How Tennessee basketball is barreling into Elite Eight vs Houston

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INDIANAPOLIS — Brandon Garrison faked a shot twice.

His efforts were futile.

Tennessee basketball forward Cade Phillips waited and swatted the Kentucky shot after Garrison’s two fakes. If he hadn’t, Felix Okpara would have in a late first-half swarming from Tennessee’s standard defense.

“They experienced the real Tennessee today,” forward Igor Milicic Jr. said.

No. 2 seed Tennessee is going to the Elite Eight for the second straight season because its personality anchored a 40-minute masterclass of Rick Barnes-coached basketball against Kentucky. It wasn’t about any dramatic schematic changes or game plan pivots to beat the No. 3 seed Wildcats 78-65 on Friday in the NCAA Tournament.

It was about Tennessee being Tennessee.

“It is beautiful,” Vols associate head coach Justin Gainey said. “It is something that we expected. It is the Tennessee standard. To see it transpire in this moment in the Sweet 16 to go the Elite Eight against Kentucky, it was special.”

The Vols (30-7) that showed up at Lucas Oil Stadium didn’t look like the Vols that played the Wildcats (24-12) at Food City Center in January and Rupp Arena in February. 

“We were the aggressor,” said UT guard Zakai Zeigler, who dazzled with 18 points and 10 assists. “I feel like we went out there and we swung and we kept on swinging.”

This was a decisive, determined bunch and it didn’t waver. Gainey felt Tennessee didn’t play well outside of small spurts in the two previous meetings. There were no bursts Friday. It was complete.

The Vols blitzed Kentucky off the 3-point line, suffocating the Wildcats’ outstanding shooters. They challenged the Wildcats to beat them one-on-one and to make two-pointers — and were sure Kentucky could not win that way. They switched defensively more than they did in the previous matchups, leading to the open threes Kentucky feasted on in the regular season vanishing. 

“They could not find any air with our defense,” Milicic said.

UK made six 3-pointers after…

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Publish date : 2025-03-29 05:41:00

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