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After giving it some thought, I will give Slive the benefit of the doubt in that he believes the self-imposed sanctions were not enough and UT should have to “pay more”. As the SEC Commish, it is his job to protect the member institutions and more importantly the conference as a whole.

What I find interesting is that instead of contacting UT and telling them that Pearl was to be suspended for eight games and allowing those to start during the less important pre-conference slate, Slive imposed the only authority he had and imposed the penalties during the conference slate. Once again, taking care of his favorites in the SEC and slamming the Vols.

I know that Slive’s circle of control is only with SEC games, but if he had given UT the choice of suspension starting Nov 20 or with the first SEC game, what do you think UT would have chosen?

So with that rant of the way, it is clear that Slive was successful in derailing Tennessee hoops. Do you really think that we would suck so bad if Slive had kept his dick-skinners off of Bruce? I will go out on a limb here and say “fuck no”.

On to the current state of this rudderless team. This team is built to run the court, play transition basketball and press a lot more. That’s all. There’s no pure shooters and Mel Goins is completely wasting his ability to direct the offense…he’s not a scorer, he’s a true guard. This is a vastly under-coached team this year. The Flex Offense…really? It may be Bruce’s base offense but why? It resembles nothing but East Side Baltimore street ball with Goins or Hopson trying to take their man to the hole. The Flex is guys cutting and slashing…you gotta have ball movement first and foremost in order to run that effectively. Why is UT inconsistent…because there is no offense, period!

However people spin that…it falls on Bruce.

I’ve kept my mouth shut about BP’s coaching this year but it’s just flat out bad. These guys have won games on talent alone…imagine if BP had actually coached these guys to their ability this year. Leadership starts at the top and in that regard he’s failed miserably this year. Frankly I’m suprised this team has won as many games as they have with the “whirlwind” that BP had created around them. Lots of fans need to flat thank these guys this year because they sure haven’t been helped from the sidelines.

If Mike Slive ever shows up at another UT basketball or football game, he should be treated as an enemy of our sports programs, booed roundly, and heckled like some loud,drunk abusive opposing fan. I am no conspiracy theorist, but just watch what Slive does. He has a history of turning his back on UT every chance he gets.

Related articles

• Mike Slive knows nothink, nothink. (blutarsky.wordpress.com)
• Mike Slive’s sense of priorities (blutarsky.wordpress.com)
• ESPN’s Jay Bilas Calls Mike Slive’s Suspension of Vol Coach Bruce Pearl “Stupid” (bleacherreport.com)