Okay, a lot of people are just idiots. Those are the same people who think Fulmer was a horrible coach. Only in this case it’s kind of like thinking Fulmer was a horrible coach after the ’98 season.

We just lost two of the best guards in Tennessee history, replacing them with a bunch of players who (except for JP) had not played a year at Tennessee.

And we won the SEC East, a division with the winningest program in Kentucky and a team that won 2 national championships a few years ago in Florida. Sure, we didn’t beat Kentucky but the fact that this team has shown more consistency than any other team in the SEC East (aside from South Carolina, a team with a pair of great guards) is amazing, especially considering that we might lose one player next year (though Smith is going to be sooo hard to replace, I think it can be done, if he even goes.)

The fans who think that Bruce Pearl isn’t doing a good job are the fans that can never be pleased. If Bruce Pearl were to win a National Championship this year and then go 20-10 next year they’d be saying how bad a coach he is. Every school has fans like that and, unfortunately, we are one of every other school.

Here’s a message to those Vol fans (though I don’t think any of them read these boards, and if they do they are mostly silent) : get realistic and enjoy what we’ve got. Chris Lofton’s first year we didn’t even make the NIT. When was the last time we went to four straight NCAA Tourneys? I don’t even know if it’s happened in my lifetime. I do know that Pearl is by far the best coach we have here at Tennessee since I’ve been following Vol basketball.

Anyone who is massively disappointed with the team this year has done one of three things:

• believed pre-season rankings. Yeah, I didn’t figure the Vols would be unranked at all this year but that was more preseason jitters than real rational thought. We’ve had our share of problems but, for the most part, that is attributed to the youth of our team. We’ve seen a LOT of progression over the weeks, though.
• compared Bruce Pearl to Pat Summitt. Comparing anyone to Pat is completely unfair. I heard one of my friends say this last year about Pearl: “He’s good, but no Pat Summit.” Let’s get this out of the way: no coach will ever be another Pat Summit. It just won’t happen. Count on it.
• was dropped on their head too much as a baby.

Also, the season isn’t even over yet! I’ll admit I’ll be disappointed a bit if we get beat by ‘Bama tonight and get bounced the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney. Well, no, as long as I see the Vols putting forth their ’A’ game and playing with pride and determination I don’t think I’ll be disappointed. A bit bummed, sure, but these things happen.

And Pearl? Please please please please please stay in Knoxville for a long long long long time. I’ll get on my knees and beg, if that helps?

Am I disappointed in the players? Sometimes. I think that’s one of the things that it’s hard to separate for some fans. Chism’s predilection for threes drives me insane. Hopson’s maddeningly inconsistent. Renaldo Woolridge is …well, too young. (At least to me.) The on-court product has occasionally been as inconsistent; if we weren’t E1 I’d probably be a bit frustrated with how things turned out. As it stands, we’re E1, and I don’t have a problem with that. Would I have liked to be 16-0? Absolutely, but we got it done.

I almost decided to make this it’s own post because it’s something that is important to me. I will leave it here instead, and hope it is seen, read, and taken to heart by others.

I did not see anyone on this board calling the season a disappointment, or calling for Mike Hamilton to fire Bruce Pearl, but I’m still going to put on a mini rant here, so please excuse me:

This behavior from Vol “fans” is unacceptable. It smells of the things that we find contemptable about Alabama’s football program and Kentucky’s basketball program. It needs to be ended or counteracted.

Expectations need to be tempered with reality, and the reality is that Tennessee will not win the National Championship every year in every sport. Even Pat Summit has years where she doesn’t even win the SEC, and she is the winningest coach with the greatest program in her sport. Can anybody imagine her being fired after her fourth year at UT?

There will come a season where Tennessee does NOT win the SEC East or gasp does not win 20 games or perhaps even finishes last in the division. Something like that is going to happen, the sooner we as fans realize that, the sooner we can begin to get over it. Funny that this needs to be said now, a year after the graduation of Jordan Howell, who told us that he remembered a time when TBA was so quiet that he could hear individual conversations, and that most of the covrsations weren’t about basketball.

Obviously we want our team to win, that’s what sports are about. There just needs to be an understanding that sometimes we wont, and when that happens, it doesn’t need to be whined about in the newspaper, or to the athletic director, and it doesn’t mean the coach needs to go. Just sit on your couch, have another beverage, and enjoy the fact that it happens infrequently enough that you’re still disappointed.

Now, rather than sit here and continue preaching to the choir with you nice folks, I thought I might make a suggestion. Since all of us seem to recognize what a wonderful coach we have, maybe we should stop being the silent majority, and show our appreciation of the job Bruce and the vols have done.

Paint the Rock, write a letter, send an email, buy and wear an SEC East Champions t-shirt, or heck just cheer a little louder next time you go to a game. I’m not saying we shold call and beg Bruce not to go, but we maybe could do a little more to show that we appreciate the job that he and the team have done this year, and for the last four years, in a manner that they will see.

I wasn’t this upset about people complaining about Coach Fulmer, although I thought his firing was mishandled, but I can honestly tell you that if a bunch of whiners cause the guy who reshaped and re-energized Tennessee basketball to pack up and leave, I might just go with him.

P.S. I’ll be looking for an email or physical address in the Athletic Department that looks like it might make it to Bruce’s office. I’m not arrogant enoug to think that he’ll ever see it, but maybe an influx of supportive letters will generate some buzz that reaches his ears.

Prometheus1185
Tennessee Alum

Ok, I kind of figured they don’t exactly advertise staff office addresses and things like that around the Athletic Department. I mean I imagine there wasn’t much love coming in for Phil back in October either. Plus, coaches are busy people.

So this is a fan mail address, mostly for people seeking autographs, I think, but it’s got some posts on the website that indicate a successful receipt of their autograph, so somebody has to look at the mail they get, right?

http://www.fanmail.biz/80672.html

Bruce Pearl
Thompson Boling Arena
Suite 206
Knoxville, TN 37996
USA

My very favorite college sports experience, and I had a few, was at the 2006 Gators game where me and about 10 of my friends camped out on the walkway to Thompson Bolling. The baketball marketing dept found out about us (about 70-100 students) being out there, and they were up at 6am taking names and saving our spots in line so we could go to class. I went and took my test, came back, and an hour or two before game time Bruce and Wayne Chism came out toting about 70 boxes of pizza for what was now a massive crowd of probably 2000 students. They let those of us that had camped out come in the stadium as soon as the women’s team was done with practice, and Pat Summit came and shook some hands and signed some t-shirts. Bruce came by and told us how much that kind of support meant. Then Peyton Manning walks in a few minutes before game time with Jeff Saturday and Brandon Stokley and takes his seat right across the court from us. Bruce won his 3rd game against Florida in 4 tries that night, and Joakim Noah got heckled worse than I’ve ever heard before or since. It’s remembring experiences like that, and like the 2006 Cal game that will get me through seasons like 2008 and whatever the future of Basketball can throw at me.

Also, I have noticed the positive tone around here and I like it. I think it meshes really well with how I feel. I mean yeah we’re fans and we’re going to be disappointed, but that doesn’t mean you pack it in in the middle of the season, stop cheering altogether, or ask for the coach to be fired.

In that last post.

Like I said, I’m happy with Basketball this year.