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March Madness: 5 reasons Vols could lose to Purdue in Sweet 16

By Caleb Calhoun

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - MARCH 21: Matt Haarms #32 and Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrate after a play in the second 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: Matt Haarms #32 and Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrate after a play in the second 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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Tennessee basketball is in the March Madness Sweet Sixteen. Here are five reasons the Purdue Boilermakers could beat the Volunteers in the NCAA Tournament.

For just the sixth time since March Madness expanded to at least 64 teams, Tennessee basketball will be playing in a regional semifinal Thursday. The No. 2 seed Vols will be looking to hold off the No. 3 seed Purdue Boilermakers in Louisville in hopes of advancing to the Elite Eight.

Although Purdue is not the most ideal opponent for Rick Barnes’s team, things could have been worse. The Villanova Wildcats would have actually been a much tougher matchup simply because they could afford to run their tempo, which the Vols have struggled with, and lack of depth wouldn’t have hit after a four-day rest.

You could also say they would have liked to play Old Dominion or Saint Mary’s, who lost to Purdue and Nova respectively in the first round of March Madness. However, you can’t get everything you want in a tournament.

And the Vols already got a break by not having to play the Cincinnati Bearcats in Columbus. Anyway, UT has the same team that beat Matt Painter’s Boilermakers a year ago in overtime. That Purdue team has four new starters. Also, Painter has never made the Elite Eight.

All of these things would seem to favor Rocky Top, but after the scares they received in their first two NCAA Tournament games, nothing can be taken for granted. Also, Purdue is a good team anyway. They just dismantled the defending national champions by 26 points in the same round that UT needed overtime to put away its last Big Ten opponent.

Simply put, this is going to be a tough outing, and it’s one of the biggest tossups in the Sweet 16 of the tournament. So Barnes is definitely not going to take this one lightly, and he’s likely to make sure his players are serious too.

In fact, this might be UT’s toughest road block to get to the Final Four. So let’s break down why Purdue could be such a tough outing. These are five reasons the Vols could lose to the Boilermakers in the second weekend of March Madness.

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