Wiedmer: Tyndall's Vols fought to bitter end

Tennessee head coach Donnie Tyndall calls a play against Arkansas during their game in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday, March 13, 2015, in Nashville.
Tennessee head coach Donnie Tyndall calls a play against Arkansas during their game in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday, March 13, 2015, in Nashville.

NASHVILLE -- As a sports writer friend noted at halftime of Friday night's SEC tournament quarterfinal game between Tennessee and Arkansas, "It's never a good sign when you have more turnovers (7) than field goals (4)."

Yet that's just where the Volunteers found themselves after 20 minutes of toil and trouble against the Razorbacks. They were down 45-25 and looking every bit that hapless and hopeless against the Hogs.

Yes, there was yet much time to rally. South Carolina had found itself in roughly the same hole against Arkansas a little more than a week earlier and almost caught up.

Heck, Tennessee had worked similar magic against Vanderbilt a night earlier, closing on a preposterous 20-2 run inside this same Bridgestone Arena to win by six. Miracles don't just happen inside Olympic hockey rinks. There might be at least one more shocker hiding in those Clorox Orange uniforms.

And sure enough, Donnie Tyndall's Tenn Men came storming back. By the time the final four minutes rolled around in this seemingly endless string of free throws -- 73 in all -- the Vols were within six points, then four, with 2:43 to go.

This felt exactly like Vanderbilt from 24 hours earlier. UT was now in it to win it. Arkansas was now feeling the heat of potentially losing an eighth straight game in this event, dating back to the SEC championship game of 2008, the one played at Georgia Tech in what became known as the Tornado Tournament.

And because of that, because the Vols seemed so close to reaching a Saturday semifinal for the second straight season, something Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said to the SEC Network folks a few minutes before the game began seemed to neatly explain both the Vols' halftime hole and their colossal comeback.

"We press to speed you up," Anderson said. "They press to slow you down."

Speeding the Vols up over the first 20 minutes almost assuredly led to a 20-point Arkansas lead. Slowing the Hogs down over the final 20 minutes just as assuredly got UT back in the game.

But the ultimate shot, the shot that could permanently turn the tide in Tennessee's favor, never came.

Instead, with 1:55 to play, UT guard Kevin Punter watched his 3-pointer fail to stay down. Five seconds later, Robert Hubbs -- the 3-point hero from the Vandy win -- missed a second triple after rebounding Punter's miss.

"That was probably our best shot," Tyndall said afterward. "Down six, we had two great looks at a 3 that just would not go down. If we had started a little better, maybe it's a different story."

If he hadn't spent the year trying to cobble together wins with what amounted to two guards and three small forwards, a team with great athletes but no size and little offensive skill aside from senior Josh Richardson, it might have been a far worse story.

But Tyndall never quit pushing and prodding and pretending that he had a better team than he did.

"I love my team," he said late Friday, his season almost assuredly done after this 80-72 loss, since UT stands 16-16 overall.

Or as the senior Richardson noted, his eyes sad but his conviction strong after fouling out of his final game as a Vol: "It's tough to dig yourself out of a whole against a team like Arkansas, but we never stopped fighting."

Never.

"We ended up playing 32 games," Tyndall said. "And I think we played as hard as you can play in 31 and a half of them. The only game I keep going back to is the first half at home against LSU."

So maybe the Vols did lose eight of 10 down the stretch. They also won one and lost one in Tyndall's first SEC tournament, which is better than most UT coaches have done in this event.

"You think about we got two skinny freshmen up front, a 6-7 post player who is really a (small forward) and a 6-4 post player (Armani Moore) who is really a wing player," Tyndall continued. "And we got 20 offensive rebounds against (Arkansas). That's grit and effort. That's competing for 40 minutes."

There is talk that Tyndall won't see another 40 minutes of Vols basketball on the court, that the NCAA will force UT to fire him for wrongs he allegedly committed at Southern Miss. And all that may occur before next season.

But Friday night was still this season, and Anderson began his postgame remarks, he said, "Tell you what: Donnie Tyndall had his team primed to play."

For 32 games. Or at least 31 and a half of them, which is why anyone who cares about Big Orange basketball should have shared Tyndall's love of this UT team, regardless of its record.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

Upcoming Events