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LOOK: Bubba Wallace celebrates Tennessee's win over Duke on social media

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•03/18/23
Bubba Wallace, NASCAR driver
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace poses for a photo on Feb. 19, 2023. (Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)

The NCAA Tournament brings the sports fan out of all of us, and NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace is no exception. He’s a big Tennessee fan, so he was thrilled to see the Volunteers advance in the NCAA Tournament with a dominant win over Duke.

Tennessee simply muscled its way past Duke in a very physical game, earning a spot in the Sweet 16.

And Bubba Wallace kept his celebration short and sweet.

While the win was technically “chalk” winning, Tennessee had become a popular upset pick by many. The Volunteers were having absolutely none of it.

And despite being without point guard Zakai Zeigler as emotional support after the sophomore point guard suffered a torn ACL and underwent surgery to repair it this week, the Volunteers managed to find ample motivation to walk all over the Blue Devils.

In fact, even without Zeigler being there he provided an emotional lift in the Tennessee win over Duke.

Before the NCAA Tournament began it was reported that Zeigler’s doctors didn’t want him to travel for the opening rounds but he would be able to travel to Madison Square Garden if the Volunteers advanced.

“We love you, Z,” Olivier Nkamhoua said after the win. “Let’s go to New York, baby.”

Olivier Nkamhoua powers Tennessee to win

The Volunteers had an unlikely hero in the win, as Olivier Nkamhoua emerged from seemingly nowhere to help cement the win.

He scored 17 of Tennessee’s last 19 points and finished the game with a whopping 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the floor. He even joked that he could have done more had he been more involved from the start.

“They didn’t let me play in the first,” Nkamhoua said. “So, I had to get all my action in in the second.”

The Volunteers did everything they needed to advance, and they left no mistake about it the way they did. They’re one of the toughest teams in the tournament, as the Tennessee win over Duke showed.

Here’s how Nkamhoua put it:

“It means we’re tough,” Nkamhoua said. “It means we’re hard-nosed, it means we guard. We bring you to our level. We bring you to our world.”

Tennessee will face the winner of nine-seed Florida Atlantic and 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the next round after two upsets find the two unlikely schools squaring off in the round of 32. Those two will tip off on Sunday at 7:45 p.m. ET.