A TRIP TO THE FINAL FOUR

We left Knoxville at 9am and arrived in INDY at 2pm

On our arrival in Indy we made our way to Champps
The Tennessee Pep Rally Bar at Washington & Illinois



It was impossible to miss the Sea of Orange outside

The band and the cheerleaders entertained the crowd outside

Under the Indianapolis Artsgarden


The inside was so packed it was difficult to move
Our party of 5 won two of the doorprize drawings
Mine was an autographed Pat Summitt 880 wins poster


Inside we had lots of Volunteer Celebrities !!!!


after the rally we made our way past the State Capitol

Down a street lined in Orange & White under the Final Four banner

The street was named TENNESSEE WAY

We followed it to the intersection of Tennessee Way & Michigan State


Orange Clad fans waited to enter the RCA Dome

Lining up and

Getting In - the security staff was very plesant & they allowed cameras
without having to smuggle them in!!!

The USUAL SUSPECTS were there!!!!

along with EmsterCA(shown here in the hat) & friends


The RCA Dome was split with these temporary stands
This is a horrible venue - the acoustics made it impossible to hear much
from the temporary stands. The sound system sucked.


My seat (after moving down 20 rows) was the best seat in the house.
I was 8 rows behind the press with a better viewing angle.

T.O. was in the House - sitting a row in front and 3 seats away.
He spent some of the game with an O & W shaker on his head
while waving another wildly.

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR A REVIEW OF THE GAME

880 and looking for 884 this year.

Today's Knoxville News Sentinel Front Page


The front page of the KNS Sports Section


The South stands at TBA - a part of the 13,000 witnesses to history


95% or so of the fans stayed for the presentation ceremony for
Coach Summitt. They had to wait for a long TV interview with no audio
in the arena. Bad planning on the part of ESPN2 and the NCAA.
None the less we waited patiently in honor of Coach Summitt and her
magnificent accomplishment. A great time was had by all.


A great picture of Pat and her extended family
from the Official Tennessee Lady Vols Website

879 Ties a Record and so does Z.

CRISPY at TBA with Pom Pom Man, PrimaDonnaNot, Aceland, & Real Tall Shorty
Aurabass's Mom thanks Crispy for the Z and Hornbuckle Pins!!!!!


Meanie Heads practice looking MEAN


ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 28 Z's for Shanna Zolman
who ties her own game high record
and the Z signs were out all night.

Pom Pom Man demonstrates the reversed Z.

SEC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP in Greenville SC.

LADY VOLS are SEC CHAMPIONS!!!!!


First Auburn


Then Vandy


RTS & PDN Gettin Sidney Wit It


TIKI BOB'S was Lady Vols Pep Rally Headquarters


Lady Vols Athletic Director Cronan & UT President Peterson at Tiki Bob's


Our ex-of-UCONN UT President Peterson leads the cheers!!!


Former Alumni Assoc Presidents Bozeman & Lashlee confer with Pres. Emeritus Boling at Tiki Bob's


Howard Bozeman - oldest living UT Alumni President(86) & Torchbearer wife Barbara enjoy the festivities at Tiki Bob's (my parents)


Dr. Boling, T.O. Lashlee, Howard & Barbara Bozeman, and John Fugate watch Dr. Peterson lead the cheers.


Tiki Bob's had Big Orange Crowds dancing inside.


Singing Rocky Top outside


Big Shanna fan's dancing with Smokey


Everybody had a great time


Greenville was a great place on a beautiful weekend
It could not have been better. An SEC Championship
Great restaurants & a beautiful setting.
The unique suspension bridge over Reedy Falls in downtown Greenville.


Howard & Barbara Bozeman on the bridge over the Reedy River


Reedy Falls and the park


Up stream on the Reedy River from Main Street


Main Street in Greenville - 10 blocks of restaurants and shops


The Westin Poinsett - Team hotel for the SEC Champion Lady Vols on Main


Pandemonium in the Bi Lo Center
TENNESSEE WINS

A Foot "touching" the Line

AN EXPERIMENT IN TOE TOUCHING PHOTOGRAPHY

Left angle is from a location approximating center court above and behind the line
Center angle is directly above the shoe.
Right angle is from in front of the shoe.

The shoe and the "line" remained in exactly the same positions.

Cameras and angles obviously can make a foot look like it is touching a line when it is not.

STOP THE PRESSES - I FOUND MY DVR RECORDED A REPLAY OF THE BAMA-LSU TOE JAM AT HALFTIME OF THE AUBURN UT GAME. HERE ARE THE PICS.




Three screen shots of the toe "touching" the line in three resolutions.
The camera that caught this shot was in front of the foot.
It was at wide angle.
I shot a digital picture of the DVR image on my SONY WEGA HD TV.
This is the exact size of the image on the 36" Sony

Notice the way the line bleeds and the black shoe bleeds.(adjacent pixels contain some of the black color and shadow)
This is very very close but I discern a miniscule space between the shoe and the line in the picture. On the HD TV it is more distinct.
The SEC quarter finals were not shot or broadcast in High Definition. This means the resolution is less than half as good as high definition.

Note the shadow/bleed in front of the right shoe.
Between the shadow, the bleed, and wide angle of the camera shot it is almost impossible to tell. It was that close.

I think that's a ridiculous difference for officials to make a call that decides a game.

