Josh Heupel called Rick Barnes' shot with the perfect signal before Tennessee shocked Alabama on Saturday
The Tennessee Volunteers pulled off a stunner on Saturday, walking off the Alabama Crimson Tide at The Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena 79-76 on a three pointer by Jahmai Mashack just before the buzzer sounded. The win gave Rick Barnes yet another classic home win in his terrific tenure in Knoxville, as the Vols […]
The Tennessee Volunteers pulled off a stunner on Saturday, walking off the Alabama Crimson Tide at The Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena 79-76 on a three pointer by Jahmai Mashack just before the buzzer sounded.
The win gave Rick Barnes yet another classic home win in his terrific tenure in Knoxville, as the Vols improved to 8-0 at home against AP Top 6 teams under Barnes.
However, for a while, it didn't look like things were going to go Tennessee's way. The Vols were fighting an uphill battle and game flow that was favoring the Crimson Tide. Down 62-53, it felt like the game was slipping away.
However, a couple of big three pointers by Zakai Zeigler helped bring Tennessee back to tie the game at 66 with 6:34 left. And then, a man who knows a thing or two about beating Alabama in Knoxville appeared on the jumbotron.
Heupel made a gesture about smoking a cigar, the tradition enjoyed by the annual winner of the Tennessee-Alabama game on the football field each October.
That's something he certainly knows about very well in recent years. The last two home games on the gridiron against Alabama have been cigar victory games. Tennessee ended a streak of 16 years of pain on October 15, 2022 with a 52-49 win with a Chase McGrath's wobbly walk off field goal leading to the Neyland Stadium playing surface being filled with UT fans and a cloud of smoke. They repeated the scene back on October 19 last year after a 24-17 win.
As it turns out, Heupel's gesture would be prophetic, as the Vols would rally after being down for most of the rest of that six minutes and change. Alabama took leads of 73-70 and 76-72 during the final two-plus minutes. However, Tennessee turned in a final 30 seconds to remember, with Gainey's and-one chance followed by two Mashack free throws to tie it. Then, after a jump ball and a five second call, Mashack took the ball two thirds of the way down the court and drained the 35-footer for the win.
It wasn't a cigar game, but Heupel was right with his gesture. After all, beating Alabama in Knoxville is just something that Tennessee does lately. What a time for Vol fans.
Rick Barnes almost prevented one of the biggest wins of his career at Tennessee from happening
The Vols won a thriller against Alabama, but their head coach narrowly avoided spoiling it
