Tennessee advanced to another Sweet 16 on Sunday, beating the Virginia Cavaliers 79-72. They controlled most of the game, but a familiar situation played out in the closing minutes — near collapse. The Volunteers handed the lead to the Cavaliers with two minutes left after Virginia capitalized on a turnover.
Unlike outings against Kentucky, Alabama, Kansas and Missouri though, Tennessee fought back and found a way.
“We’ve been in close games all year, but I always think you learn something,” Rick Barnes
said of the Virginia game. “I don’t think you ever stop learning. But you think about it, it was turnovers that put us in that position. But give Virginia credit because they’re not going to stop playing either.”
Tennessee has struggled all season with turnovers, particularly late in games. The Vols ranks 202nd nationally with 11.7 turnovers per game. That number has improved in the last couple of months, but there’s just one issue. Iowa State, who Tennessee will face on Friday night, has one of the best defenses in the country. According to KenPom, the Cyclones rank fifth nationally in defensive efficiency.
“Toughness, defense, well-coached, really terrific point-guard play,” Barnes said of Iowa State on Wednesday. “I think they really, as a team, they’re connected. They know who needs to be shooting it, when they need to be shooting it and just play extremely well together. But really excellent defensive team. Excellent.”
Iowa State is also among the best at forcing turnovers. T.J. Otzelberger’s team forces over 15 turnovers per game, which is good for sixth in the country. This aspect of the game is a crystal clear strength vs. weakness that the Cyclones will continually try to exploit.
“Whether we’re playing Iowa State, or — we’ve talked about it all year, and you guys know we’ve had a problem with it,” Barnes said. “But you can’t turn it over against a team like them because, well, you can’t guard it, for one. And they’re gonna going to take advantage of it. So we have to take care of the basketball.”
Iowa State point guard Tamin Lipsey leads the charge for the Cyclones and did it again over the weekend in their second round matchup against Kentucky. Lipsey racked up five steals of his own to make it 20 total forced turnovers against the Wildcats. Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who is no slouch himself in the steal department, will have one of the most important matchups on Friday night on both ends of the floor.
Tip-off is set for 10:10 p.m. ET on TBS from Chicago.
