Chris Lofton

Since his number is headed to the rafters tomorrow, this thread will be a celebration of #5.

There can only be one shot to start this -

 

Those were fun years, as our these, but 5 got me out of my seat more than anybody. Ice cold killer.

 

Same. He could be quintuple teamed with all other 4 guys wide open and I still want him taking that shot. I understand why he couldn't get on in the NBA, but man I think he could have shot with the best of them.

 

just needed the right situation. If he could find a team like GS and have him come off multiple moving picks, he’d light it up. Let Lofton shoot 15-20 3s a game and he’s scoring 25-30.

 

Him and Wayne Chism were the childhood heroes of mine that made me give a shit about Tennessee Basketball just as fervently as the football program. Lofton and that core group of Vols surrounding him finally gave us Tennessee fans of my generation something to be prideful about when it came to men's basketball.

CLo was simply one of the best marksmen the sport of college basketball has ever had. His legend reached wide and far. Even the Tennessee haters amongst us in the neighborhood or school loved Chris Lofton. Shouts of "CLo!" instead of "Kobe!" as you jacked up a shot were the norm during that era of life in Tennessee.

 

I was in Rupp when he went off on them up there. It was so great to hear the mouth breathers groan every time he loaded up a shot, because they knew it was going in.
Walking around the concourse afterwards was great too. “hE sHoUlD bE a CaT tUbBy DiDnT eVeN wAnT hIm”

 

He was just too slow for the NBA. I had season tickets about 5 rows in the upper deck, and any time there was a fast break when he had to get back or anything where it was athleticism vs athleticism, it was obvious that he was a liability. In college he's still a god. In the NBA, it's another story.

 

Also his senior year is just legendary. At one point during a game I told my buddy, he must be fighting an injury or something because he just isn’t quite himself. And then finding out why? A season like that undergoing cancer treatment? Unreal

 

He would’ve hit some shots in the NBA but yeah he just wasn’t athletic enough. It’s a different game. He was a smart defender too though.

 

Every time he touched it, folks were like "shoot! Shoooooot! Shoot it!"

And for the only time in the history of the world, they were right to do so.

 

He could have been on a roster but would not have thrived.

 

And not just any type of cancer treatment. Testicular cancer treatment: about as crummy of a burden a dude his age specifically can go through. Such a tough situation on different physical and mental levels for guys to endure.

 

I also could be wrong but he went to the wrong school with the wrong coach. Feels like scrubs and washed up fossils from the blue bloods occupy seats on benches all over the NBA

this is probably a more general point than applying to Chris Lofton specifically

 

There is an assumption in all things including sports that the team and orgs find the very best 12 or 53 or whatever players available to put on their rosters. It isn't true. Probably the bottom 50% of rosters are interchangeable with a pool of people ten or 100 times that size.

 

There are 450 roster spots in the NBA. My guess is 150-175 of them are interchangeable with 500 or so guys not on one.

And then you realize just how good even those journeymen that play on 8-12 teams over a 12-15 year career are.

 

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/spor...-jersey-retirement-kentucky-game/69759905007/

 

Pareto principle.

after the top 20 percent of talent, it’d be pretty interchangeable with other highly skilled guys on and off rosters


But this is in anything. You have a few highly skilled/motivated moving the needle and doing the heavy lifting and then the rest

 

Having their recruiting tiers named after wing sauces might be the most Buzz Peterson thing I’ve ever heard

 

I really enjoyed watching Lofton shoot.

 

Prices fell low enough. I’ll be there. I’m trying to explain to the boy how good he was.