CHICAGO — Ask any player on No. 6 seed Tennessee, or any coach on the Volunteers’ staff, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Sunday’s game will be defined by size, rebounding and physicality.
Those three words kept coming up in Tennessee’s locker room Saturday, as the Volunteers spoke to the media ahead of their Elite Eight matchup versus Michigan.
“(Rebounding will) be super important,” Tennessee guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said. “We want to still dominate the glass, even though they’re a super big team. That’s who we are, and that’s who we pride ourselves in being. So we just gotta keep being who we are.”
Less than 24 hours ago, the Volunteers out-rebounded Iowa State 43 to 22, dominating the Cyclones and backing up their ranking as the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the country. The Wolverines are a strong defensive rebounding team and thrive in transition.
Tennessee knows that, and its players know the importance of extending their offensive possessions to keep things competitive.
“In transition, they play great,” center JP Estrella said. “We watched film this morning, they do a lot of those long passes. Offensive rebounding’s really going to kill that, we know that they like to leak out on some shots. So if we get those offensive rebounds, it kills their transition, and gives us that advantage of playing five-on-four as well. So if we continue to do that, which we’ve been doing all year, I think it’s going to give us a huge benefit.”
Clearly, Tennessee has been well-prepped on the Wolverines’ strengths and repeatedly drilled on how to counter them. The Volunteers know that Sunday’s match begins on the boards.
Michigan has fared well against elite offensive rebounding teams before by matching their intensity and effort and battling it out on the glass. But when it’s not required of them, the Wolverines’ effort on the boards can dip.
For the Volunteers, extending offensive possessions has been their motto all season.
“It’s all will with rebounding,” forward Jaylen Carey said. “Your will to go get the ball. You could have a good eye for the ball, see where it’s going, but usually everybody has that good eye. Especially at the level we’re at right now, everybody knows where the ball’s gonna go. So just being the first to the ball, first to the floor, you’ve just gotta have the will to go get it and go grab it and secure it.”
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