'It gives me goosebumps': Why the 'grind it out' win over Texas meant so much to Tennessee

When Rick Barnes got in front of his team Saturday night, addressing his Tennessee players in the locker room at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte after a 62-58 win over Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, he said he loved that kind of basketball.

No, he doesn’t love the kind that has the Vols going 3-for-25 from the 3-point line or shooting 33.8% from the field.

But he loves when their defense, toughness and rebounding are enough to overcome a bad shooting night and keep the season alive in March. He loves that it wasn’t the end of the road just because shots weren’t falling.

“I think what people think is when you shoot it well, you play really well,” Tennessee assistant coach Gregg Polinksy said on Wednesday. “We obviously shot it really poorly, but we played well and we defended really well and we rebounded the basketball. 

“So I think what makes Coach (Barnes) most proud our team, and our guys of themselves, is that they know we can win games when we don’t shoot the basketball, let’s not even say at a high level, we didn’t even shoot it at a decent level.” 

Up Next: No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Creighton, Friday, Sweet 16

Dalton Knecht scored 18 points but went 5-for-18 from the field and was 1-for-8 from the 3-point line. Zakai Zeigler had six points, seven assists, four rebounds and three steals but went 2-for-12 and had his own 1-for-8 line from three. Jonas Aidoo had 11 points, but was 4-for-12 from the field. 

It didn’t matter in the end, though. The Vols won in rebounding on both ends of the floor, scored 15 points off of 17 turnovers forced, had 12 second-chance points and scored 36 points in the paint.

Now Tennessee (26-8), the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region, faces No. 3 Creighton (25-9) in the Sweet 16 on Friday (10:09 p.m. Eastern Time, TBS/truTV) at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

“At this time of the year, it’s advance and move on,” Polinksy said. “And that’s kind of what we did. And I love the mentality. Coach said it about our players. I think it’s just something to be really, really proud of for our team. And if you’re a Tennessee fan, let’s not get too caught up in the aesthetics and let’s get caught up in the result.”

‘It gives me goosebumps that we have guys that are so proud, have such basketball integrity’

Tennessee started 1-for-21 from the 3-point line — there were 11 straight misses before Zeigler made the first, with nine more misses to follow — but did hit back-to-back corner threes, from Knecht and Josiah-Jordan James, in the final five minutes to build the lead to nine.

There were also seven straight made free throws in the final 48 seconds, with the game on the line. 

“That was really uplifting I think for all of us,” Polinsky said, “because obviously the free throws (in) crunch time, season is on the line. Texas has the momentum so to speak. At that time they’re making a run at us. 

“I thought we had a number of big shots, but I really loved Josiah with around seven minutes to go from the corner, stepped up. Great rhythm. He’s really a good shooter. I know the stats don’t bear it out. 

“People would say, well the numbers are the numbers, but we have great faith in Jo and everybody else on this team. They can make shots.”

Looking back, Polinksy described it as an integrity win. The kind of wins teams have to have this time of year, when everything is at stake.

“It gives me goosebumps that we have guys that are so proud, have such basketball integrity,” Polinksy said, “have a mindset, mental toughness, all those cliche words that really do mean something here at Tennessee. That we can survive a game. 

“And it was really neat after the game from basketball people … a lot of comments about, man, I love how you guys defend. I loved your mental toughness in that game. Your ability to grind it out.”

You can watch the tournament live on Prime Video. Add on your favorite channels and watch at home or on your phone or laptop.