Off Radar Report: Austin Peay 74, UT-Knoxville 70

[cspan37421]

Stunning upset, really:
Austin Peay came in with a 1-9 record, UTK 3-4.
Announcers said that UTK had never lost to Austin Peay, and had a 45-1 record against OVC teams.

So I got tickets to this game from a season ticket holder who couldn't go. I had never been to Thompson-Boling Arena, and it's actually quite nice inside (built in 1987, apparently, renovated under the late great grillmaster Bruce Pearl). Has the feel of an NBA arena (like Philips in ATL), with the huge scoreboard, the lighted "band" that runs ads and divides the upper tier from the lower, the big intro where the arena goes dark, the t-shirt launching gun (Gatling style), etc.

Our seats were nosebleed ones but we were assured we could move down as soon as tipoff occurred, and we did, eventually making to the 3rd row of the lower tier opposite the benches.
This was a UTK squad that gave us quite a game in Maui. UTK led nearly the whole game, establishing a 6 point lead a bit before halftime and then keeping 6-12 point lead most of the 2nd half. But in the last few minutes the lead evaporated and AP won the game, finishing on a 12-2 run.

UTK could not or would not get the ball inside to their talented big man xfer from Marquette, Maymon. He had about 15-16 points at halftime and only took 2 shots in the 2nd half, finishing with 18 on 8-10 shooting. He only played 31/40 min ... it's not clear why, he was a total mismatch for AP. He may have been sick; he coughed some after the game during the coach's radio show which we watched in person.

Starters Tatum and Golden combined to go 1-15 (they had been 8-16 against us); Peay shot 16-22 FG in the 2nd half. That's the story.

Martin played 10 guys, 9 of whom had 10 min or more. In our game, he played 11, with 10 getting 10 min or more. I wonder if he'll keep that up.

I said to my UTK friend, "You guys just killed our strength of schedule!"

He said UTK lost because of the Dukie in the house (who happened to wear red, not having any orange and not knowing Austin Peay's colors were red and white).

[sagegrouse]

Go Peay!!!!

sage

[cspan37421]

Yep. Actually, it's "Let's Go Peay" and they even use that as the dot com website for their sports.