The most common threads for Tennessee’s Elite Eight teams the past two seasons were guards Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler, who were starters on both of them.
Senior forward Felix Okpara is the only starter on last season’s Elite Eight team who returned for this season, with the 6-foot-11, 243-pound former Hamilton Heights standout having bid farewell to Mashack, Zeigler, Chaz Lanier and Igor Milicic following last year’s journey. A third consecutive Elite Eight appearance for the Volunteers and a second straight for Okpara will be the goal when the sixth-seeded Vols take on second-seeded Iowa State in a Midwest Regional semifinal inside Chicago’s United Center on Friday night (10:10 Eastern on TBS).
“It’s been good,” Okpara said Wednesday in a press conference. “With me being an older guy, I can help all the younger guys with what it takes to keep advancing.”
The Vols (24-11) are 4.5-point underdogs against the Cyclones (29-7).
Okpara is leading by word and example these days. He has averaged 7.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game this season but has produced a noticeable uptick in the past 10 contests, with those averages jumping to 11.0 and 7.2.
“He’s had some really big moments for us, and we’ve never coached a player who we would say was great every night,” Tennessee 11th-year coach Rick Barnes said, “but Felix has been pretty darn good ever since he’s been here. When he really locks in defensively with the scouting report — he just takes great pride in wanting to get out there and guard the guards if he gets switched to them.”
When asked what has led to Okpara’s enhanced productivity in recent weeks, Barnes said: “When Felix doesn’t worry about offense is when he’s really good on offense. When he just gets lost in the game defensively and is who he should be and becomes a star in that role, I just think his offense flows for him.”
Okpara moved to the United States from Lagos, Nigeria, in August 2018, and he settled in Chattanooga. He would set a Hamilton Heights record with 160 blocked shots in three seasons but spent his senior year at Link Academy in Missouri, a program that also produced former Vols Julian Phillips and Cameron Carr.
Chattanoogans Adam and Brittany Levitt formally adopted Okpara in January 2021, and he spent his first two college seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24 at Ohio State before transferring to Knoxville.
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Should Tennessee defeat the Cyclones, the Vols will play in the Elite Eight on Sunday for a third straight year. Should the Vols lose, Okpara’s next game would be professionally, with Barnes expecting that to come in the NBA.
“We know he’s a dunker, and they play guys in that dunking position a lot, but he’s a defensive guy,” Barnes said. “He rebounds the ball. He’s a shot-blocker, though he hasn’t been able to do that as much this season because he’s the one post guy we take out to the perimeter when we start switching.
“He’s still young and getting going, and I think he’s got as good of a chance as anybody.”
Expecting Jefferson
Barnes said Wednesday that he expects Iowa State junior forward Joshua Jefferson to play Friday night.
The 6-9, 240-pounder is averaging 16.4 points and 7.4 rebounds but sprained his left ankle three minutes into last Friday’s 108-74 rout of Tennessee State in the opening round. Jefferson sat out Sunday as the Cyclones whipped Kentucky 82-63, outscoring the Wildcats by 18 in the second half.
When asked why the Cyclones were so effective against Tennessee’s longtime rival with Jefferson out, Barnes said, “They didn’t get away from who they are.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.