The CheckerBoard

Great job as always....It's always a nice treat on Mondays to get up to date on all the behind the scenes activities with UT sports. Looking forward to watching our coaches put a finishing touch on this year's recruiting class. Hopefully they can hang on to all of those who are committed and grab a couple of the other big time recruits they are after as well. Should be an exciting final week and a half.

Also would like to say that I'm more excited about our basketball program then I have been in years. Pearl's teams were exciting to watch but I never believed they had a realistic chance of consistently being a top five team. As some of the players who played for him have stated, they never consistently put in the defensive effort that we are now seeing. Yea they could out score a lot of teams and on any given night they could beat any team they played but every team is going to have nights that the offense is just not there. Once tournament time comes and a team has to put together six straight wins against teams that do put forth the great effort on the defensive, just never thought we could pull it off.

From watching the effort this team puts forth on the defensive end, I feel very good about the future of Tenn basketball. Defense wins championships and it's not just a cliche, it's just the way it is and Martin is going to demand this every game from every player. I actually laughed out loud watching Saturday's game when McRae got into the game for the first time, he was putting forth more effort on the defensive end then I had ever seen from him. He was actually trying so hard that it looked like he was going double time compared to everyone else on the floor. He has a ways to go on some of his defensive technique and fundamentals but it was fun to see that he is now understanding the effort it takes and I have no doubt there were some big smiles on coaches faces as they watched the film from Saturday's game. As I watched him chasing his man at what seemed warp speed, I actually thought I could see a light bulb above his head like we used to see in the old time cartoons. It seems like every game the intensity on defense gets better and I know watching from my chair it's a great thing to see. I believe our basketball program is in great hands for many years to come.

texas if Santos goes there.

Best part of my Monday's....As a baseball fan, I am excited in the direction Coach Serrano is taking the baseball program