The Transfomation of Tennessee Basketball
It hit me the second Raymar Morgan hit his game winning free throw. It kept hitting me throughout the Duke-Baylor game. It still astounds me six hours later, as the final four is set, and god damnit Tom Izzo and Mike Krzyzsewksi are there again. What hit me? The stunning realization that I am distraught and saddened by Tennessee Volunteer basketball. I'll blame it on Bruce Pearl and his orange suits.
The last five years of Tennessee Volunteer basketball has by any conceivable measure the best five years in the history of the men's program. When Bruce Pearl took over the job in 2005, he was leading the second most popular basketball team in his own university. He took over an average team, with few real recruits, and somehow led them to a #2 seed in the 2006 tournament. No one really remembers that team, mainly because they lost in the second round to Witchita State, and the pursuits of George Mason have essentially whited-out every other significant fact of that tournament. (Hey, guess what, LSU was in the Final Four that year). However, it was the start of something. It felt good to be a Volunteer fan. I can still remember randomly looking at the AP rankings midway through the 2005-2006 season, and seeing the Volunteers at number 11, and just thinking, "What? Tennessee Basketball." Entering 2006-07 there was actual optimism, because the team had a duo of frosh Smiths (Ramar and JaJuan), and the two players that are responsible for the feeling that now festers inside of me: Chris Lofton and Wayne Chism.
The teams were memorable in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 because they were actually very good. Back to back sweet sixteen appearances, one with a last second loss to Ohio State in the Oden year (a loss infinitely more heartbreaking than the loss today), and the next to Rick Pitino and a loaded Lousville squad. They had two than three Smiths, a scrappy white guy named Dane Bradshaw, and roamers like Duke Crews (what a porn name!), Josh Powell and Ryan Childress. They were good teams, fun teams, but flawed teams because the A1 recruits still don't truly want to come to Tennessee. 2008-2009 was different, because Lofton was gone, and so was the magic. They had to reload, and spent one middling year that amounted to nothing, but was immediately forgotten because of the exploits of the 2009-2010 team. That one magically got four of its players arrested, which led to the dismissal of the third Smith, Tyler, the team's best player. They then went on to band together and reach the Elite Eight for the first time since in the history of the program, and avenge the Ohio St. Sweet Sixteen loss from 2007. The team had new stars, like Scotty Hopson, Bobby Maze and J.P. Prince. But the binding was three men, Chris Lofton, Wayne Chism and Coach Pearl.
The first man in the trio is Coach Pearl, the man given the near Sisyphusian task of building Tennessee basketball into a major player. In one year, he had the team as a 2 seed. The next, one point away from beating the eventual runner-up in the Sweet 16. The next year having Tennessee ranked #1 for the first time ever, and two years later in the Elite Eight for the first time ever. Gifted with an infinite energy, and an uncanny ability to connect to his players (probably due to him being the only Division 1 coach to paint his chest and cheer in the student section for a Women's Game). Although, since he would have to be stoop to Calipari level shadiness to get major recruits, it is his brilliant coaching that has been his allowed the program to take flight. He has the singular ability to coach his team up for any game at any time. They are the nation's giant killers.
Time and time again, they randomly take huge bites out of the country's top teams. When Florida went back-to-back in 2005-06 and 2006-07, Tennessee beat them three times out of four. They were the only team to beat the Rose-led Memphis team in 2008 until Kansas needed a miracle to upend them in the Title Game, and they also did it in Memphis. Nothing drove this point home more than in the 2009-10 season, when Pearl coached his team up to beat the current #1 Kansas with six scholarship players and three walk-ons. Then, they beat Kentucky. Kansas and Kentucky lost a total of four games before the NCAA Tournament, and two of those were to Tennessee. Again, they came THIS close to knocking off Oden in 2007. There were no limits to Pearl. In the end, the program's inability to draw major recruits were his undoing. He was probably the best in-game head coach of the past five years, only beaten by Tommy Izzo. Bruce Pearl and his contagious smile and bashful behaviour masked a coaching genius, one that succeeded at finally pushing the rock over the hill.
