PILOT LIGHT > LIGHTNING + ICE: Tennessee Volunteers 89, Florida Gators 86

by Joel Hollingsworth on Mar 6, 2008 7:48 AM EST in Tennessee Volunteer Basketball

Photo credit: nutmeg

They were smoking. Racing up and down the court at breakneck speed. Pulling up and shooting field goals at a rate a full five percentage points better than their average. Hitting all but one of their free throw attempts. Dropping three after three after three.

And they were getting run out of the building. Yes, the Vols were electric, but the Gators, well the Gators were lightning itself. In the first half, Florida, motivated by the opportunity to shore up its invitation to the NCAA Tournament, shot 67% from the field, 90% from the free throw line, and 58% from behind the arc. In table form, courtesy of hooper:


Field Goals	made	19	18
	shot	28	35
	percent	67.85714	51.42857
Free Throws	made	10	3
	shot	11	4
	percent	90.90909	75
3-pointers	made	7	3
	shot	12	8
	percent	58.33333	37.5

The place was crawling with cold-blooded reptiles for the first 20 minutes, and the teams went to the locker room with Florida up 55-42. When the teams returned for the second half, however, summer relapsed into winter, and alligators don't do well when it's nippy outside. Florida went cold. Frigid. Icy.

The numbers, again courtesy of hooper:


Field Goals	made	9	15
	shot	19	28
	percent	47.36842	53.57143
Free Throws	made	10	11
	shot	16	15
	percent	62.5	73.33333
3-pointers	made	3	6
	shot	9	12
	percent	33.33333	50

Those are not bad numbers for the Gators, really, except in contrast to the way they played in the first half. But tonight, the Vols were consistent, and consistently hot beat lightning and ice.

Photo credit: Zelca

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

The night belonged to guards JaJuan Smith and Chris Lofton. Juanny hit 9-13 from the field and 4-7 from three-point land on this way to 23 points, and Lofton went 6-11 from the field, 5-6 from the stripe, and 4-8 from the arc on his way to 21. Teardrops, Wheezy, and Pajamas all hit double figures as well. Wheezy hit a couple of key free throws down the stretch despite taking a knee to the head to get there.

All in all, it was a fantastic game for the Vols, a victory that, when combined with Mississippi State's one-point overtime loss at Vanderbilt, won Tennessee the outright SEC regular season championship for the first time in 41 years.

From the sphere:

VolNation: Vols are SEC Champions!
Ghost of Neyland: History Wears Orange
UT Vols Football: SEC Champs
Fulmer's Belly: SEC Champs!
Late addition -- The BruceBall Blog: SEC Champions

One final order of business, if anyone finds a picture of The Glare, I want a link, even if it does make Aerobab incontinent.

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Comments

Fantastic, Y'all

Nope, it wasn't a dream last night. Sports page says so!

What's incredible about that game is that both teams' "bad halves" were nothing to hang their heads about.

However, I'm still troubled that for the game, UT had 16 more posessions and only managed a 3 pt victory. Yes, UF shot/made a handfull more of FTs, but with that many more posessions, the score should not have been that close.

by Aerobab on Mar 6, 2008 8:37 AM EST reply actions

A large part was UF's 1st half shooting.

Those percentages were well above anything their season would suggest they could have done. I missed much of the first half, so I don't know if that's because they were getting great looks or if they simply had a rim that was twice as large on their end of the court.

All kidding aside, it sounds like that first half was simply unbelievable. But in the second half, it felt like everything was working against UT, even as they shot out to that 10-point lead.

There is reason for concern. But I'm glad they struggled and won. It was enough to convince them to keep working hard, but not so much to deflate their confidence. Managing that comeback against such a hot hand will be a great confidence booster. Florida played probably the best half of basketball that anybody has played all season long, and UT overcame it. That speaks volumes, too.

Now if they struggle against USC, I'll worry.

by David Hooper on Mar 6, 2008 10:23 AM EST up reply actions

Retarded

Swindle Industries basketball site, thirtyfiveseconds.com, just made a totally retarded statement with respect to the game last night.

"As for the Vols â€" all discussion of them as a possible #1 seed should halt until they win a game convincingly, which they haven't done in two weeks."

I'm certain that this statement was made out of pure spite for Tennessee's program; much in the same that I have for theirs. But the fact remains that this statement is one of ignorance. All #1 teams find ways to win the close ones, regardless of the level of competition against the opposition. That's a characteristic of a #1 team; they find ways to win close ones. Memphis has done it, UCLA has done it, as have UNC, Texas, Kansas, and Duke.

There's a massive amount of information that makes the case for Tennessee's #1 ranking. Blowing every team out by 20 isn't an indicator of your team's strength. It's an indicator of weak scheduling. As a Florida fan, poster "eirishis" ought to know a thing or two about weak scheduling and the "success" that it can bring to one's team. (WOOOO! 18-1 vs. the bottom 2/3 of the NCAA (>101st in SOS)!!!

Give me a break.

by Aerobab on Mar 6, 2008 11:36 AM EST reply actions

Terrible Loss

Tyler Smith's an ass

by Gator Boys on Mar 6, 2008 11:41 AM EST reply actions

I'll agree that was a tough loss for the Gators.

As a Gator fan, what did things look like from your perspective? Over here, we tend to see things through Orange-White glasses. I'm curious to get a glimpse through the Orange-Blue glasses too.

