The Rearview 2/26

Greetings from the West Coast. As I flew in to Los Angeles last night, it was the first time I’ve ever seen smog at night. Though it is a nice break in the winter to enjoy some Southern California 70 degree weather in February, there’s a part of me, wait, a large part of me that wants to be at home listening to, and reading, all the sure to be hoopla surrounding our basketball program. But even still, a gentleman that works out here even stopped me to say, “oh, yeah, you’re the Tennessee fan; you guys are no. 1 in the country!” As if I didn’t know. I didn’t know what was worse, that the only reason he remembered me from a corporate meeting two years ago was that I was apparently an overzealous Tennessee fan, or that he would assume I didn’t know?

It is appropriate that my first edition of “The Rearview” is on the heels of this weekend’s game with Memphis, because as I write this our basketball team has the entire basketball world in its rearview, for now.

As I am sure most, if not all, of you watched the game Saturday night with gleeful anticipation of what might be coming our way, I can honestly say that the only time I ever got nervous was when J. P went to the line with 8.8 to go. The rest of the game I just watched with a big grin on my face and soaked it all up. But with 8.8 to go, something occurred to me……..we may win this game? What then?

A side note to J.P.: I’m sorry. I criticized your play for the past two weeks. I was in the midst of criticizing your play until the 16 min mark in the 2nd half when you decided to outscore Memphis 6-0 on your own. I hope this game is the game that breaks you out of whatever slump you may have been in, great game J.P. (I don’t think anyone will forget whether or not the J or the P comes first any more)

And that’s when I began to really contemplate what it means to be No. 1. If you’re like me, it’s hard to separate the football mentality surround the polls. Logically, I understand that the reality is, No. 1 right now is great, but as it relates to the entire college basketball season, No. 1 right now means nothing to the season outcome. Memphis, Kansas and Duke (who all have lost this week) still have the same shot at the National Championship that we do. In that light, it kind of takes the luster off, right?

NO, emphatically no. While the rest of the college basketball world will undoubtedly assert what happens over the next 6-7 weeks is infinitely more important than one game on Feb. 23rd. And they’d be correct, except for us, the team that won on Feb. 23rd was our Tennessee Volunteers.

The difference is WE’RE NO. 1. This isn’t like Duke, Kansas, UNC, UCLA, G’town etc….getting the nod this week. This isn’t even like the Lady Vols getting the nod.

To use Chris Lofton’s words, ‘when I was a freshman, we were 14-17 and the laughing stock of the SEC’. That’s 4 years ago for anyone that cares. What this program has been able to do in such a short amount of time is remarkable, truly remarkable, and I’m glad to be able to say I was around when it happened.

In football, there’s a saying about these top 2 match ups: “you don’t have to be the best team in the country, you just have to be the best team in the stadium.” I think that saying applies, and if you believe Bruce Pearl, the Vols believe it as well. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played to determine who the best team in the country is, and that’s fine, that wasn’t what was at stake Saturday night. UNC, Duke, UCLA, Kansas will have their say, and I can already hear fans of those blue bloods starting in on us. Again, that’s fine with me. At the end of the day, none of that matters. What made this game significant for us wasn’t that we are trying to prove that we’re the best team in America. It was significant because the winner would be No. 1.

Bruce gets it. The team gets it. I get it, and I’m sure most of you do as well. I don’t know that we’ll win the tourney; heck, I don’t know that we’ll beat Vandy tomorrow.

But I do know for the past 2 days, we’ve been No. 1. Take a picture, frame the poll, whatever…..but make no mistake, this is something we should all be very proud of, and we should enjoy to the fullest.

Lastly, a comment or two about Bruce Pearl: So this is what it feels like to have a coach that everyone not clad in orange and white despises? Florida fans…..now I get it. If you watched Bruce all week leading up to this game, he was the epitome of shrewd, but in a good way. The Vandy game was more important than this, this was about a celebration of college basketball, Memphis is the most talented team in the country, and I especially liked his little jab at Calapari’s mind games when he said, “I’m good, but he’s the best, and to be honest, I bought in to it a little too much probably.” (Or something to that affect).

I mean, didn’t you just love the sparks he had with Erin Andrews at halftime and at the end of the game? I’m sure you did……

It’s the acknowledgment that both he and Cal willingly took part (though we all know they aren’t exactly sending each other Christmas cards) in the cross state jabs that I loved. It’s why Memphis fans hate him. And it’s why he’s able to approach a game like this and have his team stay even emotionally throughout. He took all the pressure off the team, as did Cal with his retorts and jabs of his own (by the way, Knoxville is NOT closer to DC than it is to Memphis).

And ultimately, what made all that great, is the fact that the game was worthy of the talk. And that is a credit to both coaches.

For all those that I discussed with last week about this not being a rivalry, as long as these two are coaching at these two programs, and we continue to play each other, this will be a rivalry. I will concede that now.

This appears to be a good place to stop, before I start losing readers on my first attempt at this, but I couldn’t help it. It IS the first time we’ve been at the pinnacle of college basketball, and I’m just damn happy to see it. Thank you Bruce and thank you Big Orange Basketball!!!

We’re Number 1. Beat Vandy. Go Vols.