In the week leading up to No. 2 Tennessee's game at No. 1 Memphis, Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl did everything he could to play down the matchup. He insisted that Tennessee's coming games with Vanderbilt and Kentucky were more important and said that the Volunteers could still earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament if they lost. But Pearl's true feelings, and bluster, came out a few hours before tipoff Saturday, when he told a group of Tennessee boosters, "We're 40 minutes away from being No. 1."
And what a 40 minutes it was.
No. 2 Tennessee defeated No. 1 Memphis, 66-62, handing the Tigers, the only undefeated team remaining in college basketball, their first loss of the season. The Volunteers prevailed in a taut, end-to-end battle that will be considered one of the best college basketball games of the season.
College Sports | Men's Basketball | Top-ranked Memphis no longer unbeaten | Seattle Times Newspaper