Nashville is desperate for a jolt of college basketball. Here's how to make it happen | Opinion
In a week when Vanderbilt obliterated overmatched Mississippi Valley 75-36, and when Belmont and Lipscomb showed that local rivalry can give off sparks from the friction of an annual meeting, it was obvious which is the better experience.
Now, the question is how can Nashville … Tennessee … or even the United States give men’s college basketball fans more of the good stuff.
The answer is easy and right in front of us, local and regional teams playing each other, not worrying about the results.
Here in Nashville there should an annual doubleheader at Bridgestone Arena that features Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb and Tennessee State. The opponents would rotate each season.
This happens elsewhere. In Indianapolis, Indiana, Purdue, Butler and Notre Dame do it every season. In Philadelphia, it’s a little different, but five schools (Villanova, Temple, LaSalle, Pennsylvania and Saint Joseph’s) play every season. And it should happen in Nashville.
Vanderbilt has all the leverage; it’s the most important school in the city with the largest fan base. I believe that fan base would prefer one game a season against a Nashville school than another game against a little-known school that’s really just looking for a pay day.
I know at least one Vanderbilt season-ticket holder, and he embraced the idea. He likes the idea of playing the Nashville schools a lot better than sitting through another Mississippi Valley game. The Predators, who control Bridgestone Arena, are a community-oriented organization. I know they would be on board to help make this happen.
And it should not be only about basketball. This is a chance to connect these games to a cause. The most obvious one is Coaches vs. Cancer, which has chapters all over the country where college basketball coaches help raise money for the American Cancer Society. I also know that ACS would be interested.
Let’s make it a great day with great games for a great cause.
OK, Vandy (I’m talking to you Candice Story Lee and Jerry Stackhouse). Let’s get this rolling and make it happen for 2022.
A mess in Memphis: I’m not sure how Penny Hardaway is going to clean this up but he’s got some big problems that have caused a three-game losing streak. He held nothing back in an interview with Seth Davis of The Athletic. “We’ve got so much negativity in our locker room with veterans being jealous," Hardaway said. "Everybody’s trying to get to the NBA off the ranking we had, but nobody is willing to sacrifice minutes, touches, anything. It’s been miserable. … There’s a group of people on this team that if I played them, I really feel in my heart we could be undefeated or only have one loss. The main reason we have these losses is the veterans don’t want to take the young guys under their wings. They want it to be about them. So, when adversity hits, they run. I guarantee you we’ll start winning because you’re going see guys out there who care and will carry out the game plan. They might make mistakes, but there are not going be any character issues.”
Doesn’t sound good, does it?
Lipscomb hurting: With leading scorer Ahsan Asadullah out with a lower body injury, the Bisons have lost two consecutive games to Belmont and Chattanooga and neither was close. Coach Lennie Acuff was forced to use freshman big man Grant Assman, who he was planning to redshirt. That move hasn’t been enough.
“It’s no secret, we’ve really relied on Ahsan an awful lot the last two years,’’ Acuff said. “We were off to a great start, now we kind of had a setup back here. He’s going to be out for a while, probably. We haven’t had a lot of time to make adjustments. We're going to go back to work, there's no quit in any of these guys. I believe in everybody in that locker room, ever player and coach. We have the right guys."
The schedule doesn’t help with the next three games against Miami, Tennessee State, and Florida State.
Rick Barnes was right: The Tennessee coach warned everyone before his team’s trip to Colorado: ''Our guys were locked in. We don't care who we're playing, we're always playing against ourselves.''
The Vols’ 69-54 win in Boulder was a significant one; it’s not an easy place to play. The most locked in of all was freshmen sensation Kennedy Chandler with 29 points, hitting 13 of 20 shots. ''Tonight, they had Kennedy Chandler and we didn't,'' Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. ''He was the difference in the game.''
National thoughts: There’s no argument, Purdue is the best team in the country right now. After losing to Purdue 93-65, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said, ''I give coach (Matt) Painter a lot of credit for assembling the most complete team I've played against in a long time. Sometimes, you've got to call it like it is — this team has Final Four written all over it.''
It’s been 41 years since Purdue has been to a Final Four.
College sports seem to have become like Premier League soccer, “sacking’’ (OK, it’s a British term) coaches in midseason. Maryland and Mark Turgeon seemed to agree to part ways last week. Turgeon was successful at Maryland but was never beloved and his grumpy demeanor didn’t do him any favors. Plus, he had the backing of some big Under Armour money and it wasn’t enough. Danny Manning took over and the Terps rewarded their new coach with an 67-61 home loss to Northwestern. Can’t say I like the Terps going forward.
Minnesota is amazing. First-year coach Ben Johnson retained only two players from last season’s team but has cobbled together a roster of transfers and has won its first seven games.
Joe Sullivan can be reached at josephsullivan1974@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeSullivan.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How to make Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb and TSU play in basketball
