INDIANAPOLIS – I’ll hear none of this talk about a hugeupset.
Even if Tennessee let a winnable game slip away late.
Even if when looking back on how one of the Vols’ most promising NCAA Tournament hopefuls had its run cut short, they’ll have to call this an upset. A No. 3 seed knocked off by aNo. 11 seed. Another talented Rick Barnes team that flopped in March as a high seed with high hopes.
All true.
But this wasn’t an upset. Not on the court, at least.
Those who’ll say it was weren’t in Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Tennessee’s 76-68 second-round defeat to Michigan on Saturday. To watch how even these teams were.How good these Wolverines really are, and yes, how gallantly the Vols fought to get in a position to outlast and survive them, only to fail in the end.
To watch Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson keep playing out of his mind. The 7-footer scored 27 points with a trio of 3-pointers that were more than Tennessee’s entire team.
To watch the Vols seemingly doeverything they could Saturday except the one thing they haven’t been able to do at times: Make perimeter shots. Thiswas a potentially fatal flaw that had vanishedin recent weeks.Saturdayit returned.
The Vols shot 2-for-18 from 3-point range. Josiah-Jordan James (0-for-6), Santiago Vescovi (1-for-5) and Zakai Zeigler (0-for-4) combined to go 1-for-15.
Despite Kennedy Chandler’s 19 points and 13 from James, Tennessee couldn’t survive a cold shooting effort against a Michigan team that may have deserved aNo. 11 seed based on its season but didn’t look a thing like one. This could have easily been a matchup in a regional or a Final Four.
"We know that we had bigger expectations," James said, "but credit to Michigan. They played better basketball for 40 minutes."
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Perhaps it's jarring toour part of the countrythat a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team was better than the team that just won the SEC Tournament. But here we are, looking for reasons why Barnes andhisVols failed themselvesagain when in actuality, it was more about the other guys.
The Wolverines (19-14) hadthe speed and skill – and most of all, the size – to stand toe-to-toe with Tennessee and prevent the Vols (27-8) from dominating solely with their defense.
In the game’s opening minute, the Wolverines sent a message by draining two 3-pointers and stuffing Chandler on the other end.At that moment it was clear, if it hadn’t been already, that this would be a chore.
When Tennessee’s Jonas Aidoo was whistled for the game’s first foul on an interior move by Dickinson,Barnes jumped up and jumped all over the referee, shouting into the media timeout. That spoke volumes about the task ahead ofthe Vols. They'dhaveto be able to protect the paint against the Wolverines.
And they'dhave to makeshots on the other end.
Ultimately, they didn't do either of those things well enough.
The Vols had no answer for Dickinson, who played 38 minutes was a force throughout. Forward Moussa Diabate —who is 6-11 —added 13 points.Guard Eli Brooks scored 23. All this combined to allow the Wolverines to overcome 15 turnovers that nearly handed Tennessee the game via a 13-2 run late in the first half.
For much of the game, it looked like theVols — despite their cold shooting and Dickinson’s performance — were going tobe able to do just enough. They led 60-54 with eight minutes remaining.
From there, however, Tennessee scored only four baskets — three of them were layups — as Michigan slowly seized control while the Vols, poised and confident until that point, faded in the stretch. Costliest was a shot-clock violation by Tennessee with 1:39 remaining and the Wolverines up four points.
To make a deep runin anNCAA Tournament, you have to be completeenough and lucky enough. But above all, youmust be clutch. A teamunable to unearth big buckets in big moments isn't going to last very long.
The Vols couldn’t unearth enough. Again.
Previous Tennessee teams in this tournament also haven’t been able to do that — whether that was a lack of talent or depth or toughness or poise or simple shooting ability. What's especially frustrating about this experience is that these Vols seemed to have all that.They playedlights-out defense.The offense was improving,and the Vols keptshowinga proven ability to adjust and find ways outside of their preferred script to win difficult games.
Instead, this became the 11th time in Barnes' 26 NCAA Tournament appearancesas a head coach in which his team lost in the first or second round to a worse-seeded opponent.
"It is frustrating? Yeah. I've been frustrated a lot in my career," Barnes said Saturday."I'm also very thankful that I've been able to be here (in the NCAA Tourney). ...People can say whatever they want to say. You don't ever take getting here for granted."
He added in the same answer, "It hurts. It does. If it didn't, it'd be time to quit."
What'll hurt the most is that so many believed this was thatteam for Tennessee. It was alikable, giftedgroup that was playing its best at the perfect time. It had won the SEC Tournament and appeared primed for more by how it soared through the first round.
If this group of Volsdidn’t have enough, you’re left wondering what it’ll take.
Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.
