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Article published Mar 13, 2009 Vols enter tourney in similar fashion to 1943 champions
A letdown to end the conference regular season, with a potential All-American post player fading down the stretch.
Entering the Southeastern Conference Tournament as a high-seed picked to be an also-ran.
Guards tagged with the not-as-good-as-the-ones-we-had-last-year whisper.
It's Tennessee basketball all right.
But it's the vintage 1943 edition.
As Tennessee (19-11, 10-6) prepares for today's quarterfinal with Alabama in the SEC Tournament, coach Bruce Pearl might take a page from one of his predecessors, John Mauer. Not only is Mauer the only UT men's coach with a better winning percentage while in Orange than Pearl --.756 vs. .732 -- but the Vols' war years skipper is the only UT coach to capture two SEC Tournament titles.
Owning half of UT's four tourney titles what Mauer did 66 years ago to guide his squad to glory may have some relevance for this year's Vols.
Needing to replace his two starting guards with an eye at keeping 1942 All-American center Dick Mehen from becoming stuffed in the lane, Mauer turned to defense and the long ball.
Enter junior Ted 'Joe Toddy' Cook and sophomore Bill Wright.
"They stepped in and took over the duties left by our two fine guards of last year," Mauer said in an interview two days before the '43 tournament. "Cook's fine defensive play and his ability to hit 'em from far out has been of immeasurable help, too."
The Vols (11-5) limped in to Louisville Armory having lost two of their last three to close out the regular season. Though the Vols were a No. 2 seed, even the hometown Knoxville News Sentinel declared Adolph Rupp's Kentucky "a piggy bank bet to keep SEC cage title" in its headline the morning of the opening games.
Why not?
Kentucky had swept Tennessee, winning 30-28 in Knoxville before crushing UT, 53-29, in Lexington just two weeks before the tournament.
Does that ring a bell?
Even worse, everyone knew that Cook, who had torched Kentucky with 60 percent shooting on 2-pointers from beyond the modern 3-point line was hampered by a "charley horse in the thigh."
Who would think the squad could reach 14 wins and a conference title?
The Vols slipped past Vanderbilt by 10, but only after Mauer let reserves, guard Gordon Wooten and center Marshall Hawkins, take the handle.
"If Wooten and Hawkins hadn't come through for us, we would have been out of luck," a displeased Mauer said.
His team responded downing upstart and fast-break oriented LSU in the afternoon as Mehen scored 24 in the 52-34 win.
Nursing the injury, Cook was told to concentrate on defending Kentucky ace Milt Ticco that same night in the finals.
The junior put in a single basket -- a first half ending, half court shot went in, but was ruled after the horn -- but Ticco finished scoreless. And neither coach ever forgot that fact after the 33-30 Tennessee victory.
"Dad always said that was the best defensive performance he ever had from one of his players," Mauer's son, Jack, told longtime Knoxville Journal columnist Ben Byrd after Cook's death in 1990.
Cook was not alone. Wright and the rest of the team were just as effective that February 27.
Knoxville's Harold Harris wrote the following day, "Never before have we seen the advantage of a well-knit defense proved so conclusively. Brother, when the war's over and basketball once again is flourishing, you'll be seeing a lot more teams stressing defensive tactics."
Maybe some modern Vols can implement some of that defense with some 'old style' effort today. Or maybe not.
After all, defense is old school basketball.
SERVICE: Tennessee cancelled the 1943-44 season for the war effort. Mehen went to the U.S. Army Air Corps and returned to UT in 1946-47 to co-captain the Vols with Cook. Cook left for Army service three weeks after the SEC title game.
TOURNEY: The SEC did not hold a tournament from 1953-1978 and after winning the 1979 inaugural return, the Vols have gone 30 years without a tournament trophy.
THAT'S TODDY: Byrd also recounted that Cook took pleasure in heckling Rupp on his annual vistis to Knoxville by sitting directly behind the Kentucky bench.
"I recall one night at the old Alumni Memorial Gym when Ted for some reason had to miss the game. When Adolph passed the press table at halftime, he leaned over to me and said: 'Where the hell is Cook? I haven't heard him all night.'"
Marcus Fitzsimmons is a sports writer for The Daily Times. Contact him at marcus.fitzsimmons@ thedailytimes.com.