The Great B-Ball Debate - Foul or Defend The Three?

Welcome to a five-part series looking at the greatest debates in the basketball world today. I'll break down the arguments, toss in some basketball history and throw my own two cents into the equation.

Our first topic is one of the most hotly debated topics in basketball among coaches and fans - whether or not to defend the three-pointer when leading by 3 points at the end of the ball game or prevent the potentially tying shot by fouling the dribbler.

It is amazing how often this particular situation plays out, especially in March when so many games come down to the final possession (this situation can also play out in the NBA, but less often because of the ability to move the ball to half court with a timeout).

In last year's NCAA tournament, Xavier decided to defend Ohio State up three points instead of fouling, gave up a game-tying shot and lost in overtime. In my own coaching career, I ordered a foul on the dribbler with my team up 3 only to watch my instructions carried out while the opposing player heaved up a half-court prayer. Sure enough, the kid was awarded three shots and made them all to send us into overtime. Luckily, we won the game in the second overtime period.

People tend to think that coaches ought to foul in this situation, but fail to do so because of the fear that it might go wrong (see my situation). The strategy of fouling is simply this - instead of trying to defend one shot, force the other team to make a free throw, intentionally miss the second, grab the rebound and put it back into the basket to get the necessary three points.

Let's break down the arguments on both sides of this debate:

Why Defend Instead of Fouling

1) Defenses are made to defend shots, not commit fouls.

While the idea of fouling a dribbler sounds easy enough, there is plenty that can go wrong. If the dribbler should suddenly become a shooter in the moment of the foul, he now gets three shots at the line to tie the game. There is no coach in America who would rather give up three free shots from 15 feet to tie to the game vs. one defended 19.9 footer.

There is also the chance that the fouler might be over-aggressive and commit an intentional foul in this situation. That would mean two free throws as well as the basketball. While it is difficult to imagine a college referee making such a dramatic call, high school referees are notorious for being quick with the intentional call and more than willing to make a big call at the end of the game.
2) Trust your defense.

One stop to win the game - that is what you build a defense to do. If you need to resort to trickery to win in this situation, what does that say about your defense? There is not a team in America who, in this situation, would chose to foul instead of defend.

3) You can only go to overtime in this situation - not lose the game.

Here is the scenario that scares most coaches out of trying this strategy: the first foul shot is made, the second is missed, the rebound is tipped out to a three point shooter who buries the shot to win the game.

It is not a likely scenario, but why open yourself up to that possibility. The only way a four-point possession can occur if the team defends is with a foul on the shooter, something that should never, ever happen to a defense.

Why Foul Instead of Defend

1) It takes multiple things to happen to tie instead of one lucky shot.

Even if a team defends well, there is always the chance of a banked three pointer or answered prayer to send things to overtime. By fouling, at least four things must go right for a tie. The first foul shot must be made (#1), the second must be missed properly - it must hit the rim (#2), the rebound must be secured (#3) and the put-back must go in (#4).

One thing vs. four things - those are easy odds.

2) The foul can work without actually working.

Bruce Pearl uses this strategy at the end of games and got a great break because of it during the Vols' victory over Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were looking for a tying three-pointer down 74-71 and Tennessee was looking to hack the dribbler. Everything went perfectly, except that the referee decided not to call the foul. The Vols were instead able to disrupt the dribbler and force an even worse shot because they were trying to foul instead of defend.

3) Free throw blockouts are the best odds a team can get in basketball.

It is 4 on 3 with one of the three not allowed to rebound until the ball hits the rim. That means it is really 4 on 2 in the paint to avoid giving up the offensive putback. If you cannot win in that situation, you do not deserve to win.

What is the best strategy in this situation?

After hours of breaking down tape, deep meditation and prayers to ever known deity, I am convinced that defending is the best idea in this situation.

For me, it all comes down to this - my job is to put my team in the best position to win the game and not lose it. The only way my team can lose in this situation is to foul the dribbler and potentially give up a four-point possession.

The only time I might change my mind in this scenario would be if my team was depleted for the overtime session. Perhaps I have a few guys disqualified for fouls and expect to lose. I might take my chances on losing in regulation to give myself the best chance of winning in regulation.

