March Madness: 5 things we learned about Vols after the first weekend

5. Interior defense has made far too many mistakes.

This is a universal thing. It’s clear watching the first two games why the Vols missed Kyle Alexander so desperately in last year’s March Madness, and he certainly has made the hustle plays they need him to make.

After all, Alexander has 15 rebounds in total the last two games and also added another block for each game. However, the mistakes from Alexander to John Fulkerson to Derrick Walker have all been incredibly evident.

Alexander, for starters, continues to stay in foul trouble. He picked up 3 against the Colgate Raiders and then joined Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield with 4 fouls against the Iowa Hawkeyes. By the way, Schofield and Williams both got in foul trouble for mistakes when it came to interior defense as well.

Then there’s Fulkerson off the bench. He gives solid hustle minutes but has made too many mental errors at times also. Most notably was in the first game, against Colgate, he stayed on the interior when he was drawn out to defend a three. This was a team red-hot from outside who had no inside presence, so that was a huge mistake.

Finally, Walker became a factor and an issue inside. He came in for 3 minutes against Iowa due to the foul issues and picked up 2 fouls, allowed an and-one, and made numerous mistakes. This can’t happen in the next two rounds if the Vols are going to advance. They had great interior defense all year, and that has to continue if they’re going to make a Final Four run.