For those that have not seen yet, the Texas Longhorns Rivals site is reporting that the Pac 10 is prepared to invite Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado into the conference next week at their spring meetings. This 16 team conference would have Arizona, Arizona State, and the 6 Big 12 schools in an east division and the 8 other Pac 10 schools in a west division.

Obviously at this point everything is speculation, but this would surely get the wheels spinning on conference expansion. IF this happened what would everybody prefer the SEC do? Some have speculated that the SEC's "backup plan" if Texas is not available would involve Florida State, Miami, Clemson, and Georgia Tech. Personally if Texas is not available, then I hope the SEC stays put. I do not really think any of those 4 teams makes the SEC much better than we currently are. Anyone else have thoughts?

I'm sure Will will add his own commentary later, but I wanted to give my opinion on this historical season that ended in heartbreak.

I want to start by saluting all 3 seniors. Bobby Maze is a guy that was advertised as a a complete point guard who was going to come in and become Tennessee's best point guard since C.J. Watson. He came in last season and was very up and down, he hit a game winner at Arkansas, but struggled mightily on defense at times as did the whole team last season. This year was completely different. He was not always perfect, but his point guard play was the best Tennessee has had since Watson. He became a team leader after Jan. 1st, and was our on the floor leader. His 2 free throws in the last 13 seconds against OSU, are 2 of the most clutch free throws in the history of Tennessee basketball. Thank You Bobby and we wish you luck in your future.

I was at the Sommet Center in Nashville for J.P. Prince's first collegiate game at UT. Tennessee was playing a Western Kentucky team that would ultimately get to the Sweet 16. I knew the name J.P. Prince, but I really knew nothing about him. I quickly learned he was a player. He scored 8 points that night in what was a 6 point UT victory. A week later he led the team with 23 points in a win at eventual Elite 8 participant Xavier. We knew then J.P. was a player. Arguably J.P's. finest hour though was Feb 23, 2008 in the Fed Ex Forum. He scored all 13 of his points in the 2nd half against the #1 ranked Tigers, after John Calipari infamously called him "PJ" earlier in the week. The Vols won 66-62, and ascended to #1 for the first time ever. He struggled at times in his junior season, and to many Tennessee fans was a bit of a microcosm for the rest of the 2008-2009 Vols: Extremely inconsistent, really good when he is on, really bad when he was bad. That notion has completely been put to rest in the last 8 weeks though. After Jan 1st he has been a warrior. He saved his best performances for the best times: 20 points in the win over Kentucky, 17 in the SEC quarterfinals vs Ole Miss, 15 vs San Diego State, 18 vs Ohio, 14 points vs Ohio State; but our lasting image of J.P. will be his blocked shot of All American Evan Turner that sent UT to its first Elite 8 in program history.  J.P. will always be one of my favorite Vols, and I wish him all the luck going forward. Thank You J.P.

If Chris Lofton and Dane Bradshaw are the benchmarks for Bruce Pearl players, Wayne Chism is not very far behind #5 and #23 for most beloved Vol of the Pearl era. A Tennessean from Bolivar, Wayne has become the face of Tennessee basketball the last 3 months. He has been a four year starter and has been apart of a staggering 104 wins, the most of any Vol all time. He was a part of 7 NCAA tournament victories another amazing feet considering UT only has 16 all time tournament victories. It really is hard for me to put in words what all Wayne has meant to Tennessee. He has been a 3 point shooter, a dominating post man, a defensive stopper, a team leader in free throw shooting, and has had a personality that is hard to match. He has also took over this team after Jan. 1st. This was his team, and at times he would not let us lose. His second half against Ohio State will go down in my book as the most clutch half by a single player in UT basketball history. He flat out took over the game with 18 points and OSU had no one to stop him. And last but not least the infamous headband, everybody will remember him for the headband that was worn more like a halo. It was pure Wayne. I know there are things that I am forgetting, but Wayne will always be a true Vol, that took this program to new heights. Thank You for everything Wayne, and one final time: Chi$$le!

All 3 of these guys will live in UT lore, they all overcame obstacles to bring Tennessee to new heights. They will all be missed dearly in the years to come. Once again Thank You Bobby, J.P., and Wayne. You will be dearly missed.

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Chest bump to cubvol for the kick in the pants. If you can make it, wear your orange to St. Louis!