By the way, UF played a heck of a game last night. Besides the nearly inhuman shooting in the first half, they were very aggressive and played a very energetic, hard game. UT certainly didn't win because Florida quit. Kudos to your young team; their future looks pretty good right now.

by David Hooper on Mar 6, 2008 12:11 PM EST up reply actions

It was frustrating

The beginning was amazing. I was in the student section and I've never been so happy and I dont remember it ever being so great. I was sick so I wasnt going to yell, but I couldnt help it.. We hit everything and scored on most of our possessions early, but I kept looking at the scoreboard and thinking, "wait, we're only up 10?" Apparently UT scored a lot more then it I realized. It was a great first half though.

I read somewhere on this site that it seemed like everything was going against our (UF) way in the second half, but it didnt seem like that to us at all. We started out with an 11 point lead and right off the bat UT went on a 7-0 run or something, it took away a lot of momentum. We didnt mind all the amazing contested shots that Lofton made. We just shrugged and said "oh well good D, maybe they deserve to win." I was thinking, this is what it must have been like to play us the last 2 years. I started feeling bad for all the teams we used to frustrated with our superior skill.

I remember we got stuck on 69 and you guys went on a big run and all of a sudden we were down 10. My memory isnt perfect, but I remember we were really mad about a few calls. Remember that back-court call on Calathes when the UT player knocked it out of our guy's hand? We had no idea how the refs could call that back-court, but then after the game I thought maybe Nick got possession of the loose ball and then lost his balance and stepped back over the line a little bit. What happened there? I only got to see it once and it was obvious the ball was knocked back by a UT player, so we thought the call was bad.

Anyway, the only other specific call I can remember was the Tyler Smith thing. Dan Werner wrestled with Smith for the ball, got the jump ball call and then Smith walked towards him with that "glare." He had to be restrained by a teammate. I dont know the rules completely, but I didnt think you could walk up on people like that and not get a technical. What was he mad about anyway? Bastard.

Everybody was really frustrated with Werner's charge with 7 seconds left. Why was he driving when we were down 3? Thats about it...It really sucked and reminded us of the 2006 game.

I didnt think I'd type that long... I got carried away...I didnt check it for mistakes

by Gator Boys on Mar 6, 2008 2:07 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks

First - no worries about tpyos heer, escpclaiyy if you're engaged in clean converstion. ;)

You were there, huh? That must have been a lot of fun (regardless of the outcome). The intensity was amazing.

What I saw on TV regarding the Tyler Smith incident wasn't very informative. I think the basic event was that the Florida defender's elbow got in Tyler's face as they were both coming down after the shot. I think Tyler took exception to that, though its intentionality is completely unknown (and probably not likely) - the cameraman followed the ball rather than the players so a lot is lost on the footage. I will give this much: the other players on both teams responded well. The UT guys happened to be closest, so they restrained the two players. The UF guys didn't take exception to the UT guy who restrained the UF guy (I can't remember names now). Even the assistants who got T'd were acting in the best interests (and I think that rule is a little excessive in moments like that). It was a very heated game and a very heated moment. Kudos to everybody for letting it dissipate and playing on.

And I don't know what the rules on T's are for getting in somebody's mug. Tyler didn't really contact him and nobody threatened any punches.

As far as the calls go: I think the SEC really needs to review their officiating. On TV, it appeared that UT was called for a lot of ticky-tack when UF was bumping a lot more. (But again, I'm not a basketball expert and I honestly don't understand how the calls are supposed to go.) There were some bad calls both ways. But speaking of games other than last night's game (to get away from partisan concepts), it seems that the SEC officials tend to be very friendly to home teams. Of course, a lot of that was T. Valentine showing up on my TV, so take it with a grain of salt.

As Joel mentioned, UF's second half was still a good second half, shooting-wise. I still don't exactly know how things broke so badly and so quickly, but UT did get up by 10 out of nowhere.

Thanks again for your persective. I love to hear the other side of the story.

by David Hooper on Mar 6, 2008 2:21 PM EST up reply actions

Don't like Tyler, huh?

Well EVERY player on your team has a stupid haircut! What's up with that? Seriously?

But I digress.

My wife will always hate Florida because she was in a deep sleep--or at least as deep as she can sleep 6 months pregnant. And she got woke up by the "television screaming" several times. I am just glad she doesn't hate the Vols for it.

Go Vols!

by gramsey712 on Mar 6, 2008 12:41 PM EST up reply actions

I dont know

Rumor has it that Jai Lucas was trying to put an F in his hair and messed up and then got the rest of the team to do those 2 slashed that he made. I heard somebody say that while we were waiting for the game.

by Gator Boys on Mar 6, 2008 2:09 PM EST up reply actions

I read that in a Florida news article

but I can't find the link. Sorry.

The original idea was for everybody to do it (I think before a Mississippi State game) as a rally point, but the first one looked bad.

by David Hooper on Mar 6, 2008 2:22 PM EST up reply actions

I'll pile on with the linkage...

Gate 21: Get the Banner Ready!!!
I even have Gus running with the flag!
Great win by the BasketVols!!

============
lawvol: Gate 21.net - Life, the Universe, & College Football

by lawvol98 on Mar 6, 2008 12:56 PM EST reply actions

Werner

Werner is the D.B. not Tyler Smith, Gator Boys. In Knoxville, Werner was the one that threw J.P. Prince to the floor and Prince got the tech for bumping Werner (I believe there has to be some contact). Then he does the same thing to Tyler Smith and then again at the end of the game! What about that gorilla grabbing Chism and throwing him down before dropping a knee on him? No intentional foul? THAT was the worst call of the game.

by VolBrian on Mar 7, 2008 8:35 AM EST reply actions