When you talk about Tennessee men’s basketball., one aspect of the Volunteers’ game comes to mind before all the others. Defense. And with good reason.
The calling card for Rick Barnes’ team this season, as has become tradition, is stingy play on that end of the floor. In each of the last four seasons, Tennessee has finished in the top five of KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency leaderboard, topping that group with the nation’s-best defense in the 2022-23 season. That streak is likely to increase to five straight seasons with a top-five defense: The Volunteers currently have the third-best defense in the country, behind only Houston and St. John’s. The Cougars are still in the hunt for a national championship this season, while John Calipari’s Arkansas club took out Rick Pitino’s Red Storm in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last weekend.
As you would expect for a team ranked as the third-best defense in college basketball, a litany of stats support Tennessee being elite on that end. The Vols own the following KenPom rankings entering Friday night’s highly anticipated Sweet 16 showdown with Kentucky in Indianapolis:
▪ Second-best effective field-goal percentage defense in the country (44.6%). ▪ Third-best 3-point shooting percentage defense in the country (28.3%). ▪ Sixth-best block percentage in the country (15.7%). ▪ 23rd-best 2-point shooting percentage defense in the country (46.4%).
When the Wildcats and Volunteers line up across from each other at Lucas Oil Stadium — normally the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts — with an Elite Eight spot on the line, the featured matchup will be Kentucky’s top-15 offense against this Tennessee defensive unit. But while the Tennessee defense rightfully gets the majority of the attention, there’s plenty more to know — and for Kentucky to be concerned about — regarding the Volunteers.
The Volunteers have spent all season answering questions about their defense. What do they think is underrated about their team entering the Sweet 16?
“I think its our offensive rebounding,” sophomore forward Cade Phillips said in Tennessee’s open locker room after Saturday’s second-round NCAA win over UCLA. “… I think it allows our shooters to play free. … Nothing is more dangerous than guys playing free.” This offensive rebounding prowess — Tennessee is 28th in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage at 35.5%, per KenPom — was echoed by senior guard Jahmai Mashack, who also praised the Volunteers’ ability to generate their offense via getting the ball in the paint.
“It gets the defense moving, it makes you kind of hard to attack (as an offense),” Mashack said of getting paint touches on offense. “Defensively, the ball pressure kind of goes away because you’re scared of the drive. It leads to a lot of open 3s. A lot of open catch-and-shoot, rhythm 3s. … If we just keep on getting paint touches, inside-out 3s, we’ll be good.”
These underrated qualities that Tennessee players mentioned were on display last week in Rupp Arena, where the Vols cruised to a pair of wins in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. In the first round, the Volunteers led Wofford — coached by former UK walk-on Dwight Perry — by at least two possessions for the final 33 minutes of the game. In the second round, Tennessee led UCLA by at least two possessions for the entirety of the second half.
Against Wofford, Tennessee’s offense generated plenty of the shots it likes. The Volunteers went 26-for-54 (48.1%) from the field with star scoring guard (and former UK transfer portal target) Chaz Lanier making six 3-pointers.
Barnes’ team flexed its rebounding muscles against UCLA: Tennessee grabbed 12 offensive rebounds in that contest with a 13-7 advantage in second-chance points.
Of course, the context behind Friday’s Sweet 16 meeting between UK and Tennessee is that the Wildcats have already beaten the Volunteers twice this season. But in both of those games, Tennessee crushed Kentucky on the offensive glass and in second-chance points
On Jan. 28 in Knoxville, Kentucky secured a 78-73 road win against Tennessee despite the Vols having an 18-8 offensive rebounds advantage and a 20-8 edge in second-chance points. On Feb. 11, Kentucky completed a regular-season sweep over Tennessee with a 75-64 result in Lexington, but that one came despite the Volunteers having eight offensive rebounds to Kentucky’s three. Tennessee enjoyed a 15-3 advantage in second-chance points in that game.
“I feel like our offense is overlooked because of how good our defense is,” Tennessee senior guard Zakai Zeigler, the SEC’s defensive player of the year, said Saturday.
“I feel like our offense is overlooked because of how good our defense is,” Tennessee senior guard Zakai Zeigler, the SEC’s defensive player of the year, said Saturday.
Zeigler also brought up the versatility within Tennessee’s offensive approach, and how the Vols have the ability to either push the ball in transition or slowly bring the ball up the court and methodically work through their offense. The Vols lag well behind most of the nation’s teams when it comes to offensive pace — they’re 275th in the country in average offensive possession length — but Tennessee did have more fast-break points than UK in the teams’ January game in Knoxville.
At the same time, a major elephant in the room with Tennessee’s performances against UK this season has been the Vols’ 3-point shooting: Tennessee is a combined 14-for-63 (22.2%) shooting 3-pointers against UK this season. Lanier in particular has struggled mightily, going 3-for-17 (17.7%) from deep himself in two games against the Wildcats.
But, for all the talk about the non-defensive things that Tennessee does at a high level, everyone knows how the Volunteers’ bread is buttered. If Tennessee is to get past Kentucky on Friday night — which would mean defeating a longtime SEC rival in their first-ever March Madness meeting — to secure a spot in the Elite Eight for a second-straight season, the Volunteers’ defense is likely to be the reason why. “We can switch a lot. … Being able to put our 5 man on the point guard, I think it’s a game-changer,” junior forward Felix Okpara said. “It just makes it really hard for teams to score on us.”
