Sports

If you know me, you already know what this is about. It’s about being a college basketball fan in March. It’s about March Madness.

It’s about filling out brackets. Not “a bracket” — BRACKETS. One for your favorite team to win it all (no matter how improbable). One for what you think is going to happen. And one filled with upsets, just for fun. Who knows? Maybe you win the Bracket Challenge on ESPN ($10,000!) or the office pool. Or you just get to rub it in with your friends and even a few so-called friends.

It’s about

Most of us have watched enough law-and-order television that we understand the concept of “tainted evidence.” If the blood stains were accidentally (or intentionally) mixed with someone else’s blood, they are tainted and must be thrown out as evidence. If a confession was obtained through coercion, it is tainted and must be thrown out. Is … Read more

OK, so the title is a stretch. Trying to come up with a decent alternative acronym on the fly that also relates to the point of your post requires more thought and coffee than I’ve got right now. But, the basic point is still valid: As far as I’m concerned, National Signing Day has become … Read more

Lots of storylines for this year’s Super Bowl. Enough to keep the sports punditry industry happy for the next few weeks. I’m sure the incident that prompted this post — Bill Belichick blowing off the post-game interview — will soon be forgotten. I have to note, though, that one of the things sports supposedly teaches … Read more

The past few weeks have been interesting ones for Cards and Vols fans. One school tried desperately to get someone to be its new coach, while the other tried desperately to hold on to its current one. We’ve all heard coach-speak: “It’s all about the players.” “I am only focused on the upcoming bowl game.” … Read more

I sat up until 1 AM Saturday night (well, Sunday morning), hoping to see Tennessee pull out the upset. As they chewed up yardage running the ball, showing an offensive line prowess that had been missing in the past, my hopes grew. When they closed to a 3-point deficit, I started thinking “They’re going to pull this off!”

Then the Vols gave up a turnover on a punt, Mississippi State put another touchdown on the board against a Vol defense that suddenly seemed to collapse, and it was over. Again. Just like the previous 13 losses to ranked teams.

There was a time when Tennessee would be the team on the top end of the streaks. There was a time when Tennessee would have won this game by halftime. There was a time, believe it or not, when Tennessee was seemingly a permanent member of the Top 10, and losing to anyone outside Florida or Bama, much less the Mississippi schools, was just not even discussed.

Those times are gone, at least for now, and a new “time” question is on everyone’s lips: Is it time for Dooley to go?

After some of the talk over the past few weeks, I decided to pull the records for Denny Crum’s last ten years and Rick Pitino’s first ten, just to see. Not a lot of surprises, but if you like numbers, you might like looking this over.

I’m a long-time Tennessee fan, a big Bruce Pearl fan, and a blogger. Still, I’ve held off writing much about the Pearl issue, because I wasn’t sure how I felt or if I understood just what happened. With the recent release of additional information about just what Bruce Pearl did, it’s time to change that. Here, then, are some thoughts.

Pretty much every day, I look to see what I’ve garnered in terms of visitors, and what they come for. Based on my traffic numbers, I’m not ready to support myself from blogging, at least not yet! Obviously, the latest post or poem gets most of the traffic. There are a few search terms, though, … Read more