The Great B-Ball Debate (Part 2) - Man vs. Zone

UGA-ly, but Vols Win in Athens

The great Athenian philosopher Socrates used to teach his students through questioning. After watching the Vols survive a scare in Athens, Georgia yesterday afternoon, I have some questions of my own:

#1 - Where was the vaunted Tennessee press? Georgia had no depth, its starting point guard was suspended and it worked beautifully the five times the Vols got into it, but for some reason Coach Pearl was hesitant to launch his full court attack. If the Vols came out from the opening tip and pressed the holy heck out of the Dawgs, Tennessee wins this game by thirty points.

#2 - Was Pearl keeping his cards close to his chest because of next Saturday's Memphis game?

#3 - Where was the 3-point shooting? The Vols, other than Chris Lofton in the 2nd half, looked hesitant and without confidence as they launched brick after brick from beyond the arch.

#4 - Where was the Volunteer depth? I have not watched a game all year where the starting five played so many minutes. No Josh Tabb. No Ryan Childress (who was cleared to play). I guess the Vols did not need to sub because they were not pressing and were not in foul trouble, but the deep bench is one of their greatest strengths.

#5 - Where is the consistency? J.P. Prince - we never know what we are going to get out of you. Ramar Smith - you drive into the paint and throw up junk far too often for a team with this many weapons around you. JaJuan Smith - Georgia was sitting in a zone and you could not light it up like you did Arkansas.

#6 - Is Chris Lofton mortal? I don't know.


The Vols always seemed to be in control of the game, even during the last possession when the Dawgs had shots to tie the game. I HATED Pearl's decision to foul Gaines at the end of the game (which is going to be a blog article soon). I was impressed with how many good looks the Vols got against the Bulldogs zone and impressed with Wayne Chism's offense inside. It is yet another win for the Vols even if it raised more questions about this team.

Bruce Pearl to Indiana?

I feel a little dirty right now because, for all I know, I am the one starting this rumor. I have not read it anywhere else yet, possibly because Kelvin Sampson has yet to be fired (though he is clearly a dead man walking in Bloomington), so I am tempted to just keep it to myself.

Then again, what are the chances that Indiana's AD reads the Scenic City Sportsblog?

Why would Indiana go after Coach Pearl?

1) He is one of, if not THE, hottest coach in the country right now with a team poised to make a run at the Final Four.

2) With only three years in Knoxville under his belt, the roots might not be strong enough yet to keep him loyal to the Vols.

3) He is a Big 10 guy (got his start as an assistant at Iowa) - might want to come back.

4) He won his national championship at Southern Indiana - might want to come back.

5) He won his notoriety at Wisconsin-Milwaukee - might want to come back.

6) The University of Illinois hates him. Still.

7) Post-Sampson - Pearl has a clean record with the NCAA.

Why Would Coach Pearl Go To Indiana?

1) It is Indiana basketball.

2) $$$ - Can Tennessee pay Fulmer, Summitt and Pearl the big bucks that Indiana could throw at Pearl and nobody else?

3) Pearl got divorced this summer - would it be easier to start his new life elsewhere?

4) Even though things are great in Knoxville right now, he will lose Chris Lofton, JaJuan Smith and probably Tyler Smith next year. Strike while the iron is hot - this is the year for Pearl to leave if he has thoughts of doing so.

Why Would Coach Pearl Stay at Tennessee?

1) Why go live in Bobby Knight's shadow? He is already close to becoming the most beloved men's basketball coach in Tennessee history.

2) Illinois hates him. Still. Why should he voluntarily (no pun intended) walk into that tornado?

3) Loyalty to Tennessee? The university was the first to hire him despite the suspected blackballing after the Deon Thomas situation. It has been responsive to his requests, specifically renovating Thompson-Boling Arena. Maybe the roots are strong enough to keep him.

4) Tennessee is becoming a basketball state - look at Memphis, Vanderbilt and even Chattanooga is having a strong year. Indiana is the past; Tennessee is the future.

5) How bad is this probation going to be? If Pearl is limited as far as scholarships and post-season possibilities, he is entering a no-win situation.


After working out all the details and weighing all the options, I feel better about this scenario. If Indiana has any brains at all (after hiring Sampson, I have my doubts), they will inquire about Coach Pearl. The job he is doing in Knoxville is one of the most impressive resurrections this side of Lazarus.

I'm afraid we are going to deal with these types of rumors every season with Pearl. Tennessee has not, historically, been a basketball school, so the lure of going to an Indiana, UCLA, Duke, etc. will always be there. I also wonder if Coach Pearl has the type of Roy Williams/Coach K personality that is content with maintaining a strong program or if he is more comfortable building the program.

