Tennessee and Creighton have a collective 51 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, but neither squad has made it to the illustrious Final Four.
Both teams have the chance to alter that tale this weekend in Detroit in the Midwest Region. They are set to face each other in the Sweet 16 on Friday night.
With a record of 26-8, the No. 2 seed Tennessee has one Elite Eight appearance from 2010 in its history. In the last season, the Volunteers reached the Sweet 16 before being upset by Florida Atlantic with a score of 62-55.
In the first round of this year, Tennessee had a convincing 83-49 victory against the No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s. The Volunteers faced a tough challenge in the second round against the No. 7 seed Texas in Charlotte, clinching a 62-58 win with four crucial free throws from their star player, Dalton Knecht.
“I’m just excited we’re moving on because a year ago we were a good team,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “(Guard Zakai Zeigler) went down (last season), and we really had to re-create ourselves at the end of the year. We won games like this to get to the Sweet 16 a year ago.”
“We struggled to score, but we won these kind of games. Actually, the older guys kept saying, we’ve been here before. We know what we’ve got to do.”
Tennessee’s typically strong defense played a significant role in their progression. Texas had a shooting percentage of 36.4% from the field and committed 17 turnovers, while the Vols struggled in shooting with only a 33.8% success rate, including a 3-for-25 performance in 3-point attempts.
Knecht believes that a similar defensive performance will be crucial for Tennessee’s advancement.
“It’s a grown man’s game,” he said. “Just be ready to go out and give the first hit and just keep learning in film with Coach Barnes and the rest of the coaching staff, as well as just going out there and competing with my teammates.”
The No. 3 seed Creighton (25-9) faced a challenging path to Detroit after a 77-60 victory against No. 14 seed Akron in the first round. The Bluejays were pushed to double overtime by No. 11 seed Oregon before clinching a hard-fought 86-73 win in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a great feeling,” said guard Trey Alexander, who played all 50 minutes and scored 20 points vs. the Ducks. “I know I speak for everybody up here. We love this group of guys. We love rocking and rolling together.”
“We’re going to try to stay in the moment and just continue to love each other and continue to play at a level that we feel like we can play at. And from there we’ll just kind of let the dominoes fall where they do.”
Last spring, the Bluejays narrowly missed the Final Four, losing in the Elite Eight to San Diego State, 57-56.
Creighton’s three primary scorers — Baylor Scheierman, Alexander, and Ryan Kalkbrenner — were also the top three offensive threats in the previous season. They have another chance to end the school’s Final Four drought.
“This is what they were shooting for is to get back and have another opportunity to try to get to another Elite Eight. And we put ourselves in that position,” coach Greg McDermott said. “They’ve been an absolute joy to coach. And what you saw going into that second overtime, them being loose and them having fun, they love the game.”
“Selfishly, I’m obviously excited that I get to coach them at least another week.”
