Time to celebrate

If you weren’t already pumped for March, here’s something that’ll help: Dick Vitale has been cleared to return to broadcasting after successful vocal surgery. That’s awesome.

Also awesome? Winning a conference title.

1. Need a 1 seed? We’ve got some Volunteers

Tennessee might have silenced all the doubters. At least until the NCAA Tournament.

Dalton Knecht scored 26 points and No. 4 Tennessee showed off some impressive defense in its 66-59 win over No. 17 South Carolina on Wednesday night. The win not only clinched the regular-season SEC title, but it could propel the Vols (24-6, 14-3) to the fourth No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney.

The Vols are 5th in the NET with an 8-5 Quad 1 record. That’s more wins than Arizona and UNC, the other two serious contenders for a 1 seed. And with their last three wins coming against Auburn, Bama and SC — all of whom are tied for second in the SEC — few teams have more good mojo right now.

And on a night when Vols’ celebrated their first regular-season title since 2018, and their first outright crown since 2008? Even better.

“It feels great,” Knecht said. “We got the job done, but at the same time, the job's not done. We've got the SEC Tournament and the big one” in the NCAAs.

It looked like Knecht — who posted his 10 game with at least 25 points — and crew would breeze to the win. He hit three 3s over four possessions just before the half, and led by as many as 14 in the second half.

But South Carolina (24-6, 12-5) cut the deficit to 3 with 1:13 to go and it was only the Vols’ coolness at the free-throw line (it hit 7-of-9 in the final 43 seconds) that put the game away.

Defense also helped. SC was 38% from the floor and just 27% from beyond the arc for .92 points per possession.

"When you have a group of guys, especially Santi [Vescovi] and Josiah [James], who were with us trying to get this thing back on track five years ago, [it makes it special]. Going through the COVID, going through everything, just so much respect for them," Vols coach Rick Barnes said. "Then, Z [Zakai Zeigler] coming in, Jahmai [Mashack] and Jonas [Aidoo], all that group, [they played a big role]. It's not easy to win a championship, it's not. For them to do it [is great] and it was something they set their sights on. For them to come and do it the way we had to do it on the road with this finishing schedule, I think it speaks volumes about them."

2. Houston earns share of Big 12 title

Houston was hurt. It was on the road. Yet the No. 1 Cougars still did their thing: Grinded out a win.

And now? They’re the Big 12 regular-season champs, quite the feat in their debut season in the league. (It was nearly an outright title, but Iowa State rallied past BYU later on Wednesday night, more below).

“We knew the Big 12 is the best conference in college basketball,” Roberts said. “Houston has been a winning program for a long time. It didn’t really matter which conference we ended up going in, once we traveled with our DNA and our toughness, I feel like we can compete with anybody in the nation.”

They can win the title outright by beating Kansas at home on Saturday. That calls for some celebrating.

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