By CHRIS DORTCH
Last summer I was talking with ESPN’s excellent color analyst Fran Fraschilla, running past him a few names I was considering for Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook’s All-America team. No one studies player personnel more than Fraschilla, and he’s a friend, so I value his input.
Eventually the conversation drifted to Tennessee and coach Rick Barnes. Fraschilla was an assistant on Barnes’ staff at Providence, and the two are great friends. I told Fran I’d seen Tennessee practice and that I was particularly impressed with senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who had transferred from Maryland. As we talked, Fraschiilla looked up Gillespie on Synergy. “This kid reminds me of Walter Clayton, Jr.” Fraschilla said.
Clayton, of course, led Florida to the 2025 national championship. I remember thinking if Fraschilla thought Gillespie was in the same neighborhood as a player as Clayton, maybe Tennessee might have a chance to make a deep NCAA Tournament run. Barnes and his staff had put together a strong supporting cast, with five-star freshman Nate Ament, size in the post, and depth.
Two games into the 2026 Tournament, Gillespie hasn’t given me any reason to think otherwise. Tennessee is the first team in the tournament’s long history to beat two 30-win opponents in its first two games—Miami (Ohio) and Virginia. Gillespie was a force in both, starting out with 29 points and nine assists against the RedHawks and then scoring 21 points to go with six assists against the Cavaliers.
In his two NCAA Tournament games for the Vols, Gillespie is averaging 25 points, 3.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 2.0 steals and shooting 48.5% from the field, 56.2% from 3-point range and making all seven of his free throws, including four in the closing seconds against Virginia that iced the victory.
Against Miami, Gillespie became just the ninth player in NCAA Tournament history to rack up at least 29 points, nine assists and three steals, joining, among others, Michigan State’s Magic Johnson, who did the deed in 1979 against Penn. He’s also the first Southeastern Conference player ever to achieve that statistical feat in a Tournament game.
I’m not saying Gillespie is going to lead the Vols to the national championship. Tennessee has the toughest path of any team to do that because the Vols would have to come through Iowa State, then likely Michigan, and potentially Arizona just to reach the title game. But Gillespie is the Vols’ third straight transfer portal acquisition (after Dalton Knecht in 2023-24 and Chaz Lanier last season) to earn All-SEC honors, become a near-impossible cover, and lead them to a deep NCAA run. Knecht and Lanier helped Tennessee advance to the Elite Eight, and the Vols are set to become one of three teams in the country, joining Houston and Alabama, to play in four consecutive Sweet 16s.
Can the Vols keep it going against Iowa State (Friday, 10:10 p.m., TBS)? The short answer is Gillespie will have a lot to say about it. If he outplays Iowa State’s great point guard, Tamin Lipsey, Tennessee will move on.
TIDE WARNING
The Vols’ Sweet 16 matchup won’t be as difficult as Alabama’s. The Crimson Tide faces No. 1 seed Michigan (Friday, 7:35 p.m., TBS), which has dominated opponents most of the season. Alabama is also playing without second-leading scorer and top 3-point shooting Aden Holloway, who remains suspended by the team after police found what is alleged to be around 2 pounds of marijuana in his apartment and apparent sales transactions on his phone. Why someone who’s making a six-figure NIL check found it necessary to do that eludes me, but the Tide has pressed on without him because it is deep at guard.
Against Texas Tech in the round of 32, Alabama tossed up 42 3-pointers and made 19 of them in winning 90-65, even though leading scorer and first-team All-SEC guard Labaron Philon, Jr., scored just nine points. Latrell Wrightsell, Jr., scored 24 points on 6-of-9 3-point shooting, and Houston Mallette notched 15 points while making 5 of 7 3s. Even lightly-used center Noah Williamson made both of his 3-pointers. Alabama handed out 25 assists on 30 made baskets, 12 of them from Philon.
Alabama will have to shoot as well from 3 if it hopes to beat Michigan, which has excellent rim protection plus a first-team All-American in 6-9 Yaxel Lendeborg, who has one of the most versatile skill sets in the country. The Tide has neither the skill nor depth inside to match the Wolverines.
ROOKIE MONSTER
I don’t care what anyone says about Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, or any other freshman. From January until now, Arkansas guard Darius Acuff, Jr., has been the best freshman in college basketball. Acuff, who has been on a heater since conference play began, scored 36 points in the second round as the Razorbacks held off upstart High Point. That outburst, coupled with 24 points in a first-round win over Hawaii, gives him the school freshman record for scoring in two games of the NCAA Tournament.
Acuff has used the extra games in the Big Dance to also break some school single-season records. He’s now surpassed Todd Day’s scoring mark (817) and Kareem Reid’s assist standard (229).
Like Alabama, the Razorbacks are playing a No. 1 seed—Arizona, the team I’ve picked to win the championship (Thursday, 9:45 p.m., CBS). Arizona has the better team on paper, with more size and depth than Arkansas, but can the Wildcats stop Acuff? If they can’t, the Hogs will roll into the Elite Eight.
SAVE THE GLASS SLIPPER
Don’t even think about calling the SEC’s fourth team in the Sweet 16, Texas, a Cinderella. (Editor’s note: I told you!) The Longhorns, dispatched by the selection committee to the First Four, have so far beaten NC State, BYU, and Gonzaga.
“Well, this is one of the beauties of the tournament,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said before his team played the Longhorns. “Ordinarily when you play Texas, I mean, it’s Texas, man. Texas has everything usually: the resources, the student population. I wouldn’t exactly classify this as some sort of Cinderella. This is a team that has some great players. They played in a tough league, so they took some losses. The SEC’s got some really, really good teams in it.”
Midway through the conference season, Texas coach Sean Miller challenged his players to get tougher, and to respond to direct coaching. He even told one player if he couldn’t handle the heat, he’d help him transfer to another school.
Miller extracted the most he could from his team during the regular season, and the Longhorns have been even better in the postseason as they play through 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis, who averaged 20 points and 12.5 rebounds against BYU and Gonzaga. Their defense has picked up considerably, too. They’re allowing just 1.03 points per possession in the NCAAs. Meanwhile, Purdue, led by NCAA career assists record holder Braden Smith, is the No. 1 team in KenPom’s offensive efficiency rating (they average 131.9 points per 100 possession).
The key matchup in this game (Thursday, 7:10 p.m., CBS) might be the Longhorn’s 6-7, 225-pound Dailyn Swain, voted the SEC Newcomer of the Year, against Purdue’s 6-9, 240-pound Trey Kaufman-Renn. Texas won’t be favored to beat the Boilermakers but just ask Few—it wouldn’t be the most stunning result.