CHICAGO – Joshua Jefferson limped into the United Center in the same black warm-ups he wore on the bench Friday night. Without him, Iowa State limped right out of the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee took advantage of the absence of the injured Jefferson, dominating on the glass to set up a meeting with top-seeded Michigan on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four.
The sixth-seeded Volunteers (25-11) are doing it the hard way, catching no breaks from the bracket, eliminating No. 3 Virginia and now No. 2 Iowa State 76-62. Now they’ll have to face No. 1 Michigan in the Midwest Regional final to get to Indianapolis and deliver Rick Barnes to his first Final Four in 23 years — and Tennessee’s first.
But they did catch a break with Jefferson’s sprained left ankle, which deprived the Cyclones (29-8) of their primary inside presence in the person of the 6-foot-9 senior All-American, who is averaging more than 16 points and 7 rebounds per game. Tennessee is an elite offensive rebounding team, the best in the country analytically, but Iowa State was no slouch itself. With Jefferson, at least. Not as much without him.
“This time of year is always tough when you lose a key guy like they did,” Barnes said, “and that’s part of the tournament.”
Jefferson, who suffered a low left ankle sprain early in Iowa State’s first-round win over Tennessee State, officially was listed as questionable on the NCAA’s availability report and was at least dressed for Iowa State’s practice Thursday. But the school declared him out at 8:10 p.m. Friday, one hour before tipoff. The Cyclones cruised past Kentucky without him, but Tennessee was too big, too strong and too determined.
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The Big Ten player of the did it all in a 90-77 Sweet Sixteen win. Alabama freshman Labaron Philon Jr. had a game-high 35 points.
The Volunteers rebounded more of their misses than Iowa State did, with a 16-14 edge at the offensive end and a 27-8 edge at the defensive end. Tennessee blocked seven shots, Iowa State none. Points in the paint, not surprisingly, skewed 12 points in the Vols’ favor.
“I look at it as our identity,” 6-foot-11 Tennessee forward Felix Okpara said. “We work on it every day in practice, too. We knew we could kill them on the offensive glass, and we just took advantage of it.”
Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise each scored 18 points for Iowa State, while Nate Ament (18), Ja’Kobi Gillespie (16), Okpara (12) and Jaylen Carey (11) were in double figures for Tennessee, with Okpara and the 6-foot-8, 267-pound Carey each grabbing 10 rebounds as well.
Jefferson’s absence was just too much to overcome.
“What a tough blow to be dealt,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “You know, you’re in the NCAA Tournament. You dream of being there your whole life and you get there and you have the team that you think can really make a run, and then to have kind of a fluke thing happen where he goes down with his ankle. Just a really tough circumstance to deal with. So, we just wanted to make sure that Joshua felt supported and we did everything in our power to get him ready to be out there and play.
“It just wasn’t enough. He did all he could. He’s a fierce competitor. He couldn’t have done more treatments and had more preparation to put himself in position, but just didn’t work out that way.”
Now the Volunteers have arrived at a familiar hurdle. This is their third consecutive Elite Eight appearance; they lost to Purdue in Detroit in 2024 and Houston in Indianapolis a year ago. The Vols have 11 new players, but the circumstances haven’t changed. For a program that never has been to a Final Four, coming this close has become not only a habit but a sore spot.
“We have some unfinished business,” said Okpara, one of three returning players from the Houston loss. “We feel like we should have won that game, that Elite Eight game, but it didn’t work out in our favor. This year we’re going to come out on fire and get the job done.”
Michigan, of course, presents an entirely different kind of challenge in that respect, with the biggest front line in college basketball. Tennessee will find no advantages to press there. Just as this was a bad matchup for the shorthanded Cyclones, the Wolverines will be a difficult matchup for the Volunteers. But Tennessee also has the happy-go-lucky vibes of a team on a run, feeling like everything is going its way, whether that’s an unfortunate injury to an opponent’s key player that plays right into their hands or a locker room that just feels right.
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