All you have to do is look at the cover of this magazine to get
an idea of how tough it has been to play on the Tennessee men's
team the last few years. While the Lady Vols were winning two
national titles in the last two years, the men were looking for
their first NCAA bid since 1989. And if there was any fun to be
had, it was lost laboring in a walk-it-up, work-it-in offense
under former coach Kevin O'Neill.
But suddenly the Tennessee men are winning and having fun doing
it, which is almost as startling a sight as the new
orange-topped billiards table in the Vols' locker room. The
winning and the pool table are both upgrades that can be traced
to new coach Jerry Green, a former Roy Williams assistant at
Kansas who spent the last five years rebuilding Oregon's
program. Though Green is working with O'Neill's players, he has
gotten rid of O'Neill's offensive shackles. "The only rule about
shooting now is that you have to be off the bus," says junior
guard Brandon Wharton. Indeed, Green has promised to levy a $50
fine against any assistant who utters the words "bad shot," and
already the Vols have taken 136 more three-pointers than they
did all last season.
The result has been happy, confident players and a season
Tennessee can be proud of. After starting 10-0 and then losing
five of their first six SEC games, the Vols won seven of their
last eight, including last Saturday's 90-76 defeat of
Vanderbilt, to bring their record to 18-6 (8-6 in the
conference). That guaranteed them their first winning season in
five years and made them a good bet to break that string of
seasons without an NCAA tournament bid. Moreover, they've done
it without two of their best players, Charles Hathaway and
DaShay Jones, both of whom suffered season-ending injuries in
December. "This isn't the time anyone wants to be playing
Tennessee," Vanderbilt coach Jan van Breda Kolff said after last
Saturday's loss. "They're on a roll."
The biggest change on the court, besides Green's freewheeling
style, is the presence of freshman point guard Tony Harris, a
blue-chip recruit from Memphis whom O'Neill courted with every
blandishment he could think of—including the clinching FedEx
delivery, on the eve of signing day, of a bright orange box
filled with more than 1,000 letters signed by rabid Vols fans
like "Abraham Lincoln" and "Cindy Crawford." Harris, who was
averaging 14.5 points and 4.0 assists a game through Sunday, has
turned out to be worth the effort. If anything, he has become a
much better on-court leader since sitting out two games with a
stress fracture in his left leg in January. "I learned so much
watching Brandon run the team," says Harris. "He lets the game
come to him. I had been out there just taking quick shots."
Harris still has the Green light to shoot, just as he has it to
apply full-court pressure on defense, which he'd be happy to do
all night. In high school he ran the 3,200 meters and frequently
won. "I never got tired, I don't know why," says Harris. "I seem
to have an extra energy boost that allows me to run on and on."
That's a good sign for the Vols, because for the first time in
years, their season appears to be going a longer distance.
Issue date: March 2, 1998
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