The turnaround.
- Noah Hays
- Mar 4, 2018
- 5 min read
Tennessee mens basketball has pretty much been an afterthought for years ever since the glory days of Bruce Pearl at the helm. The days of worrying which seed they would get for March Madness rather than actually having to question if they would even get in. The tide has turned since the Pearl tenure has ended with the Vols only making the tournament once since then. Coaching turnover with Cuonzo Martin and the infamous NCAA investigated Donnie Tyndall have not helped the Volunteers with consistency and turning the program around. With a crucial hire to be made in 2015 the Tennessee athletic department put their trust into a proven veteran who has produced a number of NBA players and not to mention, also had a cameo in Friday Night Lights, Rick Barnes. Rick Barnes turned Texas basketball into a powerhouse making the tournament 16 out of his 17 years, with 2 Elite 8 appearances along with 1 Final Four. Barnes also owns the only 30 win seasons in Texas history, totaling 400+ wins in his time in Austin. When his time was up in Texas the Vols came calling for what they hoped was the coach to turn it around and bring added stability back to Knoxville. Barnes became the coach in 2015 taking over a depleted roster, while furthermore having to try and get his own group of players into his system. The first season went just as expected going 15-19 and finishing 12th in the conference with no appearance in the tournament. The 2016-2017 season brought flashes of possible greatness and signs of hope to Vol fans (including me) with the most notable win against #5 Kentucky and close losses to future national champions UNC, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Gonzaga. The team did not have a good enough resume for the selection committee and fell just short of one of the final spots for the tourney, finishing the season with a record of 16-16 and placing tied for 9th in the SEC regular season standings. Leading up to the 2017-2018 season the Vols were picked to finish the worst out of all the previous seasons with Coach Barnes, 13th out of 14 total teams in the SEC. This year was going to be different, the players and Rick Barnes knew it. At the end of the previous season where the Vols had no postseason to look forward to, Coach Barnes told 247 sports what he said to his team at that time saying "I told our guys that we needed to understand that we wanted to be playing at that time next year.”. With this came "needed change" to the program said Barnes, "the first thing that we were going to have to do was get a group of guys that were totally bought in and had two feet firmly planted in the program". Tennessee started out the season with an appearance in the Maui Invitational with substantial wins against #18 Purdue and NC State adding to a March resume they would hope to improve in the coming games. Tennessee continued the trend of winning finishing the non conference schedule with a 9-2 record with the only losses coming to UNC and Villanova. Even in the two losses the Vols were winning in both games and competed the full 40 minutes against what some called "Final Four favorites". A start no one expected yet some saw it all tumbling down as they began conference play with two back to back losses against Arkansas and Auburn. Many fans, like me, have seen this way too often with hopes getting skyrocketed after a few games and being taken back to earth with only another few games. This team was different, not like the rest. The Rick Barnes lead team was not giving up this easy, over the next 12 games they won 10 with some convincing wins beating Kentucky twice, something the Vols have not done since 1999. 18-6 was the record, taking the SEC and the nation by storm landing in the Top 25 for consecutive weeks. Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, and Kyle Alexander took over the front court and gave teams nightmares in the paint, while Jordan Bone, and Lamonte Turner, controlled the backcourt. These players weren't the only contributors as Coach Barnes was not reluctant to go deep into his bench with players like Derrick Walker and James Daniel III making immediate impacts no matter what time they came into the game. Even with the exceeded expectations, the Volunteers seemed out of reach for top of the standings as streaky Auburn was also shocking the SEC and being #1 in the conference standings through 12 conference games. The next 6 conference games would make or break the team, and show the true toughness Barnes has tried to instill in his team. The Vols won 4 out of their next 5 with the only loss coming at Georgia where star Grant Williams had one of his worst games going 1-8 from the field and fouling out in the 73-62 loss. throughout these games Tennessee was slowly creeping up to 1st place being only 2 games back. With every season you need a little bit of luck. This year the luck came in the form of Auburn losing two straight to Texas A and M and Florida putting the Vols and the Tigers tied for first in the last game of the regular season, playing for the regular season championship. Something Tennessee has not won or shared since 2008, 10 years ago. With Auburn and Tennessee tied, the Tigers would face South Carolina while the Vols would play Georgia. Auburn easily beat South Carolina giving them at least a share of the title, putting it all down to Tennessee to beat Georgia on the last Saturday of conference play. Thompson Bowling Arena in Knoxville was sold out for this possible special night in the making, but Georgia was not here to lay down and lose, they were trying to play spoiler. The first half was not pretty going into halftime the Vols were down 42-34 with Georgia hitting over 50% of their 3 point shots. The 2nd half was a nail bitter with the Vols taking the first lead of the 2nd half with only 6:23 left in the game but was taken back by the Bulldogs with 3:10 left to go leading 61-57. The next 3 minutes and 10 seconds was a testament to the hard work put in by the players throughout the offseason. Georgia could not score a basket the rest of the game leading to a comeback by the Vols and a game clinching jumper made by Admiral Schofield to put the Vols ahead by 3 with 10 seconds to go. Tennessee finished the game with a defensive stand winning 66-61 and getting their first regular season title in 10 years. After the game 247 sports talked to Admiral on how it feels “It was a great moment for our team,” Schofield said of the win and the title. “I hit the shot, but we all put in the work. Everything we did in the offseason is adding up. We still have more to do. This is just one of the goals we set. We reached that.”
PS:
What a season it has been for my Vols. I could not have imagined this even with the extreme optimism I have. I am so proud of everyone on the roster contributing no matter how big or small and all coming together to accomplish this feat. This is only one of the goals like Admiral said and I cannot wait to see this team on my TV in March for games that actually matter. No NIT. This is March Madness and we are coming.
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