Come out and celebrate the beginning of the NCAA Tournament with us today! Going to be a huge day of hoops and we will be at Bearden Hill Fieldhouse for the next couple of days.



Patented Pick 64 IS BACK AGAIN!!!! Our patented Pick 64 returns today. You come to Bearden Hill Fieldhouse today and pick a team between 11a-1p and we do the rest.

If your team wins one game: You get a Free Smoothie King Card.


If your team gets to the Sweet 16: You get 3 Smoothie King cards good for a 20 oz Smoothie. & $20 Gift Card To Smoothie King




If you team makes the Elite 8, you get: $25 Gift Card To Crown Cleaners. More online @Crowncleaners.com $25 Gift Card To Smoothie King. 3 Area locations serving you.



If your team makes the Final Four...You get:
$25 Gift Card good for either Half Barrel or Bearden Hill Fieldhouse $25 Copper Card Good for any of Copper Cellar Family of Restaurants.


Your Team Makes The Final Game: $50 Gift Card To Half Barrel or Bearden Hill Fieldhouse

Team Wins Championship: All Above Prizes PLUS.....
Night on the town in Style With Southern Comfort Limo***
***As available from Southern Comfort Limo

Southern Comfort Link



All Apologies: Apologies and thanks to Jodi Ramsey and my friends and Citizens National Bank for the grace. I was originally scheduled to be there today. Due to my recurring back issues I can't sit in a car long enough to make the trek to Sevierville. Therefore I'm going to head to Bearden Hill Fieldhouse for the next couple of days. I hate letting Jodi and my friends there down, but my back is a pain in my backside.










Here's your resume....

You've coached 9 years.

You've been to 2 NCAA Tournaments.

You've won 2 NCAA Tourney Games in 9 seasons (plus a play in win).

You've coached teams with several pros with little success.

You've underachieved at every spot you've been.

You've continued to keep yourself in demand by staying ahead of the ax.

You're name is Cuonzo Martin. Life is good.

In your crazy profession you're rewarded with an insane 7 year, $21 million contract.

Absolutely insane.


Most brilliant thing about Cuonzo is that he leaves Cal after getting TORCHED in the first round of the NIT. His team was an NIT #1 seed and Cal State Bakersfield SMASHED them. BTW, Cuonzo played walk ons in that first half. Just sayin'.


Is the Cal program better than he found it? Was Tennessee's? No and NO.


The best part is that Cuonzo gets a job where there are literally zero expectations on him at Mizzou. ZERO. If he makes the tourney there once in five years this will be considered successful.


The double best part about Cuonzo is that he learned NEVER AGAIN from his Tennessee experience. Cuonzo is a recruiting playa now. Michael Porter Sr. is joining his staff as an assistant coach. That family lives in Columbia, Mo. Kim Anderson should've had this guy wrapped up. Totally next level of Cuonzo. Called a boss move. NEVER would've done this at Tennessee. NEVER. So classic how it doesn't happen here. At Cal he had Yanni Huff...Now, don't get me wrong, Cuonzo ain't gonna out coach many folks but at least he's going out with great ball players!!!


I understand Cal and their fans are upset because it's pretty obvious that Cuonzo was angling for this job on their dime. Oh well. I could've told them that.


Jeremiah Tillman from East St. Louis, Illinois, is a five star power forward that originally signed with Illinois. Rumor has it that Cuonzo is trying to pull this homeboy (Tillman is from Cuonzo's home town) with him to Mizzou. It's refreshing to see Cuonzo work the system.


As far as potential replacements for Cuonzo at Cal, Eric Musselman owns a home 20 minutes from Cal's campus. He would be an upgrade of Cuonzo for sure.


Don't get me wrong, Cuonzo is a great guy and I'm personally happy for him but his profession is absolutely nutso. 7 year/$21 million deal for that guy? Only in America.












Tee Mail:




We had a terrific conversation on the superb hires made by Butch Jones in the off-season. Here's a great piece by Mark Nagi on the wonderful addition of Brady Hoke. I can honestly say I've NEVER heard a bad word uttered about the character of Brady Hoke. Any time you can add a guy like this to your coaching staff it's an absolute home run. Great job Butch Jones and Tennessee. Here's more from Mark Nagi. Link


Great job by Rhiannon Potkey in the Knoxville News Sentinel for uncovering e-mails related to the AD search at UT. Dr. Davenport struck me as a bit of dingbat in the John Currie press conference. These published e mails speak to somebody that seems in a bit over her head. I love the communique with Peyton Manning where she's giddy about being painted about on the rock. To be in the room with Manning when he opened that.....Wow.... Then we had a search firm leading this thing with Gene DeFilippo who was OUT OF THE COUNTRY in crunch time. You can't make this up. Here's the scary part, Tennessee fired Parker Search Firm after they found that cluster of candidates that resulted in the hire of Dr. D. Nice job TurnKey. And btw, I'm rooting for John Currie but why pretend here.

The search firm was handled by the Haslams and they put their guy in there. Why pretend. I'm done pretending on my show and on this blog. And I will tell you that it feels pretty liberating not to pretend. Why pretend? We are officially in an era of the annals of UT Athletics I'm dubbing the Sports Entertainment Era. Which is to say that if you can't win consistently with sports, you might as well have fun. The beginning of the Dr. D era is certainly entertaining thus far!!!


I would like to personally invite Dr. D and John Currie to Bearden Hill Fieldhouse on Friday for the UT Bowl. Dr. D's Cincy Bearcats take on Currie's K-State boys. Something's got to give. We will give y'all your own private spot so you can get better acquainted while enjoying the madness. The first 5 drinks are on me!!!!



See you at Bearden Hill Fieldhouse today!!!

Get the app! Droid | iPhone


Tony

---