NCDS: Mark Pancratz, Asst. Coach - Tennessee
By: Mark Pancratz, Asst. Coach - Tennessee
We've all dealt with our own share of adversity in life. Whether you were prepared for the adversity or it was completely unexpected, your actions to overcome those situations are often a direct reflection of the outcome you endure.
On January 1st, our Tennessee Family encountered the most adverse, unexpected, situation anybody could have dreamed of (and by "dream." I mean "nightmare!"). I'll never forget being in the office, at my desk feeling good as I re-watched our win over Memphis from the previous night when Coach Pearl called me that morning to explain what had happened. I don't even like roller coasters, but apparently before the opening tip verse Memphis, we all unwittingly hopped on the most rewarding roller coaster many of us will ever be a part of.
The statement I wrote on my dry-erase board when I walked into the office on the morning of January 2nd was "Adversity introduces man to himself." With those five words in mind, and a group of people (players, coaches, administrators, and family members) with no one else to lean on but each other, we set out to reaffirm our families, friends, the University's faculty and staff, our student body, and every member of the Vol Nation's pride in our basketball program.
For the next few weeks our players and coaches had many ups and downs. Although we continue to use it as a real learning experience, seeing members of our basketball family highlighted in the local and national media at that time was really tough on our student-athletes and coaches. These four guys are our family. Other than our families at home, there is nobody our Tennessee Basketball Family cares more about than each other.
Dealing with the adversity we faced as a program off the court increased our coaches' and student-athletes' passion for the game of basketball and our willingness to make any sacrifice necessary to help our team succeed. As we entered our games vs. highly touted teams such as Charlotte, #1 Kansas, Auburn and #21 Ole Miss without two starters (one who had previously been first-team All-SEC) and two guys from our second unit, we played with the passion, poise and purpose that Coach Pearl works to instill in our players every day. During this extremely turbulent time our fans stood by our student-athletes and coaches like I honestly never expected. Their pride and enthusiasm in everything that the Orange and White name on the FRONT of each one of our players' jerseys stands for carried us to the greatest victory that many of us have ever been a part of here at Tennessee. Beating #1 Kansas on national TV with each player asked to play a completely different role then they were just one week earlier-and having three walk-ons playing significant minutes-is something that was publicized over and over again. However, seeing the raw emotion of our student-athletes and fans celebrating together, the tears of happiness pouring down our coaching staff's faces, and our realization that adversity does reveal a person's true character... those will be aspects of this roller coaster I will never forget.
This ride has brought us to our current 20-6 record with possibly our most challenging week of the year ahead of us. Tonight, we face an excellent Florida team followed by an extremely tough match up at home against #2 Kentucky Saturday. Since we played Florida three weeks ago, they have gone 4-2, are tied with us for third place in the SEC East and are playing very, very good basketball. What makes Florida even more challenging is that after 26 games and multiple games a week late in the season, we are unable to have long, live, full-contact practices. Coach strongly believes in keeping guys completely healthy and saving their energy for game time. Therefore we will watch tons of film on Florida, discuss and walk through our offensive and defensive game plan, and get a lot of extra free throws and shooting work.
Since scouting and preparation in the SEC prior to the second time we play an opponent is excellent, we find it very important to execute the things that we can control. However sometimes hearing similar messages over and over again from anybody can get redundant and lose its impact. Therefore, as we prepared for Tuesday nights game we showed our players a clip from Kobe Bryant's movie "Doin' Work" (Click this link and go to the 2:15 mark and watch it until the end). The reason the coaches showed this clip is because arguably the greatest basketball player in the world discussed the necessity of preparation and execution to succeed that we communicate and work to instill in our players on a daily basis.
After our game vs. Florida there is no time to relax as #2 Kentucky comes to town on Saturday. As a heated rival, Kentucky is always a tough game. Now, with a team comprised of four potential first round NBA draft picks coached by John Calipari, this contest will surely be no exception. We will have to play great to win, but as we've illustrated at times throughout previous moments in the season, we look forward to competing when adversity is at its highest. In addition, our basketball program and UT Medical Center is doing an "orange out" to help promote the "OUTLIVE" program we constructed two years ago to help fight cancer. It is our hope that our fans will pick up their orange shirts, come out to the game Saturday and wear their orange being loud and proud!
Lastly, on behalf of the rest of our staff and student-athletes, I want to thank you, our fans, for your continued support throughout this season. You have once again demonstrated to all of us why the Vol Nation is the best fanbase in the country!!!
GO VOLS!!!
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