ManningBerry#1
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No. 11 Tennessee
How they got here: As we wrote on Selection Sunday, no team entered the tournament with a wider gap between its seed (a First Four-bound No. 11) and what its per-possession performance told us about how good it actually was. Despite entering the tournament ranked in the top 15 in adjusted efficiency, Tennessee earned its seed by getting swept by Texas A&M and losing to Vanderbilt in SEC play (among other foibles, such as Nov. 28's neutral-court loss to UTEP). But like Kentucky, the Vols figured it out just in time. Since beating Iowa in the First Four, UT has utterly destroyed UMass and Mercer, and no team enters the second weekend looking more dangerous than this one.
Key trait: Girth. Jarnell Stokes and Jeronne Maymon are not, by basketball standards, tall: Both are listed at 6-8, and even that may be generous. But they are as physically imposing a combination as any in the country. On Sunday, the Vols grabbed 83 percent of their misses in the first half against Mercer, which is so off the charts it's almost hilarious. Pair that with scoring from Jordan McRae and emergent stuff from Josh Richardson on the wing, and you've got a daunting inside-out group well-suited to bullying the Wolverines.
NCAAM A road map to the Sweet 16 - ESPN
No. 11 Tennessee
How they got here: As we wrote on Selection Sunday, no team entered the tournament with a wider gap between its seed (a First Four-bound No. 11) and what its per-possession performance told us about how good it actually was. Despite entering the tournament ranked in the top 15 in adjusted efficiency, Tennessee earned its seed by getting swept by Texas A&M and losing to Vanderbilt in SEC play (among other foibles, such as Nov. 28's neutral-court loss to UTEP). But like Kentucky, the Vols figured it out just in time. Since beating Iowa in the First Four, UT has utterly destroyed UMass and Mercer, and no team enters the second weekend looking more dangerous than this one.
Key trait: Girth. Jarnell Stokes and Jeronne Maymon are not, by basketball standards, tall: Both are listed at 6-8, and even that may be generous. But they are as physically imposing a combination as any in the country. On Sunday, the Vols grabbed 83 percent of their misses in the first half against Mercer, which is so off the charts it's almost hilarious. Pair that with scoring from Jordan McRae and emergent stuff from Josh Richardson on the wing, and you've got a daunting inside-out group well-suited to bullying the Wolverines.
NCAAM A road map to the Sweet 16 - ESPN