Tennessee basketball has a March Madness motto: 'It's just us'

Starting ahead of the the SEC Tournament, the Vols began saying 'It's just us.' Now a game into the NCAA Tournament, the sentiment still rings true throughout the team.

The meaning of this motto is simple. Although it isn't easy, Tennessee wants to block out any outside noise that could be a distraction.

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For senior leader Josiah-Jordan James, this means focusing on the 40 minute game in front of him and treating it like it's the championship.

"Our motto since this tournament has started and kind of leading up to the SEC Tournament, it's just us," said James. "It's hard to, but we're trying our best to block out all the outside noise. Obviously we know that we haven't had the success that we wanted to in the past years. The only way we can fix it is by accepting the challenge we have in front of us and playing the next 40 minutes like it's the championship game."

When describing who the 'us' is in the slogan, James said it refers to every player and member of the staff that is in the locker room and apart of the ride.

There's a feeling that all the ingredients needed to cut down the nets and win a National Championship can be found inside that locker room. There's no need to look elsewhere because everything they need for a run is already inside the program.

"Everybody in our locker room from top to bottom in our organization is all we need," said James. "Coach has talked about it from day one. Everybody in that locker room, we have everything we need to be successful and to be the last team standing. So just relying on each other, having a selfless attitude and competing on a daily basis. Relying on our daily habits that we started in the summertime that we relied on to get to this point in the season. We don't have to come to this tournament and be anybody that we're not and do things we haven't done up to this point. We're one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the country, and we've gotten that way by doing what we do and relying on the group that we have."

While this motto is a recent development, freshman Cameron Carr feels like the team has encapsulated it the whole year. Although he wasn't with last year's team, he's felt the chip the Vols have had on their shoulder.

"Honestly, I feel like we've had that chip this whole year but I feel like we're really making an emphasis now later down the stretch that it really is just us," said Carr. "We have nobody else. They're not going to look at us like give them something or a handout, we kind of got to go out and take it for ourselves."

The source of the slogan isn't clear but Carr gives credit to the entire team. It all started in a team meeting down the stretch.

While meeting in the locker room, the team decided to cut out the distractions. After the meeting, they turned the effort to the court.

"It was kind of a team thing," said Carr. "We had a team meeting in the locker room later down the season and I feel like we all kind of came to the agreement that we have to come out and show that every single day. So, we've taken on that motto that it's just us every single day at practice and now on the court."

Most recently, Tennessee showed this mentality in a suffocating win over Saint Peter's in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament.

This was the latest installment of the Vols proving they belong in the conversation among the best teams in the country.

"I think we did a really good job," said Carr. "We went out and played free. We're getting better - not getting better, I feel like we're getting to that point where we're showing the country that we're the best team in the country and that no one can beat us."

Now, the next task is Texas. 2-seed Tennessee will look to avoid an upset to the 7-seed Longhorns behind the newly adopted motto.

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