By Joel’s count, the word perfection was used about 894 times last night. Alas, it was not meant to be for the Memphis Tigers. Instead, it would be the Vols who were Pearlfect:
I am enjoying it while it lasts. A number one ranking is nice, but just about irrelevant once the tournament starts. The Vols have Vanderbilt on Tuesday, a team good enough to spoil that ranking very quickly. The joy that came from wiping the sneer off Calipari’s face will last a while longer. Winning the SEC outright for the first time in about 40 years would be much nicer than either of those things.
The game was not always pretty. I felt like the Vols were lucky not to be down 15 at the half the way Memphis was draining threes. But it turned out that the Tigers’ reliance on three-pointers (not their strong suit) was their downfall, as they went cold from outside the arc in the second half.
+1 to Pearl and the Vols for coming up with a good game plan and sticking to it even when it looked like it might not work early on.
I would never root for the smornage and white but I was cheering against Memphis. I tuned in hoping to see a good game and was not disappointed.
Congrats!
A highly entertaining game between too talented teams..Great to see Pearl work his magic on Tennessee hoops, which I’ve always felt has just as much potential as Florida in men’s hoops with the right coach.
What is the meaning of this basketball silliness? As with many others, I come to this blog to read about University of Georgia Football. You are alienating your fanbase!!
Tony, you’re right, I’m falling down on the job.
Here’s something for UGA fans to ponder: Is Vince Dooley overrated?
His overall record in 25 seasons was 207-77-10, good for a .715 winning percentage, a national title and six SEC titles.
That sounds pretty impressive until you take away Herschel Walker’s three seasons. Over the other 22 seasons, Dooley went 174-74-10, good for a .694 winning percentage* and three SEC championships.
That’s only slightly better than Jim Donnan’s .678 winning percentage spanning five seasons between the hedges. I’d like to think that even Donnan could have won three SEC championships if he’d had 22 seasons.
So, I say Dooley’s legacy is built entirely on the back of Herschel Walker, and that he is highly overrated as a coach.
Discuss.
* Note: I used this method to calculate winning percentage. Dooley’s overall winning percentage is listed in most places as .715, but it works out to .721 using this method.
Unfortunately, there’s not much to discuss. I’ve long been a loud Dooley detractor (see here and here). Most of my criticism is of his tenure as athletic director, but his AD legacy was built on habits formed while coaching, so I guess there’s correlation. And Dooley was long out of coaching by the time I got to school and became a fan, so I was never really on the bandwagon.
Me, I’m a Ray Goff man.
You know what’s awesome? There’s a (kind of dumb) comment I made on the first post you linked to with a link to my old blog. And another with a link to Jen’s old blog.