Randy Smith
There are very few athletes I respect as much as I do former Tennessee basketball star Chris Lofton. One of college basketball's greatest shooters is the subject of a documentary on ESPN and I hope everyone gets an opportunity to see it. I watched it because I loved Chris Lofton. He was a player who grew up in Mayfield, KY under the vast shadow of the Kentucky Wildcats. Lofton dreamed of playing for Kentucky but when the Wildcats didn't recruit him he would eventually sign with Tennessee. Of course Kentucky's loss was the Volunteers big gain.
Lofton played almost immediately under Coach Buzz Peterson and ignited a fire that burned brightly through his remaining three years under Bruce Pearl.
During Lofton's four years at Tennessee the Volunteers became the number one team in the country for the first time in school history, though that number one ranking lasted just one week. The recent success of Tennessee basketball can be attributed to Chris Lofton's sophomore season. The documentary is very well done but it's not just about Lofton's shooting ability and his team's success. You see he was diagnosed with testicular cancer during his senior year and he chose to keep it a secret because he didn't want to be a distraction to his team.
During that tumultuous season, his shooting was way off and his point production was down. Fans became concerned about his performance and rightly so. His coaches knew and so did school administrators and officials. it didn't become widely known until his last game when Tennessee lost to Louisville in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. I won't give away much else in the documentary because it's that good.
The courage exhibited by Chris Lofton during his final season at Tennessee is unbelievable. How one 22 year old youngster can face that much adversity is way beyond me. And then to face criticism from Tennessee fans on top of dealing with radiation treatments absolutely blows my mind. The work ethic and determination shown by him as well as the support from the Big Orange nation when the cancer diagnosis was released to the public makes one proud to be a Vol. I encourage everyone to see it....you'll thank me for it. But you may want to have a tissue or two handy.
* * *
Randy Smith can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com