March Madness: Tennessee Vols’ last NCAA Tournament game vs. Big South Champion was historic

When Tennessee basketball tips off March Madness Thursday as a No. 3 seed in the South Region against the Longwood Lancers, they’ll be doing so as heavy favorites. However, Vol fans should look at their program’s own history to know why Longwood can be scary.

This isn’t the first time UT has faced the Big South Champion to open the NCAA Tournament. Rocky Top did it once before, way back in Bruce Pearl’s first season on the job. That year, they needed a legendary shot from a legendary player to avoid a historic upset.

In 2006, Tennessee basketball was a No. 2 seed and beat the No. 15 seed Winthrop Eagles 63-61. Chris Lofton had to hit a game-winning fadeaway on the baseline off an in-bounds pass to break a 61-all tie with just under three seconds to go.

At the time, Winthrop was an elite lower-level program led by Gregg Marshall. They had won the Big South and were playing in March Madness the year before, and they returned all five starters. As a result, despite their low seed, they were going to be a tough out.

On the other side, the Vols were actually the surprise team of the year. Again, this was Pearl’s first season. In the previous four season, under Buzz Peterson, UT never went further than the first round of the NIT. Pearl had taken over for a team that was 14-17 the year before and lost its two leading scorers.

Adding insult to injury, the one elite recruit in the Vols’ 2005 class, Tyler Smith, went to prep school instead because Peterson was fired. Then Jemere Hendrix, a key player the previous year, was dismissed from the team. Simply put, expectations were low.

However, with nobody in the SEC yet used to Pearl’s flex offense and his commitment to up-tempo basketball, the Vols took the league by firestorm. At one point, they were 19-3, on an eight-game winning streak in the top 10 and first in the SEC.

All of that attrition made for lack of depth, though, and they already didn’t have a lot of size, so they stumbled down the stretch, losing four of six before March Madness, including their first SEC Tournament game despite being the No. 1 seed from the East. It was clear this team was tired.

That made it pretty obvious Winthrop was going to make this a game given their depth and experience. As a result, looking back now on Lofton hitting that shot, there’s a reason it was so memorable. This was the Vols’ first NCAA Tournament game in five years and it became their first tourney win in six years.

The lack of depth finally caught up with them in the second round, and they were upset by the No. 7 seed Wichita State Shockers. However, it set the stage for the Pearl era. This UT team is much deeper, so not getting out of the first weekend would be inexcusable.

Still, they need to remember the scare the last Big South team gave them in the NCAA Tournament. It’s called March Madness for a reason, and the Vols don’t want to be one of the teams to add to the madness.