Nate Ament, Ja’Kobi Gillespie share first impressions of Miami (Ohio)
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Tennessee is a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. That means the Volunteers will face 11th-seeded Miami (Ohio), who put together a perfect regular season before an upset loss in the MAC Tournament.
The RedHawks ultimately picked up an at-large bid but needed to go through the First Four to get to the 64-team field. After an 89-79 win over SMU in Dayton on Wednesday, they’ll have their eyes set on ensuring the Vols’ tournament stay is a one-and-done.
On Tennessee‘s side of things, the Volunteers enter the Big Dance with their lowest seed in the Rick Barnes era. After back-to-back Elite Eight appearances, the next box to check is the program’s first-ever Final Four appearance. And they’ll need to lean on freshman star Nate Ament and leading scorer Ja’Kobi Gillespie to get there.
“They’re a really good team. They play a really exciting brand of basketball. It was fun to watch them play. We enjoyed it,” Ament, second on the team in scoring, said of the RedHawks. “They’re really talented. (We’ve) got our work cut out for us. They got talented players at every position, so we have to be locked in from the jump.”
Gillespie agreed.
“It’s really good basketball. They play together really well. So, yeah, we definitely got to be locked in tomorrow,” he said.
Not only would a Final Four appearance be the first in Tennessee men’s basketball history, but it would be just the second for Barnes in a coaching career that has spanned five programs and four decades.
A look at Kalshi prediction markets for this Round of 64 matchup shows the Vols being favored to beat the RedHawks.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
