New Vols Men's Hoops Team, Same as the Old Vols' Football Teams

While watching the Vols' monumental collapse in the NCAA tournament against Ohio State last night, I was already imagining the blog post I would write when they beat the No. 1 seeded Buckeyes, bouncing the last Big Ten team from the Big Dance. Obviously, I forgot I was watching a Tennessee team play. At least with the gridiron Vols, they usually wait until the fourth quarter, or at least the second half to go on cruise control, play an offense that is, at best, conservative, and at worst, paralyzed, and play a prevent defense to allow the other team back in the game. In this game, the hardwood Vols did exactly that in the FIRST HALF!

Once they got up in double digits, they seemed to forget that hustle, a suffocating defense, and turnovers got them their big lead, and they were content to toss the ball around for 20 seconds and then jack up a 28 foot three pointer with 2 seconds left on the shot clock. For all his success and turnaround of the Vols mens' basketball team, especially in light of a team that is all second-tier talent (except Chris Lofton), Bruce Pearl deserves just as much blame for allowing this team to quit on the game as the players themselves deserve for actually doing the quitting. Chalk up another "what might have been" in Tennessee sports lore, and maybe one day Volunteer players will learn to dance with what brought them to the dance and leave everything else at home...but I doubt it.