Charles Barkley has very strong take on Tennessee after Vols' win against Duke
The Tennessee Vols took down the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon to advance to the Sweet 16
The Tennessee Vols are heading to the Sweet 16 after their 65-52 win against the Duke Blue Devils in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
This will be the Vols' first trip to the Sweet 16 since the 2018-19 season when Tennessee lost to Purdue.
The Volunteers will play the winner of the Florida Atlantic vs Fairleigh Dickinson (that game will be played on Sunday night at 7:45 PM ET) next weekend.
After Tennessee's impressive win against Duke, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, an analyst for TNT, had some thoughts about the Vols.
"I have to say the best performance today, in my opinion — no disrespect to Arkansas — what Tennessee did physically was so impressive against Duke," said Barkley. "They physically dominated the game on the defensive end…man, Tennessee was awesome."
"Tennessee was awesome, looked like a G-League team," added Kenny Smith, a former first-round NBA draft pick. "They looked like real men. They don't look like college students."
The Vols' suffocating defense held Duke to its lowest point total in the NCAA Tournament since 1980.
Tennessee set the tone early. They made it clear to Duke that nothing was going to be easy on Saturday afternoon.
“What we were saying before the game the whole time is we were gonna bring them into the mud with us,” said forward Olivier Nkamhoua after the game. “We were gonna make them play a tough, hard-nosed game and see if they were ready for it.”
Suddenly, the heartbreaking losses to Missouri and Vanderbilt don't matter. Everything the Vols wanted to accomplish this season is still in front of them. And with teams like Purdue, Kansas, and Arizona heading home, Tennessee has just as good of a chance to win it all as anyone.