-- Joel

The last 10 days something has really upset me the more I think about it. It is the terrible fan turnout we had at the Kentucky game in Nashville. We as Tennessee fans, myself included, really let this team down, by most accounts there were between about 500-1,000 UT fans in the building compared to the roughly 17,000 UK fans. Judging by their comments I think Coach Pearl and the players were disappointed as well.  I know it is convienient to just say "Oh they are a basketball school, and it just means more to them" but to me I do not think we can use this excuse anymore if we want to become a first rate basketball program. Now I am not really speaking to the members of this site, as I know everyone here is a basketball fan, but more to Tennessee fans in general. I know a couple members of this site went to Providence last weekend, and some are already going to St. Louis this week.  Like I said I am not speaking to anyone specific, just to UT fans overall. We need to become a fan base that travels for basketball as well as football. I'm not saying we are going to turn into Kentucky overnight, but I think the fan base as a whole needs to support this team more in neutral court settings. This weekend in St. Louis gives us a chance to make a statement.

This past December myself and about 50,000 other Tennessee fans attended the Chick-fil-A bowl in Atlanta to watch a 7-5 football team play in a mediocre bowl game. That is one thing that makes Tennessee Football so special. Whether the Vols are playing in California, Florida, New York state, Texas, or any SEC stadium Volunteer fans will be there in full force. This weekend we need to be out in full force to support this basketball team. The good thing is that in basketball you do not need 50,000 fans to give yourself a home court advantage. Just 10,000 fans in a neutral court setting will give you a decided edge. If we are willing to give so much support to 7-5 football team, we need to give that same support to this very good basketball team. After all this team has battled through to get to the Sweet 16, they deserve a strong showing of orange in the Edward Jones Dome Friday night.

This weekend this Tennessee basketball team has the opportunity to go somewhere Tennessee has never been before. It is also a great opportunity for Tennessee fans to support this team, St. Louis is only a 5 hour drive from Nashville and only 3-4 hours from Memphis. I know personally I cannot be there Friday due to school, but I definitely will be there Sunday if we beat the Buckeyes. The last 2 times we have played in the Sweet 16 it was either at a location that was not close (San Antonio) or another fan base ate up most of the tickets (Charlotte). This time neither of those should be a problem. So all I am asking is that if you are capable to get to St. Louis on Friday or hopefully Sunday, go because this team can use all of our support. Let's help this team beat Ohio State and let's show this team how much Tennessee fans do care about basketball.

I know the last couple weeks, myself included, a lot of us have really been focusing on how well this team can finish, or how we will do in the SEC tourney, or even how far we can go in the NCAA tourney. Well last night when I was thinking about today's game against South Carolina, it kind of hit me that there is only about a month left in the entire season, and how in a few short weeks there will be no UT games to watch on a Saturday afternoon or a Wednesday night. For me the long 5 month period between the end of basketball, and the start of football really seems to drag out. As my name suggests I am also a huge Chicago Cubs baseball fan, and do not get me wrong I love watching Cubs baseball all summer, but there is really nothing like a big football Saturday or even a big time basketball game in TBA.

For whatever reason this team has really grown on me throughout the season, and I think this might be my favorite team since the 2006-2007 team that lost to Ohio State at the buzzer in the Sweet Sixteen. I guess it is just the adversity they have faced, and the way they have dealt with the loss of Tyler Smith. Who knows how this team will finish, we have 5 regular season games to play, and then at least 2 postseason games, so we have somewhere in the range of 7-13 games left. That means we only have a handful of games left to watch Wayne Chism take over games in the paint, or watch J.P. Prince fill up the stat sheet with points, rebounds, assists, and turnovers, or even watch Bobby Maze continue to mature into the point guard we all thought he would be when he arrived on campus 2 years ago.

I guess what I am saying is let's enjoy being able to watch Tennessee basketball on a Saturday, because 2 months from now on a Saturday afternoon their will be no college sports to watch, just the never ending NBA season and April baseball. Their was also a time not too long ago when the thought of us even being on the NCAA tournament bubble, yet alone likely making it for the 5th consecutive year, would have been cause for celebration. So let's enjoy watching Wayne, JP, and Bobby play, let's enjoy being on the right side of the NCAA tournament bubble, and let's enjoy having a coach and a team that could have folded after New Year's Day, but has gutted it out to be in the position they are in now.

I know the last few weeks there has been a lot of discussion about the difficulty of our last 8 games in conference play. After looking over the schedule extensively, I definitely think it is as tough as advertised. I think our 6-2 start in conference play was almost a must, considering how back loaded the schedule is. Personally, 10-6 was my goal for this team  going into conference play after the Jan. 1st incident. That would mean going 4-4 down the stretch. I have below a game by game detail of how are schedule stacks up, with predictions included.

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This afternoon radio host George Plaster on 104.5  in Nashville said he had heard from people he had talked to in Knoxville close to Mike Hamilton that they thought the three players would be suspened for the semester. I had not heard that before today, but that is what Plaster said. If so this would be a big blow, not getting any of the guys back. I really don't know what to believe right now as I had heard that Tatum and Goins would most likely be back on the team.  If this is true it would definitely be a big development.