INDIANAPOLIS – Hunter Dickinson was just too much for Tennessee basketball Saturday afternoon.
Tennessee fell to Michigan 76-68 in the Round of 32 following a gargantuan performance from the Wolverines’ 7-foot-1 big man Hunter Dickinson.
The Vols had a chance late, but couldn’t buy a bucket when it mattered. The Vols finished the game having made only 2-out-of 18 3-pointers attempted on the afternoon, their worst mark of the season dating back to a November matchup against Tennessee Tech.
And Dickinson was unstoppable Saturday evening, scoring a 27-point, 10 rebound double-double. Three of those rebounds, preluded by a crucial pair of offensive rebounds by sophomore forward Terrance Williams, came in the final minute.
“Did we think we could shut him out? We didn’t,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of Dickinson. “We had two stops there where we couldn’t rebound the ball, and that was a really pivotal time for us. He’s a hard player to guard. And two years in a row we have gone up against the big, burly post players that’s hurt us.
The Wolverines’ game plan made Tennessee work through big men like Uros Plavsic and John Fulkerson on offense, and it worked to perfection. Michigan was going to let anyone but Santiago Vescovi or Kennedy Chandler win the day.
“That was mostly in the game plan, guarding the perimeter,” Michigan forward Terrance Williams said. “They had shooters, their guard play, Vescovi is definitely a big shooter. But one of the of game plans was to guard the three-point line. I felt like we did our job today in guarding that 3-point line. They went 2 for 18, and I think we did our part.”
Tennessee hasn’t had a reliable post player all season, its best example being Olivier Nkamhoua before he suffered a season-ending injury against South Carolina. Not having that post presence hurt Tennessee Saturday night.
“I think in college you have to have somebody, and regardless of size you have to have somebody that can go in when you have days like this, when you can’t seem to find the bottom of the bucket,” Barnes said. “You’ve got to be able to throw it in there and get fouled, put pressure on people.”
And despite lacking that post presence, Kennedy Chandler came close to nullifying both Dickinson and freshman forward Moussa Diabate’s play down low. Chandler had the game of his career, scoring 19 points and dishing out 9 assists to go with a pair of steals and 4 rebounds.
Chandler was emotional postgame in the handshake line, consoled by Michigan head coach Juwan Howard. Chandler, after a slow start to the season, posted a microcosm of his play as of late in the Vols’ final game of the season.
At times, it seemed Chandler was willing Tennessee towards the finish line. It was Chandler who put Tennessee up six with eight minutes remaining.
That’s when the lull started.
It’s been Tennessee’s kryptonite all season, and it ultimately served as the Vols’ undoing. The Wolverines outscored the Vols 20-8 in the final seven minutes and 20 seconds. In a six-minute stretch from the nine minute mark and the two minute mark, Tennessee made just two of 11 shots attempted.
It was that time that ultimately buried the Volunteers. Tennessee started the game shooting 48% from the field and ended the final eight minutes and 56 seconds shooting just over 23%.
“These guys learned a lot about a lot of different things this year,” Barnes said. “And it hurts. If you were in our locker room, you would have known this was a very special group of young men in the way their emotions let out and — but it hurts, it does.”
“If it didn’t, it would be time to quit.”
