An Outside View: Vols burst own bubble

Selection Sunday didn’t go exactly as the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team had planned. With their dancing shoes on, the players gathered at Thompson-Boling Arena, ate some barbeque, talked about packing for the upcoming trip to the NCAA Tournament, and then huddled around the television set in anticipation of having their postseason dreams fulfilled. Oh sure, they knew they were a bubble team but their confidence was boasted by the fact that in past years a winning SEC record was virtually a lock for an NCAA bid. They stared in silence as bracket after bracket was filled. First, there was Auburn and then Alabama. And when it was over and all of the brackets were filled, the Vols were left in disbelief. They asked how could two teams (Auburn and LSU) get invited with .500 conference records and the Crimson Tide make it with a losing record? Hard questions to answer. When asked how he felt about being left out of the tournament field, SEC Player of the Year Ron Slay said it was sixty percent disappointment and forty percent anger. Buzz Peterson speculated that the loss of senior guard Jon Higgins made the Vols a less attractive team. A weak RPI rating, thanks to Peterson’s deliberately cushy non-conference schedule, certainly played into the equation. Slice it, dice it, anyway you want but in the final analysis, the Vols have no one to blame but themselves. The invitation was there for the taking but for the second consecutive season the Vols faded down the stretch. They lost four of their last six regular season games but were still in good shape going into the SEC Tournament. But with everything on the line, the Men in Orange played uninspired basketball and were soundly whipped by a less-talented Auburn team. Many UT fans used the word embarrassing to describe the Vols total ineptness at every phase of the game. The Vols hoped the Selection Committee wasn’t watching. They were! The explanation for the dismal performance was the absence of Jon Higgins, the senior leader and coach on the floor. Higgins failed to pass six credit hours in the fall and was declared ineligible for postseason play. The semester ended in early December and surely Peterson knew then that his star had failed to pass the required six hours. If he didn’t, then that’s another column for another day. The bottom line is that he had over three months to prepare the team for life without Higgins. Instead, freshmen Stanley Asumnu and John Winchester spent most of the season on the pines. Then tournament time rolls around and Peterson wonders why the Vols are so out of sync. More important than trying to figure out why the Vols were left out of the NCAA Tournament field, Peterson must now turn his attention to the future which is cloudy at best. The fans love him but he knows that such affection is fleeting. It boils down to winning games and he must be feeling the pinch. Former coach Jerry Green took the Vols to four straight NCAA Tournaments and got fired. But he did leave a stable of thoroughbreds and with better coaching and more discipline, even greater things were expected. However, in two seasons the Vols have suffered through a sub .500 season and then a first round loss in the NIT. The question is whether or not Peterson can recruit the kind of players that he will need to put the program back on sound footing. He suggests that it will take a couple of more recruiting classes to get the program back where it needs to be. But so far under Peterson the talent coming into the program isn’t as good as what has been leaving. Last year, the Vols lost two players to the NBA draft. Of the five newcomers that Peterson and his staff brought in to replace them, only point guard C.J. Watson made any significant contributions. This year, the Vols lose three seniors and have signed only two players. Neither of the two is ranked among the top 100 prospects in the nation. It’s hard to figure how the Vols will be able to beat Kentucky and Florida with inferior talent. Peterson has two quality transfers that he will count on heavily to help fill some voids next season and several of the returning players have potential if Peterson can keep them in the fold. But the future may rest on November’s recruiting class. A couple of blue chip prospects would really help Peterson establish himself on the national level. Peterson knows that first round losses in the NIT are not the reason UT brought him to town. The standard is higher than that. Can he get the job done? Tune in this time next year for the answer.