What a weekend of hoops it was and there were so many great games. The NCAA Tournament is the best postseason and it never disappoints. So many great storylines and I want to take a deep dive into the two SEC teams that played this weekend.
Sweet Sixteen
Alabama vs. North Carolina
This in my opinion was the best game of the weekend. The speed of the game and how fluid the game was, made it fun to watch. Alabama did a great job of getting the tempo that they wanted. Alabama knew that North Carolina had a big advantage inside and their way to combat that is get the tempo at a high pace.
Grant Nelson was the storyline in this game and how he played. Nelson has struggled some this year, but the talent was always there. Nate Oats used Nelson to initiate the offense, which allowed Nelson to get switches and get angles to attack.
Carolina began the game switching most actions with Nelson and Nelson took advantage. North Carolina then made an adjustment to not switch and late in the game Nelson took advantage and hit a huge three pointer. Alabama played pretty well in this game, but North Carolina was the better team and just had a bad night.
This is the beauty of the NCAA Tournament. Nate Oats outcoached Hubert Davis and it really was not close. The Tar Heels were up eight points at half, but hit 10 threes, so the Tide had to be feeling good because the pace was where they wanted it and the score was not reflective of the game. North Carolina should have fed the ball to Armando Bacot every possession.
Alabama could not guard him one on one, which Alabama would have led the Tide to double and created advantages for the Tar Heels. The first half shooting led the Tar Heels to get away from that. You are not going to win a three point contest with Alabama.
Tennessee vs. Creighton
This was another great game that the Vols really controlled the entire way. Creighton was bothered by the physical defense of Tennessee and Jahmi Mashack and Zakai Ziegler were dominant on defense. When playing teams like Creighton that run such a great offense and want to run a bunch of free flowing offense the key is you have to push the offense out and make passes hard.
Tennessee forced Creighton to run their offense at almost half court and a lot of times Creighton wouldn’t get into their sets until 15 on the shot clock. The Vols did this the entire game and Creighton never could get into any rhythm.
Tennessee went on an 18-0 run in the second half and that might have been the best basketball this program has ever seen. Creighton made a great adjustment and went to a triangle and two defense. Basically two guys are denying any pass to Ziegler and Knecht and the other three are zoning off.
This adjustment got Creighton back in the game as Tennessee really struggled to generate any offense against it, to beat the defense you need to involve the two guys in screening actions the entire time. Tennessee adjusted and Knecht hit two big time threes to seal the game for the Vols.
Elite Eight
Alabama/Clemson
Alabama put on a shooting clinic in the second half. Clemson had a pretty good plan in the first half as they did what North Carolina did and they pounded the ball inside. This was a solid game plan to try and slow the pace and limit possessions.
The problem was that Clemson was not making enough outside shots to make Alabama get extended on defense. I thought Clemson eventually forced the ball inside even when the Tide were gap heavy.
When guarding Alabama I am not sure why teams do not play drop coverage in the paint and pressure on the perimeter. The Tide aren’t going to take the mid range shots, so just keep a big at the rim and stay home on the shooters on the perimeter.
Clemson eventually went to a zone and I understand what Clemson was trying to do, but playing a zone with four shooters on the perimeter is not the best idea.
Alabama had a great plan to attack the zone. They used Mark Sears as an overload player, a lot of teams when facing a zone will overload a side and use a shooter to baseline cut to the corner. Alabama used Nick Pringle as the screener on the block and Sears going to the corner.
This forces a 3 on 2 situations. Pringle got a dunk on the over rotation to Sears and then Sears hit the dagger three in the corner on the same exact action. You need some luck in the tournament and Alabama had great matchups for them as they advance to their first ever final four.
Tennessee vs. Purdue
This was the most controversial game of the weekend. I want to be the first person to say that Tennessee did not lose because of the officiating, but it surely did not help. I hear everyone say how hard Zach Edey is to officiate, but I am not sure I even know what that means.
Truthfully, it is quite embarrassing what happened on Sunday. Edey was fouled a lot and there is no question about that, but for Edey to only have one foul called on him is ridiculous. Not to mention the amount of times Edey would just sit in the paint for a lot more than three seconds.
Now for the game itself, Tennessee actually played well enough to win. The Vols hit 11 threes and shot pretty well from three. I thought the game plan was very good from Rick Barnes. They let Edey get his and they slowed everyone else down. Besides one possession and that one possession was the difference.
The Lance Jones three was what put the game away for Purdue. Dalton Knecht was unbelievable, but no one else came to the party. Knecht was tired in the last five minutes and the overuse of him finally caught up to the Vols. Knecht had a couple of open mid range jumpers that were short and you could tell that he just did not have any legs left.
Zakai Ziegler has been so good for the Vols all year and he just had an off night. He had a couple of open shots that were really good looks and just did not go in.
The play of Jonas Aidoo was also a big factor. Aidoo has been off in the Tournament. He played so well for the Vols this season, but was almost unplayable in this game. Tennessee just ran into a better team and it's disappointing because you could make the argument that the Vols are the third best team in the tournament.