Bear with me for a second because I'm going out on a limb here. Just call me Homer Simpson about to jump Springfield Gorge. Weeks before March becomes madness, I'm making a snap judgment, and believe me that it's going to come true. Don't need facts, because this is coming from the gut.
The University of Tennessee men's basketball team will make the Final Four. Gasp. But wait, the bracket hasn't been released, the SEC Tournament is over a week away and the Volunteers still have two regular−season matchups left. How can you make this bold prediction this early? Because I just know.
This weekend, coach Bruce Pearl's scrappy unit lost a 19−point lead to national No. 2 Kentucky and then promptly closed the game on a 9−0 run for a 74−65 victory. Playing a team with a star−studded lineup of players John Calipari siphoned from Memphis, Pearl's squad punched the Wildcats right in the mouth. For most schools, beating Kentucky would be a dream come true. But not for Tennessee. Saturday's victory came over a month after the Vols bounced No. 1 Kansas from the top spot on Jan. 10, a game even more impressive than the win over the Wildcats. Versus Kansas, Pearl rallied his depleted team, which had just lost its best player in Tyler Smith and three others after they had been charged with gun possession, to a monumental win on a three−pointer by walk−on Skylar McBee.
So therein lies Tennessee's power. It can win against the nation's best. The Vols became the first team since the 2001−02 season to beat No. 1 and No. 2 ranked squads in the same campaign. That year, both Oklahoma and Maryland did it. And where did they end up at the end of the year? That's right. The Final Four.
Of course, both of Tennessee's wins have come at home in Thompson−Boling Arena, a place where they won't be come tournament time. But as long as Pearl can energize them to the same level that allowed the Vols to open up an 18−4 margin in the first few minutes against Kentucky, Knoxville will be singing "Rocky Top" far into March.
On the note of singing "Rocky Top," Tennessee fans actually can bank on Pearl to deliver in the clutch. Compare that to the efforts of a certain weasel, a recently departed football coach who entered Knoxville promising upsets of Florida and accusing SEC coaches of various transgressions and who then promptly left the program in the dust.
But I digress. For a men's athletics program that has fallen under severe national media scrutiny recently (read: Lane Kiffin, that slime ball. Think I'm bitter?), Pearl's real power comes not in pumping his immediate troops up for a big win, but in giving Rocky Top its first Final Four appearance ever.
The real question is: Can Tennessee keep this focus up throughout the SEC Tournament and into March? After all, the Vols do have losses on the road at Georgia and a 22−point embarrassment at USC. But when you pair the wins over Kentucky and Kansas with a narrow one−point loss to Purdue in November, the Vols have a fairly impressive résumé. Currently listed as a four seed by ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi, Tennessee could very well be that sleeper coming out of a major conference, like Arizona did last year. That is, of course, if the momentum keeps up — and the Kentucky win makes me fairly confident it will. So cut down the nets, Bruce Pearl, because your team is going to Indianapolis on April 3.
And now, of course, the Vols will get bounced in the first round because of that horrendous jinx. Whoops.
--
Alex Prewitt is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu.
