Musings of a Catholic Convert

The Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Memphis Tigers Saturday night by a score of 66-62.  It was one of the best sports events I've watched all year, and I'm not a big basketball fan myself.  I do, however, support Tennessee's sporting endeavors across the board.

Go UT AD&D Squad!  Roll the Crimson Tide with your 20-Sided Die! 

Coach Pearl motivated the men and they responded, even though they shot poorly from the floor.  Both teams did actually.  I expected a much higher score by game's end.  It didn't matter to me, though, if the score had been 2-0, so long as Tennessee held the 2 points to win the game.

Both teams played aggressively, which is always exciting to watch.  And even though there was some shoving and elbowing, things remained about as civil as you could expect in a heated #1 vs. #2 matchup between in-state rivals.  Now I wasn't at the game - I couldn't afford to pay thousands of dollars for the rare available seats - but I didn't notice any of the fans being uncivil toward one another.  They were certainly emotionally involved in the game.  In fact, even on TV you could tell that the roar was deafening whenever Memphis made a play.  But the fans on both sides seemed to get along well enough, testimony to the overall good sportsmanship I've witnessed among Tennessee fans and Memphis fans.   

Now all eyes and pressure are on Tennessee to defend #1 standing.  They have to play a tough Vanderbilt team (23-4) in Nashville, where the Commodores are undefeated at home this season. 

As historical as all this ranking business is for the University of Tennessee men's basketball program, what matters most to them and to me is a good performance in the NCAA tournament.  I hope they can run the table.  The talent is certainly there, and a high ranking should give them a good seed in a weaker bracket.  Here's hopin'.

Does anybody know UT's AD&D record and/or player levels? 

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 10:56 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.