Cobbservations 001: Why I ranked Tennessee 11th and National Signing Day

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 3/17/17. David Cobb is the Chattanooga Times Free Press's new Tennessee beat reporter. Taken on March 16, 2017.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 3/17/17. David Cobb is the Chattanooga Times Free Press's new Tennessee beat reporter. Taken on March 16, 2017.

Covering University of Tennessee athletics for the Times Free Press really is a great job, largely because the Times Free Press is still a great newspaper. But one of the challenges of the newspaper model for a long-winded sports writer is that sometimes there are space limitations in the print product.

Yes, we still have a daily print product! It's a really good one, too.

So when my boss, Stephen Hargis, texted me the night after I wrote an 800-word article on a Lady Vols basketball game and told me to keep it shorter next time, I shot back.

"What if I started a morning blog for all the extra brilliance floating around in my head after my space limit is reached?" I asked.

He said it was a good idea, and he hasn't changed his mind yet. Now, here we are a few days later. The goal in this blog will be to take you behind the curtain a bit with a conversational style.

For example, sometimes after filing my men's college basketball AP Top 25 ballot late on a Sunday night or early Monday morning, I want a space longer than than the 280 characters of Twitter to explain or justify my placement of a certain team.

So let's start there. As Tennessee prepares to play Kentucky tonight, the No. 15 Vols have reached their highest ranking of the season.

Typically, my placement of the Vols this season has coincided almost identically with where they end up in the poll. However, I was kinder to Tennessee this week than the other voters. I slotted the Vols at No. 11.

The reason is simple.Tennessee is on a roll. This week won't be easy with road games at Kentucky and Alabama. But the Vols have won eight of their last nine and have won their last three by a combined 79 points. Wins over Ole Miss and LSU last week were not marquee victories. However, beating those teams the way Tennessee did is impressive.

Some Virginia fans reached out to ask why I ranked Villanova first this week when last week I ranked Virginia first. Both teams won both their games last week, so what changed?

Well, simply put, Villanova was unstoppable offensively against two teams in the top 25 of the RPI last week. Beating Creighton (23rd) and Seton Hall (17th) by a combined 36 points made it hard for me to keep Villanova out of the top slot this week. Certainly, Virginia's win at home over Louisville and defensive effort in a 59-44 win at Syracuse were impressive, too. It just felt like Villanova deserved to be number one this week because of their authoritative wins against highly regarded opponents.

It's splitting hairs between those two teams at this point.

Below is my full ballot for this week. Click here to see how the poll turned out and read on below for more on the Tennessee-Kentucky game:

1. Villanova

2. Virginia

3. Purdue

4. Michigan State

5. Xavier

6. Duke

7. Auburn

8. Cincinnati

9. Kansas

10. Texas Tech

11. Tennessee

12. Ohio State

13. Arizona

14. Saint Mary's

15. Rhode Island

16. Oklahoma

17. Clemson

18. Michigan

19. Gonzaga

20. Miami

21. West Virginia

22. North Carolina

23. Kentucky

24. Nevada

25. Alabama

Yep. I dropped Wichita State in favor of Alabama. The Crimson Tide's win at Florida was impressive. Alabama has also beaten Auburn and Oklahoma recently.

Here is the preview box from this morning's paper with all the details and a brief scouting report on tonight's showdown in Lexington. Times Free Press columnist Mark Wiedmer and myself are making the trip to Rupp Arena to cover the game (and to eat at Joe Balogna's). If you haven't started following Mark on Twitter yet, you should change that. He's on there at @TFPWeeds and I'm going to make sure he tweets from Rupp tonight.

VOLS HOOPS

' NO. 15 TENNESSEE at NO. 24 KENTUCKY

' RUPP ARENA, LEXINGTON, KY.

' TONIGHT AT 7

' TV/RADIO: ESPN/102.3 FM

Tennessee (17-5, 7-3 SEC)

Projected starters: Ht. Pts.

G Jordan Bone 6-3 7.5

G Jordan Bowden 6-5 9.7

F Admiral Schofield 6-5 12.5

F Grant Williams 6-7 16.2

C Kyle Alexander 6-11 6.2

Key reserves:

G James Daniel 6-0 7.0

G Lamonte Turner 6-1 10.7

Kentucky (17-6, 6-4)

Projected starters: Ht. Pts.

G Hamidou Diallo 6-5 12.0

G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 6-6 12.7

F PJ Washington 6-7 10.3

F Kevin Knox 6-9 15.1

F Nick Richards 6-11 6.8

Key reserves:

F Wenyen Gabriel 6-9 6.3

G Quade Green 6-0 9.6

Vols report

It's hard to believe, but when these teams met last month the Vols were 0-2 in league play and the jury was still out on how good they actually were. Now, after eight wins in nine games, there is even some discussion about Tennessee's chances of being a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament.

Wildcats report

As always, Kentucky is young and dealing with flashes of immaturity on the court. But as always, the Wildcats are talented and there are flashes of brilliance. Kentucky has been inconsistent but is still an immensely talented team that is 13-1 at home. Since the first meeting, the Wildcats have added freshman Jarred Vanderbilt to the rotation. The 6-foot-9 forward brings even more length to the lineup.

Key matchup

Kentucky's length kept Tennessee from getting clean shot opportunities in the first half of the last meeting. But when Washington encountered foul trouble, the Wildcats went to a zone defense and Tennessee found confidence. Assuming Kentucky is able to stick with man-to-man defense in this game, it will be on the Vols to execute well offensively and find quality shots.

On Tennessee football recruiting

Obviously, signing day is tomorrow. Before we leave for Lexington, I am working on a story today that will be online later breaking down a few things to do with Tennessee's day. For now, read this article from this morning's paper by Stephen Hargis on Brainerd defensive back Joseph Norwood. It gives an interesting glimpse into how things are working in Tennessee's pursuit of cornerbacks. It's also just a really interesting story on a local player who seems to have a bright future.

David Cobb is the Tennessee athletics beat writer for the Times Free Press. He is stationed in Knoxville. Follow him @DavidWCobb on Twitter, or direct your emails to dcobb@timesfreepress.com Oh, and go download the Times Free Press mobile app. It's free.

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