I wasn’t sure such a thing was possible, given the sine wave that’s been Tennessee’s basketball season this year.
The Vols went from No. 2 in the nation and a possible one-seed in the NCAA tournament to a four seed, sputtering to the finish.
This team has been Jekyll and Hyde all year. They beat South Carolina in Columbia by 43, SC wins at Rupp Arena for the third time in school history, then Kentucky beats Tennessee. The Vols beat No. 1 Alabama, then fold like a soccer player after incidental contact. This team is hard to dissect.
That being said, I wondered if this team might ride all this derision to a magical run in the tournament. After two rounds in the Dance, the Vols are still alive, something the Big Orange fold can’t often say. When you look at what’s coming next, you have to figure Tennessee should be favored against Florida Atlantic.
Ah, but there’s the rub.
Tennessee has a big win, then drops the chalupa in the next game, for some reason. We’ve seen it time and again, as their 11 losses would suggest. It was refreshing to see a different brand of Vol Ball against Duke, one of the most storied programs over the last 45 years or so. The Vols got into the mud with them and slugged it out and won somewhat convincingly.
But there were some red flags.
For example, the Vols were leading by nine with just under three to go. So what is the prudent plan of action? Work the clock. Run Duke’s defense so they don’t have legs when it does get the ball back. But no, like it did a few years ago against North Carolina, which resulted in a loss, someone decided to jack up a three. It missed and Duke was able to cut into the Vols margin.
You don’t need a three right there. The clock is your ally. Sometimes I wonder about this team’s basketball IQ.
And now the Vols have somewhat of a signature victory over the Blue Devils in the tournament. And it marks the first time since 1979 that Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina aren’t in the Sweet 16.
A story for another time.
It looks as if the draw is setting up nicely for the Vols if they’ll just allow it to. Florida Atlantic won’t be a pushover. You never know what you are going to get with some of these mid-major teams who have a bunch of juniors and seniors who have played together for three and four years. The good news for the Big Orange faithful is that Tennessee has a lot of crystalization. There are a lot of players on this team that have been here for a while.
But, we’ve seen it all year long. The Vols get a big win and hit the snooze button in the next game. The bad thing about the Dance is that if you hit the snooze button, you’re done.
A Final Four run is not out of the question, as I’ve said all year. This team has the chops to beat elite teams. At the moment, there don’t seem to be too many of those elites in Tennessee’s path for a while.
Barnes suddenly is drawing a lot of praise from the same faithful who were cursing his team 10 days ago. A question was raised by a blogger a month or so ago. Has Barnes peaked at Tennessee? He wins, he recruits well, but there is always that element of disappointment somewhere along the way. A Tennessee appearance in the Final Four would cement his status as a great coach.
Getting to the Sweet 16 isn’t a bad start, but this team is capable of better and I think Barnes knows it.
So do the fans, who can be very fickle.
Jim Steele is a correspondent for Magic Valley Publishing and the host of The Pressbox, which airs 4-6 p.m. CT, Monday-Thursday on WRJB, 95.9 FM, Camden, Tenn.