I do know this - I never lost sleep wondering if Jerry Green or Buzz Peterson might bolt Knoxville for another job. This is a nice problem to have.

Indiana Pays Price for Hiring Known Cheat

I have had the privilege of meeting many of college basketball's greatest coaches over the course of my own coaching career. Tubby Smith was a delightful, honest and classy individual - the same guy you see during games and in interviews. John Calipari was pleasant, hyper and distracted. Lute Olson was friendly, handsome and a bit overweight (not that it matters, but it surprised me).

Meeting Kelvin Sampson was a different experience for me. Sampson was heavily recruiting one of my former players and I was invited by our head coach to sit in on a meeting with Sampson and his assistant coach. I was somewhat starstruck by Sampson who had been to a Final Four and won everywhere he has coached.

I left the meeting wanting a shower.

Kelvin Sampson is a used car salesman who knows how to coach basketball. He had canned answers to questions. He spent ten minutes defending himself against allegations that we were not making about him. His exchanges with his assistant coach were rehearsed and phony.

Sure enough, Sampson was found to have made improper phone calls to recruits and got the University of Oklahoma placed on probation. In the months afterwards, Sampson was punished for his lack of ethics by being hired as the new head basketball coach at Indiana University.

Indiana has always had one of the preeminent basketball programs in the country. Led by Bob Knight, the Hoosiers won three national championships while running a clean program that graduated its players. Heck, the greatest basketball movie of all-time is called Hoosiers.

Indiana should have known better than to hire a known cheater like Kelvin Sampson. It should have been worried, rather than elated, when Sampson unethically recruited Eric Gordon who had already committed to Illinois. Now, it is about to get burned. Big time. The Hoosiers are looking at probation, loss of scholarships and the need to replace Sampson who will likely be fired in the coming weeks.

Indiana University only has itself to blame. When a school hires someone like a Kelvin Sampson, Jim Harrick, Dave Bliss or Jerry Tarkanian, what else do you expect? They are liars. They are cheats. They win, but at what cost?

For Indiana, the cost is not just basketball probation, but an institutional black eye that was earned not from Sampson's phone calls, but from hiring a known cheat in the first place.

Vols Skin Razorbacks

Safe to assume JaJuan Smith is healthy again?

After suffering from a high fever during the LSU game before eventually winning the game with a steal and breakaway lay-up, the Cleveland Kid put up 32 points to help the Tennessee Vols pull away from an over-matched Arkansas squad 93-71.

With Arkansas clearly intent on locking down Chris Lofton, the perimeter opened up for Smith who blistered the Hogs with a barrage of outside shooting. The second half belonged to the Vols after Arkansas seemingly quit after putting up a decent fight in the first half.

The game was an ugly one thanks to whistle-happy officials who called 27(!) fouls in the first half. Once again, the Volunteers' depth paid off as Arkansas could not match the talent of the UT bench when its own starters took to the pine with foul troubles.

Frankly, there is not much to write about this one. The Vols survived an ugly opening half and completely dominated the second one.

T-minus 9 days until Tennessee vs. Memphis...

Tennessee Talk for February 13, 2008

Sorry for my blogging absence, but it has been a hectic week. I was able to fly to Houston last weekend, because I have the most wonderful wife, to watch my old basketball team compete for its league championship. The boys finished 3rd after a thrilling consolation victory over their San Antonio rival. Upon getting back to town, I realized that a week of paternity leave had left me way behind in grading, planning and basically every other occupational area. On top of all that, I haven't watched much sports to have anything to blog upon (missed the LSU scare), so nothing has been itching to get from my fingertips to you.

Enough about my trials and tribulations - let's get to the Tennessee Talk!

Vols Survive LSU

I saw nothing of the game, but did listen to the final minutes on XM Radio (man, that is a fun thing to have. Thanks, Budget). It sounded like we got sucked into a half court game and couldn't make a free throw. The latter has been a problem all year long, but we haven't had too much of a problem with the former.

I know many people were shocked by the close score, but I really wasn't. With John Brady being fired (which was undeserved in my book - Final Four two years ago???), I expected the LSU kids to play hard. That is an awfully big shake-up to expect anything less. It is always tough to win on the road in the SEC (ask Kentucky), so I have also come to expect tight games no matter the opponent whenever we play in someone else's gym.

