Vols show 49ers how to play run-and-gun basketball

	#5 Tennessee #12 Long Beach St. 121 86   Box Score Recap All Scores
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If only I'd had a chance to talk to Dane Bradshaw beforehand, I might not have made the mistake of picking Long Beach State over Tennessee as my obligatory 12 over 5 upset -- a game that instead wound up as a 121-86 Volunteer whitewashing.

"They [the 49ers] score a lot of points, but I'm not sure how much of their focus is on defense," said Tennessee's senior swingman. "[The coaches] do a good job of talking up the opponent, but when I watched the film, I noticed if we could get defensive stops on the other end, we'd be all right."

Tennessee was more than all right Friday. It was on fire. In a matchup of two teams that love to run 'n' gun, both did exactly that -- the Vols just did it that much better.

The way the game started, you never would have seen the end-result coming. In a frantic 3:09 span to start the game, the teams combined for five three-pointers (including four on the teams' first five possessions) and 22 points as the Vols went up 14-8. The fans in two-thirds full Nationwide Arena settled in for what figured to be a highly entertaining shootout.

Instead, they were relegated to watching a second straight afternoon blowout (Virginia dismantled Albany 84-57 in the opener). Why? Because Bruce Pearl's team - which hit 6 of its first 7 3-point attempts -- broke out its trademark full-court press, and the underdog 49ers couldn't handle it. During an eight-minute span of the first half, the Vols notched seven steals (many of them on Long Beach State inbounds plays) to jump to a 31-14 lead.

"We didn't press 40 minutes, 94 feet like we do some opponents, but we did it enough to create a little spurt," said Pearl. "It allowed us to be an aggressor, and it allowed us to get our margin up. Then we got out of it because we figured they'd get used to it."

Partially because Tennessee backed off a bit and partially because star Chris Lofton went to the bench with foul trouble, Long Beach managed a brief comeback to cut the lead to six with 4:38 left in the first half. But the Vols got the margin back up to 12 by halftime, then poured it on after intermission, going on a 16-2 run to start the half. When Lofton hit a lay-up to go up 69-47 just 2:29 into the second half, it was apparent the 49ers would be heading back to California shortly.

"Every time I put a shot up I had about three white jerseys all over me," said Long Beach State center Mark Dawson. "We play a similar style to them, but with their SEC athletes, it's tough to match up."

Making Tennessee's domination all the more impressive was that the Vols did it in spite of a phenomenal long-distance performance in its own right from Long Beach, which hit 12 of 21 3-pointers. It's not every day you see a team shoot 49 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from beyond the arc and still lose by 35. Tennessee was just that much better, shooting 59 percent from the field, 14-of-27 from three and outscoring the 49ers 56-32 in the paint. Three different players - Lofton (25 points), JaJuan Smith (24) and Ramar Smith (22) - broke the 20-point mark.

As it turned out, the very things that some experts (mainly this one) figured would give the Vols trouble -- Long Beach's five senior starters, its ability to run the floor and put up points -- may have actually worked in their favor. "This might have been a tough matchup for [Long Beach]," said Pearl. "What they do, being undersized and smaller, it could bother a bigger team, but because we're small also, it was actually a tough matchup for Long Beach, I think."

Information that could have been brought to my attention yesterday.

PLAYER WHO IMPRESSED ME

The junior Lofton earned All-America accolades this season (including from SI.com) for a reason. Though known primarily for his outside shooting (the career 43.9 percent three-point shooter has attempted at least 200 treys all three seasons in Knoxville, including 223 this year), Lofton was an all-around weapon Friday. He scored his 25 points a variety of ways, was instrumental in his team's stifling back-court defense (four steals) and, perhaps most remarkably, for a guy who takes so many threes, didn't take a bad shot all game. He shot 9-of-14 for the day, including 4-of-8 on 3s. "His efficiency is really something," Pearl said of Lofton. "What you see from Chris is what you get night in and night out."

One of the game's most telling sequences came about six minutes in, when, on consecutive possessions, Lofton pick-pocketed Long Beach counterpart Kejuan Johnson under the basket and converted them into lay-ups, stretching Tennessee's lead from 17-10 to 21-10 in six seconds.

"We didn't play press the whole game, so when we did, you had to make the most of it," said Lofton.

COURTSIDE CONFIDENTIAL

Lofton was well aware his team's game was considered an upset possibility - and he didn't necessarily disagree. "We were a little nervous, too," he said. "Anything can happen in the NCAAs." ... In one final, fitting insult to injury for Long Beach, Vols walk-on Tanner Wild - who hadn't scored a single point all season - banked in a 3-pointer with four seconds left to give Tennessee its 121st point, tying a school record. ... In a courtside interview just after the final buzzer, Pearl said to Tennessee's radio broadcasters: "I told you to take the over." ... It's a good thing Florida wasn't placed in this pod or there might have been a riot at Nationwide Arena. One of the NCAA's public-service announcements on the scoreboard during the game read: "Congratulations to the 2006 NCAA Division I football champion -- Appalachian State." ... Strangely, the Tennessee band includes three trumpet players in the front row who all appear to be pushing 50 -- including one with white hair.

BIG PICTURE

Both fourth seed Virginia and the fifth-seeded Vols looked so good Friday, it's impossible to predict a favorite for their second-round game. It will almost certainly decided by which team's high-scoring backcourt tandem -- Tennessee's Lofton and JaJuan Smith or Virginia's Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds -- has the hotter hands. "Defense, physicality, that's a strength for Virginia," said Pearl. "It won't be as easy for us.

The Vols' press gives them a chance to frazzle anyone -- including, potentially, No. 1 seed Ohio State, which Tennessee already took to the wire once on Jan. 13 in Columbus, if the two wind up meeting again in a Sweet 16 game in San Antonio. At the same time, in any game the Vols play, if they're not making their 3s or if the opponent solves their press, the system can blow up in their face, as it has in numerous blowout losses this season (and in an SEC tournament first-round loss to LSU).

Whatever the case, one thing's for certain: If Tennessee's playing, you know it's going to be a fun game to watch. "We pride ourselves in putting the fast in fast break," said Pearl. "This is our identity."