Tennessee Is Dumb

Tennessee/Louisville was supposed to be the best game of the Tournament thus far. Oops. That was, by far, the ugliest basketball game I've seen all year. Considering I've watched the girl's church basketball team my cousin coaches a few times this year, that's saying a lot.
Neither Tennessee nor Louisville could hold onto the ball, they both committed ridiculous fouls on almost every possession and the turnovers - dear lord, the turnovers. Both teams played stupidly, but the sheer idiocy of Tennessee was awe-inspiring. I knew they were dumb, but sweet fancy Moses, are they dumb. Louisville committed about 900 turnovers in the first half, yet were still up seven at the break solely because Tennessee took bad shots, made defensive errors every time down the floor and would commit fouls after the play was over.
I picked Tennessee to win it all because I was seduced by their athleticism. But about ten minutes into their first round game with American, I began regretting my decision. The reason that game was close in the second half was less because of American playing well and more because of Tennessee forcing up bad shots early in their possession and playing zero defense. At the end of that game, when the Vols were pulling away, they lengthened the game by committing worthless fouls of most American possessions.
Last night, Bruce Pearl seemed to lose control of his team. They were bickering during timeouts, seemed to be blaming each other for defensive breakdowns and forced up bad shots on a majority of possessions. Chris Lofton's numbers don't look that bad in retrospect, but he was atrocious. He couldn't hit open looks when the game was still in doubt and to compensate, he would throw up shots with two defenders in his face, presumably to get himself "hot" again. It didn't work; Lofton had at least four jumpshots blocked. You don't really see that all too often. Lofton made some abysmal selections with his shot. Take it from me, because I know all about abysmal selections. Thanks, Tennessee.