'We love that label': Tennessee wants to hear more about its physical style of play

NEW YORK — Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May during his press conference on Wednesday seemed to walk back his previous comments about Tennessee basketball’s physicality. On Sunday night, after his team advanced to the Sweet 16 with a win over Fairleigh Dickinson, he said preparing for the Vols meant needing to study Australian rugby rules. 

“If you said that our team is extremely physical, extremely aggressive, extremely intense,” May said, “I’d tell the staff and the players you guys are doing a great job because that’s what I want them to say about us defensively.”

“I say that in the most complimentary way possible,” May added. “Coach (Rick) Barnes is a legend.”

But May’s 7-foot-1 center, Vladislav Goldin, didn’t mince words in the FAU locker room. 

“They can play dirty sometimes, is what I’ve seen,” Goldin told Knoxville’s WBIR. “We just have to stay focused and play through everything. Don’t pay attention to any outside factors.”

No. 9-seed Florida Atlantic (33-3) is the next team No. 4 Tennessee (25-10) is trying to wreck. Thursday’s Sweet 16 game in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region at Madison Square Garden is scheduled for a 9 p.m. Eastern Time start on TBS.

Zakai Zeigler: ‘I guess we are the best rugby team out there’

The outside talk surrounding this Tennessee team after the 65-52 win over Duke Saturday in Orlando focused on the aggression and physicality used in the win over the Blue Devils.

The question Tennessee players couldn’t answer is why it’s a talking point in March, when the Vols have used it as the strength of their No. 1-ranked defense all season.

“I’m not sure, man,” sophomore wing Jahmai Mashack, one of Tennessee’s top defenders, said Wednesday. “That’s something I’ve wondered myself. Because playing in the SEC, that’s all we do. You can watch SEC basketball and that’s all we consist of, playing physical, playing hard.”

What’s more, Mashack added, the Duke game wasn’t even all that physical compared to what Tennessee faced throughout the season. 

“For me personally,” he said, “I honestly didn’t think Duke was even as physical as the games are in the SEC. I thought it was physical, but I didn’t think it was nearly as physical as people are playing it out to be. 

“It was a little bit confusing for me to see that, but you know, I guess people aren’t used to seeing SEC basketball in other conferences.”

The conversation has centered on Uros Plavsic, Tennessee’s 7-foot-1, 265-pound center who was called for two fouls in the first three minutes against Duke. Each foul sent Duke freshman center Kyle Filipowski to the floor. 

But by game’s end, the Vols had been called for just 11 fouls, well under their average of 16.7 per game this season. The foul calls against Tennessee have been down in all four postseason games, with an average of 12.7 per game. 

“I didn’t see any difference (against Duke),” Plavsic said of Tennessee’s style of play in the second round, “what we did there, what we try to do to other teams in the SEC.”

Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic, Sweet 16, Thursday, 9 p.m. ET, TBS

Plavsic offered a different answer to the talk. Maybe the physicality was a Duke problem, not a Tennessee problem. 

“Maybe just Duke hasn’t seen a team (like that) in their season,” he said, “their conference, whatever. I feel like we played exactly the same way that we played in the SEC. I don’t really feel like there was a lot of attention on our physicality (before), teams talking about it after games or whatever is going on. It’s just who we are. That’s Tennessee basketball. 

“We take pride in it, being the toughest team on the court that night. And we’ll try to do it every single night.”

Including Thursday’s game against Florida Atlantic. Tennessee will be looking to keep playing its same brand of basketball. The Vols want to hear more about their physicality.

“We love that label,” Mashack said. “I don’t think anybody, any coach, would not want a team that’s physical. I think physicality is something you have to have in basketball. And if you have to have it, and you’re tough and you do it without fouling, it’s recipe for winning, in my opinion.”

If it’s a recipe for an Australian rugby team, that’s fine too.

“If playing hard is labeling us as rugby players,” sophomore point guard Zakai Zeigler said, “then I guess we are the best rugby team out there. That is the only thing I can really say about that.”