Happy Sweet 16 Monday:
The Vols are survivors .. keep on survivin' .... Survive and advance. Tennessee is 40 minutes away from matching its best showing in school history. Tennessee fans deserve this!
Get the app! Droid | iPhone
The Throat Bats Leadoff: 
Our UT Insider Orange Throat leads it off today ...
Orange Throat
'T Club Team:
Random musings as the Barnes Ballers stagger a bit but keep dancing:
YOUR BIG ORANGE TUMBLER ... Has to be half-full after the Large Orange survived Saturday night at Charlotte. My point in Friday's blog about UT teams under Rick Barnes usually failing in the tourney because of poor shooting almost came true, but thankfully did not. Tennessee set a record for the lowest shooting mark in a tourney win. Wow. Jonas Aidoo and Dalton Knecht came through at the free throw line and another early round disaster was averted.
ON TO THE MOTOR CITY .... As Vol Nation should represent at Little Caesars Arena, the 20,000-seat home of the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings. Friday night's game with a very good Creighton team stands between this team, this coach and this fanbase from an opportunity to make that elusive Final Four. The get-in price for the Friday session is currently hovering around $200. A Delta flight from McGhee Tyson is going to cost you a grand so the 7-hour drive doesn't look too bad in comparison.
THE BLUEJAYS FROM THE BIG EAST... Are outstanding offensively, ranked 5th in the country in EFG percentage at 57.4% and 14th-year HC Greg McDermott's team is 20th nationally in defensive EFG at 46.2. The game opened with the Volunteers as a 1.5-point favorite and has been bet up to -2.5 so far. The Dean will host a massive watch party at Corner 16 Friday night.
IS THERE A DIS-KNECHT ... Going on with our SEC Player of the Year? There's no question Dalton Knecht has cooled from the torrid pace he set for most of the season. He's shooting 38.8% from the field over the last six games after being close to 50% for most of the season ... he's 46.1% for the season going to Detroit. Knecht is hitting 32.7 from three-point land over the last six after being in the low 40s all season. He now's down to 39.1% for the season. Ziggy has also been on the cool side of late, shooting about four percentage points off his season average. Of course, Ziggy's overall game was huge in the win over Texas. With regard to Knecht, is it fatigue, law of averages, better defensive strategy from opponents? Tony and Beanstar will break that down today.
THE FIGHTING VOLTELLOS WIN A SERIES ... In the league home opener but the sweep got away when the bullpen couldn't hold a one-run lead on Saturday. Otherwise, the Vols run-ruled Ole Miss on Friday and Sunday by scoring 30 runs in those games, including 10 homers. C-Moore hit three homers on the weekend and Kavares Tears went 7-for-11 and had two roundtrippers. A.J. Causey breezed to another league win on Friday and Nate Snead came on in relief to collect the dub yesterday. For the second straight weekend, the Vols lost Drew Beam's start, although A.J. Russell sustained the L in relief. Hope Russell hasn't sustained a setback arm-wise.
LADY VOL UPDATE ... Kellie Harper's 6th-seeded squad guns for its third straight Sweet 16 this afternoon but they'll have to do it on the home court of #3-seed N.C. State ... Karen Weekly's softball team completes its road series at South Carolina tonight after winning the first two against the Gamecocks.
GEORGIA CRIMEDOG UPDATE ... It didn't take Florida transfer RB Trevor Etienne long to get "up to speed" on how things roll in Kirby Smart's program. He was booked over the weekend for DUI and reckless driving.
Orange Throat'
I feel you. Tennessee won two over the weekend to get there but it's about to really get real and I mean really ... Tennessee will take the floor versus a dangerous opponent Friday night and must shoot the ball better or they could get housed.
YOUR BIG ORANGE TUMBLER ... Is Half Full: How could it not be half full after Saturday. Every other team that did that on offense is home watching on TV.
Tennessee is the first team in the history of the NCAA tournament to win a game where they shot less than 15% from 3 and less than 35% from the field. Teams were 0-66 before Saturday. That's called destiny where I come from. This is what I'm hanging my hat on.
Tennessee HAS NEVER WON THAT GAME THAT THEY WON SATURDAY NIGHT. Stuff like that doesn't happen for us in the NCAA Tournament. It's called a new lease on life. The Vols should've been gone. Thank goodness Texas is so poorly put together and coached all at once. Texas was really bad pretty much all night. That it was a game at the end is indicative of the way Tennessee just isn't clicking right now. Orange Throat hit the nail on the head above. Tennessee absolutely needs to be sharper on offense against a potentially explosive Creighton team.
Tennessee Got Through Because They Had A Great Defensive Scout: Tennessee assistants Rod Clark & Lucas Campbell served up a masterclass. They had Josiah on Disu and Jonas on that Dillon Mitchell kid who is the most inept offensive player in America. Plan was to make Abmas beat them and take away Hunter and Disu. Abmas struggled with Mashack. Poor Texas was absolutely overwhelmed from the jump. If Tennessee would've had an average night they would've rolled the Horns.
