David Climer, The Tennessean
Dressed for success?
Hardly.
Hoping
for a blast from the past, Tennessee Coach Cuonzo Martin donned a
bright orange sports coat for his Memorial Gym debut on Tuesday night.
It turned out to be the basketball version of a wardrobe malfunction.
Vanderbilt undressed the Vols, 65-47. Maybe Martin should've worn a flak jacket.
UT
never had a chance. Vanderbilt scored the game's first nine points.
After 12½ minutes, the Commodores tripled up the Vols 24-8. The lead was
40-21 at halftime and the only question that remained was whether the
Commodores would lose interest.
They didn't.
Afterward, Martin wondered aloud about the toughness of his team, which has yet to win at another team's arena this season.
"Guys
with the ability and mental toughness, they embrace these situations,"
he said. "Some guys probably just don't have it. . . . I just think it's
in your chest more than anything.
"As a competitor and player, you either have it or you don't. . . . It might be too tough for some guys."
Clearly,
it was a game where the tougher team won. Vanderbilt did not play
particularly well - shooting 42.6 percent and committing 16 turnovers -
but the Commodores dominated with their effort.
UT's
Jeronne Maymon, who had 11 of UT's 21 first-half points and finished
with 15, called it "the most physical game I've been a part of." Maymon
didn't back down, but he didn't have a lot of help.
"I
guess we didn't really embrace the pressure," said Vols freshman Josh
Richardson. "We kind of crumbled at first. We kind of picked it up, but
it was too little, too late. We got out-toughed, out-fought. That's all
on us."
UT
freshman Jarnell Stokes was among the casualties. After his first career
double-double in UT's win over UConn on Saturday, Stokes, who just
turned 18, was clearly out of his element against Vanderbilt's veteran
big men, particularly fifth-year senior Festus Ezeli.
Stokes
had six points and committed seven turnovers. Early in the second half,
he and Ezeli bumped during a dead-ball situation and a double-technical
was called. It was one of the few times during the game that Stokes
came out even on an exchange with Ezeli.
Clearly, this was the wrong place at the wrong time for the Vols.
Vanderbilt was coming off a 78-77 home overtime loss to Mississippi
State, a game the Commodores never should have lost.
The
result was a rude welcome for Martin, whose game-day attire was a
tribute to his immediate predecessor, Bruce Pearl, and legendary Vols
Coach Ray Mears, who coined the term Big Orange Country during his
coaching tenure of 1963-77.
Pearl
resurrected the orange jacket as homage to Mears. Pearl wore the jacket
for games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky, the two programs Mears
considered the Vols' biggest rivals.
On
Jan. 14, Martin wore his customary dark suit for the Vols' home game
against Kentucky, but he broke out the orange jacket for the Vanderbilt
game.
It was
Martin's introduction by fire to the quirky configuration of the unique
Little Shop of Horrors that is Memorial Gym. Coaching a game from an
end-zone bench is challenge, to say the least.
Before the game, Martin said he did not expect it to be a significant factor.
"It
will be a little different," he said. "We don't call a lot of plays
anyway, so I don't think it will hurt us from that standpoint."
Based
on UT's first-half performance, which included 12 turnovers and
featured some major defensive lapses, maybe Martin should have called
more plays.