The partition was because he flat SUCKED (and still does) as a basketball coach.
You continued insinuations are not accurate nor appropriate.

I go by facts.  He took us to the final of the Sweet 16 last year and almost to the quarterfinals, which is as far as UT has ever been.

Can you or anyone explain to me what about that "sucks"?  Cause I don't see it.

But again, I am using FACTS and LOGIC, and not emotion and feelings, so....

But I would love to hear what about that run sucked.  Standing by....

Bandit, I mean no offense but the inference that we didn't like Martin because he was black is just plain horseshizzle.  What color was Jerry Green?  What color was Derek fizzleing Dooley?   

I didn't say you personally, though there is a question I could ask you about something related.

But aside from that, I am not saying Cuonzo was run off JUST BECAUSE he was black. 

I am also not saying he was a great coach.  I would argue he was average and not terrible, but that's a relatively minor thing.

What I AM saying is two things.

1. There are DEFINITELY racists in our fanbase.
2. For SOME of Martin's critics, that was at least part of the problem.

Do you disupte either of those and if so why?

Yeah. There is no racism in California, you know.  

UT offered Cuonzo a half million dollar per year raise and a contract extension.  He wasn't mistreated in any shape, form, or fashion.  We should all hope to be "mistreated" like that.   He chose to leave - period.  

Yeah and the whole idiotic petition to fire him never happened either, did it. 

It's not a factor for me, and I've been disgusted by the assertion-- on your part just now and by national writers-- that race was a significant part of the dislike for Cuonzo. For some people, yes, and I hate those people as much as you do. Racism is no doubt alive and well and I see it with regularity. It's more subtle than it used to be but it's still everywhere.

But Cuonzo's fate here was about difficult circumstances and his own failures, and any impact his race made was on only a small fraction of the disgruntled.

Deniers are gonna deny.   

I say 15 to 20% but that's a guesstimate based on personal experience.

But anyone who says there are NOT unreconstructed racists in our fanbase is either smoking crack or lying their ass off.

I've been in the South 33 years and my daddy's family goes back to 1819 in alerbammer.  I am neither blind nor stupid and I know what I have seen and heard.

I attended classes at two different college campuses, and worked at another.  In my experience, every frat/sorority has its own stereotype, and that stereotype generally holds true no matter which campus you're on. 

As an example, UT took a serious PR beating over the whole "butt-chugging" incident.  But as far as I'm concerned, that wasn't a UT thing, that was a Pike thing.  Walk into any Pike house on any campus in America on a Saturday night, and you're likely to see idiotic shizzle like that going down.  UT's chapter was just stupid enough to get caught.

(And if there are any current/former Pikes on the board who would like to argue the point, I'd be happy to hear it.)

When I was at UT, the Pikes had a rep as the biggest #badword#s, basically.  They would do stupid shizzle like start food fights in the cafeteria that seemed more appropriate to junior high.


So...yeah.   

I'm waiting on the ibrain implant. Finally my electronic devices will operate truly hands free and have the speed I desire. 

Like what....a 286 with 1 Meg of RAM?    

But this watch?  Sorry, but it's a joke- especially at these prices.  I'm sure the fanboys will snatch it right up and make it a success, but I won't be getting one. 

It's called "Apple sucks without Jobs at the helm".

This is apparently their "next big thing" and to this observer, it obviously lacks his deft marketing touch and feel for what consumers really want.

IMO 

And CO, and everyone else, while I am at it, let me just go ahead and state openly that what just occurred at OU still exists everywhere.

That this was NOT a factor in the dislike of Cuonzo is HIGHLY UNLIKELY for a certain segment of our fan base.

My personal guesstimate (admittedly anecdotal) based on 33 years of living in the South is that it's roughly 15 to 20%.  FWIW. 

Cuonzo inherited a program that had been to six straight NCAA tournaments, had a decent roster of returning players, and had Jarnell Stokes in the bag already. Donnie inherited the dogshizzle that Cuonzo left in his wake and had to start almost from scratch.

Fans are idiots, generally, and they weren't nice to Cuonzo, but he followed a coach that had quickly become a legend at UT. Any coach would have been judged harshly, but it was really bad for Cuonzo because he was a TERRIBLE COACH.

A terrible coach that got us a whisper away from the Elite Eight in his third year.

And please don't understate the mess Pearl left. Our two best players quit (even before he was fired from what I heard) and I think a couple others left as well.

Yes, Donnie inherited dog shizzle.  I won't dispute that.  But even dog shizzle can do better than what I saw Saturday, particularly given that those same guys beat LSU on the road and Arkansas early in the season.   

Back on the terrible coach thing...if we apply LOGIC, and not EMOTION, then Cuonzo was an average to above average coach.  Maybe that's not good enough for a UT spoiled by Pearl, but that's what I see when I look at FACTS, and not what I FEEL.

Facts like...he never had a losing season and almost won a regional in the Dance.  That's not "terrible" so long as we use our cerebellums and not let hormones or brain chemistry take over our medulla oblangatas.   

Hope that helps.

Outstanding article. There need to be more of those.  A lot more. 

Having said that, I do like what I have seen of Tyndall so far as to give him the benefit of the doubt. I also tend to be an optimist and truly believe that pessimistic attitudes can help create a losing environment.

But we lost by double digits in our final game on our home court to a team that only had 5 SEC wins coming in to the game.  They shot lights out in the first half and the announcers commented that their coach had spent a massive amount of time preparing them to beat our zone.

So no, I am not happy with how the season ended.

Maybe we can have a nice run in the SECT, sneak into the NIT and win a couple games.  I'd feel a lot better if we did.

Get out of here with this shizzle. I don't want Cuonzo Martin within two time zones of this program, and if you really miss the guy then it says something about how much you know about basketball.

