Final Thoughts on The Road to Atlanta

I'm at my parents' house in Knoxville, and in the morning I'll be heading to Atlanta bright and early to watch Tennessee put 17 years of history on the line against a team they've beaten by an average of 27 points in two games this season with a coach on the brink of retirement. There's not much to scout out about the Vols and the Gamecocks other than those facts, and again, because of two of them I'd throw the third one out. A team playing for their exiting head coach and a team that hasn't played on Saturday in the SEC Tournament since 1991 makes me throw out the previous two contests (though the keys to success - which start with stopping Devan Downey - remain the same) and wait and see. I will say that there's never been a better chance in the last 17 years to advance, which seems like just another, newer way we could be heartbroken in about 16 hours. Or we could win by 30 again. Again, we'll just see.

I will say that while you didn't really learn anything new in the first two games today, you did learn some things in the night session - that Florida is brutally young and you just forgot it because it says "FLORIDA" on their jerseys, that Alabama is really talented and they just forgot it all season long, and that Ole Miss - down 10 with 12 to play against the homestanding Georgia Bulldogs, who are, incidentally, making their only visit to the Georgia Dome of the 2007-08 athletic season - isn't really an NCAA Tournament team. At least right now.

After the Vols and Gamecocks kick things off tomorrow, you'll get Arkansas and Vanderbilt immediately following, and then Mississippi State/Alabama and Kentucky vs. the winner of the ongoing UGA/Ole Miss contest tomorrow night. Hopefully, we can think about potential Saturday matchups, again, in about 16 hours. But even playing the team we beat by 30 or so just five days ago...I'll believe it when I see it.

And I expect to see it soon.