Vols Sweep USBWA District Honors

Vols Sweep USBWA District Honors

Credit: UT Athletics

The United States Basketball Writers Association announced its 2018-19 All-District Teams Tuesday, and Tennessee swept both major awards in District IV.

Junior forward Grant Williams was named District IV Player of the Year, while Rick Barnes repeated as District IV Coach of the Year.

Joining Williams on the 11-man All-District IV Team were senior wing Admiral Schofield and junior point guard Jordan Bone.

The USBWA’s District IV includes all Division I programs in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Williams leads the Vols and the SEC in scoring this season with a career-best 19.3 points per game. He is also Tennessee’s team leader in rebounding (7.7 rpg) blocks (1.5 bpg) and steals (1.2 spg).

Tuesday’s USBWA award adds to Williams’ growing list of postseason honors. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native also has been named SEC Player of the Year and a first-team All-SEC performer—both for the second straight season. Williams also was named to the SEC Community Service Team and is a Sporting News first-team All-American.

This is Barnes’ fourth career USBWA District Coach of the Year honor. In addition to earning the District IV award last season, he received the District VII award while at Texas in both 1999 and 2001.

Barnes—who is also a semifinalist for the Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year—has guided the Volunteers to a 27-4 mark. That impressive record includes a school-record 19-game winning streak and multiple victories over top-five opponents.

The Vols spent four weeks atop the Associated Press Top 25 rankings, and for the first time in program history, Tennessee spent the entire season ranked among the top 10.

Schofield and Bone—both of whom earned All-SEC recognition following outstanding regular seasons—stand as Tennessee’s second- and third-leading scorers, respectively. Schofield averages 16.3 points while shooting .476 from the field and .404 from 3-point range. Bone dishes out 6.1 assists per game, owns a 3.0 assist/turnover ratio and adds 13.4 points per game.

 

UT Athletics

Devin Dawson Announces “California Smoke Tour” to Benefit CA Fire Foundation

Devin Dawson Announces “California Smoke Tour” to Benefit CA Fire Foundation

California native Devin Dawson announced a new tour, dubbed the California Smoke Tour, which gets its name from lyrics in his current single, “Dark Horse.” All proceeds from the six-date run in California will go straight to the California Fire Foundation, aiding them in providing emotional and financial assistance to firefighters, their families and the communities they protect.

“One of the reasons I’m stoked about this tour is because, as a California native, it’s a place very close to my heart, so I always jump at the chance to be back there,” said Devin. “I don’t get to visit my family who still live there as often as I’d like, much less have an opportunity to play multiple shows throughout the state. The fact that all the proceeds from these shows will also go toward helping people affected by the California wildfires makes it that much more special to me.”

Devin Dawson Tour

March 14 | Brisbane, AUS | Willowbank Raceway
March 18 | Lismore, AUS | Town Hall
March 19 | Brisbane, AUS | Old Museum
March 21 | Marrickville, AUS | The Factory Theatre
March 22 | Canberra, AUS | The Abbey
March 23 | Melbourne, AUS | Athenaeum
March 26 | Auckland, NZ | The Tuning Fork
March 30 | Tokyo, JP | Blue Note
April 4 | Green Cove Springs, FL | Clay County Fair
April 13 | Des Moines, IA | Wells Fargo Arena
April 24 | San Luis Obispo, CA | The Fremont Theater*
April 26 | Indio, CA | Stagecoach
April 27 | Bakersfield, CA | Buck Owens Crystal Palace*
April 29 | Sacramento, CA | Ace of Spades*
April 30 | Santa Cruz, CA | The Catalyst Atrium*
May 1 | San Francisco, CA | Slim’s*
May 2 | Chico, CA | Senator Theater*
May 25 | Boston, MA | House of Blues
June 1 | Hobart, IN | Brickie Howl
June 16 | Santa Rosa, CA | Country Summer Music Festival
July 13 | Chicago, IL | Windy City Smokeout
July 19 | Atchison, KS | LakeFest
July 26 | Tooele, UT | Country Fanfest
July 27 | Cheyenne, WY | Cheyenne Frontier Days
Aug. 24 | Grand Island, NE | Nebraska State Fair
*California Smoke Tour

