Did you hear?

I’m not the type of person to “rub it in”, but sometimes something happens and I feel compelled to let as many people know as I can…

Anyone who follows college basketball has heard about the arrest of 4 UT players (who combined for more than 30 points per game) who were arrested on alcohol, drugs, and weapons charges on New Years Day.  And you might have heard that one of them has officially been dismissed from the team while the others are still serving an “indefinite suspension” while the police finish their investigation.

…and you may have heard that the remaining 9 players (6 scholarship players and 3 walk-ons) had to play number one ranked Kansas…

Now that is a mountain of adversity to climb!

At one point, Bruce (who is used to having a very deep bench to pull from) had 2 freshmen and 3 walk-ons on the floor playing against the number one team.  Two of the seniors on the team were in foul trouble all game and played precious few minutes.  That adversity mountain seems taller and taller…

…and did I mention that Tennessee has never beaten a number one team an Thompson Boling?  In fact, the last time they beat a number one team at home was in the 60’s at the old field house.  And now that adversity mountain makes Everest seem like a little hill…

But they took the court and played hard.  They were absolutely NOT intimidated by Kansas.  Hard defense and good offense all night long.  It was an exciting game to watch (and even more exciting to actually be there!).  The crowd spent most of the night out of their seats cheering on the team.  Forty minutes of “never give up”.

And how did it end?  Well – remember it was a very tall mountain to climb.  And it was the number one team.  And the did beat us by 34 points last year in Kansas.  A tall, tall, rugged, mountain.

How did it turn out.  Ummmmm – we beat ‘em!  And it wasn’t a “Holy Cow” type game where Kansas dominated and Tennessee made a last minute comeback – no sir!  Tennessee took the lead about 3/4 of the way through the first half – and (other than a single in the second half) they never looked back.  In the end, the score was 76 to 68.

Suddenly, our own little personal mountain of adversity seems a little more manageable…