The Tennessee Outmuscles Kentucky, removing a victory from the last four men in the history of the school
Indianapolis – The dimensions of Zakai’s Zokai, or his lack, are surprising in person. The 5-9 points of Tennessee is tiny in a land of giants. But in a night when the Vols clearly wanted to play the bully, the boy led the charge.
There was Zeigler, delivering the blow to direct elimination with a theft and a 3, returning his head to immediately stare at the 6-foot and 10 kentucky’s Garrison of Brandon and 10, making him know the hardest team won on Friday evening in the dessert 16. Tennessee sold a swept of the regular season by Wildcats with a victory of 78-65 to return to the second season.
The Vols used their speed and strength to control the game from the opening tip. The Wildcats had made 12 of 24 attempts in 3 points in both meetings of the regular season and operated much more easily than typical against one of the best defenses in the country. This time, Rick Barnes’s team had a clear plan to try to remove shooters and cutters, pressing against cats on the perimeter and having someone who met them on the edge in unity. Kentucky has not been able to obtain many clean glances from 3 points-the seed n. 3 finished 6 out of 15 from 3, a low seasonal in the attempts-and rarely was able to find cutters.
The Tennessee led 43-28 in half, and although the offense of Kentucky started to come to life in the second half, the Wildcats could never have enough stops.
The narrative was that Tennessee is all defense, but this year’s team produced the second best crime of the 10 seasons of Barnes in Knoxville, and the Vols were warm from a loss of February 11 against Kentucky.
On Friday evening, Tennessee continued to choose the weakest perimeter defenders of the United Kingdom, running Floppy action More and several times to get Chaz Lanier (17 points) and Jordan Gainey (16 points), or install Zeigler with a sphere screen, or simply give him space and let him drive. Zeigler checked the game, ending up with 18 points and 10 assists. While the Vols did not even do many 3 (5 of 19), Lanier and Gainey reached their points in the media range and when they lost, their teammates dominated the glass, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds.
It was the same theme all night: a team was too strong, too fast for the ball.
The ELite Eight appearance is only the third in the history of the school for the Vols and will try to make the first final of the program ever Sunday against the winner of Houston-Purdue.
(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
