Tennessee Vols' first NCAA Tournament game against Wofford will draw some extra attention for a quirk from decades past
The Tennessee Volunteers now know who they will face to open up their 2025 NCAA Tournament, and it's someone that Tennessee has faced before in the big dance: the Wofford Terriers. The Terriers posted a 19-15 record, coming in sixth in the Southern Conference during the regular season, but a run to the SoCon tourney […]
The Tennessee Volunteers now know who they will face to open up their 2025 NCAA Tournament, and it's someone that Tennessee has faced before in the big dance: the Wofford Terriers.
The Terriers posted a 19-15 record, coming in sixth in the Southern Conference during the regular season, but a run to the SoCon tourney title secured the bid for Wofford.
Why does that name sound familiar to UT fans? Perhaps a couple of reasons. The Terriers and Vols met not all that long ago. The teams faced off in Knoxville during nonconference play last season back on November 14, 2023, which the Vols won 82-61.
However, there's another reason why the Terriers might sound familiar if you've seen the news or social media lately: Wofford's Kyler Filewich. Yes, the Terriers' big man is a granny shot free throw shooter, and it's caught some attention on the internet.
It's particularly noteworthy for Tennessee – and not just because of the amusing and outdated style that harkens back to little Ollie's shots from the charity stripe to help Hickory advance to the state championship game in the movie Hoosiers.
It's noteworthy because Filewich is shooting an abysmal 31.8% (!!!) from the free throw line. If it's not the worst in all of basketball, I'd bet you could include him on a short list of the worst.
This has been a more recent switch, per Filewich, who has been taking lessons from basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry, who excelled using the technique.
That being said, he's still been a very important player for the Terriers during their run to the tournament. The 6'9", 250-pound senior has reached double figures in points in his last 5 games and posted double-doubles in 3 of them.
As such, while it's clearly the goal to try to deny Filewich the ball inside, it'd be wise for Tennessee to take the contact and put him at the line if he gets a good luck near the rim.
That will serve Tennessee well on the scoreboard. And it will provide quite the spectacle for the fans.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi pours cold water over Vols’ chances at a program first immediately after Tennessee’s win over Auburn
One so called expert did a major about-face on Tennessee’s tourney outlook
