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Adams: Just good enough to advance

By John Adams (Contact)
Originally published 09:28 p.m., March 23, 2008
Updated 09:28 p.m., March 23, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The aesthetics don't matter at this stage of a basketball season. Neither does the manner in which a victory was achieved.

You simply savor your victories, count your blessings and move on.

Tennessee played poorly Friday in beating American in a game that wasn't nearly as one-sided as the 72-57 final score. It played better in outlasting Butler 76-71 in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the BJCC Arena Sunday afternoon.

It played better. It didn't play its best.

Birmingham bottom line: The Vols won two games without playing their best. That's more encouraging than discouraging.

There's a long list of NCAA champions whose tournament run almost skidded off course in the first or second round. They weathered the early threats, then capitalized on their good fortune in the rounds to come.

The Vols hit all sorts of speed bumps in the first two rounds.

Their opponents controlled the tempo in both games. Their leading scorer, Chris Lofton, didn't score in double figures in either game. Their three-man point guard rotation - which on Sunday consisted mainly of J.P. Prince and Ramar Smith with a cameo appearance by former starter Jordan Howell - produced a solid six assists and a scary eight turnovers.

The Vols basically won these two games the way they lost in the SEC tournament: with defense. And their coach was dwelling on the positive, not second-guessing what went wrong.

"Boy, I thought we played pretty well (Sunday)," UT coach Bruce Pearl said. "I really do.

"We turned it over a little bit too much. We had some unforced rushing, but I thought we made a lot of progress."

Most of the progress was on defense, particularly inside, where the Vols looked so vulnerable in losing to Arkansas in the SEC tournament semifinals. UT's second-half perimeter defense against Butler sharpshooter Pete Campbell was another decisive factor in the victory.

Campbell, who made eight of 10 3-point tries in the first round against South Alabama, was 3-for-7 against UT. He only had two 3-point attempts in the second half and missed both.

"We saw him shooting the lights out two days ago," Tyler Smith said. "And our main focus was to make sure to run him off the (3-point) line."

Smith and Wayne Chism were just two of the Vols who took turns hounding Campbell, who had clear shooting against South Alabama.

"We had everybody rotating on him," Chism said. "He was missing because he was taking contested shots."

Butler guard Mike Green, the Horizon League Player of the Year, was missing even more, and he couldn't blame UT for all the misses.

"Tennessee has some athletic guys that contested a lot of shots," said Green, who made only four of 17 shots. "But sometimes, it just don't work your way."

Green repeatedly drove to the basket in the second half. And he repeatedly failed to finish. Once, he even shot an airball only a few feet from the basket.

"Those shots that I've been making all year long,'' Green said. "For one reason or another, they didn't go."

Guard A.J. Graves, Butler's second-leading scorer, was often off-target as well. He made six of 18 field-goal attempts.

"They do a formidable job of being able to contain your guards," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "Even with their bigs.

"It's a very, very select few (teams) that can do that. And Tennessee is one of them."

There also are only a few teams that can beat Butler without playing their best.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

       26 Comments

Posted by mdvol on March 23, 2008 at 9:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Need to bring out the freak on defense against Louisville. Press them for 40 minutes like we did early in the season. Can we not get a tipoff an hour after I go to bed???? Geez.

Posted by tenuscvol on March 23, 2008 at 9:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

The point is a very valid point...If this team ever managed to play its best they would win it all or at the very least put a major head thumping on the poor souls who meet up with the Tennessee team running on all cylinders....GoVols!!!

Posted by anthony on March 23, 2008 at 10:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Just what can this team do if it plays on all cylinders? Good point. Beat Lousiville. They have to dress up just like we do.

Posted by wilsonA2000 on March 23, 2008 at 10:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Kind of reminds me of the last time we went to the sweet sixteen from birmingham. tony harris and co. played ugly in the first two rounds and beat uconn to get to the sweet sixteen for the first time in school history. we were there last year and fell just short. this team has been all about history. here's to them making some more history by beating louisville.

Posted by justisiscumin on March 23, 2008 at 10:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Folks, Indiana is going to come calling...we know that, and although I suspect bruce won't uproot his family after a divorce and 3 ears in a new place, let's not take anything for granted. Our role, be positive, let's not get into silly micro-bleacher coaching comments about our Team! Bruce has taken this team where no TN team has gone before, NEVER! 31 wins, if we make the elite eight it is another first! So don't make the bonehead mistake of going on and on about the silly mistakes and bonehead plays these guys make. Bruce sees the same game we do, he will take care of it. ENJOY THE MOMENT! and make it impossible for anyone to buy the best thing to happen to UT since God blessed us with Pat Head!

Posted by weisgarber2003 on March 23, 2008 at 10:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)

"Folks, Indiana is going to come calling...we know that."

Actually that remains to be seen. It is possible, probably even likely, IU has identified a candidate they really want, like Barnes, so even if they ask to interview BP, that doesn't necessarily mean he is anything more than the customary search of candidates.

Posted by BillVol on March 24, 2008 at 1:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

kimzy, please don't post on this article. We've all voted for you, for God's sake. For the love of Jesus, leave us be.

Posted by GreerVol22 on March 24, 2008 at 10:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Adams: just good enough to keep your job....barely.

Posted by kimzy1961 on March 24, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

My apologies to you and all the great Vol fans out there posting on govols.com who tired of seeing my posts . I got caught up in trying to help my son in this essay comp. and over did it ! Please forgive an old man for his shameless blitz on the comments page. I just wanted to include everyone in continuing UT's exposure during the tournament !

