Live today @ Day and Associates Realty! They're having an open house and a block party for you! The legendary Jerry Glanville will be with me live today @ Day And Associates Realty....I'm really excited and blessed to call Jerry a friend. He's a real treasure in our community! Awesome stuff. Come out and see us today.... Day and Associates is located at 6336 Chapman Highway Knoxville, TN 37920





Speaking of legends!!!!


Before I do anything else here today…I want to congratulate the great Dewey Warren who returned to the Knoxville airwaves today. Hummin’ The Tater With Swamp Rat Dewey Warren airs Wednesday and Thursday from 3-4 Eastern time on 1180 AM WVLZ. The show will be heard Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout football season. The show is being billed as a celebration of the men that made Volunteer Football what it is today! Dewey sounded great returning to the Knoxville airwaves. We’re all better for it!... You can listen by clicking here!!...Link


Spread the word for Dewey..He appreciates it!









Had a great call from a gentleman yesterday telling me that Tennessee always hires retreads or on the job training candidates when it comes to the AD job here. He kept asking me why settle for David Blackburn. After you read this today you should at least get where I'm coming from when I say he's really the only play Tennessee has the really makes sense for this point in time.



David Blackburn Bio....If you can find a better candidate than this, (Rick Barnes this means you...) have at it.


Arrived at Chattanooga in April of 2013.


Had no Men's or Women's head coach when he took the job.


Stellar Women's Hoops Hire!
Hired HOF Coach Jim Foster. Foster was past chair of Olympic Committee. He's lost only 2 league games thus far with wins over multiple nationally ranked and SEC teams. His wins there include Tennessee, Stanford, and Auburn etc.

Men's Basketball...Will Wade for two years plus Matt McCall for one season. Chattanooga is one of only 5 teams with 29 wins. When Blackburn got there The Mocs had a an RPI in the mid 200s. At the conclusion of 2016 Chattanooga's had an RPI of 56.

Football.. Won league all 3 years....back to back #8 National Ranking.

Revenue: Chattanooga reports an all time high as they are enjoying a record year of giving according to sources close to the athletic department. Plus Chattanooga has broken ground for a new athletic facility.

GPA: Student athlete GPA has been above 3.0 for past 3 seasons. After Blackburn's first year 11 of out 14 sports had a perfect 1000 individual APR.

Other Notes...Chattanooga is 1 of only 2 FCS schools with all three revenue sports qualifying for the NCAA's. They are 1 of only 24 schools in the entire NCAA to enjoy this distinction.

So, I ask you.....is there another hire????






I'm so sorry for not being able to connect the dots on Rick Barnes. I usually see things like this, but I couldn't figure out why Rick Barnes is vehemently campaigning for Bammer Jon Gilbert behind the scenes. Believe you me, Barnes is in full campaign mode. I assumed that Barnes was campaigning for Gilbert out of self-preservation but apparently the connection is deeper than that. What we have here is a Tennessee/Texas triangle the likes of which you can't make up in these parts. What am I talking about? See if you can follow along.


The David Blackburn Tennessee/Texas Triangle:

Rick Barnes had a HOF career at Texas. His body of work speaks for itself. He's first ballot, no questions asked. Still, every dog has his day and he ran out of steam at Texas. This is indisputable. He was either going to take the Tennessee job and hit the ground running or tail off into the sunset. So far it's looking like the latter is winning out.


David Blackburn: Is tremendously close to Shaka Smart. In fact, when Blackburn was hired at Chattanooga, one of the first calls he made was to Shaka Smart in consultation for his opening in the Scenic City. Smart recommended Will Wade and the rest is history. I was told yesterday that Blackburn feels indebted to Smart for this tremendous advice and that they still speak frequently. Do tell....


Shaka Smart: Followed Rick Barnes to Texas and has conveyed to Blackburn how in Austin the program he inherited needed 'life, energy and belief'. This is not conjecture. This is fact according to sources close to both parties.


Could this be the catalyst that all of a sudden mobilized Rick Barnes?

As Dr. Sean Sinclair so adroitly observed yesterday on the air, Rick Barnes told us that he wanted to be in the background ever since taking the job at Tennessee. Everything until now has spoken to this soft selling nature of Barnes. Here's a guy that didn't even want to be introduced at the games last season. And now???? Now he's in full campaign mode. And it's almost as if he's concerned that he could get lost in the Tennessee/Texas/Blackburn Triangle.


What else could it be? Rick Barnes has done more interviews in the past 7 days in Knoxville than the entire off-season trying push season ticket sales.


Rick Barnes isn't fooling me and he shouldn't fool you. He doesn't get a vote in this. He needs to worry about virtually his entire list of top targets being reclassified as 3 star players by 24/7 recently. Then again, maybe now we'll have a shot at landing a few of them.


Tennessee Letterman Want Their Own:

Several folks close to the program are pushing back and saying that they don't want a Bammer. You can count me in that deal.


The two names we're hearing the most right now are Blackburn and Bammer Jon. The only sitting AD we're hearing even remotely in the picture is Whit Babcock at Va Tech who had a decent relationship with Butch Jones at Cincinnati when they worked together there as AD and Head Coach.





I hear he's actually a pretty decent person, but he's from Bama and we're not going that route with this hire. No Bammers allowed.




Finally one of my wonderful sponsors Tom Marine at Smoothie King loves this place and the Vols and wants to invite you as Smoothie King is hosting the UT Dance Team on Friday at 5:30 for a pep rally at their Walker Springs Plaza location at 8515 Kingston Pike. Please join us for the event. 32oz smoothies are $5 every Friday and every guest who attends will receive a free smoothie card as well.


Your Basilio Show Calendar for App State Game Week:

Huge week for our radio show next week. We're giving you several opportunities to interact with us.

Tuesday: Live Tony Basilio Show from 11a-? from Wings Xpress.


Tuesday...Fountain City Ramblers (with yours truly on Mandolin, Guitar and some vocals) play at Clancy's on Gay Street from 7-9p. In fact we will play each UT football Thursday going forward but adjust our schedule accordingly next week.

Thursday....Tony Basilio Show airs live from Half Barrel on Cumberland Avenue.. This is a 21 and over establishment, so please be aware of this. It will be a wonderful opportunity to see the show if you live outside the area. We WILL get you AMPED up for the game!!! Money back guaranteed!!!



Go Vols

Tony
IGYV

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