Let’s qualify what we’re saying with the fact that Chaz Lanier had a historic night, one that led to everybody deferring to him on offense. However, in their 77-62 win over the Wofford Terriers to begin the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee Basketball did not get a lot of scoring from its bigs.
UT played a team that runs four guards and one 6’9″ center. Kyler Filewich is that one post player. Felix Okpara held him to just two points, so he did a heck of a job defensively. However, he and Igor Milicic Jr. should have showed much greater dominance than they did.
Okpara had just seven points on the night. Milicic, who was supposed to be a stretch for to make Rick Barnes’ offense more dynamic, only had five points. It was worse for Milicic, who was just 1-of-4 from three and 2-of-5 overall. Although Okpara was 3-of-5, that should be perfect under the basket against a team like Wofford.
Cade Phillips probably showed the most aggression with six points off the bench. All six points were on free throws, but he was willing to get to the foul line. His issue is that his body still doesn’t have the girth to dominate in the post, so he can only be a change of pace. Milicic and Okpara have to do more.
Now, as we mentioned, Lanier went off, so the Tennessee Basketball bigs could have pulled back. However, this has been an ongoing issue dating back to the SEC Tournament, and continuing in March Madness makes it a much bigger problem for Rick Barnes’ team.
As a scoring specialist, this was the third straight game for Milicic in which he failed to break double figures despite averaging 10 points on the year. Okpara is more of an athlete who uses his size down low, but he can certainly score. He hasn’t broken double figures, though, since UT’s loss on the road to the Ole Miss Rebels.
Lanier isn’t likely to do what he did throughout the tourney, so Barnes needs his bigs to step up a lot more. Thursday was not a good start for them. Charitably, you could say has been trying to save their energy. More likely, they aren’t showing the determination they need. That’s bad news for Tennessee Basketball.
