March Madness: 5 advantages Vols have in South Region of the Sweet 16
1. Nobody in the South Region is battle-tested like the Vols.
We said this as a reason they were a lock for the Final Four in a post last week, before March Madness even began. But, as crazy as it sounds, they now look even more battle-tested heading into the Sweet 16.
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Considering the recent experience the Purdue Boilermakers, Virginia Cavaliers and Oregon Ducks all have playing in the second weekend, as they’ve all done at least once in the past three years, getting battle-tested like that was huge for the Vols. It was able to prepare them for the crazy that comes with the tournament.
Heading into this weekend, nobody is going to be more focused than the Vols. Purdue, their first opponent, coasted by Old Dominion and took advantage of little depth on the Villanova Wildcats to win in dominating fashion.
Oregon was a mismatch from the start for Wisconsin’s style of play and then coasted past UC Irvine, getting a break to face a No. 13 seed in the second round. Then there’s Virginia, and UVA did get a scare again as a No. 1 seed in the first half of their first game. But they recovered to win easily and dominate their second game.
The Vols, however, blew two huge first-half leads. They fell behind to the Colgate Raiders at one point in the second half before recovering to win by seven. Then they blew a 25-point lead to the Iowa Hawkeyes only to take back over in overtime.
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As a result, Rick Barnes’s guys are more prepared than anybody else for what’s to come. They’ve played the toughest schedule the last month of anybody, and they have seen it all. So nothing should surprise them, and if things get tight, they’ll have no trouble handling the adversity likely to come with it.