NEW YORK — Tennessee's most recent trip to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday was more memorable than its last.

The newly-minted No. 1 Vols used strong closing acts to both the first and second half to beat Miami, 75-62 in the Jimmy V Classic to remain unbeaten amid a three-game stretch vs. power conference teams.

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Tennessee was paced in scoring again by Chaz Lanier, who tallied 22 points, while Igor Milicic Jr. scored 16 and Long Island-native Zakai Zeigler scored 13 in his homecoming.

The Vols (9-0) rattled off a 14-0 run and held Miami (3-7) scoreless for the last seven minutes of the first half to going into the intermission up 38-25. Then after the Hurricanes made a late push to get their deficit under double digits, Lanier provided the knockout blow with a 3-pointer in the final minute.

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes talked about the performance, Zeigler's return to the Garden and more. Here is everything he said.

"I wouldn't trade (Zeigler's four years at Tennessee) with anybody. I can remember seeing him at summer evaluation when he was a senior in high school. And he had had a great week at the Peach Jam. And we had thought with (former Vols guard) Kennedy Chandler coming in as a freshman, we could maybe do something that we hadn't done: try to get a point guard that we could redshirt. He had a great week. He came in and I can tell you, after a week, we thought we should redshirt Kennedy. And Kennedy will tell you that Zakai was probably one of the greatest things that has ever happened to him. Zakai has been incredible. His DNA, how he has effected our program is unlike what many players could ever do, and I'm just happy that we were able to get him back here to New York with it being his senior year. He knows what the Garden's about. He knows its a stage instead of a court. Just getting him back here is really special for him."

"He's as loyal as any person that I've ever been around. I don't know that there is a more beloved Volunteer than him. A couple of years ago, when his family lost everything that they own here in a fire, within a matter of hours, Vol nation raised $350,000 and could have done more, but the NCAA shut it down. He's never forgotten that. He's beloved. Everybody knows what time he goes to Chick-Fil-A every night. His career and what he's done for this program is really second to none."

"(Miami is) the 37th rated team in offensive efficiency and we knew they could shoot it. They came out shooting the ball a little bit better than they had been. But give them credit for that. They do run good offense. But I didn't think we were detail-oriented at the start of the game. The last eight minutes of the second half, we went with a smaller lineup and we started doing what we normally do and then we got the lead. And when you get the lead, you start getting casual, taking quick shots and it can get away from you real quick. The one good thing, and I told the kids this, we haven't been in a situation where we've had to respond. (Miami) cut it to seven and the one good thing about the last part of the second half was that we did respond from a run. Which is something that we're going to have to be able to do a lot more, obviously. Give them credit, too. They started making some shots. We broke down a couple of times in transition and we can't allow. We weren't as good as we have to be defensively. But again, they're a difficult team to guard."

“We talked about it last night. I said, 'Hey, you should embrace it.' We didn’t start out the season saying where we were going to be ranked. And we moved up because the teams in front of us lost. We move up. We lose, somebody’s going to move up here and all that. But I said, while you’re there, you guys have a chance to play as the No. 1 team in the country tonight and we should embrace it. And if you embrace it, you look forward to the challenge that’s coming your way. Because with college basketball, everybody building for the NCAA Tournament, everybody is building resumes. But if we are who we think we are and who we want to be, you embrace it. You say we expect your best shot. They’re going to give it to us. We’re going to get it at Illinois this weekend. I thought, again, Miami played really well. It is what it is. But, like (Zeigler) says, we’ve got goals for the end of the year, but you can learn from it. I was really pleased with the fact that, what he said, you guys were in practice, you saw it. We went about business as usual and prepared the same way, and we expect people to raise their level of play, which means we have to, which is a good thing. We always believe that iron sharpens iron. And we know we’re in the best league in the country, and we’re gonna be in a lot of games. We’re as close.

"And so learning how to handle outside distractions is a big thing. Nobody has higher expectations for us than us. I mean, we have the best fans in the country, and a ranking and all that, but we wanna play perfect, and they know that. We try to practice like that daily, and it’s hard, but they go about their business. We were down to eight scholarship players tonight. I thought early, the tempo helped us a lot, and then got a little sloppy. But, I thought they handled all that well.”

“Because I don’t think he had a clue what he was getting into. You don’t, coming from where he was, and he played for a terrific program at North Florida. And then coming here and having some of the nights he’s had and the way he’s being game planned for with different guys. I mean, different sized guys. I’m sure he’s played against more length here in our nine games overall than he has at any point (in his career). I don’t know how people guarded him so much at that level, but again, dealing with (Jahmai) Mashack everyday in practice, because we say this is how you’re going to be guarded. And it’s hard to do that because, one, he’s very unselfish. He’s a really unselfish guy. I can tell (Zeigler) is looking for him often, like (Ziegler) and Cade (Phillips) have learned to look for each other on those lobs, and it’s just something that is exciting because he can get so much better.”

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