Tennessee basketball: Ranking all nine Vols NCAA Tournament wins in 2010s
2. Iowa Hawkeyes (7-seed)
2019 – Third Round
Final score: Tennessee wins 83-77 (OT)
Beating Power Five teams to reach the Sweet Sixteen is always a thriller, and that was the case for Tennessee basketball in 2019. Of course, Rick Barnes’ team really just breathed a sigh of relief in this one, but they still managed to win the game, so it has to count for something. And it did have some thrilling fireworks in the end.
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The team that was No. 1 for three weeks but just missed out on the SEC regular season title, SEC Tournament title and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, had an ugly win over the Colgate Raiders to reach this round. But in this round, they started off red-hot, building up a 25-point first-half lead and going into halftime up 49-28.
In the second half, however, Iowa fought back. The red-hot shooting by the Vols in the first-half turned into red-hot shooting by Iowa in the second half. Down by four with a minute to go, Iowa scored, got a stop, and then drew a foul to hit two free throws to send the game into overtime.
With Kyle Alexander, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield all having four fouls, UT regrouped and scored the first seven points in overtime to win 83-77. Williams, Schofield, Lamonte Turner and Jordan Bone all had double-figures.
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Again, this is the one time UT beat a Power Five team to reach the Sweet Sixteen, so it’s obviously going to be high on the list. Similar to Cuonzo Martin’s team, they were robbed in a matchup with a Big Ten foe to reach the Elite Eight. But that doesn’t take anything away from this win.