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March Madness: Tennessee Vols should root for Purdue to beat Villanova

By Caleb Calhoun

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - MARCH 21: Head coach Matt Painter of the Purdue Boilermakers looks on in the first half against the Old Dominion Monarchs during the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - MARCH 21: Head coach Matt Painter of the Purdue Boilermakers looks on in the first half against the Old Dominion Monarchs during the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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Purdue will face the Villanova Wildcats in the second round of March Madness. Volunteers fans should root for the Boilermakers in the NCAA Tournament.

After surviving the Colgate Raiders, Tennessee basketball gets a huge break in the second round of March Madness. There was the chance that they would have to play the Cincinnati Bearcats in Columbus, Ohio.

Cincinnati lost, however, to the Iowa Hawkeyes, so the Vols will play them in Columbus on Sunday instead. That No. 10 seed should be the only focus for Rick Barnes’s team at this moment. But for fans, there’s somewhere else to look.

Before that game, there will be a game on Saturday between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Villanova Wildcats. Whomever wins that game will advance to the Sweet Sixteen to face the winner between Tennessee and Iowa. And the two will play on Thursday.

Given the matchups, UT fans should go out of their way to root like heck for Purdue to win that game. We have already mentioned why Villanova is a bad matchup for the Vols in our post ranking their five most difficult opponents.

Here’s the short answer. ‘Nova still runs the Jay Wright system. That involves playing defense 94-feet, trapping, and turning up the tempo as much as possible. Tempo-based press defenses are the ones that have given the Vols hell all year. It’s what the Auburn Tigers beat them with twice and what the LSU Tigers beat them with. Rick Barnes has struggled with those.

What makes Villanova even harder, though, even as a No. 6 seed, is the fact that they can shoot lights-out from beyond the arc. The only difference between this year’s team and last year’s team is lack of depth. That’s why they are a 6-seed and not considered a contender again for the national title. Quick turnarounds are too rough for a team that runs five guys.

However, if Villanova plays the Vols, it will be to start off the next weekend. They will have enjoyed four full days off, plenty of time to get their legs fresh again, before the match-up in Louisville. So their one weakness becomes a strength, and it sets the stage for a perfect March Madness upset.

As a result, the Vols want to face Purdue. Barnes’s program arrived last year when the Vols upset the Boilermakers in the Battle 4 Atlantis. We could also bring up the fact, for irony, that UT lost to Villanova the next day.

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Anyway, we have seen, from that game, how Barnes can match up against a Matt Painter-led team. He has never gotten his program out of the Sweet Sixteen, and his system is perfect for the Vols to be able to handle.

Playing for Gene Keady and learning that style, Painter focuses on slowing it down with a dominant half-court defense. Although he takes pride in that defense, it’s the exact style the Vols thrive in exploiting. They can use Grant Williams to body up Painter’s inside game and play inside-out. Here’s the thing, though, the Vols can match Purdue’s elite defense.

Painter runs a half-court motion offense, which Barnes and UT have been shutting down all year. They’ll be able to shut down Purdue’s offense with elite defense. It’ll be so elite that they can get by even without hitting their shots. They’ll thrive in a defensive setting for March Madness.

Tennessee’s weaknesses have been stopping transition, flex and dribble-drive offenses. The only team to beat them with any sort of motion offense all year was the Kansas Jayhawks. They ran the high-low motion, though, and it took them overtime to beat the Vols, who didn’t have Lamonte Turner. Purdue runs none of that, and they don’t run an up-tempo defense.

Simply put, everybody on Rocky Top should be rooting for Purdue on Saturday. The Vols need to be focusing on Iowa, but provided they win on Sunday, facing Purdue next Thursday gives them a great chance at the Elite Eight. And Purdue has a better chance to beat Villanova simply because of the quick turnaround, which could tire out the Wildcats.

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