You really can't see that this team did well to win 15 games?

 I was more or less indifferent to Cuonzo.  I definitely didn't hate the guy, but didn't think he was outstanding either.

I also admit freely that his offenses were painful to watch.

What I did and do think was that he got a raw deal from Vol fans.  Any one of his seasons was better than this.  Tyndall is absolutely getting treated differently than Martin, it's hypocritical and I absolutely am calling BS on that.

Tyndall hasn't done shizzle in the win-loss column.  Just hold him to the same standard as Cuonzo last year and I'm good.   

That's only because Tim Duncan (and David Robinson before him) was grandfathered in before Stern began his "big markets only" policy.

It's likely no coincidence that the little teams are doing better with Schtern out of the way.

Before this season started, no one expected Tennessee to make the NIT field, much less the NCAAT field. Things are right where I expected them to be at this point. OTOH, the way the team competed early before running out of gas proves that Tyndall is a great coach. He'll do good things at Tennessee if he's allowed to stick around.

I was also thrilled with the start of the SEC season, but then at the time I thought Mizzou was a good team when we beat them on the road.  They are literally the worst team in the SEC.

Almost all our early wins, with the exception of Arkansas, were against very poor teams in other words.  As  I state above, the only impressive wins are Arkansas and LSU, and possibly Vandy.  Not impressed at all at this point.

And if a coach is going to be inconsistent, I would rather have one that finishes strong versus one that starts strong. 

[FIVE]

We won 7 SEC games.  FIVE of those were on the road (LSU, USC, MSU, Mizzou, Vandy) and two at home (Auburn and Arkansas).

We lost to LSU, Miss State, and USC at home in spite of beating them on the road.  I find this very confusing.

Of our 7 wins, only Arkansas and LSU on the road stand out as quality wins.  The others are below us in the standings.

As a Vol fan, I am grateful that we beat Auburn.  Losing to Bruce in our home arena would be painful.

But while I was very enthused about our SEC prospects early in the season, looking back I now realize that with the exception of the win over Arkansas we really only beat bottom feeders early in the season, and then we lost to two of them at home later in the season.

Overall I am NOT impressed with this season.  I do find our offense refreshing compared to Cuonzo ball.  Also I realize the talent level is down, and finally my opinion is and always has been that any coach in any sport has a honeymoon his first year.

I hope the NCAA stuff with Donnie gets resolved before it impacts recruiting too much, that he gets his own talent in here and does great, but I am not really sure I see much improvement over the last three years.

Edit:  I forgot to mention that our OT win at Vandy was good.  Not in the same category as Arkansas and LSU but better than the other wins. 

Wow- they're so pissed at UK that they nailed Syracuse.

Well Crapulari just took a shot at the NCAA, FWIW

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/10763702/is-john-calipari-right-ncaa

I could see where he felt hounded by the "KGB", I really can.  But where there is smoke....

Maybe this will piss them off and he will pay for it?     Unlikely, but hey I can dream. 

Because they apparently bet heavily against their own team last time we played them.

Based on the fiasco that was the second half of our season, I can offer no other explanation for how we beat them.   

BDV, do you still watch The Americans?  I do.  It's still pretty good, although not nearly as good as season 1.

I find the contest for Paige very interesting.  I am pretty sure things are going to go really badly between the wife and husband before it's over...but my guess is that the wife will come around at the last minute.  We will see I guess.

Also have you watched "Gangland Undercover"?  Two shows in, it's pretty good so far IMO.

Also Fargo will be starting up again soon.  It's clear to me that the second season will focus on the father and whatever happened in the early 80s. At least there were plenty of hints.  Should be good again.

Actually this confirms it, but puts the timeline in 1979.  They certainly did telegraph it.

http://www.ibtimes.com/fargo-season-2-spoilers-kirsten-dunst-jesse-plemons-added-cast-character-scoop-more-1749647

I like Kirsten Dunst, so looking forward to it.

Some coaches (or multiple coaches) can have ongoing rampant academic fraud for years on end and not get the punishment that some get for having a cook-out.  These schools also covered up the fraud, so please don’t say that lying about an infraction gets you into additional trouble.  The ridiculousness of the ncaa is stunning.   

I hope the ncaa adds to the 9 game suspension for Boeheim if he does appeal the decision - the pos should have been fired. 

Yep, the NCAA is very inconsistent.  The big problem they have IMO is that they can't subpoena anyone.  NCAA rules are not laws, so to some extent compliance depends on how cooperative the institution is.  In the case of Bruce, our institution was way too compliant, IMO.   

Having said that, in cases where the school is seen as attempting to stonewall or aid and abet the cheating at an institutional level, the NCAA usually comes down hard. I think Bruce was part of that logic, although "logic" is hardly an appropriate term.   

In other words, right or wrong, the NCAA will almost always nail someone for being dishonest precisely because they have to have some level of cooperation from the school to build a case.

For a minute I thought you meant the old Bball player "Wharton".  Ha, he's been gone a while.

Why Cali?  I have no idea, unless that's where he is from.  I can understand him transferring, though...he only had five catches last year.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12432471/ncaa-suspends-jim-boeheim-nine-games-cuts-syracuse-orange-schoarlships

So there is hope   

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_27643316/peyton-manning-return-broncos-2015-agrees-pay-cut

 

Donnie Knoxville's guys celebrated with a post game Corn Dog buffet, by the way.   

That's way cool.

Jury is still out on Donnie Knoxville. Team started strong but has been inconsistent down the stretch.  Although satisfying, one game means nothing.

We will see how he does the next two years...provided he can dodge the NCAA.

We may not even make the NIT 

I dunno, I think it's funny.  It certainly mocks ISIS, and that's a good thing IMO.  But I didn't actually see it, so...