Raising Tennessee

By Taylor Bern

Saturday, January 3, 2009

If basketball were just an athletic competition, No. 14 Tennessee would out-jump every team in the country. There’s no question about that.

But watching Saturday’s 92-85 loss in Allen Fieldhouse, one had to wonder how this band of individually talented athletes ever earned that ranking emblazed before the school that sounds like tenacity but plays with none of it.

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Men's Basketball vs. Tennessee

The Jayhawks beat out the Tennessee Volunteers Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.

Tennessee voluntarily put itself in a 25-9 hole with crapshoot defense and a roulette wheel full of bad shots.

From the get-go, UT upchucked ill advised shot-after-shot.

In the first eight minutes, the Volunteers missed four three-pointers on possessions that lasted less than 15 seconds. Basically, they took just enough time to cross mid-court and maybe make one pass before hurling Wilson in the general direction of the bucket.

By halftime, that number of long-distance catastrophes reached eight. For good measure, Tennessee pushed it to 11 at game’s end.

Coach Bruce Pearl runs a hybrid zone defense designed to force turnovers and convert them to easy buckets. That way, they never have to play real offense.

“It’s how Tennessee plays,” coach Bill Self said. “It’s high-risk, high-reward. We made them pay for it early.”

Question: What happens when an almost equally athletic team makes crisp passes to find the open man?

Answer: That team starts the game with seven dunks/layups en route to a 25-9 lead.

A media timeout at 11:19 allowed Tennessee to breath and assess its 16-point deficit. Junior Wayne Chism pouted towards the bench and tossed his headband – which is apparently standard equipment in Knoxville – towards the scorers’ table.

Faced with adversity and some heated fouls, Tennessee – Chism and center Brian Williams, in particular – whined and complained. In the same circumstances, Kansas got mad.

Self earned a technical foul late in the first half and his team reflected that intensity. Pearl did everything but get whistled for a technical and his team did everything but play fundamental basketball.

Considering Kansas’ youth and Tennessee’s experience, Saturday appeared to be a role reversal. But looking at the history of each coach, this contest kept to script.

Self has a history of winning in all types of games, often with out-matched teams who simply played better than their opponents.

Pearl? His teams at UW-Milwaukee pulled off many upsets, but that’s not the case at Tennessee. He’s maximized athleticism at the cost of playing basketball.

To that point, the best compliment Kansas could give Tennessee in the postgame press conference was how well it defended inbounds plays.

Think about that. Kansas played against one of the so-called top 20 teams in the country, and all guard Sherron Collins could say was that “they pressured their butts off.”

They sure can pressure, but Tennessee can’t play.

“It’s a man’s game” Collins said. “If you’re not a man, you shouldn’t be out there.”

Pearl’s experienced boys have more learning to do than Self’s young men.

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