Tennessee Defeats Louisiana In Round of 64
Tennessee's past to the NCAA Tournament was unorthodox, to put it lightly. The Vols began the year as one of the consensus top-eight teams in college basketball, reaching the No. 2 spot after defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide, who seems to be the sport's best squad.
However, they struggled down the stretch. Missouri overtook them in the SEC standings, giving the Tigers a double-bye in the conference tournament, which many thought was highly improbable midway through the season. Tennessee bested a poor Ole Miss team in the SEC Tournament before falling to Missouri, ending the pre-tournament schedule on a sour note.
As we know, everything goes out the window in March. The Vols weren't necessarily playing their brand of basketball entering play against Louisiana, but they got back to a winning formula. They have one of America's top defenses and played to that strength.
Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee G
Head coach Rick Barnes emphasized that the Vols must be the more physical basketball team from tip-off; though Louisiana had an excellent season, there's an obvious talent discrepancy between the two sides. Tennessee attacked from the beginning of the game, getting the ball inside to their big men.
Uros Plavsic, Olivier Nkamhoua, and Jonas Aidoo all had strong moments, grabbing offensive rebounds and delivering a series of emphatic dunks that carried the momentum for Tennessee. They now face the Duke Blue Devils in the round of 32; Duke won the ACC Championship and looked strong in their first tournament game against Oral Roberts.
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