I feel like Norm MacDonald citing German love for David Hasselhoff, but this game once again proved my theory that Bruce Pearl finds a way to win close games. LSU had the ball with the game tied and the shot clock off and the Vols won in regulation. There is something about this coach and something about this team.

Next game is tonight against a pretty good Arkansas team.

Lady Vols Steal One From Rutgers

That sure was a long .02, wasn't it? The Lady Vols blew a big halftime lead and should have lost to Rutgers on Monday night, but were aided by the clock stopping at .02 which game Rutgers a chance to foul Nicky Anosike. Down 1, Anosike made two clutch free throws to give the Lady Vols the win.

A few things here - I just read that Thompson-Boling Arena, like many places these days, uses a system that stops the clock on the referee's whistle. Each official has some type of device that instantly stops the clock when it detects the sound of it blowing through a tiny microphone place in the actual whistle. What that means is that it might not have been a homer clock operator stopping the clock in order to give the Lady Vols a chance to win, but a game official who anticipated a foul before it actually happened and chirped his/her whistle. Some systems can determine which of the various people stopped the clock, but the Thompson-Boling system is not one of those.

The other aspect of this that a somewhat justifiably whining C. Vivian Stringer ought to acknowledge is that there was no reason for Rutgers defender Kia Vaughn to tackle Anosike when she secured the rebound. Try to block the shot. Block out in the first place. Let it go because the clock is about to expire. Any of these would have been better options than putting two hands on Anosike's shoulders and yanking her backwards. It made the call too easy in a moment of the game when referees usually (not counting the Villanova/Georgetown debacle) try not to call anything. Even though there is a good chance the Scarlet Knights got hosed by the clock malfunction, there was no reason that Anosike should have been fouled.

Letter From Gerald Jones

In case you haven't seen it:

Dear Coach Fulmer, Teammates, Volunteer Fans and Parents:

I am sending this letter to each of you in order to express my sincere regret for embarrassing the University of Tennessee and the football program because of a most unfortunate, well-publicized situation last week. Even more importantly, I have let my parents, coaches, teammates, fans and myself down. Please accept my apology for my lack of judgment. There are no excuses.

I have been abundantly blessed in my life with a wonderful family and the unbelievable opportunity not only to play football, but also to get an education at one of the premier universities in America, the University of Tennessee.

Finally, I want to thank Coach Fulmer for the opportunity he has given me. Please know I have learned a hard life lesson, and I am committed to making sure it never happens again. I accept the responsibilities for my actions and will now move forward.

Respectfully,

Gerald Jones

Why don't more troubled athletes do this? After reading it, I like the guy more than I did before the arrest.

Chavis Flirts With Leaving

John Chavis interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons about becoming their new linebackers coach, but is staying with the Vols. Honestly, I would have been okay with Chavis leaving after the way our defense played this year. It often seems like Chavis's schemes are easy to pick up and that the defense was not always playing hard. I think Chavis knows that he is on the hot seat for next year more than Fulmer and more than Clawson. Another sub-par defensive year and Chavis will be unemployed.

Suns Get Shaq and Adande Steals My Article

I had a terrific article working in my mind last night about how the Shaq-to-Suns trade was like my favorite band signing with a major label (Steve Kerr was the A&R guy calling for a catchy single), but decided to get some sleep instead.

I wake up this morning to find J.A. Adande beat me to the punch, sans the band angle, with this terrific article:

Slow Burn For Suns

I was not sad to see Shawn Marion go, but am devastated at the loss of the Fun & Run Suns. I don't want to watch Shaq wrestle for position on the block while everyone stands around to make space. I don't want to see Nash pull it out because nobody is running with him. I don't want to ever see the Suns violate the shot clock..

Last year during the playoffs, I had just high hopes for the NBA. With the Suns and Golden State Warriors scoring lots of points with a fun style of basketball, I thought the entire league might see the wisdom of playing this type of loose, aggressive offense.

Instead, I got a Spurs/Cavs final and now I've got Shaq clogging up the post.

Thanks, Steve Kerr. Thanks for ruining the fun.

Tennessee Talk for February 6, 2008

My Volunteer excitement is tempered this morning by the loss of 24 lives in our state to tornadoes last night. It is remarkable how quickly things like election primaries and SEC basketball games can be put into perspective when truly important events capture the morning's headlines. Let's keep these friends in our thoughts and prayers.

