DETROIT (WTVF) — Sometimes in the NCAA Tournament even your best isn’t quite good enough. Sometimes the other team’s best is just a little bit too good.
In a game a game that more than lived up to the hype no. 1 seed Purdue fought its way past no. 2 Tennessee 72-66 to reach its first Final Four since 1980.
Reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey put Purdue on his back, dominating in the paint with a career-high 40 points and 16 rebounds as the Boilermakers overcame an uncharacteristically off shooting night. Edey was too much for the Vols to handle inside, scoring against single coverage, double-teams and triple-teams.
Jonas Aidoo was no match for him, struggling right from the start against the 7’4 big man. Aidoo missed all four of his shots and played just 10 minutes. Tobe Awaka’s lower center of gravity allowed him to battle Edey a little more effectively, but he battled foul trouble throughout, eventually fouling out with over 4:00 to play leaving Rick Barnes to try to employ J.P. Estrella against Edey.
Edey drew 13 fouls, three more than his NCAA-leading average, and went to the foul line 22 times on the afternoon. That’s five more free throw attempts than he had in Purdue’s 71-67 win over Tennessee back in the Maui Invitational in November. There were 52 fouls called in that game. This one only featured 37, but 25 against the Vols as the Boilermakers continued to take advantage of Edey’s size and pound the ball inside.
The trip to the Final Four cements Edey as one of the most dominant college basketball players in a generation and Matt Painter as one of the elite coaches in college basketball. One year after the disappointment of becoming just the second no. 1 seed ever to lose to a 16-seed (Farleigh Dickinson), the Boilermakers have gotten redemption by getting to the Final Four for the first time since 1980. And they had to beat an elite team to do so.
The SEC champion Vols probably cost themselves a no. 1 seed with an early loss against Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament but regrouped to reach the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history. They looked the part of an elite team in Sunday’s battle.
All-American Dalton Knecht matched Edey most of the day, setting a Tennessee NCAA Tournament record with 37 points, including six threes, in a back and forth game that featured six ties and eight lead changes in front of a rabid crowd that was heavily Purdue, but did feature plenty of boisterous Big Orange backers.
There just wasn’t enough offense from the rest of the Tennessee roster beyond Knecht.
Josiah-Jordan James hit his first three shots, including a pair of threes, and Knecht was dialed in early as the Vols used a 15-2 run to grab a 32-21 lead, but Jones failed to score the rest of the way. Jordan Gainey hit two big second half threes to help keep Tennessee in it but couldn’t contribute any more. No other Vol scored more than nine points, and Zakai Zeigler needed 12 shots to get there on a day he made just one of his eight three-point attempts.
Even with the SEC’s leading scorer in Knecht, Tennessee struggled at times this season with offensive slumps. They had three different stretches Sunday where they went more than 4:00 without a field goal. Purdue took advantage of each, including a 15-2 run at the end of the half that gave the Boilers a 36-34 halftime lead.
But Tennessee endured stretches of six and four minutes in the first half without a field goal as Purdue rallied to take a 36-34 halftime lead.
The offense struggled, but the Tennessee defense remained elite. The Vols did a great job of defending Purdue’s normally smooth-shooting perimeter players, holding them to 3-15 from downtown to give themselves a chance as they outscored the nation’s best three-point shooting team 33-9 from downtown.
Still, it wasn’t quite enough to overcome Edey or a 47-26 rebounding disadvantage. Lance Jones’s three with just over 2:00 to go all but put the game away.
It’s a disappointing end to a special season for Tennessee. But given the national stage Sunday Barnes’s program proved it belonged against a team that will be a heavy favorite to face UConn in the national championship game a week from Monday night.
Tennessee didn’t beat Purdue, but it proved itself to be Elite with its NCAA Tournament run. After years of March disappointments, this team was prepared, talented enough and fought to the bitter end.
After two SEC regular season championships, a conference tournament title and three trips to the Sweet 16 over the past six years, the Vols finally got back to a regional final. And on one of the sport’s biggest stages they proved just how elite this program has become under Barnes’s direction.
They looked like a Final Four-caliber team Sunday. It’s just a shame only one team can move on.
