The Tennessee Volunteers are champions once again. After a 1o year drought of mostly lackluster teams and performances in the three major sports, the Vols are again kings of the SEC.
Tennessee clinched a share of the SEC Championship on Saturday night after beating Georgia 66-61 inside a sold out Thompson-Boling Arena. The Vols share the title with the Auburn, who clinched their share earlier in the day with a 79-70 win against South Carolina. Both teams finished with a 13-5 regular season conference record.
Tennessee’s captain and closer, Admiral Schofield, made a title-clinching fade-away jumper with 17 seconds left to seal the win for the Vols. Schofield’s 23-point performance is his third straight game with at least 23 points, and he averaged 24 points in the final three games of the season.
As Lil Wayne once said, Schofield has ice in his veins and blood in his eyes.
Schofield explained what the atmosphere was like inside the arena during the game and after the game in his postgame press conference after Tennessee’s victory.
“The arena was very energetic. Probably the loudest it’s been since the North Carolina game,” Schofield said. “Everything they’ve done for us this season […] they’ve supported us, and they’ve been there every home game.”
In the preseason, the Vols were picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams in the SEC. To prove the critics wrong and now be co-champions of the league is something that Schofield takes great pride in.
“It’s always fun to have the last laugh,” said Schofield. “Those guys had no idea what we’ve been doing in the off-season. It was hard to sit there and listen to them say we were going to finish second to last in the league.
“It’s hard to explain but it’s an amazing feeling.”
The Vols are co-champions of the regular season, and they still have a shot at becoming the outright champions of the SEC Tournament. Schofield knows that winning the SEC Tournament is something that Tennessee has not accomplished in a long time.
“We have to go take business in the tournament which we haven’t won since 1979,” Schofield stated. “The biggest thing for us is to take it one step at a time. Every day we’re trying to get better. We’re worrying about ourselves and no one else. We worry about our teammates, our university, and our standard.”
The Bulldogs got the best of the Vols two weeks earlier when the two teams met in Athens. After game one, Schofield said that there were things that his team needed to work on. He talked about what the adjustments were leading up to Saturday’s game.
“The biggest thing Coach Barnes gets onto us about is being sloppy on offense. He knows that we’re going to play hard on defense because that who we are, that’s our identity,” Schofield said. “We had to make crisper passes, get on the offensive glass so we could get some offensive possessions back.”
Being named champions is something that every player and coach strives for. When asked if the end of Saturday’s win was the most fun he has had in his basketball career, Schofield had an interesting answer.
“No. The most fun I ever had was when I was younger playing on my Fisher-Price rim and watching Michael Jordan tapes,” Schofield said with a laugh.
It seems that it is the small, simple things in life that mean the most to the big man.
Tennessee goes into the SEC Tournament as the No.2 seed and has clinched a double-bye. The Vols’ first game of the tournament will be at 7 PM on Friday, March 9th. Tennessee will play the winner of Mississippi State-LSU and will have their game televised on the SEC Network.
With some much needed and earned rest coming this week, Tennessee looks to come out playing strong and refreshed in the SEC Tournament. And they’ll likely ride Schofield in the tournament like they have to close out the regular season.
