Jay Kersting's Blog

THIS is what being a TEAM means.

2010 started badly for the University of Tennessee Volunteers Men’s Basketball team.  Very badly.

Four players, whose names are NOT worthy of a mention here, were arrested in a rental car with marijuana and guns on them.  All were suspended, one was later completely dismissed.

Another troubled player left school in the fall.  Emmanuel Negedu suffered cardiac arrest in September.  He survived, but is unable to play basketball this season, if ever.  The Volunteers wear a patch with an “E” on their uniforms.

Depleted. That is one word to describe the Vols roster.

In their first game with this depleted roster, the Vols faced Charlottle, aka UNC-Charlotte.  Charlotte is a regional state school of little significance in most circles, not just athletic, but even academic.  Not exactly a peach of a school.  But, if you know the recent history, Charlotte beat the Vols in 3 of their last four meetings.  Charlotte ended the Vols season in 2001 in the NCAA tournament, the last game of Jerry Green’s tenure at Tennessee. 

Maybe we should be thankful to the 49ers for that.

Anyhow, Charlotte is a big nothing.  But, they fought hard and kept things reasonably close before the Vols put them away on 6 January 2010, 88-71 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

That gave the Vols and their fans some confidence.  But it was a cautious confidence.  How confident should a team be when they have just SIX scholarship players?

Add to the mix the next opponent for the Volunteers, the Number One ranked Kansas Jayhawks were coming to Thompson-Boling Arena for the first time.  In fact, this was the first time that a Number One ranked team, on the Men’s side, had come to TBA.

Six scholarship players and three walk-ons were all that Bruce Pearl had available to him.  At least two of those walk-ons could have played on scholarship at lesser schools, Skylar McBee and Steven Pearl.

Well, the mighty Jayhawks came to Knoxville.  Their previous game was not exactly stellar, but a win was a win.  They were undefeated, one of three schools to still hold that distinction. 

In case this is not clear to those who know me, I really like the Kansas Jayhawks and have for many years.  My brother Dan is a Kansas alum and he and his friends all seem to be good folks.  And we had a BLAST at Allen Fieldhouse on 3 January 2009, even though the Vols lost.

I will not bore you with the details of the game.  The bottom line is that the Vols won, buoyed by a late 3 point shot by Skylar McBee…..a shot that he will will be telling his great-grandchildren about, if others don’t already beat him to that.  Vols won 76-68.

This was the biggest home win in over 40 years.  The following link is to a video of Coach Pearl and the Vols in the locker room after the game.  If you want to skip to the end, fine, but Bruce has a lot of good stuff in the middle.  Listen to the last thing the players say before breaking up the meeting.

http://utsports.tv/featured/kansas-post-game-locker-room-jan-10/

This is playing for the name on the front of the jersey means.  I hope those nine young men can stay healthy, stay focused and accomplish all that they can this season.

That is the best punishment, aside from the Criminal Justice System, those four idiot thugs could get.  Good riddence to them.

It is great, especially with the example of these nine young men, to be a Tennessee Vol.  Thank you for making me so proud, so soon.