Back in the saddle -- it's standard equipment on my futon, if you must know -- after having been completely and totally preoccupied with business and unexpected personal travel the past week. I am woefully behind, but at least I'm on the horse now instead of in the stampede. Many thanks to hooper and Will for keeping things lively around here.

• Yeah, the basketball team is in very real danger of completely flaming out. According to Pearl, the team can't take coaching, which sounds like a very bad thing and almost spectacularly dumb when Pearl's your coach. But even the players are saying so, with Wayne Chism admitting that he was one of several players not even paying attention in an in-game time out huddle. Perhaps he was falling prey to what may have been Pearl's last-ditch effort to save the season, which was to risk a loss or two so that the players could discover for themselves that their desire to pick up the pace wasn't going to work with this bunch of guys and that his way is the only way to win this season. The good news is that, as unlikely as it seems right now, the Vols can still make the NCAA Tournament. That is, assuming they have learned their lessons, have found their focus, and that tomorrow night they can beat the Bulldogs, a team that starts four quick guards and features a packed-in defense with an excellent shot-blocker. Yay.
  
• Weak showing at the NFL Combine. Arian Foster, Anthony Parker, and Ramon Foster did 23, 24, and 20 reps of 225 pounds respectively on the bench press at the NFL Combine. Benchmark: Texas Tech's Louis Vasquez did 39. Yep, nearly twice as strong. John Pennington does some more I-told-you-so-ing. Only two more weeks before we get to see whether the Recruiting Chimera can coach, too.
  
• More, um, news on the recruiting front. More no news on Bryce Brown. More odd news on David Oku: he's moving -- as in physically relocating -- from Oklahoma to Nebraska. Read into that whatever you want, says he, but he's still trying to decide between Tennessee, Auburn, Syracuse, and Ole Miss.