SONNY SMITH SAYS VOLS ON VERGE OF "SELECTIVE" RECRUITING

Feb. 15, 2006
By Ron Bliss
TricitiesSports.com

KNOXVILLE -- For years, Tennessee's men's basketball program has been
looking up from the bottom of the SEC. After a brief resurgence under Jerry
Green, things fell apart and Buzz Peterson failed to make the NCAA
tournament in his four years at the school.

But Roan Mountain native Sonny Smith, who was a former head coach at East
Tennessee State, Auburn and Virginia Commonwealth, said he long has felt the
Tennessee job had the potential to be the second-best in the SEC. Now, it is
on the verge of being just that.

"In the SEC, you have teams that select and others that have to recruit,''
said Smith, the featured speaker at the weekly Big Orange Tipoff Club
luncheon at the Calhoun's on the River in Knoxville. "You have some who have
a good recruiting year, are up there for three years and then have to
reload. But Tennessee (with the arrival of Bruce Pearl and the success he's
had) has almost put itself in the 'Select' area. When I was at Auburn, I
felt it was the second-best job in the league for somebody and it's getting
close to being that right now.''

Tennessee's attendance numbers put it No. 2 to Kentucky right now and in the
RPI, the Vols are No. 1 in the league. With four Top 100 signees to be added
to this year's team -- that loses just C.J. Watson, Andre Patterson and
Stanley Asumnu -- it would appear the Vols will stay up there for a while.

"Bruce has done a good job of selling this team on playing their roles and
he's also done a good job of going out and selling his program to the
public,'' said Smith.

Smith said later that he considers Tennessee and LSU to be the SEC's two
best teams right now "and right now I'd say Tennessee may be a little bit
better.''

Recordwise, going into Wednesday night's play, the Vols were 9-1 and leading
the SEC overall, while LSU was second at 8-2.

Smith told the audience that he thought C.J. Watson was the best point guard
in the league because he can do so much.

"He has the size,'' said Smith. "He can hit the 3-pointer. He can make free
throws, he can distribute the ball, he can play defense and he understands
his role. But the point guard position is probably the strength of this
conference. Right behind him is Taurean Green of Florida and Ronald Steele
of Alabama. They are both very, very good point guards.

"Probably the weakest position in the league is the post. You have a bunch
of four players (power forwards) playing post. With the 3-point shot, post
players have been taken out as far as being important.''

Smith said Major Wingate has turned into one of the better post players in
the SEC.

"I must admit that at one point, I didn't think he could play in this
league,'' said Smith, "but Bruce has done a nice job with him.''

He also praised the play of Dane Bradshaw, who he called a ''point
forward.''

"He has a point guard playing forward and he's an effective rebounder
because he knows he has to work hard at it because of his size and does,''
said Smith.

Smith said Tubby Smith is having the problems he is not because of what he's
done, but because of what the other teams in the league have done.

"The rest of the league has caught up with Tubby defensively,'' said Smith.
"Now Tubby needs to catch up with them on offense. That's his challenge.''

Other notes from Smith:

* He said Tennessee will go as far in the NCAA tournament ''as their bench
will take them. They don't have a bad bench. It's just a short bench, so
they need to stay healthy.''

Smith said he thought the move of Patterson to the starting lineup was not a
good one at the time, but said it is working out because Stanley Asumnu has
accepted his role of coming off the bench.

* Smith has done a radio show for years in the Birmingham area "The Sonny &
Wimp Show,'' and said they are also doing a TV show together "Talkin'
Hoops.''

Smith is also teamed with Barry Milligan for Atlantic Sun games on CSS every
Friday.

"I wasn't good enough to do the other games,'' said Smith. "They didn't want
a story teller. Part of the reason I do the A-Sun is because the
commissioner, Bill Bibb, is a friend. Also, I can drive to the games. The
only place I fly to any more is Jacksonville. I don't like to fly.''

Smith said he thought Ben Rhoda was the key man for ETSU, though Timmy Smith
is dynamic. He said ETSU was his pick to win the A-Sun tournament -- which
he'll do with Milligan -- until he learned that Rhoda may be lost and not be
able to play in it.

ESPN will do the finals of the tournament, but the A-Sun crew will do all
the other games in Johnson City early next month.