KNOXVILLE – The process of stopping Purdue starts with limiting its dynamic guard, Carsen Edwards.
But for Tennessee to win Thursday night in the NCAA tournament, it can’t end there.
The challenge for the South Region second-seeded Volunteers is slowing the third-seeded Boilermakers’ 6-foot-1 junior guard, who has averaged 23.6 points per game this season while leading Purdue in scoring 29 times. Edwards is coming off a career-high 42-point performance against 2018 national champion Villanova in the round of 32, when he hit 12 of 21 shots and nine of his 16 3-point attempts in an 87-61 win.
Tennessee guard Lamonte Turner prepares to shoot during the Vols’ NCAA tournament opener against Colgate on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. The second-seeded Vols won 77-70 and will take on 10th-seeded Iowa in the second round at 12:10 p.m. Sunday.For the tournament, he’s averaging 34 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists while making 13 of 28 3-point shots.
The initial challenge Thursday to slow Edwards likely will be given to Volunteers junior guard Lamonte Turner, who did a good job against another top-level Big Ten guard in Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon in the second-round matchup. Bohannon finished with 18 points but struggled to find quality shots against the persistent, dogged defense of Turner.