Houston, Tennessee match elite defenses

INDIANAPOLIS — If you like defense, this NCAA Tournament Midwest Region final is for you.

No. 1 seed Houston (33-4) gives up the fewest points in the nation. No. 2 seed Tennessee (30-7) is in the top eight in both scoring defense and field-goal defense.

The Cougars’ Joseph Tugler is Big 12 defensive player of the year. The Volunteers’ Zakai Zeigler won the same award in the Southeastern Conference. Three of the four finalists for national defensive player of the year — Tugler, Zeigler and the Vols’ Jahmai Mashack — will be on the court Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Houston will try for its first Final Four since 2021, when it lost to Baylor in a semifinal at the same venue. The Volunteers will go for the first national semifinal in program history.

“We’re not going to play harder because it’s (for) the Final Four,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said Saturday. “I think our kids play as hard as they can anyway. I don’t think I’m going to try to coach better. I try to coach every game to the best of my ability anyway.

“They know what comes next,” he said of his players, “but whether it’s Houston or Tennessee that advances, I think a really good team is going to advance.”

Defense is the foundation of Sampson’s program. Since he took over the Cougars in 2014, they’ve allowed 61.5 points per game. Their 59-point average since 2018 is best in the country, and that figure is 58.5 this season.

The Cougars beat Purdue 62-60 in the Sweet 16 to advance, with Milos Uzan scoring the winning basket on an uncontested layup off an inbound play with 0.9 seconds left. Purdue was held to its third-lowest point total of the season. Big Ten player of the year Braden Smith’s seven points marked his fourth-lowest output this season, and Trey Kaufman-Renn had 14 points on one of his worst shooting nights of the season.

“I think the best defenses can adjust to how the other team tries to beat you,” Sampson said. “What is their fastball? Where do they go to try to beat you? Like last night, it was Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith. We gave up some baskets, but at the end of the day, they scored 60 points. We needed to score 61 to win.”

Zeigler is Sampson’s focal point this time. He’s the Vols’ second-leading scorer at 13.5 points per game and the program’s career assists and steals leader.

“Zeigler presents a different kind of front because he uses ball screens probably less than the other two, but he impacts the game probably more dynamically with his athleticism and his speed and the different ways that he can get a basket,” Sampson said. “He can get a rebound and go get a layup. He can get a steal, go get a layup. He can use a ball screen, curl it, force the big to help and throw it behind for a dunk or throw it over for a dunk.”

Tennessee held Kentucky 20 points under its season scoring average in a 78-65 win Friday and did it by limiting the Wildcats’ 3-point shooting. Kentucky had shot a combined 24 of 48 in two regular-season wins over the Vols but was 6 of 15 in the teams’ third meeting.

The Vols will need to do more of the same against Houston, which is shooting a nation-leading 39.8% on 3-pointers. Uzan, L.J. Cryer and Emanuel Sharp all are shooting better than 42% from distance.

The Vols are allowing opponents to shoot 28.5% on 3s, fourth-best in the nation, and 38.5% overall.

“Much respect for Houston. Watching them on film, they play really hard,” Zeigler said. “They play really tough, but we do the same thing. We hang our hats on toughness and defense, and as long as we do what we need to do, we’ll be perfectly fine.”

Sleep wins over preparing for Vols

Houston’s game against Purdue ended at 12:44 a.m. EDT on Saturday, and the 69-year-old Sampson prioritized sleep over preparing for Tennessee when he got back to his hotel room.

“I prepared for bed,” he said. “That’s the only preparation I had. Biggest decision was how many melatonin because it’s hard to sleep. When you get out of something like that, it’s really difficult for me to go to sleep.”

Time to finish the job

The Vols made it to the Elite Eight last year in Detroit, losing 72-66 to Purdue. Jahmai Mashack and Zeigler were starters in that game, and Jordan Gainey came off the bench.

“I don’t think heading into this year me and Z expected anything less than to be back here,” Mashack said. “We made a promise to ourselves to get back here, but we want to be able to finish the job we didn’t do last year.”