The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:Even without reading the article, I love the headline:

Rocky times: Dysfunction in Tennessee
Cuonzo Martin's exit should show a delusional fan base what the school has become.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/cuonzo-mar ... 53186.html

All the author knew about UT basketball was the last 2 weeks of Cuonzo's 3 years.

But the most glaring ommission in the article: no mention of former AD Mike Hamilton, who single-handily set our athletics programs back 7 or 8 years. For a period of 3-4 years the school was paying buyouts (10 mil) at almost double what it was paying the current major sport coaches (6 mil). We truly earned the moniker Buyout U. Tortured firings, ill-conceived hirings.. wrapped around angering boosters and season ticket holders in equal shares....the guy was a disaster.

Cuonzo Martin was the last Hamilton misjudgement, our unexpected run to the Swt16 notwithstanding. It was mudwrestling Keady-ball and it fit Martin's ultra-low-key personality to a T.

Fans here were resigned to the fact that he was going to be here another year. Note that I said resigned. 85% of our scoring and 90% of our rebounding was not coming back. His incoming recruiting class was ranked 49th. After Stokes declared for the NBA, Martin saw the sub-.500 handwriting on the wall and Cal threw him a lifeline. Good for him; good for us.

Best guess at the moment is Ricky Pitino Jr.

I still liked the "leaking prestige and reeking with unrealistic entitlement" part of that article...

Well, he failed to mention how UT routinely fills a 102,000 seat football stadium and a 22,000 seat basketball palace and that our athletic facilities are second to none. He did give kudos to Butch Jones, who recently signed a top 5 recruiting class.

"leaking prestige"...means you have prestige to begin with.

People were upset when Kiffin split to USC, but this one has been met with a collective "meh." Thanks to all of youse for the messages of concern, though. heh

Was UT even relevant before Jesus Manning went there? Seriously. Besides chickball what have they ever really been good at? Their fans crack me up though. They want so bad to be a top program but honestly they are not. They wont hear any of it though. They believe their own lies. Thats what makes it funny.

UT is somewhat of a "name" school. Plus they play in the SEC and are not a league doormat. But my impression of them is that they go on runs where they're pretty good for a few years, and then land a couple of really good recruiting classes and are top 5 or 10 for a year or two, but that is certainly not the norm. But they also have a tendency (which is the case currently) to go on years long stretches of pure mediocrity (at best). That is the reality that their fans are loathe to face up to...

As far as basketball, a sport their fans are almost boastful about not caring about (your comment about filling up "the palace" on a regular basis notwithstanding), UT is second tier at best. Men's basketball, I mean...

Jungle Rat wrote:Was UT even relevant before Jesus Manning went there? Seriously. Besides chickball what have they ever really been good at? Their fans crack me up though. They want so bad to be a top program but honestly they are not. They wont hear any of it though. They believe their own lies. Thats what makes it funny.

Relevancy before Jesus Manning?

Alltime football wins:

#11 Tennessee 804
#28 Florida 680


Alltime bowl records:

Tennessee 25-24 .510 pct
Florida 20-20 .500 pct

hedge wrote:As far as basketball, a sport their fans are almost boastful about not caring about (your comment about filling up "the palace" on a regular basis notwithstanding), UT is second tier at best. Men's basketball, I mean...

Our basketball history is akin to your football history. Which obviously doesn't hurt your feelings.

UT was definitely a top 10 program of the 90's. Not sure about other decades. Certainly not the aughts or the current one...

"Our basketball history is akin to your football history. Which obviously doesn't hurt your feelings."

Correct on both counts...

While leaving them out of his top 10, this guy gives honorable mention to UT in his ranking of the top 10 CFB programs of the past 50 years. Of course, this article was written 4 years ago, and UT's performance over that time, while not enough to erase the previous 50, certainly adds a bit of a smudge...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4139 ... rs/page/12

Jungle Rat wrote:Was UT even relevant before Jesus Manning went there? Seriously.

General Neyland. Dumbass. Seriously.

Who?

Oh yeah, the guy before Doug Dickey.

Jungle Rat wrote:Who?

Dumbass.

Toss in Johnny Majors, too.

Dumbass.

Who?

Football sass, hedge?

Not yer bag, man.

The 6 Million Dollar Man went to UT?

I am an equal opportunity sassor. And I see opportunity everywhere...

"The 6 Million Dollar Man went to UT?"

That's a perfect way to refer to all their ex-football coaches...