It's a tall task stopping Tennessee basketball star Dalton Knecht, and not many have been able to crack the code.

Knecht is averaging 21.1 points per game on 46.1% shooting from the field and 39.1% shooting on 3-pointers. In a pair of March Madness appearances, he is averaging 20.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while being a key cog in a clutch win over Texas in the Round of 32.

His next challenger is Creighton who will meet the Vols in the Sweet 16. Bluejays head coach Greg McDermott understands what's in front of his team and detailed what he hopes will slow down the unanimous First-Team All-American and SEC Player of the Year.

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The challenge of guarding Knecht starts with giving him different looks. McDermott doesn't plan on sending just one player to guard him, he wants to have different guys on different possessions.

"I don't know that you'd guard him with one guy," said McDermott. "I think you have to give him different looks, and that's the plan. Hopefully take away his easy ones because he's going to make enough tough ones because he's an elite player."

What makes this tough is how good Tennessee is at creating mismatches. While pinning Knecht down low, he uses multiple screens to hunt his mismatch and pick out who he wants to attack.

Making things even more difficult is the pieces around him. Also a first-team All-SEC member, Zakai Zeigler is a headache for opposing defenses in his own right.

This combination of scorers has been a headache for opposing coaches.

"I don't know that you can get them out of sync," said McDermott. "They have to see bodies. The problem is Tennessee is they're unselfish. They have 567 assists and 356 turnovers. They're a team that's more than willing to make the extra pass, and Dalton is included in that. That makes a team difficult to defend. They run a lot of actions to try to get him loose and then play off of that. When you've got a guy that scores at his level and is still unselfish, it makes it very difficult to defend."

The player on Chreighton who matches up the best physically with Knecht is Baylor Scheierman. He stands at an inch taller than Knecht and one pound heavier.

Sheierman is taking the approach that he knows Knecht will get his own no matter what the defense does. The only thing the Bluejays can do is make sure it isn't easy for him.

"Obviously he's a tremendous player, and he hits tough shots," said Scheierman. "So for me, just trying to make it as difficult as I can on him. Obviously he's going to hit tough shots because he's a tremendous player. But I think at the end of the day, like I said, just trying to make everything he does difficult and not give him anything easy."

The matchup will take place on Friday night in Detroit, Michigan. Tip-off is set for shortly after 10 p.m. ET. The winner will play the victor between Purdue and Gonzaga in the Elite Eight.

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