With Valentine's Day behind us, the Pilot verdicts in and college hoops season heating up, we take a full head of steam into your sports weekend!!!
Reminder!!!
Garza Law Tennessee Basketball Overtime immediately following Tennessee-Georgia tomorrow night!!! On your tonybasilio.com stream, Tony Basilio App, Periscope, & Facebook Live. Go Vols!!!
Orange Throat has the floor leading things off for us, setting the agenda on this great Friday.
Orange Throat
'Tony World:
Random musings and short shots as we look to an important road game for the Vols tomorrow:
JEREMY PRUITT'S FIRING of RB coach Robert Gillespie was a surprise to all but Pruitt's inner circle of confidantes. Pruitt did Gillespie no favors by waiting until recruiting was over because he was sought by other schools over the last several months and years. Gillespie's "soft landing" is a contract that will pay him $510,000 for the next year, unless it is offset by another job.
SOME INSIDERS THINK Pruitt moved on Gillespie without telling his boss Phillip Fulmer he was going to do it. If true, not a good move by the new coach. Fulmer was not having any of the crap being circulated about Gillespie's departure being mutual and said as much at his Tipoff Club appearance.
THE DEPARTURE of Butch Jones' personnel man and all-around right hand guy Bob Welton is less surprising. Most around the UTAD found Welton very warm and personable but he was too associated with Jones' dysfunctional roster and program to be retained.
THE BASKETBALL VOLS avoided a seed-damaging home loss to South Carolina on Tuesday. The Gamecocks are going to be the rare team that goes from a Final Four to a losing record. Tomorrow night's game at Georgia is important toward continuing to give chase to Auburn for the regular season league title and keeping pace in NCAA Tournament seeding.
NEXT WEEK is a huge home game as the Florida Gators come calling on Wednesday, of course with a ridiculous start time of 9 p.m. Kudos to SC coach Frank Martin for criticizing Wednesday's night start while two central time zone games started at 6 p.m., local time.
GRANT WILLIAMS is often looked to as the best example of the evaluation and development job done by Rick Barnes and his staff and the former 3-star, 191st ranked player in the country is a great example. As Jerry Meyer said on Tony's show on Monday, everybody missed on what Williams could be.
KYLE ALEXANDER is another great example we've talked about as well. The tall, skinny Canadian was rated way, way back in 362nd position in the 2015 class and was a late add by Barnes after getting the UT job. ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony has Alexander going 29th in next year's NBA Draft, a slot that would earn Alexander a starting salary of around $1.6 million per year.
GIVONY has Tennessee target Anfernee Simons going 23rd in this year's draft, a slot that would put him at a starting salary just under $1.9 million. If Simons brings his talents to Knoxville, he would be gambling on a big rise in the rankings. The NBA system is heavily weighted toward subsequent contracts. Simons is viewed as a great developmental prospect but not yet ready to flourish in the league. Of course, he would be terrific in college and would benefit from what should be one of the best front lines in the country next year at Tennessee.
Interesting stuff about the behind the scenes on the firing of Gillespie. One source told me that Fulmer was less than thrilled with not finding out about the firing from Pruitt but from chatter within the program. Not good. In all fairness these bumps are to be expected from an inexperienced, hard charging coach. It's going to be interesting seeing Phillip Fulmer try to harness this wild stallion he's brought to Knoxville. I'm glad I don't have his job.
Also, terrific stuff on the NBA draft prospect(s) potentially on Tennessee's roster for 2018-19.
Griffin’s 3 Pointers
Griffin’s 3 Pointers- Georgia
1. “Out-Foxed”- Will Georgia head coach Mark Fox be out as far as a job at the end of the season joining Ole Miss’ Andy Kennedy (as I predicted a few weeks ago)? Entering his 9th season at the helm, Fox is currently 159-129 with winning percentage of 55.2 and has reached the NCAA twice and the NIT 3 times. His SEC record is 75-76.
