View from 315A

Saturday marked on of the Tennessee basketball’s worst efforts of the season. After putting up 104 points on a competitive Florida team on Tuesday night, the Vols managed only 47 points at LSU, the team with the worst record in the conference. It was the second lowest point total in Bruce Pearl’s three years at UT. The LSU team has struggled so badly that they fired their coach yesterday. Amazingly, Tennessee still won the game, 47-45.

John Brady was fired Friday after eleven seasons and leading the Tigers to the Final Four in 2006. His replacement, at least temporarily, is Butch Pierre. Not only does Pierre have two first names, but they are a contradiction in terms between the hyper-masculine and the French. Even if LSU had been nationally ranked it would have been embarrassing losing to a man named Pierre. If nothing else, Pierre already leads the conference in forehead diameter, a much coveted crown. Bruce Pearl proved that he is still the best BP in the conference on Saturday.

JuJuan Smith was slowed significantly by the flu. Pearl acknowledged that Smith "had a 101-degree temperature and we gave him some medication before the game that brought it down a little bit," Vols coach Bruce Pearl said. "But he was quite ill." Ryan Childress missed last Saturday’s road trip due to flu so it is not unfair to conclude that he infected JuJuan. Now, not only is Childress not contributing on the court, but he is quite literally contagious. JuJuan still managed the game-winner, his only basket of the game.

Tennessee also shot only 26% from the foul line. That is not a typo.

Do the sleeves worn on one arm of the three Smiths and Crews have any function or are they totally decorative? SMA posits that the Vols are just representing that they are big Jeff Hardy fans.