(Disclaimer. This will most likely be the first and last time I ever put a picture of a UT basketball player on my blog. So don't get use to it. It dumbs this blog down)
I sat down yesterday to watch an NFC playoff game between the Cardinals and Packers with some friends. One of my buddies is a UT fan and I knew the basketball game between Tennessee and Kansas was coming on as well. I mentioned to him that I'd like to watch about 10 mins or so of the first of the game. I figured in 10 mins or so KU would open up a sizable enough lead in order to make the game unwatchable. See, Kansas is the #1 team in the country* and UT, while the #15 team in the country*, they have lost 3 of their better players to suspensions and 1 player, Tyler Smith, has been kicked off the team.
Brief history: Four players all were arrested on New Years because they had drugs, open containers of alcohol, and unregistered weapons in their car. Since then, Smith, arguably their best player has been kicked off the team.
This has pretty much been the UT moniker for the past couple of months since players on the football team robbed people at a gas station in Knoxville. Needless to say, this didn't help the public perception that UT is a school for criminals.
Those that know me know that I'm a huge Kentucky and Memphis fan and thus the common denominator rivals of both are Louisville and Tennessee. Living in Tennessee as I do makes it easier to hate UT all the more because I'm around them more than Louisville fans. I'm also married into a large family of Kansas fans so I've adopted them as one of the teams I pull for as long as they aren't playing UK or Memphis. All this in mind rooting against UT yesterday was a given.
With said issues in mind, I did not expect UT to put up much of a fight and I was pulling for Kansas to wipe the floor with them. This, however, did not happen. UT hung with the #1 team* for most of the game and as the time went on my buddies and I found ourselves watching the whole game with the NFC game on the small screen off to the side. As the game went on, I thought in the second half that the UT players would wear down and Kansas would impose their will on them and the game would get out of hand. The problem is that one, no one told UT they were supposed to wear down and two, Kansas shot the ball atrociously throughout the game and it never got better.
By the 17 min mark of the second half UT actually took the lead and never relinquished it. Kansas battled back to only being down by 3 with around a min or so. Then, out of nowhere, this kid hits a 3-pointer with the shot clock running down to zero.
This kid's name is Skylar McBee. If you haven't heard his name you're not alone. He's a walk-on
player that isn't the kind of player you'd want taking a shot as the shot clock is expiring. When he hit the shot, I almost jumped out of my seat cheering for him. After some made free throws UT ended up beating Kansas by a score of 76-68.
Wait...did I just say I cheered for a player from UT? Yep. I can't believe it, but I did. Over the duration of the game I found myself cheering for David over Goliath. The only reason I can explain is that I felt bad for what had happened to the players on the UT team. I've sorta felt like if it was me playing on a team and four other players virtually ruined my season, I'd be pretty pissed. So for some reason, in that moment, I cheered for UT.
I actually think that good will come from this for both teams. Kansas in my mind, needed a loss like this to give them a dose of reality that they are not as good as the polls might suggest. Let me say that they are arguably the best and most talented team in the country, but they've had a crummy non-conference schedule highlighted by a near loss to scrappy Memphis and Cornell teams and a blowout win over a horrible UCLA team. The only good win they've had so far is a blowout at a nationally ranked Temple. I think this is just the medicine this team to come together and play better before their conference play starts. Bill Self said this after the game, “When you talk about all the stuff they have been through, I do not think Tennessee was a team until this past week. I do not think Kansas is a team yet.”
Bruce Pearl will surely use this win as a spring board going into SEC play and tell his players that anything is possible when you come together and play like a team. The SEC is a weak basketball conference this year so the chances of UT doing well is still a possibility.
Let me say this again, I AM NOT A UT FAN by any stretch of the means nor to I care for Bruce Pearl all that much (I like to call him the "Sweaty One"). But a walk-on burying a shot with the time running out on the clock is one of the cooler things that happens in sport (unless they hit it against your team). Make no mistake about it though, the UT players showed a ton of heart last night and effort outlasted talent. While I won't be singing Rocky Top anytime soon, I do salute the players for a great effort and something that they'll always remember.
Go Cats! (This post had too much orange in it)
*
according to the polls
In what was supposed to be a close game, the Kentucky Wildcats put the gas on the throttle and put an ole fashion 29 point butt whoopin' on the Tennessee Volunteers by a score of 74-45. UT tried every trick in the book...flagrant fouling DeMarcus "Boogie" Cousins, 2-3 zone defense, and even sending Steven "Daddy's Boy" Pearl out to start a fight...NONE OF IT WORKED!
We played like I look
