Crakaveli
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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Landscapers will tell you that March is a good time to over-seed your lawn.
Basketball insiders will tell you it's a bad time to over-seed your Vols.
Tennessee failed to live up to the expectations that come with a No. 2 regional seed, playing down to its postseason pedigree yesterday in a stark reminder that Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day.
"A couple of more minutes of solid basketball and we're talking about the Sweet 16," UT's Dane Bradshaw said after the 80-73 loss to Wichita State.
Instead, we're talking about a lousy final couple of minutes and a sour ending. Look, when you're alleged to be the second-best team in your quarter of the bracket, you shouldn't fall apart at the end of a second-round game and lose to a No. 7 seed.
But that's where Vol Ball is. Even after a marvelous season of defying the odds and stunning the masses, UT fell back into some old, bad habits and lost a game it should have won.
Note, please, that this was Wichita State, a program that was making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1988.
"If we lost to a UConn or a Duke, I wouldn't feel so bad," said Vols center Major Wingate, whose 15 points, seven rebounds and five blocks will be remembered less than his two turnovers in the final 2:43. "I don't think we lost to a better team."
The game was there for the taking. UT led 65-63 after a Wingate basket with 3:30 remaining but let the game slip way with lax defense, shaky ball-handling and a couple of three-point shots that needed divine intervention to have a chance of falling.
Trailing 67-65 with about two minutes to go, Bradshaw took an out-of-his-range 3-pointer that clanked harmlessly off the rim. Wichita State's P.J. Couisnard nailed a trey on the ensuing possession.
Later, Chris Lofton launched the last of his 18 3-point attempts, this one from perhaps 30 feet. It fell harmlessly away.
"I guess you could say we took a couple of bad shots," said Lofton.
Gee, I didn't know UT offered a class in Overstatement 101.
And then there were Wingate's two turnovers, when he was surrounded by Shockers defenders.
"You can't do that at crunch time," Wingate said.
Maybe it was the pressure of the moment. Or the burden of history. For years, long before Bruce Pearl began this divide-and-conquer rebuilding program, there has been a glass ceiling for men's basketball at UT. You can only go so high, even when inexplicably granted a No. 2 seed.
"With them having the higher seeding, they had more pressure on them," said Wichita State guard Matt Braeuer. "They obviously didn't want to lose to us.
"We knew we matched up well with them. They're not a great team."
Couisnard, who torched the Vols for 20 points and helped stifle UT's Lofton, put it like this:
"Of all the 2-seeds in the tournament, that's the one you'd want to play."
In time, the accomplishments of Pearl's first season will come into focus. Nobody expected much of this team. Getting to the NCAA Tournament and with a No. 2 seed to boot was quite a ride.
So little was expected.
So much was delivered.
"Nobody expected us to get this far," Bradshaw said. "It hurts now because we think we should've made the Sweet 16, but we accomplished a lot."
Indeed, it is a season to remember.
But a final game to forget.
Basketball insiders will tell you it's a bad time to over-seed your Vols.
Tennessee failed to live up to the expectations that come with a No. 2 regional seed, playing down to its postseason pedigree yesterday in a stark reminder that Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day.
"A couple of more minutes of solid basketball and we're talking about the Sweet 16," UT's Dane Bradshaw said after the 80-73 loss to Wichita State.
Instead, we're talking about a lousy final couple of minutes and a sour ending. Look, when you're alleged to be the second-best team in your quarter of the bracket, you shouldn't fall apart at the end of a second-round game and lose to a No. 7 seed.
But that's where Vol Ball is. Even after a marvelous season of defying the odds and stunning the masses, UT fell back into some old, bad habits and lost a game it should have won.
Note, please, that this was Wichita State, a program that was making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1988.
"If we lost to a UConn or a Duke, I wouldn't feel so bad," said Vols center Major Wingate, whose 15 points, seven rebounds and five blocks will be remembered less than his two turnovers in the final 2:43. "I don't think we lost to a better team."
The game was there for the taking. UT led 65-63 after a Wingate basket with 3:30 remaining but let the game slip way with lax defense, shaky ball-handling and a couple of three-point shots that needed divine intervention to have a chance of falling.
Trailing 67-65 with about two minutes to go, Bradshaw took an out-of-his-range 3-pointer that clanked harmlessly off the rim. Wichita State's P.J. Couisnard nailed a trey on the ensuing possession.
Later, Chris Lofton launched the last of his 18 3-point attempts, this one from perhaps 30 feet. It fell harmlessly away.
"I guess you could say we took a couple of bad shots," said Lofton.
Gee, I didn't know UT offered a class in Overstatement 101.
And then there were Wingate's two turnovers, when he was surrounded by Shockers defenders.
"You can't do that at crunch time," Wingate said.
Maybe it was the pressure of the moment. Or the burden of history. For years, long before Bruce Pearl began this divide-and-conquer rebuilding program, there has been a glass ceiling for men's basketball at UT. You can only go so high, even when inexplicably granted a No. 2 seed.
"With them having the higher seeding, they had more pressure on them," said Wichita State guard Matt Braeuer. "They obviously didn't want to lose to us.
"We knew we matched up well with them. They're not a great team."
Couisnard, who torched the Vols for 20 points and helped stifle UT's Lofton, put it like this:
"Of all the 2-seeds in the tournament, that's the one you'd want to play."
In time, the accomplishments of Pearl's first season will come into focus. Nobody expected much of this team. Getting to the NCAA Tournament and with a No. 2 seed to boot was quite a ride.
So little was expected.
So much was delivered.
"Nobody expected us to get this far," Bradshaw said. "It hurts now because we think we should've made the Sweet 16, but we accomplished a lot."
Indeed, it is a season to remember.
But a final game to forget.
