Tennessee basketball has been selected as a 2-seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament.

The Vols will get things started with 15-seed St. Peter's in Charlotte.

Rick Barnes, Santiago Vescovi and Tobe Awaka met with the media following the selection to give their thoughts.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

On his initial thoughts on the seeding and region

"I really haven't (looked at it). I just told the team, we've got to look at it as the Charlotte Invitational right now. It's us and Saint (Peter's) and we'll go from there. One, really, I congratulate our guys. You don't ever take this time of year for granted. The fact they've worked hard all year and put themselves in position to earn the seed they got, I think they'll be excited to play. There's no doubt in my mind they're going to ready to play and excited to play. It's just, you don't take it for granted. We're blessed to have this opportunity and we've really got to go try to make the most of it."

On his message to the team since losing in the SEC Tournament

"I've told them a lot of stories. I've got a lot of stories I can tell. But you look at college basketball this weekend, teams that won the regular season, I don't know, I think only Connecticut won it, their postseason tournament. You go through it. I go back to the year we went to the Final Four, we lost in the first round of the Big12 Tournament to Coach Knight and Texas Tech. I remember him grabbing me and saying, 'Hey man, this is good for you. Now go win a National Championship.' We got there but didn't win it. I can keep telling stories after stories but it's college basketball and we are where we are right now. I think we know who we are and what we need to do. It's a whole new season. It's the postseason but it's a new season for 68 teams that all of them playing for a chance to win a National Championship and play on Monday."

On if Saint Peter's previous run caught his attention

"That's what I told our team. I said if I was at Saint Peter's right now that'd be the first thing I'd put up. I'd say look what happened, it can be done. We know it can be done. At every level, we've seen a 16 beat a one, a 15 beat a two. It's about our focus and getting ready. Got to go out and play great basketball from here on out. If you're playing this time you're playing good basketball. Even teams like ourselves who have lost two in a row. You look at that board when they put it up, there's no easy games for anybody. I don't think anybody thinks its an easy one because if you're playing now you're playing good basketball."

On Texas being a possible second-round opponent

"Texas, yeah I saw that. I was sitting there thinking was it going to be Texas or Clemson."

On playing close to home

"I think we could've won out, who knows, maybe we could work our way up. I tell our guys, I don't care where you start. Everything, just the matchups, once you've got to play, everybody, every game is tough. There's a lot of scrambling going on right now. Coaches making calls finding out everything they can. I like the fact we're getting to play Friday. I think we had a good workout today. Trying to stay on our routine as much as we can. I think we'll have a good, a lot of Vol people there with us. I told our team we did in Nashville too, we got to go and not disappoint anybody and mostly ourselves. Knowing when its all said and done that we know we played to our ability."

On if he's excited

"Yeah, for sure. The whole team, we play all year mainly thinking about the big tournament. It's the most exciting part of the year for everyone. We know how fun it can be to play in this tournament. I think like coach was saying, sometimes we take for granted making the tournament. I think it's a big accomplishment the fact we've made it six years in a row. It's really a really fun tournament to play in."

On Zakai Zeigler's reaction to playing his brother

"The funniest thing is we kind of knew from before it could've been an option that we're playing Saint Peter's. We were talking about it earlier. I told him, I was like 'You're going to have to guard your brother.' He was like, 'No, you got him. He's 6-5.' We love it. I think it's going to be a great moment for both of them. It's a really game they're both going to enjoy playing against each other. You don't get to see that very often. His reaction, like everybody just started yelling in the locker room. He got on his phone right away probably with him. Very fun moment."

On if this is the most prepared team he's been on for March

"For sure. I think every year of course you think that's the best team you've been a part of and you have the best chance. I truly feel that this team this year the same way. I think we've got all the right pieces and it could be really fun if we all click at the same time. We know now, it's go time. Now, it's where it really matters. I'm very confident in the team that we're all going to do it. Defensively, we're the same team we've been the past years. Offensively, adding guys like Dalton (Knecht), Jonas (Aidoo) is playing a lot better. Zakai (Zeigler) figuring out the way, too. All the guys have been playing great. I think that's going to help us a lot."

On the feeling after the announcement

"I'd just say it's really energetic in there. The tournament is something every team needs to experience. The fact we get to experience it is amazing and something that we're definitely grateful for. We're ready to take the opportunity."

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