March Madness: 5 advantages Vols have in South Region of the Sweet 16

3. No other team in the South Region is as efficient as the Vols on offense.

This one is a huge deal. They say defense wins championships. But that’s a total lie when it comes to March Madness. If you only focus on defense, what are you going to do if you run into a team that gets red-hot shooting the ball? There’s no defense for that.

The Vols this weekend will be in a region with at least two teams that have that defense-first philosophy: the Virginia Cavaliers and the Purdue Boilermakers. Here’s the best part, though: they are one of the best defensive teams in the nation as well, and their offensive efficiency dominates the other teams.

Rick Barnes has coached up this team very well when it comes to efficient shooting. Tennessee basketball’s true shooting percentage on the year is .593. That is significantly higher than the Purdue Boilermakers or the Oregon Ducks, who are .565 and .555 respectively. It’s also higher than the Virginia Cavaliers, albeit only slightly at .590.

However, the crazy part of that efficiency is the fact that the Vols score more than any other team in the region, averaging 81.7 points per game. The closest team to them is Purdue, averaging 76.1 points per game.

You would think a team with the highest efficiency on offense has it because they take fewer shots, limiting bad ones. But the Vols take a decent amount of shots. They just so happen to make a lot of them in the process.

With Grant Williams the go-to guy able to play big underneath, Admiral Schofield able to score from anywhere on the court, and Lamonte Turner, Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden all capable of getting hot, this is a complete offense. And it’s one that, even with a great defense, is hard to stop.