photo by Tammie Arroyo, AFF-USA.com

Vols Honored by SEC Coaches and AP

Vols Honored by SEC Coaches and AP

Credit: UT Athletics

For the second year in a row, Tennessee enjoyed an impressive hardware reap in the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball postseason awards distribution, winning Player of the Year and having a trio of players earn All-SEC recognition.

After an All-America season, junior forward Grant Williams repeated as SEC Player of the Year, becoming just the 10th player in conference history to win the award in back-to-back years and the first since Arkansas’ Corliss Williamson did so in 1994 and 1995.

Others to have accomplished the feat include VFLs Bernard King and Dale Ellis and other all-time greats such as Williamson, Pete Maravich and Shaquille O’Neal. Williams was also tabbed first-team All-SEC after finishing the regular season as the top scorer in the SEC with 19.3 points per game. He has been one of the nation’s most versatile and reliable players this season, averaging 7.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.2 steals per game, while shooting 57 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free-throw line.

Along with scoring, Williams ranked inside the league’s top 10 in field-goal percentage (2nd), free-throw percentage (3rd), rebounding (5th) and assist/turnover ratio (9th). The Charlotte, North Carolina, native posted seven double-doubles this season and eclipsed the 20-point margin on 14 occasions, including his career-high 43-point effort at Vanderbilt (Jan. 23). He led the Vols in scoring 15 times this season, 20 times in rebounding and 13 times in blocks.

Williams also was named SEC Player of the Year by the Associated Press Tuesday. He is the first Vol since Chris Lofton in 2007 to earn that distinction from league media. The AP also tabbed him first-team All-SEC, and he was the only player to earn unanimous selection.

Senior wing Admiral Schofield earned first-team All-SEC recognition from the coaches after averaging 16.3 points per game, which ranked second on the team and fifth in the SEC, to go along with 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists. Schofield ranked fifth in the conference in field-goal percentage, shooting .476 while leading the Vols in field-goal attempts.

The Zion, Illinois, native also led the team in shooting from beyond the arc with 59 3-pointers on the year. Schofield, a second team All-SEC selection by the AP, dropped a career-high six threes and 30 points to lift Tennessee to a win over No. 1 Gonzaga in December. The Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year finalist was named the 2018 Jerry Colangelo Classic Most Valuable Player and the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week for his efforts against the Zags.

Jordan Bone rounded out the Vols’ All-SEC performers, earning a nod on the second team by both the coaches and the AP. The junior point guard led the SEC in assists per game (6.1), ranked second in assist/turnover ratio (3.0) and seventh in field-goal percentage (.475). On the year, he has dished out 189 assists, which stands as the fourth-most by a Vol in a single season. He ranks third on the team in scoring with a career-best 13.4 points per game.

The Nashville, Tennessee, native joined Tyrone Beaman (1982-83) and Rodney Woods (1974-75) this year as only the third Vol ever to record three points/assists double-doubles in a season, highlighted by a 24-point, 11-assist performance against Samford. In Tennessee’s victory over No. 4 Kentucky at home, Bone carried the Vols to a 19-point victory with a career-high 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting and five 3-pointers.

The trio has Tennessee bound for the NCAA Tournament later this month for the second straight year with a chance to earn the program’s first ever No. 1 seed. The Vols have been ranked in the AP poll’s top 10 for the entire season (first time in program history) and spent four weeks ranked No. 1 in the country. UT finished with one of its best regular-season records of all time, going 27-4 and 15-3 in the SEC.

