Vols needing a team effort to contain Louisiana’s Brown

Louisiana Athletics photo / Louisiana 6-foot-11, 225-pound junior forward Jordan Brown is averaging 19.4 points and 8.7 rebounds entering Thursday night's NCAA tournament opener against Tennessee in Orlando.
Louisiana Athletics photo / Louisiana 6-foot-11, 225-pound junior forward Jordan Brown is averaging 19.4 points and 8.7 rebounds entering Thursday night's NCAA tournament opener against Tennessee in Orlando.


Big men have provided big headaches on occasion this season for Tennessee's basketball team.

Oscar Tshiebwe racked up 31 points and 20 rebounds in his two meetings against the Volunteers, while Vanderbilt's Liam Robbins had a combined 32 points and 16 boards. There were the 20 points and nine rebounds Tennessee allowed early last month to Florida's Colin Castleton, and the touted Arizona duo of Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo combined for 37 and 17 back in December.

Tennessee went just 1-5 in those games, and stopping Louisiana 6-foot-11, 225-pound junior forward Jordan Brown will be the towering task Thursday night (9:40 on CBS) when the fourth-seeded Vols (23-10) and 13th-seeded Ragin' Cajuns (26-7) collide in an NCAA tournament East Region first-round game in Orlando.

"It will be a team effort," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said this week in a news conference. "We're going to have to work early and not let him get in a deep position. He's got such terrific footwork.

"We're going to have to work hard and get other players to help when they can."

Brown is a former McDonald's All-American who signed with Nevada and transferred to Arizona before transferring again to the current Sun Belt Conference tournament champion. He has averaged 19.4 points and 8.7 rebounds this season while shooting 57.0% from the floor.

In Louisiana's 77-67 win over visiting Marshall on Feb. 4, Brown amassed 26 points and 20 rebounds.

"He's shown that he can get the job done, so we're going to have to be locked in defensively," Vols senior guard Josiah-Jordan James said. "He draws over five fouls a game, so keeping our bigs out of foul trouble will be big."

The Vols and Ragin' Cajuns are two of the nation's top-20 teams in rebounding margin, with Tennessee a plus-6.6 per game and Louisiana a plus-6.4.

Late-night Vols

Thursday's scheduled tipoff time is plenty late, but it's not Tennessee's latest of the season.

When the Vols traveled to Arizona, an eventual 75-50 win by the Wildcats, that game started at 10:30.

"It doesn't matter to me," James said. "I played AAU. I've played four or five games in one day. I don't think it matters for me or the guys."

Beating the best

Indiana and Tennessee are the only teams in the field of 68 that have multiple wins over top seeds, with the Vols being alone in defeating two separate one seeds. Tennessee defeated Kansas 64-50 in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game in the Bahamas on Nov. 25 and downed Alabama 68-59 in Knoxville on Feb. 15.

The Hoosiers defeated state rival Purdue twice.

Odds and ends

The Vols enter the NCAA tournament ranked first in 3-point goal defense (26.2%), second in field-goal defense (36.9%) and third in scoring defense (58.0). ... Tennessee has allowed more than 70 points to just Missouri (twice), Arizona, Auburn and Texas. ... This marks the third time under Barnes in which Tennessee has been ranked for an entire season. ... The Vols are 9-7 against teams in the NCAA tourney.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com

IT'S 41 AND COUNTING

The Tennessee Lady Vols are preparing for their 41st NCAA tournament appearance, which will begin Saturday afternoon at 1 (ABC) against Saint Louis inside Thompson-Boling Arena. The Lady Vols (23-11) are the four seeds in the Seattle 3 Region, while the Billikens are the 13 seeds in their first NCAA tourney appearance.

Tennessee is the only program to compete in all 41 NCAA women's fields.

"Obviously I'm excited for our team and our staff," Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper said this week in a news conference, "but I'm so excited for our fans to have the opportunity to be here in Knoxville and watch this team again."

Tennessee's leading scorer, 6-foot-2 forward Rickea Jackson at 19.6 points per game, announced via social media this week that she will return to the Lady Vols for a second senior season. Jackson was Mississippi State's leading scorer the past three seasons before transferring and has never played in the NCAA tournament, with MSU having gone 27-6 her freshman year before the rest of that season was canceled by the coronavirus outbreak.

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