CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NCAA Tournament is about the players.
It’s also often about the coach.
And in the case of Tennessee’s tense 62-58 win over Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Spectrum Center on Saturday night, it was definitely about Volunteers coach Rick Barnes. .
Burns’ reward for the Vols, fresh off Thursday’s lopsided first-round win over St. Peter’s, is the game against Texas, which he coached from 1998 to 2015, and Burns, who coached from 2002 to 2011. He was competing against coach Rodney Terry, who was an assistant at the time. And we remain close friends.
“If you were to ask both of us if we would be better off playing with another player, the answer would be yes,” Burns, 69, said before the game. “Those people [at Texas] You probably know me as well as anyone else. They know how I think. It’s tough to play against a player who has been a part of my career for a long time. ”
But once the ball tipped, Burns and the second-seeded Vols shook off those feelings and went about their business, albeit not without some serious stress.
Texas ultimately turned a game that Tennessee seemed to have complete control into a thriller, and the Vols advanced to a Sweet 16 matchup with top-seeded North Carolina next week in Los Angeles.
The final moments were stressful for Barnes and his team, as Texas cut the Vols’ lead to 56-55 with 34.5 seconds left.
It took clutch free throw shooting from Tennessee to survive and advance.
Ironically, four of those foul shots were taken by Dalton Knecht, one of the top scorers who had a dismal shooting game (5-of-18 field goals, 1-of-8 3-pointers). It was due to
Knecht sank two free throws with 8.8 seconds left, giving Tennessee a 60-55 lead.
Texas’ Tyrese Hunter then made a long 3-pointer to make it 60-58.
Knecht made two more free throws with three seconds left to make it 62-58 and seal the victory.
If you look at the stat sheet for the first half, you’ll see that Tennessee was simply better than Texas. The Vols led 28-19 despite shooting just 28.6 percent from the field (10 of 35, including 1) -13 from 3-point range. .
In fact, Texas (21-13) shot the ball more than Tennessee in the first 20 minutes (30.8% success rate), but still trailed by nine points, which doesn’t bode well for the Longhorns. was.
The Vols did it as the more physical team, outscoring the Longhorns 24-19 in the first half (nine of which came off the offensive glass), getting to the foul line eight times and making seven free throws. , Texas took the lead. Line only twice.
Texas committed 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes but couldn’t help itself.
Tennessee was led by Knecht with 18 points, Jonas Aidoo with 11 points, and Tobe Awaka with 10 points.
Tennessee’s two best players, Knecht and point guard Zakai Zeigler, had a miserable first half.
Knecht missed 8 of 9 shots, including 0 of 4 from 3-pointers, and scored just 4 points.
Zeilger, a Long Island native, was 1-of-7 from the field and scored just four points in the first 20 minutes.
The Texas rally in the second half had some tense moments for the Vols, but Burns in particular took a big breath and survived and moved on.
Burns led the University of Tennessee to the NCAA Tournament six times in his nine years on Rocky Top, and now to the Sweet 16 for the third time.
When he parted ways with the University of Texas in 2015, it was at least in part because he couldn’t get the Longhorns deep enough into the NCAA Tournament to please school officials.
Under Burns, Texas won at least 20 games in 15 seasons, including 13 consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins from 2000 to 2012.
He left Austin with a record of 402-180, making him the winningest coach in program history.
However, Barnes was unable to lead the Longhorns to the Sweet 16 in his final seven seasons at Texas, and the school administration suffered a setback.
He was asked to make changes to his staff, but Burns, fiercely loyal to his staff, refused and was fired.
“It was a blessing to come to Tennessee,” said Burns, who led the Vols to six consecutive NCAA Tournament championships with two Sweet 16s. “I didn’t know it at the time. It’s a special place. I’ve been blessed from the moment I arrived. There couldn’t have been a better way to be in a position to end my career.”
