Vols need reason to dance
By Jimmy Hyams, UT Insider
Nashville City Paper
February 14, 2005

At Duke, the Cameron Crazies are given a list of rules monitoring behavior.

One of the rules: Don’t storm the court unless Duke has won the national championship. Not even a win over North Carolina merits a mid-court dance.

When you have an elite program, you can set your celebrations high.

But what if you don’t have an elite program. What if you’re mediocre? Average? Pedestrian? Run of the mill?

Then you should be allowed to live by different standards.

Take Tennessee, for example.

If Vol fans have to wait for a national championship to storm the court, they’ll never know the experience.

So, based on the level of Tennessee’s program, here are the top 10 achievements that merit Vol fans dancing on the hardwood:
1. A lead over Kentucky. Not just at the end of the game, any time. Stop the game if it’s 2-0. Kentucky’s program is so far ahead of Tennessee’s, you better celebrate when you can.

2. An offensive rebound against Alabama. When you’ve been swept off the boards 43-19, even a missed putback deserves recognition.

3. The next made 3-pointer by Scooter McFadgon. It’s hard to believed McFadgon averaged 17.6 points per game last year. In the past six games, he’s hit 20 of 69 shots (29 percent) and made 7 of 27 three-point attempts (26 percent).

4. A Major Wingate dunk. He misses almost as many slams as McFadgon does 3-point attempts.

5. A win over Alabama. The Crimson Tide is 6-0 against the Vols under Buzz Peterson with a 17-point average margin of victory.

6. A defensive stop by McFadgon. He plays by the motto “better to give than receive

There's more than one school in the SEC and the SEC west in particular that needs to start their own top 10 reasons for dancing.The problem is they hardly ever get invited to THE dance and when they do they exhibit all left feet .Go figure.