Another Thing Lost In The Fine Print: Rick Barnes has been EXCELLENT THIS YEAR In BLOB. His baseline out of bounds plays have been excellent. The box set action where teams have to decide what to do with Knecht and two screeners. The result Saturday was a corner 3 and several wide open looks including a sweet dunk Aidoo had not to mention that sweet back cut Aidoo got which resulted in him getting fouled. I'd watch this going forward.
Matt Dixon Love Stat Of The Day: Tennessee had more tournament wins in the last 48 hours over the weekend than Kentucky has in the last 5 years. Try to digest that for a second. Kentucky has spent MILLIONS on March nothingness.
Rick Barnes In The Company Of Giants: Matt Painter, Eric Musselman, Mark Few, Rick Barnes & Kelvin Sampson are the only coaches in America to make 3 Sweet 16's in the last 5 years. The Zags have been to 9 straight Sweet 16's. It's a good thing Few isn't good in the tournament. In the modern era that is a sick #. It seems impossible to get to the Sweet 16 nine straight times.
Tennessee Won A Game In The NCAA Tournament: Where Knecht was 1-9 from 3 and ZZ was 1-8. That's your two best players going 2-17 with several missed shots being great looks. This portends well going forward. This can't and won't happen versus Creighton.
IS THERE A DIS-KNECHT? Dalton Knecht is playing with a heavy heart right now as his grandfather passed away on the Friday of the Miss State game in the SEC Tournament. Dalton will be away from the team for a bit as he'll be in North Dakota today for the funeral. He'll obviously rejoin the team and be ready for Friday. I wanted to note this because DK is a person and not a machine and family is very important to him. There's a lot of moving parts here. He was close to his grandfather. This must be a bittersweet deal for him to have this opportunity against the backdrop of a sad situation.
THE FIGHTING VOLTELLOS WIN A SERIES: Basilio's Take Matt Dixon will return tomorrow with his patented TLD Logistics Tennessee Baseball Report. My takeaways from the weekend are two fold. Firstly it was great to win yesterday as Tennessee and Ole Miss appear evenly matched. In fact through a couple of weekends it looks like there's a slew of talented yet flawed teams. There are a lot of very capable teams. Georgia looks paper tigerish on paper but they're very good offensively. With Tennessee's pitching/bullpen issues anything is possible versus anyone this side of Missouri. Tony Vitello tried to sell me off the air that this team is going to have issues and be a work in progress in the bullpen and I called him Lou Holtz (a notorious downseller of his teams). It turns out I owe Tony Vols an apology. His bullpen is very much a work in progress and they're a scary proposition at this point. Russell better be available going forward.
When You See The Mountain West On Your Bracket Next Year: Eliminate them as quickly as possible and understand that unless it's San Diego State nothing will happen for these teams. If you like a collection of athletes that are mid sized players adorned in head bands that look like they belong on a YMCA team, then keep advancing Mountain West teams. Otherwise it's kind of a joke at this point.
Proof Of Life Check Jimmy Dykes: What must be going through his mind right now. He has been ghosting Twitter as he concentrates on women's March Madness. The SEC had 8 teams in and who's left? It's incredible. Meanwhile the ACC had 4 teams make the 68 and all are still dancing. Are you kidding me? Does that mean the ACC was better than we thought? I don't think so but it does mean they've performed well in the tournament. DJ Burns is a lot of fun. What a unique talent. The tournament makes very little sense.
Final Thought: Tennessee is back in the Sweet 16. It's time!!!!
ICYMI from Wednesday: Brian Hartman Stops By For This Food For Thought ... This is a very thought provoking piece. Of course the Barnes-Stormers are never going to read this with an open mind while people like me that toggle back and forth on the Barnes can smell what Brian is cooking here.
Brian Hartman
'ZZ Stop and Kyle Alexander injuries impact Coach Barnes' March Perception Rick Barnes has won over 800 games during a head coaching career that dates back to the early 90s and has included stints at 5 different schools. But he's only taken one team to a Final Four. That was Texas in 2003.
Barnes' record in the NCAA Tournament is 27-26, which isn't great, but not as awful as some perceive.
He has been a March Madness participant much more often than not. However only 1 Final Four appearance out of 26 chances leaves lots to be desired.
Coach Barnes' teams are usually highly seeded. On multiple occasions they have lost to a lower seeded team much earlier in the tournament than they should have. That is a fair point to make.
It has to be pointed out that the NCAA Tournament is a random, single elimination crap shoot where lots of luck can be needed to advance real far. Lots of luck not only includes favorable bounces of the ball, but also key players staying injury free for an entire season.
Case in point: The Vols were a 3 seed in 2018. They shared an SEC regular season title with Auburn, swept Kentucky in the regular season before losing to the Cats in the SEC Tournament championship game. The #1 seed in their region was Virginia, who became the first 1 seed in tournament history to lose in the first round to a 16 seed, who was Maryland-Baltimore County. Whatever and whoever that is. The 2 seed was Cincinnati, who blew a huge lead before losing to 7 seeded Nevada in the second round. The Vols easily dispatched 14 seed Wright St in the first round. They looked ready to make a serious run, right?
