Much has been said and written about Bruce Pearl and the style of play of his basketball Vols.
It’s been said players love to play it. Fans love to watch it. And the media loves to talk about it.
But all of the talk isn’t good. It’s also been said that Pearl’s style isn’t conducive to postseason play. Two games into this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, it appears those skeptics may be right. Two narrow victories against two teams with much less talent doesn’t bode well for the Vols over the coming days. The competition is about to get a lot stiffer.
Pearl loves to play at a frantic pace. He preaches an up-tempo game and gives the players a lot of freedom to make plays. It’s sort of a controlled chaos but sometimes appears to be totally uncontrolled. Some of the talking heads argue teams that play that style don’t win national championships.
On the one hand, the logic doesn’t make sense. If the style of play is good enough to win 28 games against only 3 losses in the regular season, it should be good enough to advance deep into the tournament. What’s changed? The game is still 40 minutes long. The goals are still 10 feet from the ground. The court is still 92 feet long and it’s still five-on-five. The game is the same whether it’s played in January or March. Right?
Wrong, say the pundits. It is a totally different game. It slows down. With everything riding on every possession, players must play with more discipline. They must be patient on offense and play solid half-court defense. Neither of these are strengths of the Vols. They only know one speed. Slow them down and you have a great chance. Look what 15-seed American University did in the first round and what an undermanned Butler team did in Round-two.
But one simply cannot ignore the regular season. The Vols faced almost a third of the teams who remain in the Sweet 16 during the regular season. The Men in Orange were 4-1 against them. All of the wins came on the road including a huge win against then No.1 Memphis. They also notched wins over West Virginia, Western Kentucky, and Xavier. That should tell you something about the style of play. Their only blemish was against fellow two-seed Texas.
Up next for the Vols is Louisville. Two of the greatest personalities in coaching go head-to- head. Bruce Pearl versus Rick Pitino should be a classic. If the Vols are lucky enough to advance, and most prognosticators outside of the Volunteer State don’t think they will, the powerful North Carolina Tar Heels will stand in the way of the Vols first ever trip to the Final Four.
Will it boil down to style of play? My guess is no.
Pearl will be matching wits with some the greatest coaches in the history of the game. No more 31-year old boy wonders on the other bench. Pitino and Roy Williams each will be flashing their championship rings. Pearl is a genius on the court but he won’t out-coach these guys.
He will have to depend on his players outplaying theirs and that’s where the problem lies. Admittedly, Pearl has upgraded the talent level on The Hill significantly in his three years. But his guys will be going up against nothing except McDonald’s All-Americans from here on out. The Vols can’t count on their athleticism to pull them through as they have done on some occasions. They can’t count on their superior depth. Teams like Louisville and North Carolina have just as many horses as do the Vols.
The Vols’ best chance is to play superior fundamental basketball. We’ve seen exciting basketball. We’ve seen fun basketball. We’ve seen winning basketball. But we’ve not seen a lot of superior fundamental basketball – at least not for a full 40 minutes.
If the Vols fall short of their goal of going to San Antonio, it won’t because their style of play isn’t conducive to the postseason. It’ll be that they ran into a better basketball team with better players.