How No. 2 seed Tennessee views Sunday's Elite Eight matchup against top-seeded Purdue

DETROIT – Let’s take a trip through Tennessee’s 40-minute media availability on Saturday and gauge the temperature of the Volunteers, who are trying to reach the Final Four for the first time by winning the Midwest Region.

But they must get by Purdue (2:20 p.m., CBS), a team that won the earlier meeting in Hawaii by four points.

“TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM”

Tennessee knows this – and you do too – the Boilermakers can’t shoot 48 free throws if coach Rick Barnes’ team expects to win. Granted, the Vols shot 30 back in November, but Purdue’s free throws helped overcome 16 turnovers and 35.2% shooting.

A total of 52 fouls were called – and several others didn’t earn a whistle – and Tennessee had five players finish with four or more fouls. Zach Edey leads the nation in drawing fouls.

“Based on the way the (current) tournament is being called, about half of those fouls wouldn’t have been called, I can assure you of that,” Barnes said.

“Both teams played hard. If you go back and watch that, it was hard-fought – that tournament was from start to finish. At the time, referees were getting started, and we were getting started. Did we foul? Yeah, we fouled some. Did they foul some? Yeah, they fouled some too. Did the referees miss some? Yeah, they missed some too.”

What happened in Hawaii isn’t expected to change the Vols’ approach.  

“When we’re at our best, we’re aggressive at that end of the floor,” Josiah-Jordan James said. “We were able to turn them over, but we mixed in some defensive errors. We’re going to stick to our script and take the fight to them.”

IMPROVED DEFENSE

However, there’s a balance the Vols need to navigate. They can’t send the Boilermakers to line that many times again, but they can’t allow Zach Edey to dunk on every possession.

Edey wasn’t spectacular at the line, hitting 9 of 17. Fletcher Loyer killed Tennessee by making 10 of 11 and finishing with 27 points.

“Do what we did last night,” said Jordan Gainey, referring to Friday night’s win over Creighton, which attempted 13 free throws. “We were physical, but we were smart, and we weren’t fouling. We weren’t slapping down, and we weren’t grabbing. We were playing good, physical defense. We have to do that during the entire game and avoid and-1s.”

KNECHT SHINES

If Edey had turned pro after last season, Dalton Knecht might have been the nation’s player of the year. He’s enjoyed that type of season.

He was born in Fargo, North Dakota, graduated from Prairie View High School in Henderson, Colorado, and played two seasons at Northeastern Junior College before landing at Northern Colorado, where he stayed two years before joining the Vols.

Knecht was named first-team All-America by four organizations and is a finalist for Naismith Player of the Year. His success has pushed Tennessee within one win of the Final Four.

“When I transferred here this is what they told me I was going to do,” Knecht said of having success in the NCAA tournament. “From the beginning, when I first touched down on campus, we all had a team meeting, and we all said this was going to happen, and you know, it’s special.

“One other team in Tennessee history has done this and it’s going to be something special. We want that Purdue game so we’re going to be excited to be playing in the Elite Eight.”

DEFENDING EDEY

Will the Vols bring double teams to defend Edey?

Barnes understands it can’t be a one-man operation. It will take “five guys being connected defensively” to deal with the 7-foot-4 senior.

“It’s got to be a team defense,” Barnes said. “Again, he’s a terrific player. Again, I admire anybody that knows where his space is to work and works hard to get there. Again, Matt has some great schemes to not let you see the same thing over and over, but he knows what he’s looking for, his teammates knows where he needs to get it, when he needs to get it.”

The key for Tennessee is not to allow Edey to accumulate second-chance points, especially following his own misses.

“One of the hardest things to do is to keep him off the offensive boards,” Barnes said. “He’s a hard guy to guard when he misses his own shot. It’s just a talent. He’s good at it. But it’s very difficult – there’s not a drill for that. I wish there were, but there’s not. Great hands, and he’s right there at the rim. When they come off, he’s got a great way of getting it back and putting it back in.”

ZEIGLER HEALTHY

 Purdue’s personnel is basically the same as the game in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, the Vols are different, most notably Zakai Zeigler, who was returning from knee surgery. Zeigler played 28 minutes and made 2 of 11 field goals and scored five points. He also committed three turnovers.

Move ahead to Friday when Zeigler played all 40 minutes, totaling 18 points and six assists in the 82-75 win over the Bluejays.  

“I think we were a brand new team still,” Knecht said. “That was five games in, and we were completely different. We had a couple of games in Italy and stuff like that, but we were a brand new team, and we were trying to learn each other’s games. Z wasn’t fully healthy.”

VESCOVI UPDATE

Barnes expects Santiago Vescovi, a five-year starter, to “be ready” for Sunday’s game. Vescovi didn’t play Friday because of the flu.

“He looked better,” Barnes said. “He’s with us. We won’t obviously do very much (Saturday). We’ll just see really more (Sunday), I think once we get going.”

Vescovi scored eight points and had four rebounds in the November loss to Purdue. Before Friday, he had started 52 consecutive games and missed his fourth game. He’s the program’s career leader with 144 starts.