NCAA Tournament - Tennessee Vols

Only because, unbeknownst to most of us, these text windows have a character limit.

 

Don't eat things that aren't food. That's a good rule of thumb.

 

I’ve been a somewhat casual fan until this season, where I watched several games / tourneys, but this is the first year where I’ve actually scheduled shit around every game.

I get nervous watching football games, and will come on here and read / write or piddle in the garage...but that’s little short stretches, and I’d mostly rather be watching football. I’d say I watch 95% of all football games.

Basketball is too damned frenetic for me, or maybe it’s because the stakes were always so high each game this year, but holy shit, it makes me so nervous. I really can’t even enjoy watching it most of the time. I DVR every game (unless we lost, and then that shit is immediately deleted, never seeing the light of day), but probably only watch 40-50% of it live. I have to do something. So, for Kentucky, I just went to the track and walked. And walked and walked. It makes me less nervous for some reason.

I think that if we make the Final Four, I’ll see this team as getting the rewards it deserves, and maybe some of the pressure will come off. I don’t think that we are one of the four best teams, but that’s all that’s really left for this team to reset the bar for this program, and take their place as an all-time great team. I’m pulling so hard for them, individually and collectively, that I can’t keep a healthy and objective distance from it. It’s both a great and terrible thing, all at once.

 

Sing me a song, piano man.

 

Man I am exactly the same way. I haven't been this invested in any team since about 2005 football.

Completely agree with your last paragraph too. If we can somehow have an accomplishment that justifies (wrong word) the emotional investment I've got in this team then the pressure will be off. I want it so bad both for me and them. I remember feeling the same way about Peyton in 97. Just wanted him to win because of how much he had given me as a fan. Admiral's not quite at that level for me but it's similar.

 

Like how many times in your life will you be tempted to cry on Senior Day? I thought I was done with that kind of thing years ago.

 

Thats why i love high level hoops. Such swings in momentum and emotion. Up 7, get fancy, now down in a minute, back up a minute later. Cant beat the rush.

 

Like I could barely bring myself to fill out a bracket for my sister in her office pool that didn't have Tennessee winning. It's bad.

 

Your future wife is going to be very disappointed

 

I cried with Lamonte after the ky game when Grant and Admiral were talking about him and you could tell the kid had been crying. Nobody knew how cold his shooting was more than him and it was killing him to not help his team.

 

Did you see him walking back to the locker room with Bone? "I think I got my swagger back." And Bone was just beaming. You can tell how much this team loves each other. I've never seen a Vol team like this.

 

Peyton had to win something. Had. To.

And he had to win a Super Bowl, too. I was terrified he’d finish like Marino, with a bunch of stats and no rings.

This is an all-time great team, if they don’t win another game. But I want their greatness to just as easily reside in my head, as my heart.

Speaking of which, a friend of mine is in Columbus for a conference, and was surprised to see orange and white all over the hotel when she arrived. Turns out she’s staying in the same hotel as the team, and she just sent me a selfie of her, Admiral and Kyle, literally, a few minutes ago. Said they were super nice, stood and shot the shit with her, and were just genuinely good, down to earth guys.

I can’t explain it, man. They’ve just given and done so much for that program, for the university and the whole state - and for us. And for me and mine, as their hard work allowed me to take my boys to watch them play against Mizzou, as the #1 team in the country. What’s that worth, not just to a fan, but to a dad? As a 45-year old man who still can’t allow myself to think for too long about how I felt sitting in that stadium, amongst that crowd, as that ‘85 team whipped Bo Jackson’s ass, when I was 12 years old and 33 years ago, for fear that it’ll make me tear up. Still, today. Hard to explain, but even harder to take the full measure of what stuff like that’s worth in the life of boy and man, alike. My boys will remember that throw away Tuesday night game against a shitty Mizzou team for the rest of their lives, and think of their old man, probably long dead. Hard to measure that.

They have perfectly embodied everything that you’d want or could possibly ask for in a student-athlete, in a competitor, as a representative of the University, as Tennesseans, and as human beings. You just ache in your heart to see that fully rewarded, but it is exactly because you’ve had your heart broken so many times by the harsh reality that not every player and team can or will do it - many, many more don’t than do - that achieving it is so incredibly sweet in the rare instances when the few who deserve it, actually achieve it.

But they have to go and get it. Whatever that means, whenever and whomever they play, and with no excuses for whatever else happens. They have to win, and I’m pulling so damned hard for them to do it, that it’s difficult to explain.

This rambling post will cause me to rocket up in my standings, I’m sure. Probably should.

I apologize for nothing.

 

I also have it on authority that they are truly gentlemen. that's rare on a college campus.

 

I was too young to remember the Sugar Vols, but that's probably not a bad comparison for this team. Even if they don't win a title, they'll go down as one of the all-time favorites for a ton of Vols fans. But man if they could put a licking on somebody good (and I will accept Virginia for these purposes) on the way out, even if their road ends in the Final Four, it would be huge

 

What round do these Vols have to reach to be considered successful? Does Elite Eight get the job done? Or is it Final Four or bust?

 

Tell us, Davey. Get out of the navy, or in it for life?

 

Emotionally? Long since at that level, IMO.

Statistically? Final Four.

Making and losing an Elite 8 will always be met with “Cuonzo’s team did that, too.”

 

Martin's team didn't. It was under Pearl.

 

Martin didnt make it to elite 8, for thr reckod

Edit. Got uni'd

 

Oh yeah, that’s infinitely worse.