Have you guys checked out the new upgrades to ESPN3?  I just started it up for the first time in weeks, so I may be behind the curve on this one.  But you can now set your favorite teams, call up a live scoreboard, even do a split-screen and watch two games at once.  Pretty cool.

Personally, I hope Jefferson is back in the lineup by the time they play us.  That guy sucks.

You might have a point there...but this isn't TV, radio or newspaper. It's an Internet messageboard. Hardly the place for logical discussion, dontcha think? And, again, discussing Bruce Pearl does NOT mean that anyone is obsessed with Bruce Pearl. Look down the forum. There isn't much else going on to discuss, is there?

But you know as well as I do that the lazy mainstream media will often take their cues from internet forums these days.  If we're talking about this here, then it's only a matter of time until John Adam picks up on it and writes one of his famous "I'm totally NOT being serious, but half of you idiots will take it that way" pieces about the subject in the KNS.  Later that morning, Larry from LaFollette will call in to the Sports Animal, saying "Hey Jeummy, whut do you thank bout what John Adams wrote today?  I thank its a dang good idear.  I'll hang up an listen".  Then Oscar from Oliver Springs and Al from Alcoa will second the notion.  That afternoon, Basilio cites one of his "rock solid sources" in his blog, saying that Pearl has been contacted by UT.  That's when Chris Lowe picks up on it and plasters it on his ESPN blog, then Doug Gottlieb talks about it the following Saturday morning on "College Gameday", live from Rupp Arena.  This is how rumors get started these days.

Nonsense. I said I want Martin to succeed; I don't know how to be any plainer about that. There will always be speculation about whether a coach will succeed. Folks still speculate about Dooley and he's had a full season and two recruiting classes to prove himself. That's just the nature of sports fandom.

Also, your last couple of sentences suggest that I'm refusing to accept that Pearl has been fired and am unwilling to move past that. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hence what I said above: I'm not advocating that this scenario play out. In fact, I don't think it CAN because it would cause a big rift in the fan base. But if Martin isn't our coach in three years and you think some folks out there (including some who wield a little influence) won't be advocating that scenario, you're kidding yourself.

I wasn't talking about the speculation that he may not succeed- In fact, our history suggests that there's a very good chance he won't.  I'm talking about a fanbase that still seems to be obsessed with his predecessor.  How would you like to be a coach, and you're hosting some recruits over the weekend, and all they're talking about on TV, radio, and newspaper is the guy who came before you?  How is that going to look to a bluechip point guard?

Heck, I bet there's a significant percentage of our fanbase who can't even name the current men's basketball coach. 

FTR, I agree with those of you who think Bruce got a raw deal from our administration, as well as the NCAA.  Given our history in basketball, I think it's a worthy argument as to whether we would have been better off taking the action we did, or keeping him, absorbing any penalties the NCAA dished out, and rebuilding again in 3 years.  Yeah, I guess I wish he were still our coach.

That said, he's not.  And discussions like this are really unfair to Cuonzo Martin.  Bruce Pearl is gone, and there's nothing we can do about it.  Time to move on.

Well for one thing, just look at him.  Does this look like a guy worthy of anything more than distrust and scorn?  Put a bowtie on him, and he'd fit right in at Vandy.  Hell, I bet his wife even smokes weed.

Talk about Fool's Gold- that describes Kiffin's one recruiting class perfectly.  That was a top 5 class on the day Bryce Brown committed.  Then we started hemhorraging players.  Janzen was the only significant contributor left, and now he's gone too.   

When our sanctions (or lack thereof) are announced tomorrow, I fully expect to hear dickie rail on and on about how we deserved the death penalty.

And that's the biggest thing.

In fact, I wonder if our coaching staff has been sitting on this news for awhile now, seeing as we went from 2 commits to 16 in like two weeks.  Maybe they got the good news and passed it along to recruits early?

That is just terrible news.  My prayers to Tyler.  I saw what this horrible sickness did to my mother-in-law for twenty years until her death.  I also saw how it just drained the happiness from my wife as she had to move her mother to progressively more intensive nursing facilities.  She never spoke or recognized anyone those last 8 years.  My wife still went to see her and rubbed on her and applied lotion every chance she could.  Pat and Tyler will be in my prayers.  Pat needs to retire and enjoy what little time she has left that she can remember and enjoy.  Pat, you have done enough for the UT family.  Be selfish and take care of yourself.

I have a feeling that this season will be her last, and that she'll be the head coach in name only, ala Joe Paterno.  That will be a good thing in that it gives the fans a chance to properly see her off.

The KNS is reporting no additional sanctions for football OR basketball.

http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2011/aug/23/sources-ut-escapes-further-ncaa-sanctions-bruce-pe/

That isn't too surprising re: football, but it's a huge break for Cuonzo and the basketball program, since just about everyone expected at least a few lost scholarships.

I'm also surprised BB isn't getting hit harder (assuming this is true), given how the media blew it so far out of proportion.  But it IS appropriate, IMO.  Other than Bruce lying to the investigators (and he's already gone), then it really just boils down to a few phone calls and a few ribs, and no competitive advantage whatsoever was gained.  

Hopefully, this will translate to a recruiting boon in both sports now that this monkey is finally off our backs, and opposing recruiters will no longer have that silver bullet to use against us.

Well, my Dad went to Marshall, and my Mom to (gag) Florida, so I wasn't exactly born into it.  But being born and raised in TN, I kinda just fell in with my childhood friends who were Vol fans.  But the '85 season and subsequent Sugar Bowl rout of da U sealed the deal for me (as it did for many, many others my age).  There was no turning back at that point.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/6889041/bruce-pearl-ex-tennessee-volunteers-coach-receive-show-cause-penalty

http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation

 

Horrible news.  God bless Coach Summitt.

On a slightly more selfish note, how much bad news can one fansbase endure?  I think we're finding out.  The past three years or so have been one big downer for UT athletics.  One thing's for sure: If you call yourself a Vol these days, no one can accuse you of being a fair-weather fan.

Call it "The Sports Reporters" Syndrome.  Sports journalism went to hell when the "reporters" started getting their stories not from players and coaches, but from each other.  Now a print journalist hasn't made the "big time" unless he's on TV, radio, or both.  And how do you get there?  Be more outrageous than the next guy.  Lebatard is a perfect example.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2011/08/miami-responsibility-al-golden-ncaa-investigation-/1?utm_source=bleacherreport.com&utm_medium=referral

I don't give a hell.  Ya'll go make money off of that.

IIRC, visitors aren't in Z anymore.  I think the only lower level visitor seats are in A and B.  And even if I'm wrong, no way does Buffalo bring enough fans to fill their allotment that far over.

I know you probably want the security of having tickets in hand, but you'll save some money if you wait until gameday and buy on the street.  I'd say tickets for that one will be going for 10 bucks or less by kickoff.

Between you and BOM, I'll be sure to stay the hell off your lawns.

Julio Jones will fizzleing destroy you.

I just hope he doesn't give up football when he gets a taste of that massive paycut he'll take going from bammer to the NFL.

Wow- that's two 4* DBs in the past two days.  We were already pretty deep in the secondary, so you have to yhink a couple of these guys will grow into LBs.

I hope this is the case.  It's been a long, long time since we had an elite LB.  I mean guys like Burnett, Mayo, and Reveiz were good, but I wouldn't put them at the level of anyone in the '98 group.

If you can, you should get a new one (or if you can find one of the current generation used- which is unlikely, since they're only about a month old).  The new ones have the latest Sandy Bridge processors and are much, much faster than the last generation or anything that came before.  They also have the new Thunderbolt ports.