UT Athletics
ACM Awards to Feature Performances by George Strait, Reba, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton & More

ACM Awards to Feature Performances by George Strait, Reba, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton & More

The Academy of Country Music announced the first round of performers for the 54th ACM Awards on April 7: Brothers Osborne, Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Reba McEntire, Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton and George Strait.

As previously announced, ACM Artist of the Decade Award winner Jason Aldean will also perform. Additional acts and presenters will be announced in the coming weeks.

The ACM Awards, which will be hosted by Reba McEntire, will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7 at 8 p.m. ET. on CBS.

photos: George Strait by Curtis Hilbun, jpegFoto.com; Reba McEntire by Tammie Arroyo, AFF-USA.com

Circle Gets the Square: CMT Rebooting Game Show “Hollywood Squares” With “Nashville Squares”

Circle Gets the Square: CMT Rebooting Game Show “Hollywood Squares” With “Nashville Squares”

CMT will be the home of a new game show, Nashville Squares (working title), according to TheWrap.

NCD has independently confirmed the report via the CMT communications department.

The tic-tac-toe series will be a reboot of VH1’s Hip Hop Squares, which is a reboot of the iconic game show, Hollywood Squares.

The paradigm of the trivia show consist of two contestants who utilizes advice from a panelist of celebrities—in this case, country stars—to win a game of tic-tac-toe.

The series is slated to air this summer. NCD will keep you posted on further announcements.

photo by Nash Country Daily

Brett Eldredge Says He’s Determined to “Make Something Special” for Next Album

Brett Eldredge Says He’s Determined to “Make Something Special” for Next Album

If history is any indication, Brett Eldredge will be releasing a new album later this year.

Brett’s debut album, Bring You Back, was released in August 2013, while his sophomore set, Illinois, dropped in September 2015. Brett’s most recent offering—his self-titled album—was released in August 2017.

Each project has been released roughly two years apart, which suggests Brett is due to release a new album this fall. While we can’t “guarantee” it, we like the odds.

Brett’s current single, “Love Someone”—the third from his self-titled album—is No. 21 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart after 36 weeks, so it wouldn’t surprise us if his next single was the lead from his upcoming album. As Brett told Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown, you can expect something “special” from the next album.

“I’m not one of those guys that can write 13 songs and cut 12,” says Brett. “You know, I gotta go and I’ve gotta write through things, and find that certain thing to build a record around, and then you kind of find the thing and then you go after it, so that’s what I’m going for. I’m deep in the studio, you know, writing, and I’m going to make something special.”

Brett has a number of upcoming tour dates this spring and summer, including five dates in Australia with Jon Pardi.

photo by Nash Country Daily

Views and Notes From Tennessee Football Spring Practice 3

Views and Notes From Tennessee Football Spring Practice 3

Vols TEs & TEs coach Brian Niedermeyer / Credit: WNML Staff

By Vince Ferrara / @VinceSports

Below are my observations from the University of Tennessee’s 3rd spring practice of 2019 at Haslam Field in Knoxville on Monday.

Vince’s View – Practice 3

*It was the first full day in pads

*Jr OL Trey Smith was in uniform with his helmet but was not participating in the drills we saw. He’s engaged in every single practice rep of his teammates trying to help them out

*WR coach/Pass Game Coordinator Tee Martin is a different personality than some of the other Vols coaches. He has a direct and very positive demeanor while still teaching and correcting technique. I’m not saying its better or worse, just different than the styles of some of the others, in my opinion.

*R-Jr Jarrett Guarantano has a bulky left knee brace which I’m sure he would say doesn’t affect him. It may just be a precaution, like OLs take, but it’s something to monitor after the punishment he took a year ago. He may still take similar punishment this season.

*The QBs again today threw a lot of high and errant passes while I watched them. Of course, it’s just a small sample of their two-hour practice.

*The WRs continued to do a nice job, making tough catches and looking determined to get better

*I think Sr LB Daniel Bituli looks explosive. Jeremy Pruitt is looking for more communication and consistency this season,which he has already shown.

