Tennessee assistant coach Gregg Polinksy previews Sweet 16 matchup with Creighton

Tennessee assistant coach Gregg Polinksy met with reporters before practice Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena to preview the second-seeded Vols facing No. 3 Creighton in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 round on Friday (10:09 p.m. Eastern Time, TBS) at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit:

If it’s a sigh of relief that Tennessee survived an NCAA Tournament game when shots weren’t falling

“Yeah. Not to sound combative at all here, I think what people think is when you shoot it well, you play really well. We obviously shot it really poorly, but we played well and we defended really well and we rebounded the basketball. So I think what makes Coach (Barnes) most proud our team, and our guys of themselves, is that they know we can win games when we don’t shoot the basketball. Let’s not even say at a high level, we weren’t even, we didn’t even shoot it at a decent level, right? But we had good looks for the most part. These are shots we’re going to take. At this time of the year, it’s advance and move on. And that’s kind of what we did. And I love the mentality. Coach said it about our players. I think it’s just something to be really, really proud of for our team. And if you’re a Tennessee fan, let’s not get too caught up in the aesthetics and let’s get caught up in the result.”

Tennessee players hitting big shots at the end of the Texas game, making free throws in the final minutes with the game on the line

“That was really uplifting I think for all of us because obviously the free throws (in) crunch time, season is on the line. Texas has the momentum so to speak. At that time they’re making a run at us. I thought we had a number of big shots, but I really loved Josiah with around seven minutes to go from the corner, stepped up. Great rhythm. He’s really a good shooter. I know the stats don’t bear it out. People would say, well the numbers are the numbers, but we have great faith in Jo and everybody else on this team. They can make shots.”

Tennessee’s culture, the team staying locked in and knowing it can win games and play well even when shots aren’t falling 

“I think that’s what, as I say it to you right now in a little corny fashion, it gives me goosebumps that we have guys that are so proud, have such basketball integrity, have a mindset, mental toughness, all those cliche words that really do mean something here at Tennessee. That we can survive a game. And it was really neat after the game from basketball people, not that you’re not, that a lot of comments about, man, I love how you guys defend. I loved your mental toughness in that game. Your ability to grind it out because you know, it’d be like a side like, man y’all couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. So it was one of those games. But yeah, we’re proud of it and I’m extremely proud of our players.”

NCAA Tournament games being games full of runs and teams coming back from double-digit deficits

“I think it happens, really if you pay attention to it, other than some home games, like we had some where we just really played extremely well and got out the big leads and kept that lead one. You’re on a neutral site, right? So could you have said that was a home crowd for Carolina in Charlotte? Yeah, but they earned that No. 1 seed. But for the rest of us, it’s kind of a neutral site. We’re really proud of our fan base being there. I’m sure others are with theirs. So I think in a neutral-site game you’re going to have maybe a little bit more of the ebbs and flows of the game. Teams are going to make runs. These teams did not get here without being competitive and mature. And when you have teams that possess those two qualities you can expect tight games.” 

What Creighton looks like on film, if there’s a comparison for how Creighton plays, if the Bluejays are fun to watch

“I’m not going to use that term to play, but we’re looking forward to it. It is a great challenge for us. I would say that we have Alabama in our league. Creighton is a top-four team in offensive efficiency. They score and transition at a higher rate. They have players that are very skilled, can dribble, pass and shoot, three elements that are really good for any basketball player. And they’re old. They’re really old, which means that they understand how to make adjustments. So if we take something away, I would imagine they’re going to have a good counter to it.” 

Creighton not committing many fouls, shooting a lot at the rim and at the 3-point line, if Tennessee can get trapped playing the game the way Creighton wants to play it

“Well I don’t know that it’s a trap. I think that all teams have to identify how they’re going to attack any defense, including Creighton. And when you have a 7-1, 270-pound guy in there and you feel like you can guard on the perimeter and zone him up, so to speak, let him play in a drop fashion, we call it. it’s been very effective for them. They’ve ranked in the top 25 all year defensively. They are good defensively, they’re smart, they keep the ball in front of them and when they don’t, they have the big fella back there to clean it up. So they do present some challenges. It will be different. But I’m confident in our guys, that we will figure out a way and coach will figure out a game plan for this. And it all comes down to, look, if we get looks and we anticipate that, we know it’ll be hard, but if we execute, we get good looks, we got to make them.”

What he hopes Tennessee learned from the Sweet 16 loss last season  

“Number one, it’s nice to have Zakai here back healthy. Number two, just what it takes. I think in that game, you guys correct me, against Florida Atlantic, we got out to a pretty good lead for what that would be. But you can’t rest. You have to go from play to play to play. You have to understand there’s sequences within the game. You have to be at a high level, have a high level of concentration, make your runs longer than theirs.” 

The challenge of defending a team that has four potent scorers:

“Coach asked me the other day how many shooters they have on the court. Hmm. Pretty much everybody they put out there. So yeah, three guys that are very potent, they have three guys which is unusual that, I don’t know exactly their numbers, but they average over 17 a game. They also play high minutes. I think that’s a little bit unique that you know, they’ve got guys averaging between 36 and 39 minutes a game. I know they just had the double-overtime game so that would pump that number a little bit. But they have basically played with the short bench all year. Those guys are in great condition, they’re smart. I’ll say this in a complimentary way, when you have older players, they learn where to rest during the game. Their guys understand that, but they also compete at a high level. The challenge is to be there on the catch. They run great actions, they have a big they can score it with inside. Very few teams have that and they can hurt you from the perimeter through a number of different guys 

The challenges of Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner:

“Just the same challenges that Zach Edey possessed, Hunter Dickinson, Tolu Smith, all of the good quality big guys. I hope I’m not leaving anybody out because we have some really good ones that we played against, (Armando) Bacot at Carolina. That can we do the job getting to them, fighting for space effectively. You’re not gonna shut them out, but can we make it a difficult night with them getting up clean looks to the rim.”

Talking to Tobe Awaka about walking the line of being aggressive and staying out of foul trouble

“What we talked to Tobe about is getting good fouls. There are good fouls. You know, the ones where you’re really going after an offensive rebound, or you’re working to get around a guy and maybe the ref sees it as you’re coming over his back. You’re diving on the ball on the floor for a loose ball instead of both of you getting there at the same time. Maybe you kind of hit a piece of the guy and you know, Tobe moves people so when he goes in, Tobe generally bounces others. And so sometimes what appears to just be a neutral kind of going after it, could be a foul on Tobe. We accept some of those. What we can’t do is get the ones that are preventable and he knows what those are. We talk about them.”

How good Josiah-Jordan James was defensively against Texas

“Yeah, Josiah’s great. Josiah saved us on a number of dribble-drives, rotations, getting guys where he bluffed and stayed where he full-bodied help, where he got a hand on a ball. Knowing personnel, knowing who to full-body help on, leaving his guy, playing the percentages, his IQ, his size and elite hands are a gigantic advantage on defense.”