Ideally, Tennessee runs its offense through the duo of senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and freshman power forward Nate Ament, but Ament, a sublime talent, is limited by a gimpy right ankle that UT coach Rick Barnes concedes won’t fully heal until the season is over.
“A lot of guys this time of year have to play with those type things, and in terms of how we’re going to play, he’ll play the way he plays. Like last night, we could tell he was struggling with it. That’s why we didn’t put him back in the game,” Barnes told reporters on Saturday, on the eve of the Virginia-Tennessee game in the Midwest Regional on Sunday in Philadelphia.
ICYMI
Ament (17.0 ppg, 6.5 rebounds/g, 40.2% FG, 32.8% 3FG, 7.3 FTAs/g) was scoreless, on 0-of-2 shooting, with three rebounds and three turnovers in 19 minutes in the Vols’ 78-56 win over Miami-Ohio on Friday.
“We need Nate. He knows it, but he will give us everything that he can, and that’s really all I can say about it. If it’s up to him, he would play every minute if he could. We’ll see game time,” Barnes said.
Barnes starts three guys 6’10” or bigger – and the other two, JP Estrella (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Felix Okpara (12 points, five rebounds) more than picked up the slack in the first-round win.
Ament, though, with his ability to pick-and-pop, is a difference-maker.
If he’s not a full-go, that will allow Virginia to focus its defense on pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs involving Gillespie (18.3 ppg, 5.6 assists/g, 41.1% FG, 34.1% 3FG) on the ball-handler, allowing UVA bigs Johann Grunloh and Ugonna Onyenso to sit back in drop coverage to cut off driving lanes and protect the rim.
Easier said than done there, I know.
“You can tell that Coach Barnes really trusts Gillespie,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom told reporters. “He’s dynamite. Just when you think you have him cornered, he gets around you and finds a way to get to the basket. He makes big shots. He’s really good on defense in terms of stealing the ball. He’s got great hands. He’s a tremendous floor general. He’s been doing it at every spot, Belmont to Maryland to now at Tennessee. He’s just a winner.”
Gillespie is clearly a focal point in the defensive game plan for Virginia, with the impetus on the UVA guards being on keeping him from getting downhill from the perimeter into the lane.
“We do have two top 10 shot blockers in there, but we don’t want to rely on that. We’ve got to guard and have chests in front the whole game and limit their guards and whatever they can do,” junior guard Sam Lewis told me in a quick locker-room media hit today.
“They’ve got great positional size, great team, and they’re playing physical. They do a great job on O rebounds, they’re number one in the nation. So, we’ve got a big, big emphasis on that. Just slowing down their key players, like Gillespie and, you know, just trying to do our best to just keep our chest in front of their players and stick to our principles,” guard Malik Thomas told me.
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We all just learned something there – the principle for our guards on defense is, keep your chest in front of the other guy.
Tennessee is solid on the offensive end, but the Vols are better on D – ranking 12th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.
Virginia and Tennessee are mirror images on that end of the floor, in a lot of ways – with size on the back end to protect the rim, and the athleticism to contest shooters on the perimeter.
“When you have the size around the rim to protect the twos, but also the athleticism to get out there and contest shots, sometimes you can settle. We have to make sure we’re not settling for shots that are contested. We have to make sure that we try to find our shots as best we can and feel the game,” Odom said.
I think we’re going to need to see Thijs de Ridder shake out of his recent funk to have the best chance on Sunday.
De Ridder (15.4 ppg, 6.2 rebounds/g, 50.5% FG, 34.0% 3FG), in his last two games, is averaging 7.5 points per, shooting 4-of-14 from the floor, with five turnovers.
The other priority needs to be taking care of the ball. Virginia had 14 turnovers in the 82-73 first-round win over Wright State, in which Raiders guard TJ Burch had five steals.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Jacari White shoots Virginia into the second round
- NCAA Tournament: Sam Lewis tech unexpectedly ignites game-closing run in UVA win
“I think spacing is the first thing,” Odom said. “We have to make sure our guys have the proper space to work and get downhill. If you’re driving into crowds all the time, that’s where players who have those types of instincts can really take it away. We’ve got to make sure that our guys have the space to work.
“I thought our guys did a nice job in the second half. Even Thijs did a nice job of quick passing it instead of overdribbling,” Odom said. “We get in trouble when we overdribble. We want to take it and attack it when we can, but when the ball is constantly down, that’s just not how we play. We have to make sure we’re organized as we come over halfcourt and ready to attack.”
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Chris Graham
