I know I haven't posted a blog in over a month. Truth is, I don't like posting negative blogs. Which means I'm not going to rip into or blast the Lady Vols basketball team for their performance on court. And I'm very superstitious, so I didn't want to post a blog on the men's basketball team. However, I think I need to talk about them.
I am 40 years old. I first started watching sports in 1986. My wife jokes that regardless of the sport, I know enough about it to carry on a conversation with someone. I have seen the Tennessee men's basketball program hit some incredible highs (Bruce Pearl) and also hit some incredible lows (Wade Houston).
When I was at the University of Tennessee, it was during the Kevin O'Neill era. While I was at Tennessee, I was in the marching and pep bands. The highlight for any band member is being able to take the trips to all these great cities, being able to spend time with your friends and make memories of being at these sporting events. My first year at Tennessee we weren't so lucky. The team went 11-16 and exited the SEC Tournament with a first round loss to Auburn.
Then "Uncle Jed" Jerry Green came in and took Tennessee to the NCAA Tournament. After years of losing with Wade Houston and then mediocre success with Kevin O'Neill, I never thought I'd see Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, let alone in all four of Jerry Green's seasons. But sadly that ended in 2001, when Uncle Jed resigned following a 70-63 upset by Charlotte in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
After the peak of Jerry Green, came the valley known as Buzz Peterson. On paper, Peterson was a great hire. In 5 years as an NCAA head coach he was 105-50. He played at North Carolina under Dean Smith. Not only was Michael Jordan his roommate at UNC, but was also the best man in Peterson's wedding. Sadly, it was a bad investment for Tennessee. In his four years at Tennessee, Peterson never made it to the NCAA Tournament and never had a 20 win season. The best Tennessee could do was make it to the NIT Tournament, and exit both times in the first round.
After a valley, must come another peak. And this peak to me was the Mount Everest of peaks. The Bruce Pearl era. Pearl comes in after making an impressive run in the NCAA Tournament with Wisconsin-Milwaukee and does things I never thought was possible with Tennessee. Six consecutive years in the NCAA Tournament, including Tennessee's first ever appearance in the Elite Eight. Sadly, it all came to an end when Pearl and his staff lied to the NCAA about a summertime barbecue, that broke NCAA rules because there were recruits there. Bruce was fired by AD Mike Hamilton and received a three year show cause penalty. Hamilton then hired Cuonzo Martin.
Cuonzo Martin was a solid hire. He was a good college basketball player. He worked his way up the coaching ladder from high school to college. The biggest issue most Tennessee fans had with him, was that he was not Bruce Pearl. While Bruce was flamboyant, animated and outspoken, Cuonzo was the exact opposite. It is hard to follow someone like Bruce Pearl, who has taken the school to places only few have ever dreamed. In 2014, Cuonzo almost did it. Tennessee had an improbable run in the NCAA Tournament. As an 11 seed, they not only made it to the Sweet Sixteen, but were two points away from knocking off the two seed Michigan and going back to the Elite Eight for the second time in school history. Cuonzo left Tennessee after that season. Many people in the media and in the fan base blamed the fanatical wing of the Tennessee fan base for Cuonzo leaving. The 2013-14 season was the last year of Bruce Pearl's show cause penalty. During the season some fans openly campagiend and even started a petition wanting AD Dave Hart to fire Cuonzo Martin and bring back Bruce Pearl. This petition drew over 40,000 signatures and is rumored to be one of the reasons Cuonzo left Tennessee to become the head coach of the University of California.
Once again, after the peak of Pearl and Martin, comes the valley known as Donnie Tyndall. I knew the man I refer to as "The Hobbit" was not going to work on Rocky Top. Cuonzo Martin resigned from Tennessee on April 15, 2014. Donnie Tyndall was hired on April 21,2014. Before Tyndall was hired, there was rampid rumor and speculation that Dave Hart was finally going to right the wrong done by Mike Hamilton and bring back Bruce Pearl. Well that didn't happen because Bruce was hired by Auburn.
Then names like Mike White (now at Florida), Gregg Marshall (Wichita State), Ben Howland (now at Mississippi State) Archie Miller (now at Indiana) and Rick Byrd (Belmont) were some of the names mentioned in the coaching search. However, none of these coaches were hired by Dave Hart. The word was that either Hart gave them low ball contract offers, or the coaches said no because they took one look at what was left of the roster and took a hard pass. Dave Hart hired Tyndall a mere hours after Mike White rejected the low ball contract offer. Tyndall accepted a 5 year, 8 million dollar contract.
I knew Tyndall was not going to work out when he mispronounced the word "Vols" in the press conference announcing his hiring. He was sold to the fan base as someone who was in the "Bruce Pearl mold" and would bring an exciting style of basketball to Thompson-Boling Arena. To me, he looked like a sleazy car salesman, who never was able to deliver on what he promised.
After a lackluster 16-16 season, Donnie Tyndall was fired with cause on March 25, 2015, less than one year from the time he was hired. Turns out, Dave Hart never did a thorough background check on Tyndall before hiring him. Tyndall had sanctions leveled on him in 2010 when he was at Morehead State for violations involving boosters. Tennessee was notified in December of 2014 of violations that had occurred while Tyndall was the head coach at Southern Mississippi. Not only did Tyndall lie to Tennessee about the severity of the violations at both Morehead State and Southern Miss, but the violations were so bad that Tyndall that he was issued a ten year show cause penalty. Tyndall's punishment by the NCAA was the most severe penalty they have ever issued to a head coach.
The firing of Donnie Tyndall could not have come at a more opportune time. On March 29, 2015, the University of Texas announced they had fired Rick Barnes after a 20-14 season. Barnes was 402-180 in his 17 season in Austin.
Turns out, the day before Texas announced they had fired Barnes, he had already been talking to Tennessee about being the 20th head coach in program history. So when Rick Barnes told reporters at his farewell press conference in Austin that he would be coaching "quicker than you think," he wasn't lying. Barnes was named the head coach at Tennessee on March 31, 2015.
Barnes has brought not only a much needed stability to the Tennessee program, but also gives them credibility and a future hall of fame head coach. His hire was a no brainer. He is from Hickory, North Carolina, which is three hours from Knoxville. His wife graduated from Tennessee in 1975. During his introductory press conference, Barnes talked about making the three hour drive from Hickory in 1974 to see his now wife and watch Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld play basketball at Stokley Athletic Center.
Barnes had to rebuild the program. It showed in his first two seasons, with the team going 15-19 in 2015-16 and 16-16 in 2016-17. No one expected to see Tennessee take the leap they did in 2017-18 with the team going 26-9, a share SEC regular season championship and their first NCAA Tournament appearnce since 2014. The season probably would have continued past the second round, if Kyle Alexander had not gotten injured prior to their game against Loyola-Chicago.
If the 2017-18 season was an indictator, Tennessee was in for a bright future. But I don't think anyone ever expected the 2018-19 season to be as bright as it has been. Their first number one ranking since 2007-08 under Bruce Pearl, a win over then number one Gonzaga, and the longest winning streak in school history (17 at the time of this blog post). For the first time that I can remember, not only are the fans talking the first ever Final Four appearance for Tennessee, but the media is as well.
Regardless of the outcome of this season, whether it is a national championship, a Final Four appearance or even an exit in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, just enjoy the ride. The Tennessee program has had a roller coaster ride since Ray Mears retired in 1978. I never thought the program would get to the heights it did under Bruce Pearl, let alone get back there again. Not only have they gotten back to those heights, but they are now poised to go higher than they ever had before. I can only imagine the fun the members of the pep band are having now.
