Rocky Top Talk, a Tennessee Volunteers community

Finding the good and acknowledging the bad in the first half of UT's season in the hope that better basketball is still available.

Bruce Pearl said he thought Tennessee was a Top 20 job nationally. Where would you rank the Vols?

This Vol fan isn't worried (yet) about the rumors of Cuonzo Martin expressing interest in the vacant Illinois head coaching gig.

CSNChicago citing sources saying @CuonzoMartin interested in vacant Illinois coaching position.tinyurl.com/72l7kop — Steve Phillips (@steve_phillips_) March 21, 2012 The #illini coaching...

Let's send out the seniors with an Orange-Out Saturday.If you don't wear orange, you're running sprints. — Cuonzo Martin (@CuonzoMartin) March 2, 2012

In a win to be very proud of, Tennessee became the only non-Kentucky SEC team to win in Baton Rouge this year in a gritty, hard fought overtime affair with LSU that epitomized the job Cuonzo Martin is doing.

A broken Tennessee fanbase got its biggest win in more than a year, and Cuonzo Martin finally got his team to play the way he wanted in a stunning, dominant defensive effort against the Gators.

Another close loss, another great effort, and one for the record books from Jeronne Maymon. These Vols have a real chance to be a good basketball team.

Without Bruce Pearl and the expectation of greatness, the Vols and Cuonzo Martin look for ways to sustain the momentum built by the previous coach now, and ways to build on it for the future.