KNOXVILLE — Tennessee’s 86-51 demolishing of Texas A&M late Saturday night inside the Food City Center was all about the Volunteers avenging their unsightly 85-69 loss to the Aggies two weeks earlier in College Station.
Or was it?
“I don’t think that,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after his No. 5 Vols improved to 21-6 overall and to 11-3 in Southeastern Conference play. “To be honest with you, they knew I wasn’t happy after the game at Missouri, and that’s not to take anything away from Missouri, because they played really, really hard, but did I think we were sharp mentally at Missouri? No.
“We were not detail-oriented, and I told them, ‘If this is who we are, then we don’t have but seven games left. You can either have seven, or you can see how far you can go in the (NCAA) tournament.’ We had to decide.”
Decide the Vols did, as Dalton Knecht’s 24 points, Jonas Aidoo’s 14 rebounds and Zakai Zeigler’s 14 assists paced Tennessee to its sixth league win this season by 20 or more points. Two of those routs — the 92-63 trampling of Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena and the 88-53 thrashing of visiting Vanderbilt — were immediately after the loss at Texas A&M, but the Vols struggled for much of last Tuesday night’s 72-67 escaping of Mizzou.
Zeigler was especially pedestrian against the Tigers, compiling 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting, three assists, one rebound, one steal and two turnovers.
“He takes everything personal, and I told him that I thought he played one of his worst games since he’s been here at Missouri,” Barnes said. “You could tell he just had great focus these last couple of days.”
Said Zeigler: “He just felt that I wasn’t as poised, and the film doesn’t lie. On the film, it looked like I didn’t have the same poise I usually have.”
Zeigler was only 3-of-10 shooting for a nine-point performance against the Aggies, but the 5-foot-9, 171-pound junior point guard from Long Island almost had a triple-double with nine rebounds to accompany his 14 assists. His big night didn’t stop there, as he also swiped four steals and did not commit a single turnover in 35 minutes on the floor.
“I think he’s so underrated,” Aggies coach Buzz Williams said. “He’s an elite on-the-ball defender. He’s incredibly fast with or without the ball, and in transition or secondary action, he’s the engine. He commands so much attention that he’s probably unheralded.
“He’s a conduit to so many things that they do on both sides of the ball.”
Zeigler was wanting to stay in Saturday’s slaughter a few moments longer to reach a triple-double, but Barnes would have none of it in a 79-47 game. The two smiled and shared a warm embrace on the bench after Zeigler’s evening was over with 2:38 remaining.
“He is a guy who impacts a game,” Barnes said. “If he makes shots, that’s one thing, but him getting into the lane and spraying it the way he did and collapsing the defense — he’s just invaluable. What can you say about a guy who gets nine rebounds and distributes the ball the way he did? He’s a special player.
“I was hard on him, and he fixed it. That’s what he’s about.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.