Tennessee Volunteer basketball odds and ends
Lots-o-news on the Tennessee Volunteer basketball team today. A few odds and ends:
- The Vols’ win over the No. 2-ranked Florida Gators on Saturday has propelled the team into the top 25. Tennessee is No. 19 in the AP poll and No. 20 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. Said coach Pearl:
At this point of the season, there’s some substance to it. After the Texas game (Dec. 17), I don’t know we deserved to be top 25. But, really, the body of work to this point, with us competing well on the road in defeat as well as the quality victories we have, yeah, I think we’re deserving of the ranking.
- Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley complained to the SEC office about the Volunteer fans storming the court after the big win. (Pulling a John Pennington here), to quote Brad Paisley, “Waa, waa, waa, waa, waa.” (That’s still very hard to type, by the way.) UT was fined $5,000 for the on-the-court celebration. UT athletic director Mike Hamilton and coach Pearl both asked Volunteer fans to refrain from doing it again. Subsequent violations could cost UT up to $50,000.
- Coach Pearl has written a letter to UT donors and season ticket holders imploring them to buy as many tickets as possible for UT’s home game against the Kentucky Wildcats on March 1, 2006. It’s a campaign to “keep the blue out” of Thompson-Boling Arena.
- On that note, thanks to Akijikan, who pointed out that “The Summit” is the name for the court in Thompson-Boling, not the new name for the arena. No offense to Thompson or to Boling, but I think “The Summit” makes a great name for the UT arena and an odd name for a floor, but I have too few dollars to make my opinion count.
- Coach Pearl said this week that talk of an NCAA tournament berth is still a bit premature: “Just the math doesn’t allow it. You have to win half your conference games, and we’ve won three.”
- Sophomore guard Chris Lofton, who scored 29 points against the Gators and made the defensive play of the game, was named the SEC Player of the Week.