Clinton vs. Huckabee?

What is this, Arkansas? At least my own Hamilton County came out for Barack Obama. I still haven't sorted out yesterday's results, other than that I'm surprised Clinton won Massachusetts and California, surprised Obama looks like he is getting Missouri and surprised that people are still voting for Mike Huckabee. He really is Mitt's Ralph Nader these days.

By the way, how sad is it that Ralph Nader is now known mostly for being an election spoiler? I watched a PBS special about his wonderful crusades for regular folk like you and me, but he tarnished his place in history forever with his stubborn, destructive runs for president.

Enough politics...back to sports.

Vols Destroy Gators

Bruce Pearl went Steve Spurrier on the Florida Gators last night.

Remember the game in The Swamp when Peyton led the Vols to an early lead, only to get blown out in the second half 62-37? That is what happened to Billy Boy and the young Gators last night. Florida jumped out 16-3 on the Vols, but one of my time-tested coaching quotations held true once again:

"Early leads are false leads."

As an assistant coach, I used to say this to our head coach every time we fell behind early. It became somewhat of a running joke as I would use it when we were playing a team of 6'8 monsters that were going to run us out of the gym regardless of when they took the lead.

Back to Florida's false start, the Gators hit everything they threw up (even a banked three) in the opening moments of the game, but no team can keep that up for 40 minutes. The Vols also started out ice cold, but these guys are not the St. Louis Billikens - they are not going to stay cold for long. Once the Vols settled in, made some shots and improved their pick & roll/sprint defense, the #7 team in the country had its way with the two-time defending National Champions.

Which brings me to this - Bruce Pearl owns Billy Donovan. I love Donovan as a coach and as a man (he was one of the most impressive people our coaching staff met during the recruitment of DeAndre Jordan) and don't expect this to hold true forever, but Pearl is 4-1 against him so far. That is 4-1 against Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Jai Lucas, etc. That is impressive.

I try not to waste my energy on officials (I'll leave that to the messageboard morons), but last night's crew was awful. The Gators were in the double bonus with over 10 minutes left in the second half!

Here is the dirty little secret that every coach in the country knows: referees punish you for playing hard.

The Vols play as hard defensively as anyone in the country - they pressure the ball, they battle in the post, they look for strips, pokes and deflections and they get punished for it. There is a certain sympathy factor that happens when a defender is harassing an offensive player. As the Vols defense started to clamp down on the Gators in the second half, they were bailed out by sympathy calls.

Dribbling out of bounds? Foul on Crews. Unable to get to the basket in the post? Foul on Chism. Can't get around the ball screen? Foul on Williams.

The Vols do foul too much, especially with out of control charging violations and stupid hacks instead of moving in front of the ball. I'm worried that they are getting the reputation of a team that fouls. If referees think the Vols are trying to get away with things like slaps, pushes or shortcuts, they are going to continue to whistle the Vols for nickel-and-dimers. That could be the fatal flaw for these Vols come March when getting to the foul line can be the difference between surviving and going home.

The benefit of playing this way was seen in the glorious final minutes of last night's game. Florida was gassed; Tennessee was not. They ran the Gators out of the gym because the waves of fresh bodies and 40-minute intensity wore them out. There are few teams in the country as deep as Tennessee and few that can withstand their assault.

Bruce Pearl is a modern-day Ulysses S. Grant in this regard. He understands that part of his advantage is man-power. The bad guys can win battles, but he is going to eventually win the war with his constant pressure and superior depth. Last night's color commentator wanted Tennessee to get out of its press all night long, claiming it made Florida better. That was easy analysis whenever Florida beat the pressure for a lay-up, but where was the retraction at the end of the game when Florida could do nothing but raise the white flag?

Remember - Robert E. Lee beat U.S. Grant all through out 1864, but lost his army in the process. Pearl loses a battle or two over the course of the game, but usually takes the other coach's sword when it is all said and done.

A few more random thoughts:

- I'm already starting to have Chris Lofton withdrawal. It hit me last night just how much I'm going to miss watching him next year. I know, I know...there is still over a month left in the season. Maybe I'm just a little emotional these days with a new baby girl in the family, but I got sad thinking about the Vols without Lofton. That guy is freaking unbelievable.

