Rick Barnes 'not sure' that Tennessee isn't underdogs to Florida Atlantic

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes has brought his team back to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2019 following their 65-52 win over Duke on Saturday. The Vols now face No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic in their next matchup, and while Las Vegas may have Tennessee as the favorites, Barnes is not as convinced.

“Well we’ve talked a lot about it, again I’m not sure we’re not the underdog when you look at a team that’s won 33 games and beat Florida who beat us,” Barnes said. “When you win 33 games you talk about a model of consistency and they’ve certainly done that and have earned everything they’ve got.”

FAU enters the matchup with a 33-3 record, as the Owls had a dominant season winning both the Conference-USA regular season title and conference tournament. They’ve escaped two narrow victories in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but it’s clear that Barnes is not taking them lightly.

“And everybody you talk to about them, they rave about them as a team that really understands what they want to do together as a team. But 33 wins speaks for itself, so with the mindset, we’ve talked about it all year long,” Barnes said.

Tennessee’s mindset has been working well for them so far during the tournament, as they’ve been one of the most physical teams in the country and have continued to do so in March. The Volunteers boast the nation’s third-best scoring defense, holding opponents to just 57.8 per game all season and 53.5 during the tournament.

They’re one of the biggest teams in the nation, and ironically, they’ll be facing an FAU team that was one of the smallest in the tournament. Outside of Owls’ 7-foot center Vladislav Goldin, 6-foot-4 guard Johnell Davis is FAU’s tallest starter. Davis is fresh off of a dominant 29-point, 12-rebound performance versus Fairleigh Dickinson, which he’ll be looking to replicate versus one of the best defensive teams in the country.

“Whatever our guys have to do to make them decide we’ve got to go out there and play at the highest level, they’ve got to do that. Whether it’s just talking the talk or whatever, I just want to see them go out and do what we know we need to do to win,” Barnes said.

Tennessee and Florida Atlantic will face off on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET in a game airing on TBS.