Tennessee is facing more pressure than you can possibly imagine when it plays Kentucky in the Sweet 16. There’s plenty of reason for the Vols to crumble.
Led by coach Rick Barnes, whose resume desperately needs a national championship or, at least, another Final Four run, Tennessee is facing far more pressure than the Wildcats will face on Friday. Barnes’ 30-plus year history as a head coach and the Vols’ senior-laden team are all reasons why the pressure has been ratcheted up. The clock is ticking. That’s not a good thing.
UT’s entire team is aware that Barnes has only made one Final Four since he became a head coach in 1987. Forward Jahmai Mashack recently said the Vols were intent on advancing in the NCAA Tournament for Barnes. That’s scary.
Unlike football, basketball players need to play loose. I’m not suggesting that the Vols need to be out partying with a potentially historic NCAA Tournament run ahead of them. However, there’s something to be said for not taking the moment too seriously.
I’ve certainly seen that happen before, especially during the 2000-2001 season. Tennessee looked prime to win a national championship as they began 16-1. Then, the bottom fell out as the Vols finished 22-11. What happened? The Vols got too serious when former point guard Tony Harris called a players’ only meeting to change their ways, which were actually winning.
Two years ago, former Vol Ron Slay, the second-leading scorer on that team, broke down what went wrong as he co-hosted 3HL on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville.
“We said we’re about to stop doing everything that we’re doing whether that’s staying up late, whether that’s partying, whatever it may be,” he said. “We’re fixing to walk the straight and narrow. We walked the straight and narrow and we started dropping games.
“We couldn’t get back on track.”
Instead of going out on the town, Slay said he and his teammates would hit the gym for extra shots before they tucked themselves in earlier than before. Slay said the Vols lost their swagger, which is never good for any athlete.
“We should have kept on doing what we were doing,” Slay said. “It was live.”
By “live,” Slay means his Vols liked to have fun. While that can be troublesome, those players were good-hearted and never got into any serious trouble. They were talented and played loose. That led them to a No. 4 ranking twice that season. Then, when the Vols tried to tighten things up, they fell apart. It was no more evident than when they lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
I’ll never forget Charlotte star forward Rodney White telling me that his 49ers were definitely going to beat Tennessee during pregame interviews despite being a decided underdog. He was confident. He had swagger. He had what the Vols were missing.
Point guard Zakai Zeigler and Mashack know their careers are drawing to a close. They know Barnes doesn’t have much time left as well. That can be motivation for practice and preparation, but it can also be an Achilles’ heel when the pressure is most intense.
