Should post season play define the 2009-2010 Tennessee Volunteers?

What will define this team is the arrests, and the way they bounced back against Kansas. But I am hoping that post-season play will define this team. Beating teams like Kansas and Kentucky during the regular season are exceptional, especially under the circumstances! This program is at a point, that we at least expect to be somewhat competitive with teams of that caliber, and it’s not unprecedented under Bruce’s tenure here. But we are also at the point now, that Tennessee should have reasonable expectations in the NCAA tournament. We didn’t overachieve to get into the field. People may have to readjust what their expectations are from the pre-season now that Tyler is gone. But we still expect Tennessee to play good basketball, beat the teams we should, and be competitive with everyone else. If that means losing to the 4 or 5 seed in the 2nd round, then this team will let the regular season define them – people will choose to remember beating Kansas and Kentucky (nothing wrong with that). But I think this team is on the verge of really melding – now that Pearl has found a reliable rotation – playing better as a team, with their best basketball ahead of them. They still have an opportunity to define themselves in the post-season.

I made this point in the podcast, but because 63 of 64 teams lose in March, you like to have something to point to, to say “here’s what our team did this year.”

Pearl’s first four teams had that: three teams that won the SEC East, and the one that didn’t (06-07) made the Sweet 16 for the first time in seven years and the second time ever. I know last year some people were disappointed and thought winning the division was no longer enough, and to a degree you can’t always be satisfied with the same stuff and still be making progress.

But after we beat Kentucky, I think now you have something tangible to look back on this season – wins over Kansas and Kentucky, considering the adversity – and call it successful. If it was just the Kansas game, that could’ve been an isolated story. But the fact that this depleted team has won 20+/10+ SEC, and beat KU and UK, I think it’ll stand.

But…no matter where the Vols fall (as long as it’s betewen 3-6, which I think is our window at this point), they’ll play a team in the first round they should absolutely beat, and a team in the second round they can absolutely beat. And if this team finds a way to make the Sweet 16, having those KU/UK wins in the bank will let them play with a confidence that there’s no team they can’t beat…and we’re at our best as underdogs.

It’s not that we’re playing with house money…it’s that we’re a good story in search of a good ending. I don’t think a bad ending will ruin the whole story. But a good ending could make a good story great.

I think there’s only one way that the postseason can negatively define this team, and that’s if we get beaten in the first round of the NCAAs. Even then, with the great story that the regular season was, it’s hard to tell whether even that kind of disappointment would be a negative defining moment. If it were coupled with a loss to LSU on Thursday, the odds would be better for a negative definition.

If we make the second round, we’ll play someone equally as good as us, possibly marginally better or marginally worse. It will be disappointing if we lose, but people will forget it in light of what we’ve done this season. Think of it like Pearl’s first year. If we had lost to Winthrop, we may remember that year by the flameout. But as it is, even though we lost in the second round, there were just too many positives outweighing it. I won’t be satisfied with a second round loss insofar as postseason play goes, but a second round loss won’t mar my satisfaction with the season as a whole.

Personally, I think the Sweet Sixteen is the reasonable fan’s goal this year. It’s well within our grasp. We only need to win as a favorite and then get a 50/50 win. I will be perfectly satisfied with the Sweet Sixteen.

Elite Eight or better would take a great run (win as favorite, 50/50 win, win as underdogs), and should we get it, this will immediately jump to Pearl’s most memorable team by a fairly wide margin. I hope that’s what happens, but I don’t foresee it. If we get into the Duke (Ohio State?) bracket as a 4/5, I think we have a shot. If we’re in the Kansas bracket, it’s unlikely, and if we’re in the Syracuse bracket, we can kiss all hope goodbye.

This team has overcome enough adversity and done enough good that they don’t need to break new ground in the tournament. That said, Pearl has raised our expectations (and continues to raise them) enough that there will come a point at which not breaking new ground will be termed a disappointment. I hope we break through to the Elite Eight sooner rather than later, because if it takes too long, it will turn into a monkey on the backs of Pearl and the Vols. As for now though, it’s hard not to be happy with the job he and the team have done this season.

I think they would have serious issues turning around and playing on 1 day rest