By Kenneth Cross
The No. 22 Tennessee Volunteers are one of the five potential favorites in the SEC and Friday evening, they showed that possibility as they defeated No. 3 Kansas, 64-50, in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas.
“I hate to talk about the loss (Colorado) we had because I don’t ever take away from somebody that beat us,” said Vols coach Rick Barnes. “But it was a wake-up call. Whether we were the 11th-ranked team in the preseason or 12th, whatever it was.”
Tennessee’s defense was a major entity as the Volunteers held Kansas to 32.1 percent from the field and Kansas only made 5-of-21 three-point attempts Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi led the Vols’ defensive attack.
“They don’t have to be making shots to impact the game,” explained Barnes. “I told the guys in the locker room that I thought Santi was the player of the game with what he did, guarding a guy that was 6-8 last night. He’ll guard anybody on the floor. ‘Z’ is the same way. They’re fearless.”
The Volunteers’ defense locked down Kansas midway through the second half as they outscored The Jayhawks, 11-0, when Zeigler hit a three-pointer with 7:01 remaining to give the Volunteers their biggest lead at 56-38.
Tennessee held Kansas to 0-for-6 from the floor with four turnovers in that run to take control of the game with the 18-point lead.
“I do think we’re a better offensive team than we’ve played up to this point, but we have started to develop that kind of mentality, defensively,” said Barnes. “What we did tonight, in three days, it’s physically tough.”
Vescovi led Tennessee with 20 points while Zeigler netted 14 and Tyreke Key was the third Vol in double figures with 10 points. Tennessee shot 44.4 percent from three in making 12-of-27 triples.
“Santi is guarded like no other,” analyzed Barnes. “They basically try to take him out. He’s very unselfish, to the point that I’ve told him many times you have to shoot the ball, man.”
Kansas never trailed in the game as Jalen Wilson and Kevin McCullar scored eight of their first 16 points to cut what had been a 12-3 Vols lead early back to 17-16 with 7:03 left in the first half.
The Jayhawks struggled on both ends of the floor as Tennessee’s physicality and defense were too tough for Kansas to handle.
Wilson and Joseph Yesefu had 14 points each to lead Kansas as the Vols out rebounded the Jayhawks, 45-27.
“They are definitely a team that is capable of being a Final Four-type team if things fell right,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of the Volunteers.