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 making 12 in both of the first two meetings.
“Even though they played us twice, they hadn’t played Tennessee yet,” Phillips said. “We wanted to go out and show them what that is all about.”
Tennessee communicated superbly defensively from the moment Zeigler finished his final pregame pep talk to the starting lineup. It played crisp defense and cleaned up the miscues that cost it the game at Rupp Arena. Barnes heralded the way his players locked into a scouting report with all their minds.
“Everyone knows we can play defense,” UT guard Jahmai Mashack said. “I don’t think they know the level of defensive team we can be and how versatile we can be on the defensive end.”
To a man, Tennessee players stressed it was a mindset that changed against Kentucky. The Vols rebounded with fearlessness and dominated, especially Okpara as the junior had one of his best games of the season. He had 11 rebounds and sent the bench into a frenzy with an acrobatic first-half offensive rebound.
UT dialed up energy and attitude, the latter of which gushed from seemingly everything Zeigler did.
“This is a group of guys I look at and they played with the passion and heart that you need,” Barnes said.
Tennessee has made a habit of showing what it is about through its first three NCAA Tournament games. It wrecked UCLA in the second round with insane defense. It was better yet against Kentucky to set up an Elite Eight showdown Sunday (2:20 p.m. ET, CBS) with No. 1 seed Houston (33-4), an opponent that prides itself on the same beliefs as the Vols.
TIPOFF: Game time set for Tennessee basketball vs Houston in 2025 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight
It will be a game defined by toughness, grit and resilience as Tennessee chases the first Final Four in program history. Those are also the three words that Milicic used to describe what “real Tennessee” is.
That team has a ceiling beyond the lofty roof of Lucas Oil Stadium.
“We all know what it is,” Milicic said. “We are trying to get there and we are trying to win that ‘ship.”
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Tennessee basketball is barreling into Elite Eight vs Houston
