The Tennessee Volunteers and Iowa State Cyclones meet in the late game in the Midwest Regional. Chicago natives like to pride themselves on toughness, so the United Center is the perfect place for these two teams to collide.
The two teams
Tennessee (24-11) leads the nation in offensive rebounding percentage (.448) and kenpom.com ranks the Volunteers as fourteenth in defensive efficiency. The Volunteers are exceptionally tall and outrebound the opposition by nearly thirteen per game.
Iowa State (29-7) is fifth in kenpom.com’s defensive efficiency numbers and fourth in producing turnovers. They may be the nation’s ‘pound-for-pound’ strongest team, but their height disadvantage is huge in this matchup.
Iowa State will have to ‘out tough’ the Volunteers.
Volunteers not backing down
However, Tennessee players pride themselves on their toughness. Amari Evans says UT prides itself on that category.
“I mean, we pride ourselves in it. That's what we do every day,” said Evans. “I feel like that's a habit we have. It's going to be huge because they're tough, we're tough, and may the best man win.”
J.P. Estrella agrees.
“I feel like we've got to bring it every single night,” said Estrella. “If we don't play with toughness, there's no chance we can win a game, especially this late in the year.”
Tennessee’s frontcourt is huge. Estrella and Felix Okpara are each 6’11, freshman Nate Ament is 6’10 and Jaylen Carey is 6.8. All four of those players average at least 5.4 rebounds per game.
Not as tall
Iowa State is much shorter. Even if all-American Joshua Jefferson (6’9) can play on that injured left ankle, the other Cyclone ‘bigs’, Milan Momcilvic (6’8) and Blake Buchanan (6’10) will struggle to hold up against the taller Volunteers. Momcilvic is really a perimeter player.
Speaking of Jefferson’s ankle, he told me he is receiving a lot of ‘stim’, ice, messages, calisthenics and swimming pool therapy in an effort to play Friday night. His role cannot be minimized.
He leads the Cyclones in rebounding and is second in scoring. He is the ‘alpha dog’ on this team.
Nice to be back
Tennessee’s Nate Ament is also coming back from a right ankle problem. UT’s second leading scorer missed games late in the season and has been playing through pain during March Madness. He played only eighteen minutes, scoring no points against Miami. Ament played well (16 points) against Virginia.
Both Jefferson and Ament participated in their teams' practices on Thursday.
The two keys to this game are the health of Jefferson and Ament and which team can prove ‘tougher’ than their opponent.