LEXINGTON, Ky. — Cade Phillips laughed inside the away locker room at Rupp Arena when he heard the question: how many time have you heard the words “15 offensive rebounds” in the last three days?
“Oh man. Probably 12 times,” Phillips answered.
The stat is a reminder of what’s behind and what’s ahead for Tennessee basketball. The Vols allowed 15 offensive rebounds in their SEC Tournament Championship loss against Florida. Tennessee also allowed 15 offensive rebounds against Wofford, who they’ll face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, when the two teams met last season in Knoxville.
“As soon as we started doing the scout,” senior point guard Zakai Zeigler said. “As soon as we started doing the scout about two days or three days ago. That’s when we’ve been hearing it. That’s something we’ve got to control. We just got to do a better job of taking them off the boards.”
“We didn’t play our best game against them,” senior shooting guard Jordan Gainey said of last season’s meeting. “They got 15 offensive rebounds last year when we played them. We can’t do that again this year.”
After grabbing 15 offensive rebounds against Tennessee in an 82-61 loss last season, the Terries have become one of the nations’s best rebounding teams this year with a very similar roster.
Wofford ranks 27th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and 32nd in defensive rebounding percentage. Starting center Kyler Filewich is one of the nation’s most efficient rebounders, ranking in the top 20 of offensive rebound rate and the top 60 of defensive rebound rate.
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In three wins at last week’s SoCon Tournament, Wofford combined to grab 32 offensive rebounds and its advantage on the glass was a major difference maker in its tournament wins over ETSU and VMI.
“One of their most underrated parts is their rebounding,” Phillips said of Wofford. “They’re a really good offensive rebounding team nationally. That’s something that’s been a focus for us.”
Rebounding, especially defensive rebounding, has been a shortcoming for Tennessee in a number of its recent losses. Besides the 15 offensive rebounds they gave up against Florida, the Vols allowed 15 offensive rebounds in their loss against Ole Miss and 13 offensive rebounds in a narrow win over Alabama.
“We’ve tried to remain with a focused approach that these guys are good enough to hang in there and obviously beat us if we’re not taking care of what we need to do,” Tennessee walk-on guard Grant Hurst said.
There’s a couple different ways for Wofford to play Cinderella and upset Tennessee. Wofford rebounding the ball well is one of the most plausible options and the one most under the Vols’ control.
Tipoff between Tennessee and Wofford is at 6:50 p.m. ET on Thursday night. TNT is broadcasting the NCAA Tournament opening round game.
