AOL Sports Analyzes Tennessee Basketball

Sweat-meister Bruce Pearl's 2007 Vols are a mixed bunch. Without the strong presence of Major Wingate (dismissed from the team earlier in the fall) in the paint, Tennessee looks alternately brilliant and horrid. Chris Lofton put an amazing 31 points on the board to accelerate the Vols past Louisiana Lafyette, winning 77-67, but the Vols should have had an easier time knocking off the Rajin' Cajuns with a true team effort. Tennessee's most recent game, against Murray State on December 1st, produced a respectable 89-64 win, but the Vols' 101-87 loss to UNC is probably what still resonates in the minds of most Vol fans. UT's other L, an upset loss to Butler in the NIT, has proven not to be such an upset after all; Butler went on to defeat Gonzaga in the finals, and finds itself in college basketball's Top 20 now with a 9-0 record to date.