Popularized by Jon Rothstein and shamelessly overused by personnel of The Daily Beacon sports department, the phrase “We sleep in May” is the epitome of college basketball.
This time of year is chaos. And that is what makes it like no other.
No other sport does the overlapping that college basketball does. In the 2024 season, Tennessee basketball had a noon tip at the KFC Yum! Center to face Louisville, while Tennessee football was gearing up to face Mississippi State in Knoxville that night.
And when March rolled around, that same basketball team cut into the first three weekends of SEC baseball — which turned out to be Tony Vitello’s last run on the collegiate diamond.
But in the meantime, Rick Barnes’ team is reaching consistent heights. The Vols have made seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including Elite Eight finishes each of the last two years. Those are program bests.
His program is doing it whenever, wherever. In San Antonio during the 2023 season, in front of a quiet house for a 10 p.m. ET tip? They’re there. Heading down to a ballroom in the Bahamas to face a loaded field, competing for the Baha Mar Championship? Consider them crowned.
And from a media perspective, that includes covering them from the most ridiculous of places. It’s not unusual to say I was up past the 1 a.m. hour as the Vols clinched the championship in the Bahamas last season to ensure the story was posted at the buzzer from my Laurel Hall couch. But I’ve also been in a Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Champy’s for a family friend dinner, with my computer in hand as Tennessee basketball was at Illinois.
I watched Jordan Gainey’s buzzer-beating layup through a restaurant window in Champy’s, laptop balanced beside my plate, finishing my story as my entree hit the table.
Sleep is, ultimately, the epitome of brutality. Too much of it, and you’re groggy the next day. Go to sleep too early, and you’re missing an instant classic at midnight as St. Mary’s takes down Gonzaga once more from the University Credit Union Pavilion.
With that being said, there are only three rules to live by.
1. Never acknowledge The Godfather: Part III.
2. Never waste calories on pizza outside of the Eastern Time Zone.
3. ALWAYS foul up three late.
Maybe the Vols will just be back, nastier than a pack of dobermans in 2025-26.
But for now, we wait — and we don’t sleep until May.
