USA - Out of Nothing

NEW YORK (The Tuesday College Diaries) - Last week Bruce Pearl said a time of crisis doesn't build character, it reveals it.

Turns out his Tennessee team might have it in spades then.

We touched on the problems on Rocky Top last week - four players, Melvin Goins, Cameron Tatum, Brian Williams and key senior forward Tyler Smith were arrested on New Year's Day after guns and marijuana were found in a car pulled over for speeding in Knoxville.

Fast forward a week and Pearl made the toughest decision of all - Tyler Smith, the program's best player in a long, long time and a legitimate NBA prospect, was dismissed while the other three remain on the sidelines pending further decisions.

With only six scholarship players available, and the team reeling from the loss of its senior leader, who should come into town on Sunday but Kansas, the unbeaten No. 1 team in the country.

A blowout was predicted, but not by anyone with an insight to the heart of the players left on the Volunteers squad.

With three walk-ons used in heavy rotation - including a team-leading 23 minutes from Rocky Top's new cult hero Skylar McBee - Tennessee pulled off a 76-68 victory in front of a raucous crowd of 21,936 fans.

"It's pretty amazing what chemistry can do when guys put their minds to something and know their backs are up against the wall a little bit and they rally, and they don't quit and they believe in themselves," said Pearl.

McBee, who turned down scholarships elsewhere to walk-on at Tennessee and try to earn his way, has fast become a fan favourite as he bangs in three-pointer after three-pointer.

A trademark long-ranger from the local boy put Tennessee over the top after Brady Morningstar closed the deficit to 71-68 with 1:14 to go. The Vols ran down the shot clock before finding McBee in the corner.

The now-familiar call went out on the PA - "McBee for three" and the celebrations began.

McBee and fellow walk-ons Josh Bone and Bruce's son, Steven Pearl, could have been overawed by the occasion, but instead they committed not a single turnover in 45 minutes of combined action.

Kansas will lose the No. 1 spot with the loss - one of four suffered by top 10 teams this weekend as Purdue, Duke and West Virginia also went down - but coach Bill Self did not want to take anything away from Tennessee.

"The thing I will tell you is this: I don't know if Tennessee was a team until this past week," he said. "I don't know if Kansas is a team yet."

It's impossible to think that Tennessee becomes better with the loss of Smith, not to mention the three others whose future remains unclear.

But at the same time, you wonder if this victory happens without everything that has hit the Vols since New Year's Day.

Pearl's comments hit the nail on the head in terms of identifying the new source of focus within his team.

Players like Scotty Hopson - who led with 17 points despite foul trouble - and Renaldo Woolridge are stepping up to support remaining seniors Wayne Chism and JP Prince and you get the sense of a team now scrapping to stay alive.

That is far more dangerous than one with a sense of entitlement.

"We're just hungry - we're ready to go back to the gym" Woolridge said right after the game. "We want to work until we have to scrape each off the floor just so we can have a feeling like this again."

After a week in which it seemed like everything Pearl had built in Knoxville might be about to crumble, he instead enjoyed perhaps his finest moment.

All things considered, this probably tops going into Memphis two years ago and claiming the No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history.

It remains to be seen whether Tennessee can keep this up, whether this was simply an out-pouring of emotion in one game or a sign that this team is capable of competing for the rest of the season.

SEC play starts this week against Auburn, and a whole new set of tests begins.

But no matter how many more bumps the Volunteers hit along the road, and no matter what happens to the other three players still suspended, they know now what they can do when they put their minds to it.

"What this says is we have got a basketball program here," said Pearl. "A basketball program that is capable of beating the No.1 team in the country."

Smokey Roberts
FIBA