NCDS: Mark Pancratz, Spec. Asst. - Tennessee ("Championship Week / Intangibles")

By: Mark Pancratz, Spec. Asst. - Tennessee

No more Tip-Off Week, no more Feast Week, no more Rivalry Week. It’s the second-best week of the year. It’s Championship Week!!!

Since my last entry, our team has gone 3-1, with our only loss coming on the road against an NCAA Tourney-worthy Florida team. This tough loss was followed by two straight home wins versus #2 Kentucky and a much-improved Arkansas team and a huge road win at SEC West Champion Mississippi State. Sure the outcomes of these final three games have been great, but it’s been our team’s maturity and growth during our journey to our final 23-7 regular-season record that has been enabled us to be playing some of our best basketball entering the most crucial portion of our season… CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK!!

Prior to writing this, I took the time to write down as many positive and negative adjectives as I could think of that describe our basketball team. My goal was to figure out what intangibles we had enhanced over the last few weeks because it is my belief that talent can only get you into the NCAA Tournament. It’s the intangibles that allow you to advance. It’s the little things that allow good players and teams to become great! What words do you feel are necessary for a successful team? Or, if you would like to make it more personal, what characteristics do you believe are necessary to your professional success on a daily basis? No matter what realm of professional or personal success you may be relating that question to, I would be shocked if many of the same words I wrote down you didn’t either think of or couldn’t relate to. Words such as hard work, persistence, integrity, effort, communication, leadership, and determination were just a few of the words I wrote down that relate to our team.

However, two words that I believe don’t relate to every team or organization but have been vital characteristics to our team’s success over the last few weeks are unselfishness and sacrifice.  The way our players have positively interacted on and off the court, the way they’ve prepared in practice and how we have played together as brothers determined to achieve the same goals have enabled us to deserve victory. In addition, this team exhibits unselfishness more than almost any other team I have been a part of (I have to give a shout out to the “Banner Boys” of our 2004-05 Sweet 16 Wisconsin-Milwaukee team; we too were a group of friends/brothers who played for one another).

The unselfish personality of our team has come to light because our players have made some personal sacrifices as they accepted the roles that Coach Pearl deemed necessary for our team’s success. (For example Josh Bone, has continued to bust his butt during practice as a scout team member to help prepare those who are getting significant game minutes despite the fact he helped us beat #1 Kansas, SEC West Champ Ole Miss and numerous other teams). Acquiring this team unselfishness is necessary for a team to truly be great; and our players have practiced much harder and with more efficiency on a consistent basis. This has enabled us to follow our offensive and defensive game plans much more precisely. In addition, this unselfish focus on team goals rather than personal performance has raised the level of enthusiasm our guys have come to “work” with on a daily basis. Less often have our players been worried about their level of offensive involvement, the points they’ve scored, or the minutes they’ve played. More importantly they are focused on our team’s success and their role in our team’s offensive and defensive execution (such as setting their teammate a great screen, making the proper pass, or executing the correct defensive rotation).

Lastly, each player’s sacrifice and unselfishness has enabled him to buy into the philosophy that Coach Pearl has always worked to instill in his teams. His slogan? “It’s our 10 or 11 vs. their seven or eight.” This is said with the belief that if our rotation of 10 or 11 guys can all fulfill their roles to the best of their ability, we should beat teams who only play seven or eight guys because we will be able to play harder and will be fresher come crunch time. The only way this can continue to be accomplished is if our players continue to play for the name in Orange and White on the front of their jersey and not the name on their backs!

On the schedule for this week is LSU in the first round of the SEC Tourney. Earlier this season, we squeaked out a “W” in Baton Rouge. Their toughness on the defensive end, patient offensive game plan, and great leader, Tasmin Mitchell, will once again make this game very challenging. In order to pull out a victory at 2:15p.m. CT Thursday, we will have to continue to prepare with the same unselfishness and hunger to improve.

On behalf of our basketball program and our University, I want to thank all of Vol Nation for making Thompson-Boling Arena the best homecourt advantage in the country (just ask #1 Kansas and #2 Kentucky), as we finished fourth in attendance for the fourth straight year!! Your appreciation for the growth our team has exhibited and your passionate love for Tennessee Athletics are characteristics envied by other athletic departments throughout the country!

GO VOLS!!!