The Tennessee Vols will get their rematch with the Ohio State Buckeyes Thursday night but this time the stakes are a lot higher.
The Vols are looking to avenge their 68-66 loss to the Buckeyes by defeating them to advance to the Regional Finals. No Volunteer team has advanced that far into the NCAA Tournament.
The Vols will have to find a counter to Ohio State's freshman center Greg Oden.
In their previous match up Oden dominated the paint with 24 points and 15 rebounds.
Despite Oden's performance the Volunteers still had a chance to win. But guards Chris Lofton and Ramar Smith missed the front end of one-and-one free throw attempts allowing Buckeyes guard Ron Lewis to hit a 3-pointer similar to his heroic effort last Saturday to force overtime against Xavier.
Head coach Bruce Pearl knows that both teams are different now then what they were in January.
"Ohio State is better now than earlier, a lot better. The rest of the team is playing better with Greg Oden than then," Pearl said. "They have special point guards. It's a tough match up for us."
Tennessee was able to force Ohio State into 20 turnovers but struggled shooting.
The Vols shot just 39.1 percent including JaJuan Smith and Lofton combining for 12-29 shooting. They will have to have a better performance if they want to pull of the upset.
"We need to keep them off the offensive boards and limit Greg Oden's touches," Pearl said. "We need to make some shots, and we need to have people do something special in order to advance."
In their first two games of the NCAA Tournament Ohio State has relied on their 2-3 zone defense which could lead to open shots for Lofton.
When the Buckeyes play their man-to-man defense the Volunteers have to be aggressive and try to get Oden into foul trouble.
Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | PPG | RPG | APG |
| F | 23 | Dane Bradshaw | 6-4 | 5.6 | 4.1 | 4.7 |
| F | 4 | Wayne Chism | 6-9 | 9.1 | 5.4 | 0.9 |
| G | 5 | Chris Lofton | 6-2 | 20.7 | 3.0 | 1.8 |
| G | 2 | JaJuan Smith | 6-2 | 15.3 | 4.4 | 1.3 |
| G | 12 | Ramar Smith | 6-2 | 10.6 | 3.4 | 3.1 |
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | PPG | RPG | APG |
| F | 3 | Ivan Harris | 6-7 | 7.7 | 3.2 | 0.8 |
| C | 20 | Greg Oden | 7-0 | 15.6 | 9.8 | 0.7 |
| G | 1 | Mike Conley Jr. | 6-1 | 10.6 | 3.3 | 6.2 |
| G | 14 | Jamar Butler | 6-2 | 8.7 | 2.1 | 3.7 |
| G | 31 | Daequan Cook | 6-5 | 12.2 | 3.5 | 1.3 |
| Statistical Comparison | ||
| Tennessee | Ohio State | |
| 80.8 | Points | 73.9 |
| 74.8 | Opponent Points | 60.4 |
| +6.0 | Scoring Margin | +13.5 |
| 44.7 | Field Goal % | 47.1 |
| 45.5 | Opponent Field Goal % | 39.7 |
| 36.0 | 3-point % | 37.0 |
| 34.7 | Opponent 3-point % | 32.0 |
| 65.7 | Free Throw | 69.8 |
| 35.9 | Rebounds | 35.9 |
| 37.1 | Opponent Rebound | 32.6 |
| -1.2 | Rebounding Margin | +3.3 |
| 15.6 | Assists | 15.4 |
| 14.4 | Turnovers | 11.8 |
| 9.8 | Steals | 6.7 |
| 3.1 | Blocks | 5.8 |
| 24-10 | Record | 32-3 |
| 25 | AP Rank | 1 |
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