In the UCONN-Rutgers BEast Championship a similar call was made.
This time I was able to watch the same replay the officals saw on that ridiculously small monitor on my 36" Sony in High Definition from the ESPNHD feed on cable.

On my monitor it was clear that the toe was NOT touching the line.
The officials said it was and called it a 2 point shot.
They were clearly wrong.
I don't know if their monitor was High Def or not but if officials are going to review this "touching" the line stuff that closely they should have adequate monitors on which to view the proximity of the foot to the line.

Read the responses from officials on The Officiating Forum and this thread on The SUmmiTT for more views on this controversy.

Thanks to the good folks at the excellent WOMEN'S HOOPS WEBLOG for the link.

IT HAPPENED AGAIN - in the SEC Men's Tourney
South Carolina hit a 3 to tie the game.
The officials consulted this tiny monitor:

and decided they couldn't tell for sure it was a three
and called the game for Ole Miss

post your comments below.

SEC Brackets and Picks

FIRST ROUND - Thursday, March 3
Game 1 #8 Florida vs. #9 Alabama 1:00 p.m.
Game 2 #7 Auburn vs. #10 Kentucky 3:15 p.m.
Game 3 #5 Ole Miss vs. #12 South Carolina 7:00 p.m.
Game 4 #6 Mississippi State vs. #11 Arkansas 9:15 p.m.
SECOND ROUND - Friday, March 4
Game 5 #1 LSU vs. Game 1 winner 1:00 p.m.
Game 6 #2 Tennessee vs. Game 2 winner 3:15 p.m.
Game 7 #4 Georgia vs. Game 3 winner 7:00 p.m.
Game 8 #3 Vanderbilt vs. Game 4 winner 9:15 p.m.
SEMINFINALS - Saturday, March 5
Game 9 Game 5 winner vs. Game 7 winner 7:00 p.m.
Game 10 Game 6 winner vs. Game 8 winner 9:15 p.m.
FINALS - Sunday, March 6
Game 11 Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner 7:00 p.m.

My picks -
Alabama over Florida
Without Mosby on the Florida roster Alabama has an excellent chance for an upset

Auburn over Kentucky
Auburn took Kentucky by 15 on Feb 13 and Kentucky has lost 6 or their last 7 games

Ole Miss over South Carolina
This one reqires no explanation

Miss State over Arkansas
Miss St lost at Arkansas by 12 in January but they have won three of their last four games and played pretty well at Tennessee on Senior night. Arkansas has lost 4 straight and 6 of their last 7 SEC games

Alabama vs LSU
LSU easily

Auburn vs Tennessee
Tennessee in a good game

Ms State vs Vanderbilt
MS State in a mild upset to insure an NCAA bid. They took Vandy to OT and won 3 of their last four.

Ole Miss vs Georgia
Georgia wins

Tennessee over MS. State in the semi-finals
LSU over Georgia

TENNESSEE MEETS LSU in the Finals.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Freshman Finale

Alexis Hornbuckle and Nikki Anosiki were a huge factor in the Lady Vols final season game at Alabama.

55 Anosike, Nicky...... c 6-8 0-0 7-8 4 0 4 3 19
14 Hornbuckle, Alexis.. 5-5 1-1 6-6 3 2 5 5 17

Anosiki's 19 and Hornbuckle's 17 were both game highs.
Hornbuckle was named Player of the Game and she was perfect shooting.
Alexis even used all of her fouls.

With three top freshmen out for the season and sophomore Sidney Spencer joining them on Knoxville Kneedy row it was comforting to see that Nikki and Alexis have the ability to step up their games to this level.

Alabama shot extremely well in the second half to keep the game interesting (57%)
It was Senior night and their coach Rick Moody was on the bench for the last time in Tuscaloosa.

Sa'de Smiles

SA'DE SMILES

Awhile back in an interview Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood was asked what she missed most about California and home. Among the familiar family and friends and eternal sunshine she listed her favorite food; Hamburgers from the IN-N-OUT BURGER

As a resident of Redondo Beach and San Pedro California for a number of years I too developed an affinity for the IN-N-OUT Burger. When Sa'de's tendonitis flared up again I decided to do something for her.

I e-mailed the IN-N-OUT 'contact us' site telling them about Sa'de and how she missed them. To my great surprise someone called me back within the hour.

IN-N-OUT mailed me a 'care package' containing wrappers, bags, logos and other IN-N-OUT stuff with a nice letter wishing Sa'de a speedy recovery. I gave the package to Sa'de last night after the Mississippi State game along with a copy of the picture above taken at Boost-Her Night last fall.

I told Sa'de that it wasn't as good as the real thing but when she gets burgers in Knoxville she can put them in the IN-N-OUT wrappers and bags and pretend.

I was rewarded with a hug and a huge Sa'de smile.

I've been smiling all day.

Thank you Can I open a franchise in Knoxville?

MeanieHeads on Senior Night

As the teams left the court for half-time


The Brain Trust looked decidedly discontent


But the MeanieHeads - wearing Senior Jerseys - put the Mean Mojo on
and helped motivate the Lady Vols to a 22 point win over Mississippi State

MeanieHeads anonymous possibly represented by
LongTallShorty
Oaknot
CTKell
Ellvaceland
BackSeatGrumpy
JollyParton
CrispyWhit
RefLisa Readabook
and AuraBob among others.

The names have been changed to protect the public.
.