- I know he got up hot, but did J.P. Prince really deserve a technical last night? He got tackled for no reason and came up angry. He was immediately stopped by teammates, did not deliver a punch or push and nothing came of his reaction other than the pathetic image of Teddy Valentine issuing six technicals to Prince (I guess only one counted). It reminded me of the Steve Nash play from last year - rewarding the thug for, well, being a thug.

- I imagine Pearl apologized to Donovan for JuJuan's late three-pointer (man, that guy is stroking it right now), but I hope that instead he said, "You undercut my guys on lay-ups and I don't call off the dogs, got it?"

- Welcome back, Josh Tabb. Keep up the D.

Signing Day

Unless Fulmer pulls off a John McCain comeback, it isn't going to be a pretty day for the Vols. Most of the "recruiting experts" have the Vols' class down at the bottom of the SEC and somewhere in the 40s nationally.

Hmm...what do we make of this?

On the one hand, it is sad because Fulmer has always been a master recruiter. Is he losing his touch? Did the coaching fluctuation cause it? Did the hiring of Dave Clawson fail to inspire? Was it the blowout losses to Cal, Florida and Alabama?

On the other hand, who cares? Have you ever looked at a list of the top prospects from given years? You won't recognize half of them. These "recruiting experts" are a bunch of idiots who know nothing about football and next to nothing about the kids about which they are experts. Having coached a 5 star basketball recruit, I can tell you that I never once saw a representative from Rivals or Scouts Inc. at our games, that their statistics were all inflated and inaccurate, and that they never once talked to our head coach about the player in question. These rankings are often based solely on things like 40-yard dash times (always inflated), physical size and strength (hardly guarantees success, right Tony Mandarich?) and numbers compiled against pathetic high school competition.

Let's look at some of this year's BCS teams - Hawaii, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas - do you think they built their program on top-rated recruiting classes? It is great to have freakish athletes like Eric Berry, but the Vols also need guys with heart and desire. That does not show up on Rivals.com.

Finally, and maybe this is just a way to spin it, Vols AD Mike Hamilton warned that the Vols were after linemen over specialty positions this year. Linemen will never generate the excitement that quarterbacks and tailbacks garner. In fact, the schools that get the top-rated classes often do so by signing loads of players (many who will never play a down on the field) with a few highly-prized offensive players. That wins your recruiting prizes, but not football games.

Bottom line - the sky is not falling. One bad class does not a program destroy.

Good Ole Rocky Top
Rocky Top, Tennessee

Good Knight and Good Luck

I am a basketball coach today because of Coach Bobby Knight. I became an Indiana Hoosier fan because of Coach Knight. I even became a Texas Tech basketball fan.

I have read multiple books on The General. I have punted basketballs during practice in his honor. I proudly wear a Red Raiders t-shirt these days because of Coach Knight.

Coach Knight knows the hundreds of players he has influenced over his remarkable career - guys like Mike Krzyzewski, Isiah Thomas, Quinn Buckner, Steve Alford, Damon Bailey, Uwe Blab, Calbert Cheaney, Kent Bentson, Randy Wittman, etc. etc. etc.

He does not know me. I saw Coach Knight speak at a coaching clinic last year, but that was as close to The General as I ever got. He never challenged my manhood or called me a "son of a bitch."

All Bobby Knight did for me was make me want to be a coach.

From a purely basketball sense, I wanted to be Bobby Knight. The motion offense thrilled me with its simplicity. There were not set calls or designed plays - just motion. Screen and cut. React to the defense and pass the ball. It favored nobody, but together it was impossible to guard. It worked against a zone or a man defense. It was what James Naismith must have envisioned when he hung the first peach basket.

I learned much about basketball from Steve Carpenter (no relation) at The McCallie School who ran a beautiful version of the motion offense and also studied Coach Knight. We used to score 80 points in high school games with regularity, sometimes even eclipsing 100. It was not complicated - just screens and passes.

By the time I started studying Indiana basketball, it was on the decline. I used to wonder if Knight no longer cared about winning championships, but simply wanted to coach great kids and see if he could still win with inferior players. People forget, however, that Knight put together the Hoosier squad that Mike Davis led to the Final Four. He was primed to make another run for the title if he could have only controlled his behavior.

