Bruce Pearl told his team before the game that he didn't know if they were the best team in the country, but he said "they were 40 minutes from being the #1 team".  Tennessee played inspired. They played as a team. With that they handed Memphis their first loss of the season and snapped the Tigers' 47-game home winning streak as they beat them 66-62 in the Battle of I-40 on Saturday night.

The game has been talked about for weeks and there's no questioning whether or not it lived up to its hype. Despite having their star player, Chris Lofton, only going 2 for 11 from the field and finishing with 7 points the Vols found a way to win. Now for the first time in school history the men's basketball team is the #1 ranked team in the land.

The atmosphere was electric at the FedEx Forum (still think it sounds cooler as The Pyramid) with both Priscilla Presley and Peyton Manning in the house. Priscilla lit up Graceland Memphis Blue on Friday night. To say that the state of Tennessee was turned upside down over this game is a understatement. Seats were going for $5000 pop on the web before the game and trust me there was little sitting during this one!

Critics are going to claim "the loss was good for Tigers", now they don't have to go into the tournament with the pressures of being an undefeated team. The pressure would have been unbearable and even the best teams usually fall to it, just ask Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. 

Win or lose, Memphis suffered some losses to the "team character" on Saturday.  Now not only are they the best team in the country, there not even the best team in their state.  They were physically dominated on the boards and beaten up throughout this game.  With the game still up for grabs in the waning moments the Tigers' biggest weakness was exposed - they can't hit a free throw to save their lives.  That isn't much of a problem when you average margin of victory of 20 plus per game playing in Conference USA, but it will knock you of the tournament very quickly come March.

The Vols proved to be versatitle and Bruce Pearl outcoached John Calipari and once again showed us in the spotlight he doesn't blink. Both of these teams are Final Four threats in next month's tournament, but now we all know that Memphis can be beaten.