A Picture Tells The Whole Story

If you aren't good at deciphering the mood of pictures, I'll be frank: Louisville absolutely whipped Tennessee.

The game started inauspiciously for Tennessee with Wayne Chism picking up two fouls within the first two minutes of action. With him out, Louisville cruised to a 24-8 lead.

Tennessee fell behind early and never seemed to recover.

Granted, the Vols showed a lot of spunk in a run that cut the Cardinals lead to 1, but the physical team from the Big East quickly answered and returned their lead to a comfortable margin.

It was just a bad night for Tennessee.

When a team's best players get into early foul trouble, get out-rebounded 43-28 on the boards, shoot 34% from the field (including 25% from behind the arc), and lack a true point guard, it is unlikely that team would win any game with those stats, let alone against a team playing as well as Louisville is right now.

Were it not for Tennessee's own defensive tenacity, Louisville likely would have won by a much greater margin.

Painful as it is to the Vol faithful, this loss kind of puts all things in perspective. Tennessee is no doubt on an upward trend of success, but they're still the new kids on the block. They're taking their punches from the big boys, all the while learning what it's like to compete at the elite level in the brunt of the NCAA Tournament.

In a nutshell, give Tennessee a little more time - they're on the cusp of getting to where they want to be.

But for now, a bitter taste plagues the the collective mouth of the Tennessee family.

It's a sad way to send out a fine group of seniors, but it is what it is. Thank you Chris, JaJuan, and Jordan for all that you've done for Tennessee, and I wish to extend to you my best wishes.

In review, not a bad year for Tennessee. SEC Regular Season Champions. 31 wins to 5 losses. A win over the number one ranked team in the land at their home court in the most watched regular season college basketball game in history. That win gave Tennessee their first number one ranking in school history. Back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances. This was far and away the best Tennessee Basketball team that has ever taken the court.

There is a lot of talent returning to Tennessee next year, and hopefully among them a very talented head coach... let's get on that, Mike Hamilton.

So... what now?

Answer: I can smell the grass at Neyland Stadium already.

Stats and information from Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel

Photos by Amy Smotherman Burgess of the Knoxville News-Sentinel