I love Bobby Knight, but I doubt I would like him. He is a bully. He does not treat people the way he expects to be treated himself. His jokes often seem mean-spirited and condescending. I wish Knight could have found a way to control himself at Indiana so the story could have ended happily. He became one of his idols Woody Hayes when he put his hands on a kid in anger. He couldn't resist chewing out a student on campus whom he felt was disrespectful towards him.

The thing about Knight's behavior was that it almost always originated from an honorable place. I cannot excuse Knight's bullying, but many of his tirades stemmed from expecting better of his players than they expected of themselves. The man had deep core values that drove him to greatness. He was never bothered by criticism from journalists and critics who lacked these values.

As a coach, I wanted these types of values to be the core of my coaching and my program. If writers want to find fault in Coach Knight's arrogance and obnoxious behavior, let them. That won't be the legacy of Knight in my eyes. He will be the man who challenged the way I thought of the game, who inspired me to be a motivating force in young peoples' lives and who made me want to coach.

Vols 2 Bulldogs 0 - Vols Over Mississippi State

They do make things interesting, don't they?

The Tennessee Vols have a way of letting teams off the ropes, but still finishing the fight at the bell. Mississippi State took a standing 8-count with about ten minutes left in Saturday night's SEC showdown, came back with a furious rally of three-pointers, but could not ever catch the Vols as Tennessee got another SEC road victory 76-71 in Starkville.

I pointed it out last week and I'll point it out again - Coach Bruce Pearl's teams know how to finish games. Tonight probably was not the best example (Chism holding the ball to get fouled, the unforced travel call against the Bulldogs), but each time the Vols go into the final minutes in a tight one, they walk away with the W.

With so many weapons, there seems to be a new star every game. Tonight, Jordan Howell, Duke Crews and Josh Tabb stepped up with some big plays, but it was once again the Chris Lofton show. What has gotten into, or should I say back into, this guy? He looks so much hungrier than he did just two weeks ago.

Here are two things to watch with Lofton - he is the best player I can remember at finding the .01 seconds between the help and recovery to get a free look when he comes off a ball screen. Every team makes sure to show help off the screen when he uses it which is usually enough to dissuade mere mortal shooters. Not Lofton. As soon as the big man retreats and just before Lofton's man gets back into his face, he gets that sweet looking jumper away.

The other thing that I have noticed about him is how hard he is coming off screens these days. To me, that is the biggest difference between pre-SEC games Lofton and the current version. He is coming right off the shoulders of the screen, curling in if he needs to or flaring out if he can, but always coming off hard and tight. There is no room for his defender to get over the top and he makes them pay for trailing behind.

Before I get to my minor complaints, did Coach Pearl's kid really get onto the floor tonight before Ryan Childress?

I don't know what to make of Tennessee's inability to finish off opponents. Part of it is UT's style that creates so many possessions. If the game is longer, the early 20 point leads do not mean as much. Pearl cannot put the brakes on his boys when they are built on speed, pressure and attacking, but the Vols lengthen the game when they ought to be shortening it.

Another aspect of the Vols inability to hold leads is their bench. While they do have great depth, there is an undeniable drop-off between the starting five and guys like Brian Williams, Jordan Howell and J.P. Prince. It will be interesting to see if Pearl shortens his bench come tournament time.

Finally, the Vols foul too much. They put opponents into the bonus too early and allow too many foul shots. There is no better possession in basketball, according to statistics, than ones with foul shots. You get more points on foul possessions than ones when you attempt either 2-point shots or 3-point shots (thanks to John Calipari for that stat). It may not seem like a big deal at the time, but those are easy shots that add up and also do not allow the Vols to apply their turnover-forcing pressure.

I think the last of these problems can and ought to be fixed. I wish Tennessee would front the post rather than play behind so much. I wish they would eliminate the 2-3 reaching fouls per half that happen when there is no chance at getting to the ball. I wish Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith would see the benefit of avoiding their 1-2 stupid fouls/game (boys - you get to keep playing if you stay out of foul trouble!). I'm not stupid enough to think Coach Pearl has not mentioned some of this, but I also imagine he hesitates to do so because he does not want to temper his team's aggressiveness. If this is true, I respectfully disagree with him. Look at Duke's pressure defense that rarely results in the Blue Devils being in the penalty so early so often. There is a happy medium between aggressive and undisciplined that the Vols will hopefully find soon before March.

Gators on Tuesday - it does not slow down, does it?