CHICAGO — Milan Momcilovic tried to back down Tennessee’s Bishop Boswell. The Iowa State star turned to fire with Boswell’s hand in his face. The 15-footer didn’t even draw iron. It was that kind of night for Momcilovic as Tennessee made his life miserable in its 76-62 Sweet 16 victory.
“They were physical,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said postgame. “They were aggressive. They were very intentional. They kept length and physicality in his space at all times, so he couldn’t move as freely as we like.”
There were two key tenants to Tennessee’s defensive strategy against Momcilovic. The first was to face guard him and to get into his 6-foot-8, 225-pound frame. A multitude of Vols spent time guarding Momcilovic but no one more than Boswell.
“He made my life hard today,” Momcilovic said of Boswell. “Give a lot of credit to him. One heck of a defender. He completely won the matchup today.”
“We were just in him. Bishop was guarding him most of the time and didn’t let go,” center Felix Okpara told RTI. “We didn’t give him any space to shoot the ball.”
The second part of Tennessee’s game plan was to switch if Momcilovic got any separation coming off screens or otherwise. That led to Felix Okpara, Jaylen Carey, J.P. Estrella and a plethora of Tennessee forwards spending time guarding him.
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“I think really just fighting him off those screens,” Boswell told RTI. “Everyone being dialed in on him. If he was able to set screens and we got switches, guys were dialed in right away able to switch onto him and not giving him any space.”
Tennessee lost Momcilovic a few times in transition and once off an offensive rebound, but the nation’s best three-point shooter did not do enough to fully capitalize on his few good opportunities.
Momcilovic finished the night scoring just six points on two-of-eight shooting from three-point range while missing his lone two-point attempt. It was just the seventh game this season that the junior sharpshooter failed to score in double-figures.
With star power forward Joshua Jefferson out with a right ankle injury, Iowa State’s offense simply could not overcome a poor offensive night from Momcilovic. That led to Iowa State scoring 62, marking its third lowest scoring total of the season.
Tennessee’s defensive success started with its sound game plan and strong execution to take Momcilovic out of the game.
“Our game plan was to give him no daylight whatsoever,” Barnes said. “If he got any separation, we were going to switch. It didn’t matter who, big guy. We were going to switch. That person, we worked for a couple of days, talked about it obviously from the beginning. You’re not going to leave him. You’re not getting off of him. We’re just going to stay there.”
“Obviously Bishop sets a great tone for us. Ethan guarded. But our — Felix. There are so many good things for our guys.”
