Vols survive scare against Gamecocks

March 14, 2008

Ken Rogers

While Alabama rested Friday afternoon before its meeting with Mississippi State, the SEC Tournament rolled on with a pair of first-rate games.
It wasn’t easy, but Tennessee, the regular season champion, won for the first time in this tournament since 2005. The Vols survived a gutty effort South Carolina and edged the Gamecocks 89-87. Chris Lofton, who had shot just 1-for-9 from 3-point range, buried a wide-open three with 11 seconds remaining.
The lead changed four times in the final minute. Dominique Archie’s jam put the Gamecocks up 85-84 with 51 seconds to play. Tennessee’s Tyler Smith, who scored 11 straight for the Vols, finished that streak with a layup with 37 seconds left. Carolina’s Archie made a layup at the 23-second mark.
Then Lofton, who scored just 10 points, came off a backscreen set by Wayne Chism and coolly buried the 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.
“There’s several options on every play,” Vols coach Bruce Pearl said. “Chris was going to get the ball. JaJuan (Smith) was the first option ... but Chris was going to get that touch.”
Devan Downey missed a 3-pointer for the Gamecocks, who couldn’t get another shot off an inbounds play with 1.4 seconds remaining.
“I wanted to go for the kill. I wanted to to beat them,” said Downey, who led Carolina with 26 points. “The shot fell a little short, but it felt good. If I had to do it again, I would take the same shot.”
Instead, it fell to Lofton to save the Vols an embarrassing loss to a team they had blown out twice in the regular season.
“As a shooter, you always think the next one is going in,” Lofton said of never hesitating to take the shot despite a subpar performance.
Dave Odom, who had earlier announced his retirement effective at the end of the season, had hoped his career wouldn’t end Friday.
“I could be happier had we won, but I don’t know that I could be any prouder,” Odom said. “Tennessee is the odds-on favorite. They’re close to a double-digit favorite over anybody they play. Today will help them. They were close to losing today, and that will get their attention.”
Pearl said that South Carolina “gave us everything we wanted tonight.” But he also noted his team’s offensive production overcame its defensive lapses.
“Don’t be too hard on the Vols,” Pearl said. “We shot 57 percent. We had 35 field goals and had 27 assists.”
The Vols reached the semifinals for the first time since 1991.

Vols in a dogfight against South Carolina

Ken Rogers

The more I see them, the more Tennessee reminds me of a car with all the bells and whistles.
They are sleek, smooth, powerful and seductive. But will they break down on the side of the road?
While Alabama rested before Friday night’s contest with Mississippi State, I took advantage of the opportunity to see the SEC champion Vols play South Carolina. This game hasn’t provided many answers to that question.
Carolina outfought LSU Thursday, and Tennessee pressed and pushed the pace early trying to take advantage of that extra day of rest.
It didn’t make a difference in the first half, but with 10 minutes to go, the Gamecocks look a little leg weary. Still, they are in the game despite clearly outmanned physically.
It’s funny that the longer this stays a game, the louder the crowd gets for Carolina. It’s obvious most fans here are wearing orange. But the Gamecocks are picking up fans of the other teams—especially the thousands in the blue shirts—as the game rolls on and remains close.
Saw a couple of weird plays in this one. Tennessee’s mammoth 6-10, 267-pound freshman Brian Williams was called for offensive goaltending. Williams went up through the basket to help tip-in a shot that may have fallen anyway. Williams motioned to the refs that the basket should count, but they correctly waved it off. Nice try, though.
At the end of the half, with 1.4 seconds left, he Vols inbounded and fired up a halfcourt shot. The ball rebounded off the back iron, went up and bounced between the shot clock support and the top of the backboard. The ball rattled there a moment, then fell into the basket. Again, the basket was correctly disallowed.
UT should wear down Carolina in the closing minutes, but it will take a better opponent to determine if the Vols are a Ferrari or a Fiero.
Game 2 Friday will match Arkansas and Vanderbilt in what may be the most entertaining game of the tournament so far.
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Donovan rips Gators after loss