2. As A Team- 14-11 (5-8) At Home 9-3
Non conference notable wins- St Mary’s 83-81, Ga Tech 80-59, and Temple 84-66
Losses- Marquette 66-73, UMass 62-72, and Kansas St 51-56
SEC ranked 3rd Rebounding 38.5 UT ranked 10th 36.2 SEC ranked 12th Field Goal % 42.8 UT ranked 9th 44.6 SEC ranked 13th 3 Point % 31.8 UT ranked 3rd 38.3 SEC ranked 14th Scoring 68.6 UT ranked 6th 76.7
3. Who To Look Out For- Yante Maten 6’8” Senior Forward
Enters Sr season among Georgia’s career leaders in points (Number 25 with 1250), Rebounds (Number 16 with 606), Free Throws Made (Number 10 with 325), Free Throws Attempted (Number 14 with 445), and Blocks (Number 4 with 149).
Minutes Per Game- 34.2, Field Goal %- 160-335 47.8, Three Point %- 21-63 33.3,
Free Throw %- 147-175 84, Rebounds- 218 8.7, Turnovers- 55, Blocks- 32, and Points Per Game- 19.5
Leads the team in Minutes, Field Goals Attempted and Made, Field Goal %, Free Throws Attempted and Made, Free Throw %, Rebounds Per Game, Turnovers, Blocks, and Points Per Game
Professional wrestler Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony asked me on Twitter my prediction on Tennessee's last 5 games and I replied 'talk to me Saturday night after UT's visit to Georgia.' And I meant what I said. Georgia isn't even close to a quality team at this point but they're Georgia. Just as Bama has been a house of horrors for Tennessee, Georgia has had a mystifying hold over The Vols in recent years.
Tony Basilio Show Producer Extraordinaire Brian Hartman shines a brighter light on Tennessee's Dawg problem.
'The last time Tennessee beat Georgia in basketball was back in 2014. The final season for then head coach Cuonzo Martin before he bolted for Berkeley. The Vols are 0-4 since 2015. Since 2015 the Vols have beaten every other SEC team at least once. The Vols are only 4-9 vs current Georgia head coach Mark Fox, who took over in 2009/2010. Tennessee had a season sweep over Georgia every single year from 2005 through 2009. That was one reason there had to be a coaching change in Athens. The Vols haven't swept the Dawgs since. I must point out that they don't play each other 2x per season like they once did. Thanks to conference expansion and doing away with east and west divisions back in 2013. And thanks to a scheduling quirk, only one of the 4 games played since 2015 was in Knoxville. Two were in Athens and one was in the SEC Tournament last year in Nashville. Below is a breakdown of how the Vols have fared vs all SEC opponents since 2015, counting this season.
Vanderbilt 6-4
Auburn 4-2
Kentucky 4-3 ( The Cats had the best program in the SEC from 2015-17, which makes the inability to beat UGA in this span even more puzzling)
As if the recent Georgia issue didn't have me concerned enough about tomorrow, there's the matter of Rick Barnes' coached team’s performance in the stretch drive of seasons. Is this concern about Barnes warranted or is this hyperbole? Nathanael (awesome spelling) Rutherford of Rockytopinsider.com took a deep dive into the performance of Barnes' teams at Big T and Lil T (that's in Austin) and the returns are mixed. Link
I said heading into the South Carolina game that for some reason that one scared me, and I'm feeling the same thing for tomorrow night.
Final Thought: It sure would be interesting to hear something from Jimmy Haslam on yesterday's events. Then again it sure would be interesting hear all those tapes that the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other media outlets have requested. I guess you could say it's interesting.
SHORT SHOTS VOLS SPUTTERING BUT STILL FINDING A WAY
FREE THOUGHT FRIDAY
SHORT SHOTS FOR THE WEEK:
CAN A RICK BARNES TEAM FINISH?
DON’T BELABOR THE POINT:
ROBERT GILLESPIE’S DISMISSAL: Maybe I’m being a honeymoon period apologist for new Tennessee Head Football Coach Jeremy Pruitt but I’m not the least bit alarmed by Robert Gillespie’s apparent firing....
A New Direction At TonyBasilio.com: Here at Tonybasilio.com we’re creating a series of programming with little to mostly zero commercial sponsorship. In other words, you will be digesting the following programs in coming days with almost no interruption. This is unprecedented in the history of my business. Nobody has ever done this. Here are the offerings coming your way.
