Olivier Nkamhoua sends heartfelt message to Zakai Zeigler after Tennessee defeats Duke in NCAA Tournament

Tennessee entered the NCAA Tournament without its point guard after Zakai Zeigler went down with a torn ACL Feb. 28. The Volunteers handled themselves well, though, and are now heading to the Sweet Sixteen — and Olivier Nkamhoua had a message for Zeigler during his postgame interview after the Vols’ win over Duke.

“We love you, Z,” he said. “Let’s go to New York, baby.”

Zeigler had surgery on his knee injury earlier this week and didn’t accompany the Volunteers to Orlando for the first and second rounds. Tennessee managed to get the job done without him, though, defeating Duke 65-52 thanks in large part to Nkamhoua’s efforts and another impressive defensive display.

Nkamhoua put together a great performance to help lead the Vols to the victory over the Blue Devils. He scored 17 of the Tennessee’s last 19 points and had 27 total for the game. He willed his team to victory in he second half, and he came out firing after the halftime break.

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

Olivier Nkamhoua: ‘We’ve been in these kinds of fights all year’

Tennessee entered the game as one of the best defensive teams in the country, and the Volunteers lived up to that billing. They held Duke — which averaged 72.5 points per game this year — to just 52 points and life hard for the Blue Devils’ top scorer. Kyle Filipowski went 6-for-16 from the field to score 13 points, which tied him with Jeremy Roach for the second most points for Duke in Saturday’s game.

The Vols had the Blue Devils playing their game and didn’t waver. That, Nkamhoua said, is nothing new for Tennessee.

“It’s what we do,” Nkamhoua said. “We’ve been in these kinds of fights all year. We’ve lost some, we won some and we’ve weathered the storm all year.”

One of the mantras for the Vols this season is to make other teams “live in the mud” and take the opposing team with them. Nkamhoua offered a poignant explanation of what that means.

“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.”

Now, Tennessee will wait to find out its next opponent. The Vols will face the winner of No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic vs. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson, which tips off Sunday at 7:45 p.m. ET.