Incoming analysis on conference tournaments, potential winners and they effect they might have on the bubble.

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GoVolsXtra posted an article stating that Terry Joseph had been offered the DB's position at Nebraska. Additionally it stated that he was "mulling over" the offer. Does anyone have any information on this? Is he attempting to get a raise by "mulling it over" or is it a serious possibility he could take the job. I realize that there are questions about his ability to coach in some fan's minds but I have been quite impressed with his recruiting and certainly believe that he did a good enough job considering all the injuries in the secondary and starting new players.

We've got Tennessee as our first team out of the big dance right now, with a 7.96% chance of receiving an At Large bid. At 16-13, beating LSU and Vandy is an absolute must (Without even considering the SEC conference tournament). Check out our predictions over this next week and a half or so. We're usually over 95% correct, and have beaten Joe Lunardi 2 out of the past 3 years.

StatJunkie's March Madness Statistical Prediction for Tennessee

Thanks!

Tennessee(7-0) vs. Middle Tennessee State(4-3)
Carter Watson(0-0, 2.08 ERA) v. Jordan Cooper(0-0, 2.57 ERA)
Lindsey Nelson Stadium
Tuesday, February 28 @ 4pm
Tickets

Live Video @ UTsports
Game Notes

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Let's assume Kentucky wins out. With Davis as the overall top pick and the NBA Draft Express projecting another year with five NBA First Rounders, can UK finally live up to the hype and win a National Championship? Sure, the expectations are high with that much talent. They should be. Anything less than winning the SEC and a Final Four trip should be a complete disappointment for those wearing blue. Question: If Cal meets expectations, should he win Coach of the Year? (At your job, if you just Meet Expectations, do you get a promotion, award and a massive raise? Didn't think so.)

Last year was arguably the most disappointing year for a college coach. Cal had the most talented team in decades (5 First Rounders) and didn't win a National Championship. Didn't even play for it. (What kind of coach is that? Coach of the Year? Hmph.)

Shift over to the Vols. Picked 11th in the SEC. Most of us argued middle of the pack as a best case but really could understand the Cellar Dweller conversation, given the "State of the Program." Nothing but role players last year. Role players is a nice way to say misfits, scrubs and underperformers. One 5 star prospect who didn't even play his senior year, joins the team in January. New coach. New system. School recovering from a year of negativity in the spotlight.

The Vols are currently 4th. Winners of 7 of our last 9 games. Already guaranteed to equal last year's SEC win total and a 500 season. If all goes exceptionally well - and the scenario is not insane - Gators lose to Vandy and Kentucky; Vols beat Vandy at TBA and LSU on the road - Tennessee could end up 2nd in the SEC.

In 2012 games, someone figured out the RPI was Top 35 or so for those games. That's a massive turnaround compared to losing against teams with RPIs well over 100 in pre-SEC play.

Regardless of how the season turns out, this should already be classified as a massive success story for the Vols. A Classic Story of Over-Achievers. A coach who has Exceeded Expectations.

So, which coach deserves the award? The guy who recruits like a machine and meets expectations or the guy who took over a program and outpaced the most ardent fans' expectations?

The Lady Vols were 34 and 3 last year overall - 16 and 0 in the SEC - and made it to the elite eight

This year they are 20 and 8 and 11 and 4 looking at a 3 or 4 seed without winning the SEC Tournament and we are missing Kelly Cain and Angie Bjorklund while adding the point guard everyone said was the key and returning our 3 leading scorers with a healthy Vicki Baugh. Lauren Avant and Lyssi Brewer defected but they did not play much last year.

Nikki Caldwell at LSU already has them in a better position this season even after losing her point guard here at UT They went 19 and 13 and 8 and 8 in 2011 and failed to make the NCAA
Nikki has them at 20 and 8 and 10 and 5 with UGA coming to Baton Rouge
They are on a 6 game winning streak and tied for 3rd in the SEC and are seeded in the Bracketology in Nikki's first year. That's good coaching taking another coach's players and doing better even after losing a critical player.

