Tennessee has established an athletic standard for others to follow.
The Volunteers and Lady Vols combined to have representation in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, the Sweet 16 of the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, and the super regional rounds of the NCAA baseball and softball tournaments. Rick Barnes and the basketball Vols ended up reaching the Elite Eight, while Karen Weekly’s Lady Vols advanced to the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series.
“If you’re a Vol fan, it was a pretty special year,” Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello said in a news conference following Sunday afternoon’s 11-4 loss to Arkansas in the Fayetteville Super Regional. “You got to have a lot of office conversations. Maybe you got to go all the way up to Columbus with football, and I could go on and on and on with a bunch of other sports.”
How impressive was Tennessee’s athletic feat that produced a combined 157-57 record in those five sports this past academic year?
No other school went 4-for-5 when it came to making the College Football Playoff, reaching the Sweet 16 of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, and advancing to the super regionals in baseball and softball. Only five schools went 3-for-5, with those five being Arkansas, Duke, Ole Miss, Texas and UCLA.
Ole Miss came incredibly close to attaining all five, as the Rebels were third behind Alabama and Miami in terms of teams getting left out of the College Football Playoff, while their baseball team lost the Oxford Regional final 12-11 to Murray State. Yet it’s Tennessee that is this year’s most legitimate candidate as an “all-everything school.”
“You have one of the best men on the planet leading the basketball team, and you got to have all the fun that those guys provided,” Vitello said. “Women’s basketball couldn’t have been more exciting, and you got to go watch the softball world series if you wanted to. That’s leaving plenty out, especially with tennis and swimming and diving and some other things that have gone on.”
Each of Tennessee’s basketball programs earned a win over the eventual national champion, with first-year coach Kim Caldwell and her Lady Vols handing UConn the last defeat in its title season.
If there was a down side to Tennessee’s athletic year, it’s in how the football, basketball and baseball seasons ended. Before Sunday’s seven-run loss to the Razorbacks, the football team suffered a 42-17 setback at eventual national champion Ohio State, and the basketball Vols were soundly dismissed from the NCAA tournament by Houston 69-50.
“It can always be better,” Vitello said. “No one will let you know that more than SEC fans, but I think things are going in an outstanding direction.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
