Rick Barnes evaluates Tennessee's excitement level for NCAA Tournament

Tennessee secured the No. 4 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, making their fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Rick Barnes. On Monday, Barnes spoke to the media and expressed his team’s excitement about making it to the big dance yet again.

“I think they’re like any team this time of year, they’re excited,” Barnes said. “We know this is the time of year where college basketball takes center stage. I told them last night what Clark Kellogg said at the beginning of the show last night, every team that’s playing in this tournament earned their way into it, and these guys have certainly done that.”

The Volunteers were one of the strongest teams in the country at the start of the season, boasting a 17-3 record through their first 20 games and ranked regularly as one of the top five teams in the AP Polls. They’ve looked a lot more beatable lately, posting a 4-6 record in their last 10 games. But they still have one of the nations top defenses, ranking third in the nation in points allowed per game.

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“I really do believe they’re excited about playing, I like to think that these couple days here are going to help us get where we need to be health wise. But yeah I think they’re excited, they’ve been in it before, the older guys, the younger guys not so much but they know what it’s about,” Barnes said.

Tennessee has a few days to get healthier, but not enough time to get back point guard Zakai Ziegler. Ziegler recently tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season, he was the Vol’s and the SEC’s assist leader. The Volunteers have gone 1-2 since the loss of Ziegler and will need to iron out how some of their offensive mishaps soon if they want to make a tournament run.

The No. 4 seed Vols will take on No. 13 seed Louisiana in their first round matchup on Thursday night. The two teams have faced off 10 times over the years, with Tennessee going 9-1 versus the Ragin Cajuns. They’ve also met twice before in the NCAA Tournament, both of which the Volunteers won.

Tennessee and Louisiana tip off at 9:40 p.m. ET on Thursday on CBS, with the winner facing either Duke or Oral Roberts two days later.