prince to the point for vols in sweet 16

Tennessee head basketball coach Bruce Pearl intends to put his best cards on the table when the East Region’s No. 2 seeded Vols play the region’s No. 3 seeded Louisville Cardinals in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Basketball Tournament Thursday night in Charlotte (9:57 p.m. tip-off).

When the Vols (31-4), who were ranked 6^th nationally in both final major college basketball polls, tip it off against the Cardinals (24-8), who were ranked 13^th in both major polls at season’s end, Pearl said they will be facing the most talented ensemble of players they have seen all season.

That is quite a mouthful considering UT faced what is regarded as one of the top one or two toughest schedules in college basketball this season, including such NCAA Tournament teams as Memphis, Xavier, Gonzaga and West Virginia, along with the usual gauntlet of fierce competition offered up by the Southeastern Conference.

“Louisville will be, like Memphis, the most talented team we play,” said Pearl Monday at his weekly luncheon with the local press. “Frontline depth. Backcourt depth. They will press us, which doesn’t happen often. They will mix in some zone.

“Louisville has been thought to be a Final Four caliber team,” Pearl continued. “This region looks like a Final Four Field. All the top seeds have advanced.”

On the other side of the East Region’s bracket, top-seeded North Carolina will face Washington State (26-8) with the winner meeting the Tennessee-Louisville winner Saturday in the Elite Eight.

Louisville, indeed, will offer a look that the Vols haven’t seen a lot of this year. Cardinals’ head coach Rick Pitino is famous for his teams’ ability to press, and this year’s Cardinals have incorporated a particularly stingy version of the 2-3 zone.

Louisville is ranked sixth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (38.2%) and is ranked 21^st in scoring defense (allowing 60.9 points per contest).

The Vols, who defeated Butler 76-71 in overtime in Saturday’s round of 32 with sophomore J.P. Prince getting his first-ever start at point guard, will also feature a different look against the Cardinals.

With UT’s recent inconsistencies at point guard, Pearl has elected to go with talent and size over experience.

Senior Jordan Howell, who started at the point for the Vols over most of the last half of the regular season, is mired in a shooting slump that has seen him connect on just 4 of his last 40 field goal attempts. Sophomore Ramar Smith, who did manage to come in and deliver a key bucket in the waning seconds of Saturday’s win over Butler, has also struggled with his outside shot and is not considered to be a viable threat to score from the outside.

Pearl has indicated this week that Ramar Smith will still see a lot of time at point guard because of his ball skills and experience at the position but Howell will most likely see only spot duty the rest of the way for the Vols.

Howell and Smith’s inability to pose a scoring threat from the perimeter allows opponents to key on stopping Vols’ leading scorers Chris Lofton, JaJuan Smith and Tyler Smith. Prince, at 6-foot-7, gives the Vols a new dimension at point guard with his ability to make plays off the dribble and see over opponents’ defenses.

Pearl said the Vols need to get production from the point guard position to be successful at this stage of the season.

“We’ve given a lot of attention to that,” said Pearl. “It isn’t normal at this stage of the season to juggle the lineup, but I felt (playing Prince at point guard) gave us the best chance of winning.

“Having J.P. Prince on the floor more means he has to be a one, two, or three,” Pearl said, explaining Prince will now occupy one of the three guard positions when he is in the game. “We have Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith at (off-guard) and (shooting guard) so that means Prince has to play the (point guard) position.

“He practiced there in the preseason and through the course of the season,” Pearl continued. “He did a terrific job and does a lot of things productively. He’ll be challenged at that position this weekend. If I’m going to lose, I at least want my best players on the floor.”