Gonzaga faces familiar foe for title

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – They met last December in Seattle. They’ll square off tonight for the Old Spice Classic championship. And they’ll tangle again in January in Knoxville.

Yes, this is a little strange for No. 9 Gonzaga and No. 12 Tennessee.

“I didn’t want to play Mark (Few, Gonzaga coach) in the first place (in Seattle),” gregarious Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said as he sat courtside watching Gonzaga dismantle Maryland 81-59 in Friday’s semifinals at The Milk House. “Mark was scrambling because he had a cancellation. We played one of our better games that day, Mark knows that.

“We both said, ‘Look, let’s meet in the championship game and just deal with it’ because we’ll both be glad to get to the title game. It’ll be another chess match. Both teams will look at what the other did well and anticipate the adjustments that need to be made.”

Not that Pearl would mind the rematch playing out the same way as the Battle in Seattle. In that one, Tennessee’s relentless pressure and quickness led to 18 Bulldog turnovers and a 28-11 edge in points off turnovers. Tennessee won, 82-72.

Tennessee’s key holdovers are 6-foot-7 Tyler Smith, who is a matchup nightmare, 6-7 J.P. Prince and 6-9 center Wayne Chism. A touted freshman class includes Scotty Hopson, Emmanuel Negedu and Renaldo Woolridge, son of former NBA center Orlando Woolridge.

Redshirt freshman Cameron Tatum hit four 3-pointers in the second half as the Volunteers rallied past Georgetown 90-78 on Friday. It was the first time Georgetown had allowed 90 points in coach John Thompson III’s four-plus seasons.

“There’s not as much (change in Tennessee) as we thought, and that’s a credit to Bruce’s system and his staff,” Few said. “I thought losing JuJuan (Smith) and (Chris) Lofton and a couple others, especially early, they might fall off, but Bruce kind of plugs them in and they’re playing every bit as hard and they’re so disruptive and opportunistic. They’re so quick-handed. We didn’t deal with that very well last year.”

It started with the basics. Gonzaga had difficulty inbounding the ball last December. Tennessee tracks statistics on inbounds plays and has forced 303 turnovers in its past 76 games. Opponents have been forced to call 58 timeouts.

“For sure they’re going to be quick, athletic and flying around all the time, but I think we’ve matured as a team,” guard Steven Gray said. “I think we’ve shown we’re not the same team we were last year. We have a little more toughness to us, a little more under control.”

And, as Pearl pointed out, they have a healthy Josh Heytvelt, who torched Maryland for 22 points. Heytvelt played well in the Battle in Seattle, with 12 points in 24 minutes in just his second game back from ankle surgery.

“I’m just looking forward to it,” Heytvelt said. “They’re scrappy, they poke and slap and do all those kinds of things to play their game.”

Pearl agreed, to a point.

“One thing we did last year was our ball pressure,” he said. “We’re just not able to pressure the ball, we’re not as quick.”

That didn’t seem to be the case against Georgetown, which coughed up 20 turnovers.