University of Tennessee Athletics
Inside The T Mailbag: The Masked Woman
October 30, 2014 | General
Each week, UTSports.com's Brian Rice answers questions from Vol fans on a variety of tops in and around Tennessee athletics. Send yours to him on Twitter: @briancrice. On to this week's mailbag:
Donna: Did you really steal Bashaara Graves' jersey at Big Orange Madness?
No, she's bigger and faster than me.
I don't know why @BASH931 left her jersey here on the scorer's table with me, but good luck getting it back. pic.twitter.com/EqahDD7B52
— Brian Rice (@briancrice) October 24, 2014
I will say, though, since I'm a collector, it's a bad idea for players to leave things like that with me. At the end of the day, I value my employment and my health, so I handed it back to her when she asked at the end of warmups.
It was definitely a fun night at Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday, the first of many good times I expect to see there this season. I think both of our basketball teams will be incredibly fun to watch.
Which leads us to...
Carina: How long until Alexa Middleton's mask has a Twitter account?
The freshman was quite impressive at Big Orange Madness last Friday, helping her team to a win in the three-point contest with a perfect 5-for-5 performance from beyond the arc.
She kept up the impressive play with a couple of scores in the Lady Vol scrimmage, doing so with a plastic protective mask as she continues to recover from a broken nose suffered early on in practice. Obviously, there are no ill effects from the mask. At least, no ill effects on her game.
"It's like a sauna suit for my face," Middleton told me during our Google+ Hangout on basketball media day this week. "It gets really hot in there, really sweaty."
Even though it gives her a clear field of vision and she's playing well with it, Middleton is ready to ditch the mask at the first opportunity the medical staff gives her. But I sit before you today ready to start a plea for the mask to stay, especially if she gets off to a hot start wearing it this season.
It worked for Rip Hamilton, why not Alexa Middleton?
Marty: Which SEC stadium has the worst visitors locker room?
This is a tough question. They are all very similar, and that's not a ringing endorsement.
Here's the thing. When raising money for stadium renovations, you won't find many donors interested in funding the refurbishment of the visitor's locker room. It's definitely not on the recruiting tour. Nobody from the home school ever spends any time in there. So they are all a little, shall we say, dated.
If you want to be honest, the visitor locker room at Neyland is definitely up there. I used to me the visiting team postgame liaison for football, so I was always kind of apologetic for it, especially compared to the home locker room, which is nothing short of amazing.
Then, I started going on the road with the team from time to time and have discovered that they are all like that. Very spartan, usually old, dating back to whenever that part of whatever stadium you are in was constructed. Oklahoma's was the best we've been in this season, but everybody else is about the same. In person, I've seen Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and South Carolina, and they're all about the same as ours. They all have their challenges and their advantages, but they're all only home for a few hours every couple of years.
Jim: If Diet Coke were to be discontinued, would you go full on Charlie Steiner to get a case?
I love this question because it gives me the opportunity to link to the greatest SportsCenter commercial of all-time so everyone understands the reference:
You can follow me to freedom ... and to the Diet Coke.
The good is that I recently received intelligence that Butch Jones switched to Coke Zero recently. Combined with Rob Patrick giving up all cokes and Ralph Weekly switching to Caffeine free Diet Coke last year, I'm felling much better about supply and consumption levels on this campus.
As far as the nightmare scenario presented here of a full-on discontinuation, that would truly turn searches for a supply into the Hunger Games. I would not be above painting my face and using a tie as a bandana to embark on my quest. I'm comforted by the fact that Taylor Swift drinks Diet Coke, and her fans would start a revolt that would get the taps turned back on before my stockpile at home ran out.
Gary: Have the Vols ever won a game for Butch Jones dressed as storm troopers?
Nope. Tennessee's last win wearing all-white on the road was at Kentucky in 2009, a 30-24 win in overtime. Since then, Tennessee's three road wins have all come wearing white jerseys and orange pants, Memphis and Vanderbilt in 2010 and Kentucky last season.
Jason: Did the Peyton Manning room used to be the players lounge in the Anderson Training Center? If so did they make another lounge?
No, the Peyton Manning room was always slated to a part of new facility, even though it was finished later on. Before it was built, the room was a general lounge, which players had access to, but the main player lounge is a large area down the hall.
The player lounge features couches, TVs, video game systems, a pool table and even arcade games. It's located on the top floor of the training center, just above the locker room and adjacent to the positional meting rooms.