Our Family Of Offerings:
‘X-Cast: A Recruiting Podcast’: Featuring Tony Basilio & ‘X’ where we discuss the latest moves, behind the scenes machinations and all the intrigue from the world of recruiting. This will hopefully be offered twice monthly with lengths varying. If this takes off perhaps we can even do some live offerings of this show. THIS IS BEING OFFERED COMMERCIAL FREE!!!
Fifth Quarter Fan Reaction: Back for season 4. Sponsored by Marcos Garza. This year with NO OTHER SPONSORS. This will be pure content for you. I’m taking a chance here but I know you will reward me for not bombarding you with messages Vol Network style. This program will run for at least 3 hours following Tennessee Football Games. We will have new visual presentation of this feature as well that we’re investing in. Thanks to Jayson Swain for helping me with the technical side of our visual presentation.
Southeastern Sunday Night: 7p to 9p on Sunday Nights airing on Periscope/Facebook Live and other platforms including your Tony Basilio Show App. This will be a regional program that aims to keep it real. We will tell the truth on us, them and all with you. This could be a lot of fun if you help me spread the word across the region. This hopefully will turn into a free for all that is free for all. ZERO SPONSORS. COMMERCIAL FREE OFFERING.
Vol-Scars: A podcast featuring Vol Historian Tom Mattingly and Eric S where we go back in time and commemorate the painful losses in UT football history that left a mark. These shows are extremely time intensive to put together. I’ve worked all summer on these offerings and am really proud of what we’ve compiled thus far. I think you’ll really enjoy this. COMMERCIAL FREE.
Gate Twenty Won: A podcast Featuring Vol Historian Tom Mattingly where we celebrate the greatest wins in UT history in time capsule form. These are a breath of fresh air and the type of programming I’m aiming to bring to you . COMMERCIAL FREE
Chill Cast: Tell Me A Story: A podcast where I grab folks from the sports world and our community and allow them to share their stories with us. This will be done in the spirit of the recent re-launch programs that I did. We’ll aim to go deeper here. Stay tuned. COMMERCIAL FREE.
Tennessee Basketball Overtime: Back for year 5! Immediately following Tennessee Basketball Games. A Tennessee Basketball Call-In show featuring ONLY ONE SPONSOR…GARZA LAW FIRM. Therefore we keep the conversation going without bombarding you Vol Network style. What a concept!!!!
Garza On The Law: A Podcast dealing with the legal issues that invade the sports world featuring the great Marcos Garza. We will go deeper here. I promise that you will find this interesting. Presented by Garza Law Firm.
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Friday night’s Iowa-UConn Final Four game had 14.2 million viewers. That’s more than any women’s college basketball game, ever. More than every 2023 NBA Finals game and more than every 2023 World Series game. ESPN has had the rights to NBA games since 2002. But the Final Four game between Iowa and UConn was the networks most-watched basketball game, men’s or women’s, pro or collegiate EVER.... [more]
Friday night’s Iowa-UConn Final Four game had 14.2 million viewers. That’s more than any women’s college basketball game, ever. More than every 2023 NBA Finals game and more than every 2023 World Series game. ESPN has had the rights to NBA games since 2002. But the Final Four game between Iowa and UConn was the networks most-watched basketball game, men’s or women’s, pro or collegiate EVER.... [more]
The Vols did what they were expected to do against UConn. There's not really much to say about that game. The game this Saturday in Columbia, Missouri will decide whether or not this season is a failure in my opinion. If they Vols lose, they are staring at 8-4 and probably the Gator Bowl. Maybe Reliaquest..... [more]
The Vols are coming back to Neyland Stadium and I am returning after a discretionary bye week. I'll be honest with you. This year it seems like I've been writing the same preview over and over because the formula to win has been the same pretty much every SEC game. I didn't want to sound like a broken record so I needed a bit of a break from that.
I'll start with some general observations..... [more]
FISH Hospitality Pantries (a.k.a. Hospitality Pantries, Inc.) operates four pantries
in East, South, Northwest and West Knoxville. They currently provide food to approximately 8,000 families every month.
FISH focuses on what more can be done to help ensure that everyone gets enough to eat.
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