Vols Win Regular Season SEC Basketball Title

Need I write more? This is REALLY good.

Oh Well…

The Vols were #1 for about 30 hours. Technically, they’re still #1 today – but the blossom is off the rose.

So, my good buddy in Chicago implores me to write something positive about last night’s game. I can. Here you go. Basketball polls only come out once a week.

The Tennessee Vols are #1.

#1 vs. #2

OK – I try to write about things that are universally good. I think truly good things are completely good. If something is good for you but hurts someone else, it isn’t completely good.

At the same time, I believe some things are good for a smaller circle of people, yet have no real impact on the larger society. They are, therefore, good. And one of those things is the #2 Tennessee Volunteers journeying into Memphis, Tennessee tonight to take on the #1 Memphis Tigers for the top ranking in all of the national college basketball polls.

Now, in a perfect world, this would be front page in every newspaper. This is big stuff. Memphis has never been #1. Tennessee has never been anywhere close to #2. Two teams in the same state ranked at the top of the polls playing in a game for #1. Best of all, the state is not North Carolina! I have to say – I haven’t been completely silent around my friends who have crowed incessantly about ACC basketball all the years I’ve lived here. North Carolina and Duke are ranked, I think…somewhere down there.

But tonight, for at least one night, we’re at the top of the basketball world. We’re not used to breathing the air up here. For 100 years, we’ve played another sport with a modicum of success. But now, all of a sudden, we’re a basketball school. Seems a little odd to me. I’m used to thinking that 3 points is a letdown, that lowering your shoulder and leveling someone on the other team is a good thing, and that a final score of 48-35 is high-scoring.

Don’t call between 9:00 and 11:00. I’ll be busy. Go Vols!