He's made it to the sweet 16 and is paired against a Louisville fan who is very good. To be honest, I think that the basketball team has a better chance against UL than he does against his opponent.

Anyway, we both would rather have Tennessee win the National Championship than him go any farther, and we both would never-ever want to insult or offend any one!

Thanks for ALL the responses, good or bad.
Thanks for any votes.

GO VOLS ! ! !

Posted by kimzy1961 on March 24, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

My apologies to you and all the great Vol fans out there posting on govols.com who tired of seeing my posts . I got caught up in trying to help my son in this essay comp. and over did it ! Please forgive an old man for his shameless blitz on the comments page. I just wanted to include everyone in continuing UT's exposure during the tournament !

He's made it to the sweet 16 and is paired against a Louisville fan who is very good. To be honest, I think that the basketball team has a better chance against UL than he does against his opponent.

Anyway, we both would rather have Tennessee win the National Championship than him go any farther, and we both would never-ever want to insult or offend any one!

Thanks for ALL the responses, good or bad.
Thanks for any votes.

GO VOLS ! ! !

Posted by TommyJack on March 24, 2008 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)

A nice, respectful article by JA. Kudos

Posted by yemmusdarb on March 24, 2008 at 11:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)

GreerVol22: just whiney enough to keep your testicles from dropping.

Posted by 1974Vol on March 24, 2008 at 11:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Clo and Jujuan don't score, new PG in JP, game called real tight like it was and cost Vols loss at Vandy. So how did they win? DEFENSE! I blasted them for the way they played D in the SEC tourney, but these last two games have seen some great D. Need to get a little better on our D boards but all in all two great D performances. This team has enough scorers to get it done every night. Just play lock down D on the Cards and win another scappy game to go where no Vol team has before - Elite 8 Baby!

Posted by johnlg00 on March 24, 2008 at 1:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Good point about the defense, 1974Vol. The American guards made some incredible shots, but we were right in their face. Butler got a FEW too many open looks, but not as many as they got in their first game, and the help defense in the paint was pretty solid. The rebounding was quite strong against Butler. Even against American, many of their rebounds were off of missed threes that took crazy bounces. As good as Louisville looked against Oklahoma, I like our chances if we take reasonable care of the ball, make some shots, and continue to rebound and defend with passion. GO VOLS!!! PLUCK THE CARDINALS!!! ON TO SAN ANTONIO!!!

Posted by nastyman on March 24, 2008 at 3:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Here's an analysis that I did regarding TN and UL.

Below is a comparison of the overall rivals.com ranking of the seven players who play the most minutes on each team.

I also analyze the overall team ranking by adding the rankings of all the players.

I'm not stupid enough to think that this is a logical way of picking a game, but I thought some of you might find it interesting.

It's funny that Lofton and JuJuan are the best players on our team, yet were the lowest recruited out of high school (BTW, I assigned walk-ons an automatic score of 500; Luckily both teams only had an equal amount).

*LOWER IS BETTER*
TN
--------------------------------------------
W Chism recruited @ #34 **** Forward

T Smith recruited @ #43 **** Forward

C Lofton recruited @ #146 *** Guard

J Smith recruited @ #500??? 0* Guard

R. Smith recruited @ #20 ***** Guard

D. Crews recruited @ #26 ***** Forward

JP. Prince recruited @ #21 ***** Guard

TENNESSEE SCORES A 790

UL
----------------------------------------
T. Williams recruited @ #111 *** Forward

J. Smith recruited @ #82 **** Guard

J. Palacios recruited @ #30 ***** Forward

E. Clark recruited @ #22 ***** Forward

D. Padgett recruited @ #500 0* Center

E. Sosa recruited @ #74 **** Guard

A. Mcgee recruited @ #107 *** Guard

LOUISVILLE SCORES A 926

If we go by this, TN should win by approximately 13 points.

The only matchup that doesn't work in our favor is at Forward, where Louisville has two ***** players.

GO VOLS!!!

Posted by GreerVol22 on March 24, 2008 at 4 p.m. (Suggest removal)

yemmusdarb, at least mine are not in a jar at mommas house.

Posted by clenney6 on March 24, 2008 at 4:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I love how when UT football wins ugly it's somehow luck but when UT BB wins ugly it's they're great.

Posted by murrayvol on March 24, 2008 at 6:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)

clenney: It's never ugly when UT wins a football game.

Posted by jimr07 on March 24, 2008 at 6:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)

murrayvol--you must read foolmore's posts.

Posted by warriorman86 on March 24, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

nastyman, your formula has a slight flaw David Padgett was the #7 player in the '03 class, he was also *****. I'm not sure if he counts because he transferred from Kansas, but he was far better than 0 stars.

Posted by PHIL on March 25, 2008 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)

THIS READS LIKE A 3RD GRADER WROTE IT!!! ADAMS IS A JOKE! HE MAKES THE KNS LOOK LIKE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS! WE DON’T LIKE YOU JOHNNY BOY!!!!

Posted by bmaples on March 25, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Prediction from a very-long-time Vols and long-time Louisville fan:

If both teams play like they've been playing, Louisville wins by at least 15.

If Tennessee plays like they did earlier, especially with the defense and tenacity of the game at Memphis, the Vols win by 5-8, no matter what Louisville does.

Bruce in Louisville

Posted by knoxsingle on March 27, 2008 at 10:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Color me stupid, but doesn't this article include material that was published earlier by the AP in an article after the Butler game?

Adams doesn't credit the AP at all. This article represents Adams as the sole author of the material.

Posted by whistlinwingman on March 27, 2008 at 5:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

All I know is if Jordan Howell hits a 3 Bert Bertlecamp will say "MONEY"

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