My new all time favorite

Ever since he sank a game winner during the NCAA tournament during his sophomore season, Chris Lofton has been one of my favorite players ever to play at Tennessee. I watched as he simply tore through his junior year pretty much dominating every major opponent he faced. He scored over 30 against Memphis... he sank a 35 foot three right in Kevin Durant's face to send a game against Texas into overtime... he buried three after three against the eventual national champion Florida Gators. He was a first team all american and quite simply the man.

Then came his senior year. He started slow. It was a slump... surely he would come out of it. Game after game... he was good... still better than most, but something just seemed off. He looked to be a step slow on defense. His shot wasn't falling. His drives to the basket were out of control. What was wrong? Was it senioritis? Nerves? Did all the press go to his head? Turns out it was none of that...

It was cancer.

The story broke today that Chris Lofton underwent surgery and radiation for testicular cancer during the off season between his junior and senior years. He missed 2 months of training and conditioning. The coaches tried to convince him to redshirt but he didn't want to miss his senior year. Rather than make it public, Chris chose to keep it a secret. Only the coaches and trainers knew. Even the other players on the team had no idea. Wow. He said he didn't want to use it as an excuse. He didn't want anyone to pity him. Wow.

I think Chris Lofton just went from being one of my all time favorite Vols to being one of my all time favorite people. Certainly one of the most amazing to ever wear the orange.

Read the amazing full story here.