The outbreak of COVID-19 has taken over the sports world with the professional sports in suspension and the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament. So, Sixers Wire will bring back some of the best moments of March Madness for the current Philadelphia 76ers.
Friday’s edition continues on with the run put on by the 11 seed Tennessee Volunteers led by Josh Richardson in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. The Vols knocked off the Iowa Hawkeyes in the First Four game thanks to a stifling defensive performance in overtime and that carried over with them to their matchup with the 6 seed Massachusetts Minutemen in the Round of 64.
March 21, 2014
The Tennessee defense was swarming in this one. The Minutemen could not get any clean looks, they were committing a bunch of turnovers, and that allowed the Volunteers to get out and run. They possessed a lot of athletes in Richardson, Jordan McRae, and Jarnell Stokes and they raced out to a 41-22 halftime lead.
That was all that was needed as UMass never seriously threatened and Tennessee cruised to an 86-67 win to move on to the Round of 32. Stokes led the Volunteers with 26 points and 14 rebounds, McRae had 21 points, and Richardson had 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting with five assists and two blocks.
Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin told reporters postgame about his team:
They understand and I guess they realize when you defend at the level we’re capable of defending at, these are the results behind it. They’ve really bought into it and embraced the fact that we can defend the way we defend because you can still score the ball, but scoring is a lot better when you can defend like this.
They’re just playing with confidence as a team. Everybody understands their role and just wants to win as a family.
Tennessee will now move on to face another team who had a huge upset and that is the 14 seed Mercer Bears after they upset 3 seed Duke. The matchup is a rematch of their 2013 NIT game in which Mercer won 75-67. [lawrence-related id=28353,28342,28332]