It cost Jerry Green his job.
Once agan, the Vols are one and done in the SEC tournament, despite entering as the top seed in the East, and playing a team they swept during the regular season. For all his success during the regular season, Coach Bruse Pearl can';t seem to solve the riddle that has cost former Tennessee coaches their jobs; how to win a post season game.
That could be the lede (Why do newspapers spell things funny? Why lede instead of lead?) on tomorrow's sports pages. I hope it won't be.
It overlooks and diminishes just how much this team has accomplished this season. The Vols were a consensus pick to finish in the bottom of the East, with a losing record. They went 15-16 in the regular season last year, and lost their top scorer to graduation. They are undersized, without a true center. They brought in a new coach, with a new system. Nobody expected anything from them.
But they won the SEC East, sweeping Florida, beating Texas, beating Kentucky at Rupp, and earning a bye into the SEC tournament.
So they lost to South Carolina. So what? South Carolina also swept the Gators, and are a very strong team in their own right. As the saying goes, it's very difficult to beat a good team three times in a season.
Yeah, I'm disappointed; I wanted the chance to avenge earlier losses. But that's the cool thing about this season, the fact that I thought it was possible to avenge those losses. I don't care what happens in the NCAA tournament either. Yeah, I want to win a few games, and so the Vols can show that the season wasn't a fluke, but even if they go one and out there, this has still been a great season. Basketball is fun again at Rocky Top, even when the guys are playing.
Posted by Rich at March 10, 2006 4:51 PM | TrackBack