I’m thick-skinned enough to take it on the chin. Before the start of the NCAA Tournament, after looking at the bracket, I said that the toughest out for Tennessee Basketball en route to the Final Four would be the Sweet 16. The reason was that in every other round before then, they would either play a significantly lower seed or one that runs really slow tempo.
Now, the Vols themselves run slow tempo, but against other slow-tempo teams, they dominate. They have two losses all year against teams outside of the top 100 in possessions per game or the KenPom adjusted tempo rankings, and both were at the buzzer on the road, to the Auburn Tigers, now in the Final Four, and the Ole Miss Rebels, who made the Sweet 16.
Against anybody whose pace is outside of the top 150 in the nation, they are undefeated. As a result, they should have had an advantage against the Houston Cougars, especially with a de facto home crowd in Indianapolis. However, the reason they win against slow-tempo teams was lost on, well, them.
See, all year long, Tennessee Basketball has dominated slow-tempo teams because although they play slow, they can turn up the pace when needed. That’s how they beat the Texas A&M Aggies on the road. The defense of Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack and the ability of Chaz Lanier to score in transition allows them to turn it up when needed.
Given the fact that Houston took them out of their rhythm early shooting the ball, they should have turned up the tempo in this game. Instead, they refused to run the break, even when they had numbers, and when they did, they made the wrong passes. That proved costly.
There was a moment in which the Vols had a 4-of-2 and pulled back to run their half-court game. They did the same with a 2-on-1 and 3-on-2, all in the first half. In another 3-on-2, Zakai Zeigler had the ball, Lanier was on another side, and Cade Phillips was in the middle. With the two defenders between Phillips and Lanier, Zeigler should’ve gone up with it.
Instead, Zeigler dumped it off to Phillips, who easily lost control of the ball once he got trapped. This was an issue all game for a Tennessee Basketball team more than capable of turning up the tempo. When they had the fast-break, they seemed completely unwilling to take it.
Now, to be fair, Rick Barnes called multiple press defenses, and the Vols were only able to force five turnovers on the game. It was clear Barnes wanted the tempo too, so you can’t blame this on him. Controlled chaos was going to win this game, and the Vols went away from it.
All year long, the idea of the slow pace Tennessee Basketball ran was that the Vols could turn it up if needed but chose not to when it wasn’t necessary. Well, they needed to in this game and still chose not to. That proved costly in the end, and it’s why they aren’t advancing.
