Wiedmer: These Vols could become the fans' all-time favorites

The Big Orange Bandwagon / Staff illustration by Mark Wiedmer
The Big Orange Bandwagon / Staff illustration by Mark Wiedmer
photo The Big Orange Bandwagon / Staff illustration by Mark Wiedmer

COLUMBUS, Ohio - In the beginning, when this season's record was still 0-0, before beating Gonzaga happened, and No. 1 happened, and those 19 straight victories happened, these Tennessee Volunteers had to return to their past to guide their future.

Revisiting last season's 63-62 loss to Loyola-Chicago in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Dallas, junior point guard Jordan Bone said Thursday: "A lot of pain, a lot of regret from that last game. It's something we look back on as motivation not to get that feeling again. But I feel like that was just the start of something special, honestly. Everything happens for a reason."

Something special. There never has been a season more special in the history of Tennessee men's basketball than this one, which continues Friday at 2:45 p.m. against Colgate in the opening round of this year's NCAA tourney inside Nationwide Arena.

Or as former Vols great Dane Bradshaw noted earlier this week, "These guys check all the boxes. This is my favorite UT team ever, and that includes my own."

They won't check every box that was important to them when this season began. They didn't repeat as Southeastern Conference regular-season champs (OK, co-champs), finishing second to LSU, though some might justifiably argue that officiating played a bigger role than it should have in that pivotal road loss to the eventual champs - because the official who made the key call in that game, Anthony Jordan, later was suspended by the league after an old photo of him wearing an LSU T-shirt surfaced.

The Vols also didn't win the SEC tournament last weekend, falling to Auburn in the final, though their semifinal win over Kentucky - the Vols came from eight points down with less than three minutes to play - was arguably one of the three or four best games played since the league renewed the tournament in 1979 after a 25-year absence.

But they did knock off Gonzaga when the Zags were No. 1. And they did hold on to No. 1 for almost a month, which was a lot longer than that 2008 Big Orange bunch did, surrendering that ranking one week after they first earned it.

"We've been in great positions this year to win championships," senior Admiral Schofield said during a Thursday news conference. "We haven't finished, but at the same time we have a great opportunity to win another one this year."

That great opportunity is to win the one that always has eluded this program - the national championship. Not only has Tennessee failed to win one on the men's side, the Vols never have reached a Final Four.

"The best sporting event in the country" is what UT coach Rick Barnes called the entire tournament, and he's right, though it will be hard for any UT fan to see it that way until the Vols at least reach the Final Four, if not win it all.

That's not to say this season and this team should ever be forgotten or less beloved if the Vols somehow fail to reach college basketball's final weekend in Minneapolis on April 6 and 8.

These seasons and teams don't come along every year for even the most successful of programs. They certainly aren't commonplace in Volsville. And for Schofield and fellow senior Kyle Alexander, they both know they won't ever pass this way again. This is their last chance, in Schofield's words, to really cherish "revery moment that we have in the hotel rooms and the free time that we have, but also understanding that we're here on business as well. And we're here to accomplish our main goal, and that's to win a national championship."

Added Alexander: "After all this is done, we're done. We're seniors and this is the end of the road. ... We're trying to be with this group as long as we can."

A group. A team. A brotherhood. Asked why he withdrew from the NBA draft process last spring, Schofield said, "The biggest thing it taught me was how much I loved my teammates, I missed my teammates. And it really gave me motivation towards doing something special in returning."

Bradshaw lived the return of Big Orange basketball to national prominence during his UT playing days, which ended in 2007.

"They trust each other so much," he marveled of this team. "You can't coach that. Like when Admiral passed the ball to Lamonte (Turner) last week for the game-winner against Kentucky. He could have taken the shot himself, but he didn't. They have a genuine appreciation for one another."

That appreciation for one another will always be there. But no matter what happens over the next week or three, the Big Orange Nation should appreciate them, too.

Said Bradshaw: "Without knowing the outcome, you hope the final chapter of this storybook team brings a happy ending."

If it does, he won't be the only one calling these Vols his favorite UT team ever.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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