It's definitely been a strange season already in Tennessee. Bruce Pearl and the Vols off-court problems have recieved a ton of attention, but their performance on the court has been every bit as strange and erratic.
One week ago, one could have made a compelling case that Tennessee merited a Top 5 ranking. No team in the country boasted a better pair of wins than the Vols ten point win over Villanova, and their not-as-close as the score seven point win at Pittsburgh. Add in less impressive but still quality wins over VCU, Chattanooga and Missouri State and Tennessee's perfect 7-0 record carried a ton of weight.
So how do you explain the last seven days for Pearl's club? The 89-82 loss to Oakland (of the Summit League, campus in Michigan, NOT "Oakland" Oakland...) made some sense. Oakland has a good ballclub, and had already played fantastic in close losses to Michigan State and Illinois. Their other three losses were to Purdue, Wright State and West Virginia; nothing to be ashamed of. Tuesday's game, played only two days after a huge emotional dismantling of Pitt on the road, set up perfectly for the dreaded "let down" trap game.
Tonight's 49-48 loss to struggling Charlotte is tougher to explain away. Charlotte entered play a distant shadow of last year's squad that contended for a tourney bid up until the final few weeks of the season, with a 4-6 record that included losses to Gardner-Webb, Coastal Carolina, Oregon State and Davidson. Not only did Tennessee drop a second straight game at home, they finished with a point total that equals a normal half of play for the up-tempo Volunteers.
So which team is the real Tennessee? My guess is somewhere in the middle. There is no need to panic quite yet in Knoxville, but it is fair to say some of the safety a good pre-conference slate of wins afford has slipped through the Vols fingers.
The SEC East is as good as any conference in the nation, with Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt and Georgia all potential NCAA Tournament teams. South Carolina, the presumptive last place team is no slouch either. The West is off to a dreadful start, but Tennessee will have to make their way through a gauntlet to win that division.
For Vol fans, just buckle up and enjoy a rocky ride in Rocky Top. With Pearl's 8-game suspension still looming, the uncertainty surrounding Tennessee is unlikely to fade for quite some time.
When the calendar flips to March, i expect the Vols to settle into the 5-8 seed range. Nothing shameful in that, but with the heightened expectations beating two Top 10 teams before Christmas brings, it might be a tormenting season in Knoxville.
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