March 13, 2008

Ken Rogers

OK, I was surprised at Alabama’s domination of Florida in the first half of Thursday night’s game in the Georgia Dome.
But Billy Donovan wasn’t.
The Florida coach made it clear in his postgame comments that his Gators got what they deserved. He also made it clear it won’t be much fun to be a Gator basketball player in the offseason.
“I’m not surprised,” said Donovan, who hadn’t lost in this tournament since 2004. “A lot of these guys talk a really, really good game, a lot of them do. I think our deficiencies, so to speak, that have affected our team are exposed and I have not been able to, as a coach, get them to focus on it, improve it, make it better or buy into it, or whatever word you want to use.
“No, I watch it every day, so I’m not surprised at all. ...  The reason we got down by so many points is because we didn’t shoot 54, 54, 55 percent as we did in some of these last couple games (losses to Kentucky, Mississippi State and Tennessee). ... It’s just that we got exposed because we shot such a low percentage that we really didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to win the game by getting down so many points.”
Donovan seemed irked that Chandler Parsons said the team wasn’t ready to play.
“I’ve got to take responsibility for that because I think that’s my job,” the coach said. “That’s disappointing to hear. ... I don’t know how you can’t be excited. I think that that’s kind of the way Marreese came out.”
Marreese Speights was yanked from the game just 65 seconds in. He led the team with 15 points in just 20 minutes. But he was the poster boy of Florida’s defensive effort— or lack of it.
“We have some, I think, talent issues on the defensive end of the floor, foot speed-wise, that sometimes is not all their fault,” Donovan said. “But also, I think, we have a commitment issue, which bothers me as a coach because I just got done coaching a group of guys the last two years that were so committed.”
The coach rejected the idea that his senior-less squad will mature and get better.
“It’s hard for me to be excited going forward because I don’t see things getting fixed, you know?” Donovan said. “It’s in front of our guys, what it takes to win, and, like I said, for whatever reason, I haven’t brought it out in them. They’re not committed to it. But I’m not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest.
“I think people’s initial thing is, well, they’re going to get older. I never believe in that. I don’t think people change a whole lot, and I don’t think you’ve seen the basketball team change at all this year. So it’s hard for me to get overly thrilled or excited.”

Catching up at the SEC Tourney

Ken Rogers

I’m frequently asked what’s my favorite event to cover in sports. I couldn’t give you a single favorite, but among them is the SEC Basketball Tournament.
It’s great basketball, sure. But it’s a mini-reunion and social event, too. Almost a professional convention, really, for coaches, administrators, and, sure, media. You get to see friends here that you may not see until next March. Just catching up is cool.
Greg Seitz, the medial relations director at Jacksonville State University, Josh Underwood, his assistant, and I took a minute before the Bama game. Seitz, it seems, is one of the most popular guys in Atlanta. Everybody wants to know who will be Jax State’s next basketball coach.
There are candidates. Alabama assistant coach Philip Pearson, former Tide head coach David Hobbs, even ex-Auburn coach Cliff Ellis were among the names suggested to Seitz by curious writers during our brief conversation.
If he knows, he wasn’t saying.

Tide, Trojans see positives come from series split

March 06, 2008

Ken Rogers

Alabama’s 8-2 victory over Troy on Wednesday in Tuscaloosa earned a split of a fine mid-week, non-conference series.
Both teams can take positives out of the two-game set. Alabama centerfielder Alex Kubal and rightfielder Kent Matthes took turns making big catches in Tuesday night’s windy contest at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery.
Kubal’s full-out diving grab robbed Troy’s Beau Brooks of a double in left-center in the ninth inning.
The Tide (4-5) had just one senior in Tuesday’s starting lineup. Shortstop Josh Rutledge and second baseman Ross Wilson — who his 1-2 in the batting order — are both freshmen.
Alabama’s brightest spot of the series came when Austin Graham, a sophomore pitcher, worked into the seventh inning in his first start in almost two years.
Troy (9-2) got plenty of positives from the series, too. Shohei Fujita’s pinch hit, game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th off Tide closer Josh Copeland in Montgomery was a huge boost.
“I liked Shohei in that situation,” Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said. “We had the bases loaded, so they had to throw strikes. He was a right-handed sidearmer going against a left-handed bat. And really, in that situation, you just want to stay out of the double play. Shohei can run pretty well.”
Geneva’s Michael Precise went 2-for-4 with a game-tying, sixth-inning home run for the Trojans.
Freshman reliever A.J. Howard from Houston County earned the victory in relief. He worked out of bases-loaded trouble in the top of the 10th to keep the game tied.
He ended the inning by throwing home on a high chopper by Rutledge.
“Coach Pierce had just come out to the mound and said it was a fast batter,” Howard said. ‘I remembered that waiting for the ball to come down. I thought I had to come home and, fortunately, (catcher) Beau Brooks was there to make a play. He’s always around the ball.”
Brooks had leaped onto the field chasing the high chop, but scrambled back to the plate for the force.
Pierce said he was torn about pulling Howard.
“The game dictated that he stay in,” Pierce said. “But then I realize we’re tied with Alabama in the 10th inning and I’ve got a freshman pitcher in the game. But A.J. wanted the ball in that situation. He’s a competitor. “
The series was full of them. One little play slipped past almost unnoticed, but it proved significant.
In the eighth inning, with Troy trailing 4-3 and a runner on first, Bart Pettus legged out an infield single, just ahead of Rutledge’s throw from deep short. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position with one out. Adam Bryant’s infield single then tied the game. Pettus’ hustle play allowed the inning to play out as it did.