By Camden Gober
CHICAGO — One time feels magical. Two times feels surreal. Three times becomes the standard.
As unprecedented as it might seem, the No. 6 seed Tennessee advanced to its third straight Elite Eight following a 76-62 win over the No. 2 seed Iowa State in Chicago.
It’s not a shocker that Tennessee won the game. The shocker was how they won the game. The Vols straight-up punked Iowa State, a team that never, ever gets punked.
Tennessee and Iowa State are so similar in their identities. Defense, physicality and toughness. Both teams knew that they had to be ready for an all-out brawl tonight, and Rick Barnes’ squad was the tougher team on this particular night.
“We knew they were going to be physical. It was a point of emphasis going into the game,” said Tennessee center Felix Okpara. “We just got to be the more physical team, play more harder. We just chased every ball, and it just worked in our favor.”
The Vols’ kryptonite all season has been turnovers and sloppy stretches offensively. On paper, Iowa State was the exact type of team that should have given Tennessee fits. Instead, the Cyclones’ kryptonite showed up. Big, physical frontcourts have given them problems, and the Vols exploited that with their quartet of bigs.
Tennessee outrebounded Iowa State 43 to 22 on the night, with 16 of those being offensive boards.
Felix Okpara and Jaylen Carey both finished with a double-double on the night with 10 rebounds each. Even more impressive, every player who saw the floor for the Vols had at least two rebounds. The Cyclones simply had no answer.
“Just getting back to what we do and it’s something that we emphasized all summer that we wanted to be the best on the offensive glass, and we just want to do prove that tonight and so on” said Tennessee forward Jaylen Carey.
The Vols have seen firsthand in recent years what it takes to go up against deep, big and physical frontcourts. Barnes and his staff built this roster with that in mind. You do not have to look any further than the Florida Gators’ roster a year ago, and the same holds true across this year’s Elite Eight. They all have size.
“Last year we had no post presence at all, and we knew at some point in time that we were going to have to get it,” said Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes.
Despite a shaky offensive start where the Vols looked a bit rattled, Tennessee finished shooting an incredibly efficient 50% from the floor. A big reason was shot selection. The Vols’ offense consistently got the looks it wanted.
Tennessee did have 17 turnovers for the game, but when they took care of the ball, they were getting uncontested looks or layups at the rim. The quality of shots that the Vols were getting compared to what Tennessee was giving Iowa State were polar opposites.
For the third season in a row and the fourth time in school history, Tennessee is heading to the Elite Eight, this time to face the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, Michigan. Tennessee is notably one of the winningest programs in college basketball history to have never made a Final Four.
The Vols have fallen short the last couple of years, but is this the third time the charm?
Tennessee and Michigan will tip off at 2:15 p.m. EST on Sunday afternoon at the United Center with a trip to the Final Four on the line.