Tennessee got its toughness back with defensive win over Saint Peter's

First, an offensive-focused Kentucky team came to Knoxville and had enough in the tank to outlast the Vols. Then, Tennessee was bounced from the SEC Tournament after Mississippi State dominated the paint.

After two-straight lackluster defensive performances, the Vols knew they needed to bounce back on this end for the NCAA Tournament. While holding Saint Peter's to a mere 20 first-half points and 49 throughout the entire game, that's exactly what they did.

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Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler thought the dominating defensive performance was the team getting its toughness back at just the right time.

"I feel like we had to get our toughness back," said Zeigler. "Tonight, I feel like we did from the jump. The entire game, we kept our foot on their necks. Saint Peter's is a really good team. They're a really tough team. So we had to match their toughness and just play like that for the entire game."

The Vols wasted no time in swarming on the defensive end. At the under eight timeout in the first half, the Peacocks already trailed by 20 and had produced just seven points.

With a deficit of this size against a defense as stout as Tennessee's, Saint Peter's coach Bashir Mason knew his team stood no chance. It was expected that this would be the best defense he'd face all season, but he still hoped to limit what the Vols could do on this end.

By halftime, Mason looked up at the score and saw the 26-point deficit his team was under. He joked that he asked the officials for a running clock knowing there was no way they'd get back into it.

"It's definitely the best defensive team we played against all season," said Mason. "They've got size. They've got details to what they're doing. They're strong. I was hoping we could make it a bang-bang game through the first couple of medias. I thought they established their physicality and what the game was going to be the entire game. I asked the officials can we start running the clock? It was that difficult to look up at the score. As a coach, you kind of know we're not going to be able to get back into this fight."

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes admitted that the team's size advantage had to do with some of the defensive success. In the scout, he saw a team that wanted to score in the paint and knew physicality could take the Peacocks out of what they like to do.

It was focusing on the details of the defensive operation that was the biggest difference, though.

"They're a team, if you look at them, they're really an inside two-point shooting team. We worked hard on guard post-ups. We knew they were going to try to get there and back down. We spent a lot of time not wanting to give them a lot of room to operate and try to use our length when he wanted to pass out of it, make it hard for them to whip it to the other side. I thought we really did a good job standing in those gaps early. Even when they were -- they run really good stuff. They're really well coached. But we were focused on the details, and that was important. I do think our size helps us. There's no doubt, in terms of deflections, trying to take away those windows where they can whip it back to the back side."

Next, the 2-seed Vols have a matchup with 7-seed Texas in the Round of 32. The Longhorns have had their struggles this year but still own the No. 27 offense in the country according to KenPom.

This production comes from an even balance at all three levels. Tennessee will need play from everyone on the court to pitch another impressive defensive effort and advance to a second-straight Sweet 16.

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