This was a particularly good performance given the vast improvement in the overall strength of the SEC this year.

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UPDATE - A brilliant-ish idea occurred to me this morning. I'm currently considering expanding the league to 20 teams and challenging another blog in a fantasy baseball throwdown. We already have 7 teams from RTT signed up so if we can get three more and then 10 from a rival blog, say ASOLOL, then this could get real interesting.

I would score it as 20 points for the overall league champion and on down from there with the blog with the most points being declared the winner.

The league will likely be divided into two 10 team divisions with the 10 from each blog seperated and then battling it out in the playoffs. This would help keep competition up so the respective blog performs well overall instead of trying to sandbag just for an overall champion.

Cheating would be near impossible due to trades having to be approved by a league vote.

Interested? We need three more RTT teams and then we'll start sorting out which blog to challenge and what the winning blog will be allowed to do. My initial thoughts on a "prize" would be allowing the winning blog to write up a post of whatever they choose (within the losing blog's rules) and the losing blog has to keep it on their front page for an entire day. We can vet prizes later though.

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For those who are interested, I have created a league in Yahoo! for RTT. It's a 12 team head-to-head league with pretty extensive scroing options. We'll be doing an auto-draft instead of trying to coordinate everyone together live so you can just create your team, set your draft priority and we'll kick it off opening day.

No prizes involved save for the fact I promise I won't call the league champion a troll for exactly one year. :-D

If we get more than 12 interested in playing I'll expand the league.

If you are interested post your email here in the comments for an invite or just email me at bramseym3@gmail.com if you prefer an extra layer of privacy.

Go Vols!

Tennessee(6-0) vs. Seton Hall(2-4)
Lindsey Nelson Stadium

Series Notes(.PDF)
Friday 2/24 @ 4pm = 9-2 win
Saturday 2/25 @ 1pm - 3-2 win
Sunday 2/26 @ Noon - Children 13 and under get in free. Children will be provided with on-field games and a post game autograph session.
Tickets@UTsports.com

Live Video@UTsports.com

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Via Cleverbot:

User: Hey, Cleverbot. Somebody told me about you.

Cleverbot: Somebody told you what?

User: That you were cool and funny.

Cleverbot: I know I am, sweetheart. You, however, have the cunning of an orca whale.

User: Okay, then. Do you know anything about college football?

Cleverbot: Thank god, no.

User: Why don't you like football? Are you a Tennessee fan?

Cleverbot: I do.

User: Oh, so you like football but don't know it. You're a Florida fan.

Cleverbot: I never said that I was God.

User: Right. So maybe a Miami fan.

Cleverbot: Maybe.

User: So who's going to win the NCAA basketball tournament this year?

Cleverbot: I don't know. There are many big games. I'm not aware of the biggest.

User: Do you like Kentucky to win it all?

Cleverbot: No.

User: Who then?

Cleverbot: I don't know.

User: Not so clever now, are we?

Note: this is not an attack on Calipari, who most of you know I'm not too fond of. While I do think that there are very valid criticisms to be made of Calipari both as a game-day and ethical coach, right now isn't the time to bring up those criticisms (because Cal has had a very good record of late, and is in the middle of his most promising season to date at Kentucky). So this isn't an attack on him or his character, but rather an attack on the notion of creating shadows to support an illusion.

I regularly visit a few of our SB-Nation SEC sites, the very popular A Sea of Blue among them. Typically I avoid most of the opinion articles there -- frankly, about half of them are complaints about how everybody is out against them and that nobody gives Coach Cal an ounce of respect, or how tough it is to be a team sporting multiple #1 recruiting records and the winingest record historically. (Which, were I a Kentucky fan at all I wouldn't mind, but as a rival? It gets a bit old.)

So it doesn't come as a surprise to me to see this response to an article written by an NBA contributor for SB Nation, Jonathon Tjarks. But, uhm. Do you really want this guy to be as aSoB commentator jc25 quickly points out "one of my favorite basketball writers"? Really?

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