Choice words relevant to Tennessee’s 76-62 upset of Iowa State: Quickness, hustle, determination, willpower.
Key word: Defense.
The surprising Volunteers overcame too many turnovers and too many fouls and, in the wee hours of Saturday morning in Chicago, knocked out another higher seed. The reward is a third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight.
That’s the good news. Michigan will be the Sunday afternoon foe, blocking Tennessee’s path to a first Final Four. That’s not so good. The Wolverines overwhelmed Alabama, 90-77.
First question: How in the world did Rick Barnes do what he has done, guide, coax, push, insist that the Volunteers emerge as the surprise team in the Midwest Regional?
Compared to the end of the regular season and the loss to Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference tournament, this has been a sensational performance.
Defense did it again.
“As a group, they’ve bought into what we needed to do, and we just said we’re going to put it all on the defensive end and find a way,” said the coach. “Give the guys all the credit. They like each other, and they worked hard for each other.”
On this late night, shooting 50 percent helped. Rebounding dominance was decisive. The Vols gave great effort. They appeared quicker and stronger. The Cyclones missed all-American forward Joshua Jefferson, out with an ankle injury.
Nate Ament, recovering from an ankle injury, led the Vols with 18 points. His long shot with 1:50 remaining made a wonderful difference.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 16 despite being off-target (2-of-11 on threes). He committed five of the Vols’ 17 turnovers.
Felix Okpara and Jaylen Carey had double-doubles. Okpara scored 12 points, missed one shot and had 10 rebounds. Carey scored 11, missed one shot, had 10 rebounds and four assists.
Barnes said he was very happy for Carey.
“I have been after Jaylen harder than anybody all year, anybody. There were days he looked at me like, man, this dude is crazy; but he never said a word, kept going. He does what he needs to do.”
The team did what it needed to do against the Cyclones. From a one-point halftime lead, Tennessee broke away with a 20-8 surge to begin the second half. Iowa State never recovered.
Coach T.J. Otzelberger said Tennessee did a great job out of halftime.
“They consistently finished plays and made shots. We take pride coming out of that locker room and throwing the first punch. They were just a lot more aggressive than we were.
“They made great decisions. The margin and physicality on the glass certainly impacted the game, but I just think overall credit to their guys for how they took care of the basketball, how they played for one another. You can tell they’re a very connected team.”
The Vols were up 57-43 with 11:47 to go when they went into remission.
They were whistled for eight fouls in less than six minutes but the Cyclones missed seven free throws in that segment and forfeited the opportunity to catch up.
Iowa State was still trying when Ament hit a short jumper and a long three and ended all hopes.
Tennessee’s defense impacted the statistics. The Cyclones shot 39.9 percent overall. They hit only five of 23 three-pointers. Milan Momcilovic, long-shot specialist, one of the best shooters in the country, 49.3 hitter for the year, made two of eight.
“Our game plan was to give him no daylight whatsoever,” said Barnes. “We felt like if he had six inches, he could get the shot off.
“We worked for a couple of days, talked about it obviously from the beginning. You’re not going to leave him. You’re not getting off of him. We’re just going to stay there.
“Obviously Bishop (Boswell) sets a great tone for us. Ethan (Burg) guarded, Felix, too. The game plan was not to give him one ounce of daylight.”
That was the first time daylight has been measured in ounces.
(Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com).
