Comments on: Tennessee Volunteers

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:44:30 +0000

To answer your question, msharp:

Tennessee is NOT the #1 in the RPI after they lost to #31 in the 2nd round of the SEC tournament . . . especially after beating #138 by a whopping 2 points the day before. They also would not be in the top 5 in either the AP or the Coach’s if those games would have occured prior to that ranking. The rankings you’re referring to were pre-meltdown. The seeding was done post-meltdown. Texas beat Tennessee in a head-to-head by 19 points so if you think they’re better than Texas, it’s pure opinion based in nothing. Texas and Duke could not be placed in the same bracket as Kansas and UNC so that left Tennessee and Georgetown as the most flexible #2 seeds. Tennessee went to the east because that was the closest (unless you think they’d do better against Kansas in the MidWest bracket – rofl).

By: TJ

TJ — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:48:02 +0000

Yeah , yeah yeah! Let the whining cease. Let’s play some ball and see!

By: msharp

msharp — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:34:49 +0000

I think Tennessee has received “enough” respect this year – until today. How many teams in the past 10 years have been #1 in the RPI and #4 AP & coaches poll, but NOT gotten a #1 seed? PLUS not only are we NOT a top seed, but Georgetown and Duke were both placed better. What’s up with that?

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:22:00 +0000

Please never do that again . . . that was an overload, at high volume, of easy targets to shoot down. I’m sure someone else has the time to deal with it . . . I don’t.

By: CHRIS DEANGELO

CHRIS DEANGELO — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:34:16 +0000

TENNESSEE IS MOST DESERVING TEAM FOR A #1 SEED,SURE THE EDITOR IS RIGHT ABOUT ONE THING THEY WERE ITCHING FOR N.C TOO GET THE TOP SPOT,SURE A TEAM THAT CAN ONLY ADVANCE TO JUST SWEET SIXTEEN AND LOOSES THAT ONE,THAT SHOULD NOT DEPICTED THE WAY ONE TEAM HAS PLAYED IN THE PAST IF SO THEN ITS DESCRIMANATION,DEBATING THE FACT THAT ONE TEAM CANT GET A NUMBER ONE SEED BECAUSE THE WAY THEY PLAY IN ONE GAME,THEN IF WERE GOING TOO CONTUE DISCRIMANATING TEAMS THEN IN MY MIND WE SHOULD ALL QUIT ALL SPORTS,IT SAYS IN THE NCAA THAT NO TEAM SHOULD BE DESCRIMATED,BECASUE OF RACE GENDER AND HEALTH REASONS,IN THIS CASE NO TEAM SHOULD BE BE DISCREMANATED FROM BEING PICKED TOO BE A #1 SEED AND THEY HAVE CAME BACK FROM A SLUMP LIKE TENNESSEE,I DINT EVEN WONT TOO WATCH THE ESPN AFTER THE GAME AGAINST VANDY BECAUSE I KNEW THEY WOULD DOG US FROM THE BEGININNING OF THE SHOW,AND IF THEY DID ITS DISCRIMATION ON ONES COACHES TEAM TOO,SO TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT,TENNESSEEE HAS BEEN ON FIRE AND SHOULD GET A #1 SEED IN MY MIND.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:09:57 +0000

Why do you pick the number of players that play over “11 minutes” as your determination of depth? Why not 5, why not 14? Cherry-picking statistics so you can write an article is not only dishonest, it makes your opinion matter less. For instance, if you say 14 minutes, Tennessee only has 8 players but suddenly Memphis as 9 . . . oops. What about the fact that, of the 5 highest ranked games they’ve played, they are 3-2 with an average win margin of 10.3 (only because of the 20 point win over Vanderbilt) and an average loss margin of 11 (including a 19 point loss to the 2nd hardest team they’ve played). How about the fact that they’re one of the most inconsistent teams in the top 25? They beat (135) South Carolina (#135 for Pete’s sake) by 33 points and then turn around and barely win against them a week later? You do realize that the tournament isn’t going to be on Tennessee’s home court, don’t you? How about that they allowed teams to shoot 50% or higher against them 13 times during the regular season (2 times over 70%!) and they shot under 50% 11 times (2 times below 40%). Winning 6 (or even 3) games in a row against the best teams in the nation requires consistency. You can’t drop a random game here or there. Tennessee doesn’t even deserve a #2 seed when they can’t even win their own conference (or get taken out by at least a ranked team). The SEC is so overrated this year that they won’t even get a team into the Elite 8. Even talking about them as a #1 completely ignores about 10 teams that are better than they are if you look at something other than RPI. I can only hope that the selection committee isn’t as much of an elitist as you seem to be.

By: Tennessee ATO

Tennessee ATO — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:15:43 +0000

I think the article is correct about the ideal rotation being a little shorter than UT’s. However, I think the article misunderestimates the difficulty of playing UT in the second game of a weekend. I just don’t see how a team can play a game on Thursday/Friday, then turn around a play UT well 48 hours later.

UT’s style is unlike most every other team, so there are game-planning issues. Then UT’s depth is unlike most every other team, so there are tempo/fatigue issues.

If UT falls short of the Final Four, it won’t end in the Elite Eight round it will end in the Sweet Sixteen.

By: SoupDeJour

SoupDeJour — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:12:51 +0000

SCREW EMPTY PARAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!