We spent a lot of quality time discussing the Tennessee Vols on Press Row on Monday. A lot of time.
The Vols have earned it, too. They looked as good as any team in the first two rounds of the tournament, pasting UMass and Mercer. It was impressively impressive and has flipped the script on the narrative that is The Conz.
Tennessee basketball coach Cuonzo Martin reacts in this 2014 file photo.Cuonzo Martin was in the crosshairs of the fan base, a collection of folks that had tasted extreme and overnight success in six glorious years of Bruce Pearl. In the middle of February, the Vols were teetering on the edge of the Dance, and if they were left out for the third straight time in The Conz’s three years, well, who knows what the future would have been. The famous petition that drew more than 30,000 signatures to bring Bruce back to Knoxville became the storm cloud of contention within and surrounding the program.
No one needs to concern themselves with that setting now – unless of course The Conz wins two more games, gets to the Final Four and becomes the hottest name on the coaching carousel, which would be the most ironic thing since Alanis Morissette put her mic down.
(And before Jomo bashes the Vol Nation for their angst about the shuffling performance in the season’s first 25 games, well, the poetry of the last 10 games proves that they sorely underachieved through the first two-thirds of the season.)