At the end of the Wright St game, Kyle Alexander sustained an injury that didn't look to be too serious. Not much was made about it by the TV crew. But his hand injury was serious enough to keep him out of their second round game vs 11 seeded Loyola Chicago. Loyola knocked out 6 seed Miami in the first round on a 3 pointer in the final seconds. You know what happened vs the Vols.
If Kyle Alexander plays, the lack of a rim protecting center versus Loyola would not have been an issue. As that's what came back to bite the Vols in that game.
13 seed Buffalo knocked out 4 seeded Arizona, paving the way for 9 seed Kansas St to meet Loyola in the Elite 8 game. Kansas St took advantage of 1 seed Virginia's absence in the second round. K St upset 5th seeded Kentucky in the Sweet 16.
That bracket opened up nicely for the Vols. Their loss to Loyola by 1 point will always sting and bring out the what if Kyle Alexander had been healthy question.
Fast forward to 2023. Last season. Point guard Zakai Zeigler tore an ACL vs Arkansas during the second to final game of the regular season. He wouldn't play again until November. The Vols earned a 4 seed, which enabled them to get past Louisiana in the first round. Tennessee was a slight underdog to 5th seeded Duke in the second round due to no Zakai. But they dispatched Duke pretty easily by 13 points, bullying them around in the process.
The 1 seed in this region was Purdue, who became the second #1 seed in tournament history to lose to a 16 seed in the first round. Both times that's happened, Tennessee was in the same regional. Wild. 9th seeded Florida Atlantic was fortunate to beat Memphis in round 1 before taking advantage of 16 seed Fairleigh-Dickinson in the second round. You know what happened in the Sweet 16 vs the Vols. The Vols would have only needed to win over a very beatable 3 seed in Kansas St in the Elite 8 to make it to a Final Four. With Zeigler healthy, they might have been favored to do just that. I should also point out that 2 seed Marquette got upset by Michigan St in the second round. This bracket also opened up favorably for the Vols. But without Zakai, they were not equipped to take advantage.
What if at least 1 if not both the 2018 and 2023 teams had made it to a Final Four? How would coach Barnes' history in March have been looked at differently?
That question needs to be asked in fairness to Coach Barnes. Unfortunately, both seasons will have to remain giant what ifs. Around these parts what ifs can be sometimes the best we can do.
Just my two cents
Through The Glass
Brian Hartman
Producer TB Show'
Here's Matt Dixon who was on hand for Tennessee's win over Xavier with more.
Matt Dixon
'Tennessee got back in the win column on a long and cold Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium with a 10-2 victory over Xavier.
The Volunteers improved to 19-3 (1-2 SEC) on the season and a perfect 16-0 at home.
After Christian Moore led off the bottom of the 1st with a walk, Blake Burke blasted his 8th home run of the season to right center field to give Tennessee an early 2-0 lead.
It was Burke’s 38th career home run, tying him with baseball hall of famer Todd Helton for 3rd-most in school history.
Zander Sechrist made his usual midweek start. The lefty went three innings, allowing a walk while striking out three.
Xavier used a 2-out, pinch hit double, a wild pitch and then an infield single to the left side to plate their first run in the top of the 4th and cut the Vols’s lead to 2-1.
Tennessee responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning after back-to-back hits to lead off the frame. Reese Chapman had a sac fly, another runner scored on a Charlie Taylor grounder to shortstop and an RBI groundout by Moore made it 5-1 after four.
The Musketeers scored a run in the top of the 5th to make it 5-2 but that was as close as they got.
Veteran lefty Kirby Connell left a runner stranded at 3rd base to end the 5th, then pitched two scoreless innings in relief to earn the win.
Dylan Dreiling's RBI double down the left field in the bottom of the 7th was the Vols’s first 2-out hit of the game and made it 6-2.
Three straight walks made it 7-2 but the Vols would leave the bases loaded after a strikeout ended the inning.
After three walks loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8th, Cannon Peebles brought all three runners home with a line drive double to left field that got past the diving fielder to make it 10-2.
Notes: —
Right-handed pitcher Marcus Phillips left in the 8th inning after throwing just nine pitches and recording one out. Not good development for a team that currently lacks dependable bullpen arms, especially from the right side.
— Tuesday night’s game was the start of an 8-game home stand for the Vols. Tennessee hosts Ole Miss in a 3-game series this weekend, plays Tennessee Tech next Tuesday and hosts Georgia next weekend.
@Mattdixon3'
GBO
Tone
Stand With The Tony Basilio Show
Join the T Club
Make a One-Time Donation
Send Us A T-Mail. Click Here.
Click to subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Busted
Posted: Sun, Mar 24th, 4:22 PM
@TonyBasilio
