Reaching the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 is nothing new for Tennessee basketball or for Volunteers coach Rick Barnes.
For this season’s collection of Vols players, however, it’s a brand new world.
“This second week of basketball is something we’ve never seen before,” sophomore forward Jonas Aidoo told reporters Saturday after the 65-52 downing of Duke in Orlando. “I’m super excited about everything.”
Tennessee will try to continue its quest for the program’s first Final For appearance Thursday night (9 on TBS) when the East Region’s fourth seed takes on ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic inside New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden. The second meeting ever between the Vols (25-10) and Owls (33-3) will take place after third-seeded Kansas State vies with seventh-seeded Michigan State.
The East is the only region that lost each of its top two favorites, with top-seeded Purdue losing to 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday night — FDU then fell to FAU — and with second-seeded Marquette succumbing to Tom Izzo’s Spartans on Sunday evening.