This basketball season has been one for the ages for the Tennessee Volunteers. The men won 31 games, the most ever by any UT men's squad, and also won the regular season South Eastern Conference championship outright for the first time since 1967. Even with these accomplishments, the season ended on a sour note.
Coming off of an early exit in the SEC tournament, the Vols entered the NCAA tournament with high hopes of making the longest run in UT history through the tournament. Instead, the Vols not only lost in the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year, it was an embarrassing defeat.
The effort by the best team in the history of Tennessee basketball was nothing short of horrendous. Tennessee was outplayed and outmatched from the opening tip until the final buzzer sounded.
The Achilles' heel of Tennessee all season was a bad free throw percentage and a lack of rebounding. The Vols only hit 68 percent of their free throws and were out-rebounded by the Louisville Cardinals 43-28.
The effort by the best team in the history of Tennessee basketball was nothing short of horrendous.One must wonder what was going through the heads of the Tennessee players. Maybe they felt their accomplishments before this game were enough. Maybe they believed Louisville was a better team and were going to win no matter what. Or perhaps they thought that this game was a shoo-in and were trying to prepare for the next round against North Carolina.
Whatever the mindset was, the play and performance of the Vols were embarrassing.
One must give Louisville credit. The Cardinals came out of the locker room fighting. They played like they had a mark to put in the history books for their university.
What did Tennessee leave? They left the greatest record in school history and the conference title. They also left the disgust of all Vol fans because the team ended the season with the poorest performance of the year.
Despite the terrible ending, the three seniors, Jordan Howell, Chris Lofton, and JaJuan Smith, will be greatly missed by this university. It is just a shame their time in Volunteer jerseys had to end in such a disheartening fashion.
Comments
jerry commented, on March 30, 2008 at 8:29 p.m.:
nice job with the article stevie you really seem to know your basketball oh Louisville did give UNC all it could handle too huh? Poor Louisville- what an embarrassing loss
billy commented, on March 31, 2008 at 1:30 a.m.:
isn't this a sports article? why is it under opinion?
there are other articles on the sports page that are opinions about sports.
VolsFan commented, on March 31, 2008 at 11:43 a.m.:
This article is a joke. Yeah, we lost but at the same time this is the best team UT has ever had and that game was the biggest the Vols have played in my entire life...one bad game doesn't knock the accomplishments from the entire year. And seriously, why is this opinion?
Bridget commented, on March 31, 2008 at 2:25 p.m.:
This is under Opinion because, although it is a sports piece, it can be featured under a different section. There can be some cross overs and I think it is a pretty opinionated piece. Just because this is sports related doesn't mean it has to be listed under that section. Let me know if you have any questions. Great article Stephen!
Editor-Bridget Hardy
Anonymouse commented, on April 1, 2008 at 10:54 p.m.:
"One must wonder what was going through the heads of the Tennessee players."
Maybe you should ask them instead of speculating.
I will never understand Tennessee fans' eagerness to jump on the bandwagon when our teams are doing well and their eagerness to insult them when they lose. Criticizing the game and their performance against other, better-played games is fine, but calling a loss to a 3rd-seed team "embarrassing" is ridiculous. The NCAA tournament has always provided plenty of upsets and underdog champions (George Mason, anyone?)--I hardly think that an upset in a 2 seed vs 3 seed game is all that surprising.