March Madness: Top takeaways from 2019 NCAA Tournament Round of 64
By Brian Rauf
7) Valid concerns about Tennessee
Tennessee did not fall victim to the upset bug but, like Michigan State on Thursday, struggled against a No. 15 seed in a way that validated the pre-tournament concerns I had about this group.
The big problem that was blatantly obvious was their terrible perimeter defense. The Vols rank 210th in the country in three-point defense and Colgate took full advantage, making 15 shots from beyond the arc on 51.9 percent shooting. Four different players made multiple threes and Raiders star Jordan Burns shot 8/13 from deep.
That shooting allowed Colgate to tie the game in the second half after Tennessee built a double-digit lead. Tennessee’s talent advantage eventually won out in the end, but they won’t have that massive of a talent advantage moving forward.
Grant Williams was also a relative non-factor with just nine points on six shots. It marked the third straight game in which he took 10 shots or less, and this is the time of year when you want your All-American to be more aggressive, not less. Getting him going will be key.
Sunday’s matchup against Iowa will be interesting for the Vols. The Hawkeyes are a great three-point shooting team and that spearheaded their comeback victory over Cincinnati. That will be the biggest area to watch in terms of what will decide that game.