Mark WiedmerKNOXVILLE - Maybe we've been touting the wrong Southeastern Conference men's basketball team for the proverbial NCAA tournament bubble this winter.
Maybe that team is vigorous Vanderbilt rather than tentative Tennessee.
We write this in the wake of the Commodores' colossal and captivating 67-56 road victory over the Volunteers on Wednesday night in front of 12,713 Volniacs who spent much of the evening vociferously attacking the officials - especially Pat Adams - rather than their own inept team.
Not that the officiating wasn't its usual perplexing self, including Adams tossing what we presume was a Tennessee fan late in the first half.
But as second-year coach Rick Barnes noted afterward of a game in which the Commodores owned the lead for 39 minutes and 57 seconds of a 40-minute game: "Missing free throws and missing stick-backs had nothing to do with the officiating."
However, what did figure prominently in this odious outcome for the entirety of the Big Orange Nation was a stunningly bad - or good, if your blood runs Vanderbilt black and gold - 18-4 deficit for the home team before the contest was nine minutes old.
And while the Commodores were playing pretty well during that stretch, hitting eight of their first 17 shots, they also missed six of their first eight 3-pointers. Of course, compared to UT's first nine minutes - three turnovers and 1-of-9 from the floor - Vandy was dandy, indeed.
"We played like a team that wasn't very well coached," said Barnes, whose backcourt trio of starters Jordan Bone and Shembari Phillips and reserve Lamonte Turner certainly looked like a collection of players who weren't very good in hitting only four of 23 field-goal tries and committing seven turnovers.
"I'm baffled and frustrated. This time of year you can't do that."
At least you can't play like that - and this is supposedly the same Mr. Bone who scored a career-high 23 in the win at Vandy - and expect to do much of anything come mid-March, including what seemed to be a previously certain National Invitation Tournament berth.
For while both the Vols and Commodores stand 15-13 today, Vanderbilt has risen to 8-7 in SEC play after winning six of its last eight as Tennessee falls to 7-8 within the conference heading into Saturday's road game at South Carolina.
The good news for the Big Orange is that the Gamecocks have fallen into a big slump, losing four of their last five games. But with UT having now lost four of its last six after winning four in a row, you wonder just how much the Vols have left in the tank.
"When the lights came on tonight, we didn't compete," Barnes said. "Not a sense of urgency to start the game."
There was a huge sense of urgency from the Commodores after losing 87-75 to Tennessee in Nashville on Jan. 14.
"At our place it seemed like every time the ball left their hands it was going in the basket," Vandy center Luke Kornet said of that earlier Big Orange effort. "We got upset and frustrated."
Then, 39 days later, they got even, the 7-foot-1 Kornet's 13 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks a huge reason for that role reversal.
"We had five guys in double figures tonight," noted first-year Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew. "(But) it all starts with Luke and his ability to make 3s."
It does stretch a defense when the opposing team's center can pull your shot blocker more than 20 feet from the basket. But what's really changed between the Commodores and Volunteers may be Vandy's toughness in the clutch, given that four of their wins have come by nine points or less since their first meeting with UT and the Vols have won only two such games.
"We're playing a lot better than earlier in the year," Drew said. "This is definitely the best we've played. (But) I think we can play better. I hope this will give us an opportunity to play our way into the tournament."
Given that Vandy was blasted by 23 at Middle Tennessee State early in the season, also lost at Marquette and Dayton and to Minnesota, and that the Commodores must still travel to Kentucky and welcome white-hot Florida to the Music City to close out the regular season, it's doubtful that Drew's 'Dores can win their way into the NCAA tourney without winning the SEC tournament inside Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, which is pretty much a deep Vandy 3-pointer from VU's Memorial Gym.
But any time you can improve enough from a 12-point home loss to return the favor 39 days later in an 11-point road win, you would seem to have at least a very slight chance of shocking the college hoops world come Selection Sunday.
Yet whether Vanderbilt ultimately reaches the NCAA tournament, the NIT or just an outdoor pickup game on the beach come spring break, for at least one late February night the Commodores hugely impressed the UT coach whose own frail NCAA dreams they likely shattered.
"Give Vandy credit," Barnes said. "They understand what this time of year is all about, obviously, and we don't."
At least it certainly looked that way Wednesday night inside the Boling Alley.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com