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Tennessee Vols: Top 10 years men’s basketball was way better than football

By Caleb Calhoun

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Volunteers defeated the Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Volunteers defeated the Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images /

4. 2013-2014

Basketball: 24-13 (11-7)

*NCAA Tournament Sweet 16

Football: 5-7 (2-6)

During his first two years as head coach of the Tennessee Vols men’s basketball program, Cuonzo Martin’s team took a while to get going. By the time they hit a rhythm in conference play, it was too late. They hadn’t done enough to make the NCAA Tournament and had to accept back to back NIT bids.

Football, however, suffered back to back 5-7 seasons during that time under Derek Dooley. As a result, Dooley was canned, and Butch Jones took over for the 2013-2014 season. While he was in a honeymoon phase, Martin was in a do-or-die year.

Jones actually won fans over early by building a top 5 recruiting class for 2014, nearly beating the Georgia Bulldogs and upsetting the South Carolina Gamecocks, two top 10 teams. An injury to Justin Worley, however, forced the team to lose four in a row after getting to 4-3, including a heartbreaker to the Vanderbilt Commodores.

That loss meant a third straight season without a bowl game and a fourth straight losing season. Meanwhile, as football fell apart in November, Martin, was off to a rocky start again in November. For the second straight season, he lost a guy to injury he planned to build his offense around, this time five-star freshman Robert Hubbs III.

As a result, men’s basketball stumbled out to a 6-4 record. They began SEC play with a 9-4 record and had a dominating win over the Virginia Cavaliers, who would then get red-hot and turn into a quality victory by the end of the season.

Sporadic play, though, had Martin on the hot seat in February with his team 16-11 after an overtime loss to the Texas A&M Aggies. Meanwhile, Bruce Pearl’s show-cause was about to get lifted, and a petition began to bring him back as head coach. Amidst that petition, Martin and his team rebounded.

Jarnell Stokes, Josh Richardson and Jerronne Maymon led UT on a four-game winning streak to close out the regular season. Then they got to Saturday in the SEC Tournament with their fifth straight win and lost a close one to the No. 1 ranked Florida Gators. It was enough to get them into a play-in game in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed.

That play-in game saw them beat the Iowa Hawkeyes in overtime. Then they upset the UMASS Minutemen. A Mercer Bears upset over the Duke Blue Devils gave them a very easy team to beat to reach the Sweet 16. All of a sudden, a coach who was on the hot seat in February was in the Sweet 16 a month later. Pearl, whom the Auburn Tigers hired, was forgotten about.

The Vols lost a heartbreaker in the Sweet 16 to the Michigan Wolverines. Martin then left for the California Golden Bears, igniting the Donnie Tyndall disaster. Jones became a disaster but had football on an upward path. This year, however, men’s basketball was the better sport by a mile.

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