In the past year, Tennessee has been no stranger to big games and electric atmospheres across all of its sports. The football team hosted ESPN's College GameDay twice for wins over Florida and Alabama, GameDay visited the Lady Vols on Thursday for the match vs. UConn and the baseball team's success has had Lindsey Nelson Stadium rocking all of last season.
For the men's basketball team's matchup with Texas, GameDay returned and the nation's eyes were once again focused on Knoxville.
Due to the hype around the top-10 battle, tickets in Thompson-Boling Arena were sold out and fans piled into their seats well before tip-off.
This wasn't a distraction for Tennessee, though. The Vols came out strong and ultimately won the contest 82-71.
Leading Tennessee to the win was Olivier Nkamhoua. The senior forward scored a career-high 27 points on 12-for-15 shooting. His effective night began early with 14 points in the first half alone.
Nkamhoua credits this strong start to the team's maturity.
"I think that we were able to start off really mature," said Nkamhoua. "We came off and we played a really good game. I still think at the end we showed that we can be better, we can be more mature, we can make better decisions and we can keep getting better. We didn't get caught up in the hype of, like you said, College GameDay, the energy that we had because we lost the game last year. We are mature, but we can still be a lot more mature. There's little nuances that we got to get better at. Just understanding the timing of the game and how to play. As you guys have seen, we've been getting better all year. We're going to keep getting better."
Also helping the Vols earn the double-digit victory was Zakai Zeigler. He not only scored 22 points but he also dished out 10 assists to notch a double-double.
Zeigler didn't feel any pressure during the game, though. Instead, he used motivation from the team's loss to the Longhorns in 2022 to fuel his impressive outing.
"There was no type of pressure at all," said Zeigler. "Whether College GameDay was here or whether they weren't, it was going to be this type of fight no matter what. We knew going into the game how important it was. So, I would say it was just all business. There was no type of pressure."
Although the Vols say they didn't feel pressure from the environment, they did admit that it made a positive impact. The crowd was into the game for all 40 minutes while getting loud on defense and disrupting Texas.
On the arena's decibel reader shown on the jumbotron, the crowd reached levels as high as 104.5 dB. The players constantly egged on the student section to continue to make an impact.
"It's amazing, man. I love playing in TBA when it's rocking," said Nkamhoua. "I love playing in other gyms when it's rocking. Whether it's the home crowd or the away crowd, I love when the fans are there and showing out. I really appreciate our fans because they do it consistently and I feel like they love doing it and the energy that they bring, brings us energy. But whenever anybody's fans show up it's always an amazing feeling wherever you're playing at. As an athlete, not even just as a basketball player, as an athlete, just one of the best feelings in the world when you've got all those people coming out there either to support you or to cheer against you. I love it when they boo me, I love it when they cheer me. It's just an amazing feeling."
This isn't the first time the crowd in Thompson-Boling Arena has affected a game. Last season, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes even referenced the crowd during a huddle with his team in the win over Auburn.
"I told our guys, and it’s the first time I’ve said honestly since I have been here, if you guys will get it going on defense, we’ll get this crowd in the game," said Barnes following the win over the Tigers. "I’ve never alluded to a crowd. I don’t know if I have ever done it in my career, to be honest with you. I don’t know why I did today, but I did say that during a time out. I said, ‘If you guys will come out of here and get it turned up on the defensive end and make some things happen, this place will come to life and it did."
This homecourt advantage has led to the Vols winning 27 of their last 28 home games. With the crowd behind the team, it has proven to be an extremely difficult task to knock off Tennessee at home.
The next team to enter Thompson-Boling Arena is Auburn. The Tigers are currently ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll but will likely drop following a loss to West Virginia. The game is slated for Feb. 4 with tip-off set for 2 p.m. ET. It will air on ESPN.
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