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Nevada comes back from 22 down with 11 minutes to play and go on a 32-8 run to beat the Bearcats...

Damn :banghead:

Sickening.

And as has been mentioned elsewhere- we go the entire season injury-free until the very end, losing Admiral for 7 minutes late against UK in the SECT, and then Alexander yesterday. Probably cost us both of those games. :banghead:

........................................................................UT :banghead:

There's not a more cursed athletic department in the country.

This is why I can't get optimistic about Pruitt like so many others. People on FB and twitter acting like our football program is "back", based on a guy who's never been a HC before? Peh. :frown:

LOL...

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYnJhlqUQAEhala.jpg:small)

@DavidWorlock:

In the history of the tournament, there has never (I repeat NEVER) been a region that has featured none of the top 4 seeds in the Sweet 16. Until now. The South Region in Atlanta will feature (5) Kentucky, (11) Loyola Chicago, (7) Nevada and either (9) Kansas St. or (16) UMBC.

Ohhhh....would have been so cool if UMBC got in.   :naughty:

But you know, KSU is a better match for the kats, so there is that.

And to think we could be in it also   :mad:

Good coaches beat the the teams they are supposed to beat. I know that anything can happen in the tourney, but both Vols teams lost to teams they should have beaten. It's that simple. As far as the Lady Vols, Holly needs to go, pronto. I don't get the fans that defend her. No way a team with the talent the Lady Vols should ever be a 7 seed in the SECT.

Yes, I suppose a single NCAAT loss is more defining of a coach than taking a team picked to finish 13th in a 14-team conference and leading them to a first place regular season conference finish and No. 13 national ranking.  :rolleyes:

I would add, the work ethic instilled in the team and the fact that all the players are great representatives of their team and school.
The fact that they came back from being on the canvas, with the count at 7, to take the lead was amazing

^This. There was no quit on this team. In the losses they just had lapses that cost them but they still battled. And from everything I've seen and read they are a great group of kids like you said.

Got to go back to work....Like Barnes said they will now be the hunted and not the hunter.

The seedings can be misleading.  Loyola is almost certainly better than an 11.  They beat a good Florida team rather easily.  There other games were not so tough, but they haven't lost a game since January and were on a roll.  Losing Alexander was also huge.  It was an upset, but not a very big one, and at the end of the day they needed a ridiculous bounce anyway.

I'm over it and looking forward to next season already.   :nod:

Obviously the preseason pundits didn't know what they were talking about. This team has a lot more talent than it was given credit for. Hell it even had the SEC player of the year. Who predicted that? It tend to blame the coaches for losses more than I give them credit for wins. They are getting paid to win. Vols had a great year. But they still had too many "What the hell" type bad performances. They let Loyola dictate the play instead of taking control of the game. Vols are better in a transition game, but they let Loyola make it a half court game. One and done is still one and done. Takes the luster of the great regular season. I just hope UK doesn't make the final four.

Obviously, but pardon me for thinking that anyone who is criticizing Rick Barnes right now is never going to be happy with anything.

I call it like I see it. Vols missed a great opportunity to go far in the tournament. It can't align better than that. Kind of like B.Jones in the SECE.  Is Calipari gonna blow his gift seeding? We hope so.

Yes, but I have a warm fuzzy feeling that Barnes will have plenty more chances in the future.  Barnes is most definitely not Butch Jones.  Barnes routinely made the Tourney in a P5 conference and had one Final Four appearance, which is basically like making the playoffs in football, right? 

Butch Jones had a couple conference titles in the AAFC (or whatever the hell the old Big Least is called), and even then lost two games in his best season.

I am not one of those people who say Butch Jones was a terrible coach, but he was at his best, above average. 

Barnes is a good to excellent coach based on his Texas record.  Odds are we compete for the SEC again next year, have a great shot of winning it again, and most likely get a fairly high NCAA seed again.

Anything can happen, but I am confident about the future of the men's program.  My main concern is how long Barnes will continue to enjoy what he's doing.  He is definitely getting to retirement age.


Final thought...it also matters HOW we missed the opportunity.  On paper we had two big advantages against Loyola...rebounding and shot blocking.  Their advantage against us was shot percentage.  Alexander is critical to our shot blocking and rebounding, so there went our two big advantages.  If you paid attention to the game, Loyola was hitting from outside early, so we got on them.  They then went inside and scored quite a bit from the paint, so we had to sag back in and that then opened up the perimeter again.

With Alexander in the paint, I doubt they score as many inside points.

And again, that bounce was ridiculous. 

This wasn't a game we led by 13 in the 4th quarter and found a way to lose, or that we gave up a miracle hail mary on (see two of our last three games in football  :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:).

This was a game in which one of our key players was out AND they got a really lucky bounce on the last shot.

Worlds different than some of those games Butch Jones blew.  No comparison.