Chism is next. The Chism era is now officially over, and what a whirlwind it was. He was the guy who like his coach, had a brilliant ability to come up huge in games. Izzo knew, so in what will be his final NCAA game, Chism was doubled and effectively taken out of the game, but look back one game, and Chism was the best player on a court that included the Player of the Year, Evan Turner. Chism was an uncontrollable player as a freshman on the memorable 2007 team. He had a maddening ability to jack up threes and wander far, far away from the basket. At times he could take over games, but he mostly was just a sideshow. That was until he did yoeman's work against Greg Oden, outscoring Oden in the 2007 Sweet 16 game. Every year he got better and better, and would just come up huge in major games. He finally was able to use his size and leverage, as he planted himself mainly under the basket, and contorted out lay-ups at every turn. It seemed that there was nothing Chism could not do. Hit a three? Yeah, he could do it. Block a shot? Yup. Wayne Chism's headband had a life of it own. Infamously fickle with the band of cloth, it somehow stayed on his increasingly rectuangular head until he decided mid-game to take it off. Headband off, headband on, behind the three point line or in the paint. Chism never failed to dissapoint, never failed to bring a smile to the Vols faithful. Chism will never suit up for Tennessee again, and if nothing else, that makes this loss hard to take. Never again will he launch a three or throw one down. However, the memories will stay forever.
Of course, that brings us to Lofton. Everything started and ended with Lofton. He was the greatest three-point shooter in team history, and probably the best big game shooter of the 2000s in college basketball. It never looked pretty, but his fall-back three point shot was a thing of beauty. It was him that keyed the 2005-06 resurgence, and him that made the 2006-2007 season the most memorable in Volunteer history. It started with his shot over 6'9" now superstar Kevin Durant to beat Texas. It was then his 30 points against eventual back-to-back Florida. There was no shot he could not hit, not any part of the court that was not outside his range. If it went up, it was probably going in. Chris Lofton was even a great help-defender and passer, the heart and soul of Tennessee's 2006-07 team. He was the man in Knoxville, the guy with the iron balls, able to launch up three's at a whim and make them all count. Yet, none of that mattered one year later after his dramatic senior year.
The question was inescapable. What was wrong with Chris Lofton? A pre-season All-American, Lofton was barely averaging 15 points per game, after crossing 20 ppg the season before. The team was having its best regular season ever, acheiving the #1 ranking for the first time in school history. They were finally major players in the regular season, but Chris was not the major reason why. They team was deeper and more talented, but not better because they did not have the same old Chris. We found out why after his senior season ended, it was because he battled cancer without even telling his teammates. Chris Lofton learned in May 2007 that he had cancer. At 21 he was supposed to be at his physical peak, but cancer does not discriminate. He was able to beat it, but it left him lifeless on the court and helpless off it. Only coach Bruce Pearl knew, and he valiantly kept the secret as he personally wanted to curse all the reporters who asked the question every fan was thinking, "What's wrong with Chris?" The fire just wasn't there, and in retrospect, it was there more than ever, but the opponent was cancer, not other teams. Chris beat cancer, but he also beat the odds, becoming a sports legend at Tennessee and not throwing, running or catching an oblong ball with laces. He was the biggest Tennessee sports hero since a certain QB named Manning. He was the heart and soul of the Tennessee resurgence. It all starts with him and his pure shot.
Tennessee is finally a team that will probably be in the top-25 for years and years to come. One day, Pearl will start landing major recruits, or at least major enough to get to that Final 4. It is only a matter of time, because he is too good of a coach and he is invested in seeing Tennessee reach glory (unlike a certain Mr. Calipari who is soulless enough to just leave a school he has a contract with in a mess of sanctions and stripped Final 4 seasons). Tennessee will never be Kansas or Kentucky, programs with great history and tradition, but it can easily be the next Michigan St. a program built by a coach and a coach only, one who rebuilt a program into a major power. The shot is there, and we have Wayne Chism and his headband, Bruce Pearl and his orange suits, and Chris Lofton and his big shot and bigger heart. Tennessee Basketball has come so far in five years, and the truth is in the pain caused by their losses.
