Previewing Virginia basketball’s Round of 32 battle with Tennessee

The Virginia Cavaliers took care of business on Friday, surviving 14-seeded Wright State behind a late surge, and now they will be faced with a much larger test to advance to the second weekend — 6-seeded Tennessee. The Volunteers are coming off of an impressive Round of 64 victory themselves, dominating 11-seeded Miami Ohio by a score of 78-56.

As a Vegas consensus, the Wahoos are slight underdogs, with some books offering virtually a pick-em. Sunday’s tip-off is scheduled for 6:10 pm ET.

Advertisement

What to know about Tennessee

Tennessee is not your average six seed, sitting at 15th in overall KenPom efficiency, and 13th defensively. They are 23-11, having finished fifth in the SEC at 11-7, with wins over Houston, Vanderbilt, Alabama, and others on their resume. Despite having entered the dance coming off of four losses in their previous six, the Miami win silenced any sort of doubt, as the Vols held the RedHawks to 7-of-29 (24.1%) from behind the line, while shooting 9-of-20 (45.0%) themselves.

Tennessee’s biggest strength, though, is their front court. Head coach Rick Barnes regularly plays three bigs who are listed in the 6-f00t-10 to 6-foot-11 range. At the top of that list is Nate Ament, who was at times, a projected top-five NBA Draft prospect.

Ament is a skilled three-level scorer, averaging over 17 points per game on the season. He is particularly lethal in the mid-range and gets to the line a ton. Ament’s 58.6 free throw rate places above the 90th percentile among all Division 1 players, and tops anybody in this matchup. (Ironically, 5-foot-10 Chance Mallory is the only other player on either team with a free throw rate above 50.0.)

Advertisement

Otherwise, Tennessee rotates in two more traditional centers in JP Estrella and Felix Okpara. Both are known for being outstanding rebounders and efficient interior scorers. Estrella, who is averaging 10.2 points per game, has the deeper bag of the duo, but Okpara, a member of the 2025-26 SEC all-defensive team, is a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/previewing-virginia-basketball-round-32-144427349.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-03-22 14:44:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.