*So DL John Mincey has shown violent hands and has been complimented numerous times on the execution and physicality of his drills. UT needs development on the defensive front in a massive way. It’s still too early to declare anything with Mincey, but he’s off to a nice start.

*Several players that were said to be banged-up or held back did practice while we were there…Sr. DL Emmit Gooden, RS-Fr. LB JJ Peterson and R-Sr OL Brandon Kennedy

*R-Sr. LB Darrin Kirkland Jr. is out for the spring

*Fr. RB Eric Gray seems unlikely to return as Jeremy Pruitt did not mention him among those that could start practicing at some point. Although, Gray is doing cardio work on the side with Fields and trainers.

*Others that may return include Fr OL Chris Akporoghene, R-Fr DL Kurott Garland, Fr DB Tyus Fields

*Here are the guards/interior linemen in the offensive line drills we’ve seen: Brandon Kennedy, R-Jr Ryan Johnson, So Jerome Carvin, R-Jr Nathan Niehaus, Jr Riley Locklear, R-So Eric Crosby, R-Fr Ollie Lane (Chris Akporoghene is expected to join this group at some point this spring)

*Here are the tackles in the offensive line drills we’ve seen: Fr Wanya Morris, Sr Marcus Tatum, R-Jr Jahmir Johnson, R-So K’Rojhn Calbert

*Jahmir Johnson looks like he’s returned to his original tackle position after being moved to guard and starting there for UT last season

*Nathan Niehaus was the first OT off the bench numerous times last year when Trey Smith came out of the game and he did fine at LT. With the two stud 5-star tackles coming in this year, he may slide back inside, where he’s played before. He also could be just cross-training, so we’ll keep an eye on it.

*Another loud voice you hear on the field is TEs coach Brian Niedermeyer. His energy level is insane. He has a real talent in Sr TE Dominick Wood-Anderson at the top of his group. The rest really will rely on his development and more strength and conditioning because it is a raw, inexperienced bunch. His coaching will be tested, if they have the right guys.


Find more of my broadcasting work at VinceSports.net.

Views and Notes From Tennessee Football Spring Practice 2

Views and Notes From Tennessee Football Spring Practice 2

Vols DLs / Credit: WNML Staff

By Vince Ferrara / @VinceSports

Below are my observations from the University of Tennessee’s 2nd spring practice of 2019 at Haslam Field in Knoxville on Saturday.

Vince’s View – Practice 2

*This was the last day of practice before the pads come on in practice 3

*QBs were high a lot in the throws that I saw

*R-Sr WR Jauan Jennings had a sweet grab on a high throw (see above) in the middle of the field where the ball may have been past his shoulders behind him but he reeled it in and cut up field

*I like what I’m seeing from the wide receivers overall. They look stronger, more physical and focused.

*Fr LB Quavaris Crouch isn’t as tall as I pictured him to be, but he is stout, appears to be doing the drills like an older player and is working with the inside LBs right now

*I think, overall, the players are better at their drills, they know where to be, what’s expected of them and it shows in the tempo and the way they practice compared to a year ago

*I don’t see or hear the loud correcting and frustration by coaches as frequently so far this year that was obvious last season

*One of the loudest voices you hear on the practice field is OC Jim Chaney, which surprising for those of us that have experienced him coaching at UT before. His volume isn’t necessarily because he’s always mad but because he’s constantly roaming, watching and coaching every single position of offense. The personality, style and coaching execution of moving to all positions is a much different dynamic from Tyson Helton last season to Jim Chaney now.

*We did get to see some one-on-one drills between the DBs and the WRs with Jeremy Pruitt standing over each of them coaching and motivating

*So CB Alontae Taylor looks stronger and is practicing with an edge


Find more of my broadcasting work at VinceSports.net.

Weather

  • Forecast
  • Currents
  • Planner