Pearl’s mad point guard experiment burns Butler

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — We all know the line about playing two quarterbacks. If you’ve got two quarterbacks you’ve got none.

It’s supposed to be the same for point guards on a basketball court. Teams that play two need to find one. Especially at tournament time. How can you possibly win the Indy 500 with a couple of pizza delivery guys at the wheel?

Then there’s Tennessee. On the eve of the NCAA Tournament head coach Bruce Pearl decided to juggle his quarterbacks. Ramar Smith, who started 17 games this season, was out. Reserve Jordan Howell was in. At least for the tourney opener against American.

But come Sunday afternoon’s game against Butler neither Smith nor Howell was starting. J.P. Prince, who was the Vols’ first forward off the bench all season, was in the lineup.

“The deal is this,” Bruce Almighty said. “I just thought that the point guard play we were getting wasn’t going to win a national championship.”

You can call Pearl a lot of things but vague isn’t one of them. The man is driven to win Big Orange basketball games from the time he wakes up in the morning — assuming he’s ever been to sleep — until he finally turns off the last DVD of the next opponent.

As he told UT fans during the SEC Tournament, “You celebrate, we’ll work.”

But now Pearl’s newest point guard had the Vols working overtime against Butler, Prince having made two crucial turnovers in the final 47 seconds of regulation. A two-point lead had been lost. A season seemingly destined for big things now looked as if it could end with one big question: “Bruce, what was the deal starting Prince at point?”

But any guy who can change his mind once or twice can change it a third or fourth time. Looking into his players eyes for signs of anger, feat, confidence or all of the above, “They’re looking for somebody to blame,” Pearl said, who immediately blamed his own play calling. “So go ahead and blame me. Let them band together.”

Let them band around Ramar, he decided.

“I went with Ramar,” explained Pearl, “just because I knew it was going to be a close-game situation and even though we hadn’t been getting great plays from Ramar, he’s been in that situation before and he obviously delivered.”

Imagine the UT football team sending Jonathan Crompton in for Erik Ainge at the start of overtime against Alabama because Ainge had thrown an interception at the end of regulation.

Better yet, imagine Phillip Fulmer benching Ainge for the SEC Championship game for Crompton. Think there would be an overtime? But as Pearl said, he’s trying to find a combination to win a national championship. So what if he flames out in the round of 32 doing it.

“If we make the decision and it doesn’t pay off ... and we lost the game, I could go to bed saying, ‘It’s OK,’” he explained. “Because I didn’t think (what we’d been doing) was going to help us advance.”

But could they advance past Butler in overtime with Ramar back at the point? Especially following such a public benching?

“We don’t have point guards putting their heads down,” said UT shooting guard JaJuan Smith. “We’re all about team, and our three point guards — Ramar, Jordan and J.P. — are probably best friends with each other. Ramar’s got a strong heart. He’s a strong kid. These last couple of games, he’s been the most vocal player on the sideline. How amazing is that?”

How amazing is this: Ramar Smith scored four of the Vols’ 13 points in overtime, including the two which tied the game at 68 and the two that gave UT a 72-68 lead with 26 seconds to play in a 76-71 win.

By shuffling his point guards like cards, Pearl now has his team facing the Cards of Louisville in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Charlotte.

“What can you say?,” said Ramar, saying all the right things. “It’s basketball. I went in the game to try and make plays. I came in fresh. Butler was really tired. Obviously, I was looking from the bench for a while. I was able to see what they were doing. I knew I could get right to the rim.”

Maybe this works against Louisville and maybe it doesn’t. The Cardinals are a rougher, tougher, better version of Memphis. Barely adequate at the foul line. Immensely long and talented inside. Spotty perimeter shooters. Quick squared.

Before the night’s over, Pearl may want to have all his point guards out there at once, along with the rest of his starting five.

But for one afternoon inside the BJCC Arena, with magical season about to go up in smoke, Pearl’s chemistry experiment worked.

Said Howell of Ramar Smith’s timely good work: “In my opinion, he won us the game.”