Radical Georgia Moderate

Florida Coach Bill Donovan, after the Gators got knocked out of the SEC Tournament in the first round:

It’s in front of our guys, what it takes to win. For whatever reason, I haven’t brought it out in them. They’re not committed to it. … I’m not really excited about seeing this group of guys being sophomores.

Nice.

Tennessee makes its first SEC Tournament appearance Saturday today at 1 p.m. against South Carolina, whom they beat 89-56 on March 9. Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs on their upset win against Ole Miss. No, really. If Tennessee beats South Carolina, they’d have the Arkansas/Vandy winner in the semifinal. I expect Vandy to beat the Hawgs and for the Vols to beat the Cocks, setting up what ought to be a very tough game for Tennessee against Vanderbilt. If Tennessee makes it through those two games, a final against Georgia looks like a breather.

I don’t really expect Georgia to make it that far though. They’ve got Kentucky at 9:45 on Saturday tonight, which ought to be about it for their SEC tournament run. And possibly the end of the Dennis Felton era.

By Joel’s count, the word perfection was used about 894 times last night. Alas, it was not meant to be for the Memphis Tigers. Instead, it would be the Vols who were Pearlfect:

I am enjoying it while it lasts. A number one ranking is nice, but just about irrelevant once the tournament starts. The Vols have Vanderbilt on Tuesday, a team good enough to spoil that ranking very quickly. The joy that came from wiping the sneer off Calipari’s face will last a while longer. Winning the SEC outright for the first time in about 40 years would be much nicer than either of those things.

The game was not always pretty. I felt like the Vols were lucky not to be down 15 at the half the way Memphis was draining threes. But it turned out that the Tigers’ reliance on three-pointers (not their strong suit) was their downfall, as they went cold from outside the arc in the second half.

+1 to Pearl and the Vols for coming up with a good game plan and sticking to it even when it looked like it might not work early on.

While I was preoccupied with license plates and offseason turmoil for the football team, I failed to note that the #2 UT men’s basketball team has a showdown with #1 Memphis this Saturday. Memphis is a 6-point favorite.

There are lots of great storylines:

A rare #1 vs. #2 match-up.

The rags-to-riches ascension of Tennessee the past couple of years.

In-state bragging rights.

The best remaining chance for an undefeated team to lose in the regular season.

You should do yourself a favor and tune in, as Tennessee is just a fun team to watch. I typically don’t care about college basketball until the tournament starts, but I’ve watched several UT games this year. They keep a ridiculous tempo and often just outrun their opponents. And if they don’t feel like doing that, they hit three-pointers that make you say “that was a terrible shot, he was just lucky.” Then you look at the box score, and it turns out they do that every game.

And to The Ohio State University for making the SEC look good. Runner-up U is going to be as hard to shake as, well, You can’t spell Citrus without UT.

Also, legend Eddie Robinson died today. Read the obit, he was hardcore.

Pat Summit, the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, at last night’s ass-whumpin’ of the defending national champions Gators of Florida:

Also see: Phil Fulmer sitting there like a wet, retarded sack of potatoes.

That two-horse shit-stinking network is leaving a 2-point Tennessee-Witchita State game in the second half to show the tip-off of the Boston College-Montana game. Now you’ve done it, CBS. I will hunt everyone who runs your network down. I will condense all their essences into a single life form with the sheer will of my hatred. And I will smash that life form’s head with my fist, over and over, until every molecule of its tar black essence is pulverized into the red Georgia clay.

I‘m afraid I’m just not going to get the time to do a March Madness tourney on here this year. It’s too bad, too, because this site registered 1,114 pageloads in Statcounter yesterday, mostly from people searching for NCAA picks. I will share one of the random e-mails I received from one of the people who stumbled here looking for NCAA picks, though.

Is it too late to hire Bruce Pearl as offensive coordinator for Tennessee’s football team? Because the basketball Vols play tough and fast and score a lot of points the way I’d like to see the football Vols play. They’re also fun to watch the way the football team hasn’t been for most of this decade (year-before-last’s overachievers being the exception).

The Tennessee men’s basketball team is 18-3, number one in the SEC East and has cracked the top ten in the ESPN poll. How fucking awesome is that? Had Jerry Green not already shown a few years ago that it is possible to win basketball games at a football school (more specifically, my football school), this would be as strange as Kentucky winning an SEC title in football.

They’re playing Auburn tonight — a mediocre team if their record is to be believed. I’m always nervous that I can personally fuck up the Vols’ karma by hyping them, but wtf, eh? This year, even when they play a crappy team, it makes me want to do strange things like skip trivia to watch their games.

(there you go Lush)

Just for Jen, because she’s such a big fan.

Tennessee basketball coach Buzz Peterson was fired today after UT wasn’t even invited to the NIT this year. It’s hard to argue with AD Mike Hamilton’s decision going on pure numbers. Two of Peterson’s four seasons were in the red, and he had a losing record this year despite every starter returning. While Peterson was a true class act off the court and liked by the fans, “stand-up guy” doesn’t cut it at a school that fired its last coach (Jerry Green) for going to four straight NCAA tournaments, including a Sweet 16 appearance. Check this statistic:

UT’s record for the 90’s prior to Green’s arrival was an abysmal (90-113) over seven seasons with only one winning season (19-15) during that stretch.

Compare that to Green’s 89-36 record and aforementioned tournament appearances. Peterson finished with a 61-59 overall record, apparently on pace with the pre-Green days of UT basketball.

The school would be EXTREMELY fortunate to field a team that even made the tournament, much less got past the first or second round. So now the school has fired two coaches in eight seasons. Who in his right mind would take that job knowing that he’ll probably be fired after three or four seasons? Further, what recruit in his right mind would commit to a school with a revolving door coaching policy like UT’s?

At least football season starts Sep. 3.