson in the backcourt? 
2. Cameron Tatum – Injured for most of preseason practice, Tatum played 15 minutes against UIndy coming off the bench and scored eight points.  Look for Tatum to get more minutes tonight and a possible start.  He’s a big key to this season if he’s healthy. 
3. Improved defense – One of the few weaknesses of Pearl’s teams since his arrival at Tennessee has been team defense, particularly in the half court. The Vols simply allowed UIndy way too many points Monday night which kept the game respectable.  Pearl said at his media day press conference that he expected this team to be a better half court defensive team with its additional size and athleticism from the newcomers.  They didn’t show it Monday night. With all the new faces, team defense will continue to be a work in progress, but the Vols need to show improvement tonight.
4. Momentum Builder – This season will be all about building confidence in this team, particularly with all the new players.  The Vols need a decisive win tonight (25+ points).  The competition only gets tougher from here on out.

About Tusculum:

This Season:  Defeated Lee University 72-60 last Saturday.

Last Season’s Record: 13-15

Key Players:  Kyle Moore, 6-3 guard, 16.6 PPG last season, transfer from Winthrop; Ryan Troutman, 6-2 point guard; Josh Bennett 6-7 forward.

Head Coach:  Jim Boone, fourth season at Tusculum.  363 career wins.