Tennessee — Iowa State Sweet 16 matchup features historical ‘one thing has to give’ with an Elite Eight spot up for grabs
One team will have to buck an ugly trend to advance this weekend.
The Tennessee Vols are back in a very familiar place: in the Sweet Sixteen. The Vols defeated 3 seed Virginia 79-72 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to reach their fourth straight Sweet Sixteen and their fifth in the last seven tournaments under Rick Barnes.
They will meet the Iowa State Cyclones on Friday night in the second Midwest regional semifinal in Chicago. The Cyclones won handily over the Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday 82-63.
The matchup between Tennessee and Iowa State certainly sets up the situation of a very stoppable force meeting an easily movable object, at least under the circumstances. As GoVols247’s Ben McKee notes, Tennessee and Iowa State will both be looking to erase an ugly trend for each school in order to advance to the Elite Eight.
Either Tennessee or Iowa State will have to erase an ugly trend in order to advance to Elite Eight
Tennessee’s trend is not a completely difficult one to grasp. The Vols have been awful against 1 or 2 seeds in in the tournament all-time at 1-9, with only one team worse with at least 10 games played. That’s not too hard to knock, as 1 and 2 seeds are always tremendous basketball teams. It’s like facing a top five team in college football. Those teams are really, really tough to beat.
But Iowa State will have to snap their historically bad result in the Sweet Sixteen, where, at 1-6, no team has been worse in tournament history with a minimum of seven games. That one Sweet Sixteen victory came back in 2000, when the 2 seed Cyclones knocked off UCLA 80-56. However, they have the bad fortunate of having to face eventual national champion Michigan State in the Elite Eight, and they lost 75-64.
Who will snap a historically bad trend on Friday night in the Windy City? Whoever does will get one step closer to reaching the Final Four for the first time in the modern tournament era (Iowa State made it in 1944).
Tip off between the Vols and Cyclones will take place around 10:10 pm ET (depending on the outcome of the Michigan—Alabama game).