NCAA Tournament First Round Recap - San Diego State vs Tennessee

(6) Tennessee 62, (11) San Diego State 59

Bruce Pearl has brought Tennessee (25-8, 14-5 SEC), a football school, an almost unprecedented level of basketball success.  He’s the first coach to lead Tennessee to a No. 1 ranking, and in three of his first four years, his team finished first in the SEC East.  With that success, though, comes a sense that Pearl’s Tennessee teams have underachieved in the NCAA Tournament. 
 
In his first season in Knoxville, 2005-‘06, Pearl led Tennessee to a No. 2 seed, but the Vols were bounced in the second round.  His second season was the only year in which Tennessee overachieved in the tournament, making the Sweet Sixteen despite being a No. 5 seed.  His third season also saw his team reach the Sweet Sixteen, but as a No. 2 seed, they were expected to have reached the Elite Eight.  Last season, his fourth in Knoxville, the Vols lost in the first round as a No. 9 seed. 
 
San Diego State (25-8, 14-5 MWC) head coach Steve Fisher has had a similar impact on the Aztecs’ formerly moribund basketball program.  To wit, Fisher led the Aztecs to an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, a feat that would have seemed unthinkable in past years.  Having won a national championship as Michigan’s head coach in 1989, Fisher went out west to beautiful San Diego to take on a project, and like Pearl, he is presiding over his school’s golden age of basketball success… at the Division I level, anyhow.  (As an aside, it should be noted that back in the day, SDSU was a small-school powerhouse. In 1941, the Aztecs won the national championship as a forerunner to the NAIA.)
 
Fisher’s and Pearl’s troops engaged in a low-scoring back-and-forth battle, with neither team able to take a significant lead.  The largest lead by either team came at halftime: following a 10-4 Tennessee run to end the first half, Pearl’s men led by eight at 34-26.  Scoring in the early stages of the second half was sporadic, and San Diego State gradually chipped away at Tennessee’s lead until the Aztecs finally pulled ahead 45-44 with just under 10 minutes to go in the game.  That lead lasted a mere 22 seconds, though, as Tennessee retook the lead, fittingly, on free throws.  Though the issue was in doubt for the remainder of the game, the Vols never relinquished the lead and held on for the 62-59 victory.

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Thus, Bruce Pearl avoided another upset in the tournament, and Fisher proved that his Aztecs were a worthy addition to the tournament field as an at-large selection.  San Diego State proved every bit Tennessee’s equal tonight, despite the loss.  Consider: both teams finished the game with 20 field goals made out of 52 attempts; Tennessee had a slight edge on the offensive boards, 11-10, but SDSU had a slight edge in total rebounds, 30-29; each team had 10 assists; each team finished with 3 steals; each team committed 10 turnovers.

WHAT’S NEXT

On Saturday, No. 6 seed Tennessee will play No. 14 seed Ohio, who shocked No. 3 Georgetown earlier today. 

By: John Cary
DFN Sports Guest Writer